Farewell, ba xa.

It seems like just yesterday Oanh and I (yes now I know her name) had our 2nd date. She came into my car, and asked me where are we headed to. I asked her if she has been anywhere before, she said she had never been to anywhere other than the few shops around her workplace. Alrighty then! I decided to give her a quick tour of Singapore. We explored around places like Orchard, Marina South, Marina Bay, Raffles, Clarke Quay, Harborfront, Mount Faber, East Coast Park, Chinatown, etc. Her eyes shone like a little kid the moment we entered Orchard, with the brilliantly lit Christmas displays. She whipped out her phone and started snapping photos and videos of anything and everything. She smiled and laughed and pointed at things, telling me things I only half-understood. But it was OK, I was just really happy to see her smile like this. And I thought, I wanted to make her smile this way for her last few days in Singapore. I want her to leave this place with some good memories.

Fast forward a few days, and last night was the last night she spent at my place. She was quieter than usual, I guess she knew that the brief moment our lives crossed each other was coming to an end. She called me 'ong xa' which means 'hubby' in Vietnamese, and told me to call her 'ba xa'. She gave me her Vietnam number, told me if one day I do visit, to call her, and she will bring me around Ho Chih Minh City, as a friend. It was a long embrace we had, as I dropped her home this morning before we went to work.

Farewell ba xa, and thank you for the times we had, however short they were.