Stellify

OUR SONG: Ranya

It finally arrived.

After weeks of waiting, there it was. The acceptance email of the university of my dreams, where I would start my postgraduate degree in just eight weeks.

Everyone said I would make it, I had studied very hard. He knew I could do it, but I didn't want to get my hopes up.

However, he trusted me so much that he booked the plane tickets without me noticing, so busy checking the mailbox. It was one of many nights that he stayed at my house. I wish he'd make up his mind that we live together, but he kept refusing to do so until he could rent the place he thought was right for both of us. I hoped I could convince him during this trip, I would go to study too far away from him and I didn't like the idea that we were separated. Anyway, I could understand it.

He didn't want to be away from his mother, to leave her unprotected. A person that did not know how to protect herself, much less protect him. Her husband had played with her mind and her will ever since she left China, in her precarious life in the country so many decades ago. And though it hurt me, I knew that this man had done the same thing to their child his entire life.

I knew Jack better than anyone, I knew how much he was worth and how happy he made me. I knew that many believed that I could have someone better, that I was leaving behind all my expectations to be close to him, that my family did not suffer from those money problems even though we were not rich either, and that there was a certain sadness in him that even I had not managed to remove.

Sometimes I felt that he didn't really see himself when looking in a mirror. Everyone knew how attractive he was, except him; he didn't recognize how beautiful his skin tone was or the special shape of his eyes. Personally, I always loved his abundant dark brown hair and also his hands, they were especially pretty. We loved taking photos, my social networks were full of them. I liked to show off our relationship, I was very protective of it and also with him because I felt that his parents failed by taking care of him and that was why he was so fragile.

And I was also afraid that when he looked at me, behind his smile, he was thinking the same as everyone else. That I would be better off without him.

We would travel to Thailand for two weeks, we would only be in the capital for three days and then we would go to the islands to rest and enjoy the beach and nightlife. Then we would reorganize the move to my new bedroom at the campus.

Bangkok was chaotic, especially when faced with it after a flight of so many hours. Our friends wanted us to stay in a popular hostel for its low prices and constant partying, but I managed to convince Jack to stay in a small hotel away from the hustle and bustle.

At night, we headed to a street full of street food stalls where we tried some very spicy dishes.

Everything looked exotic and new, the smells invaded everything. I was curious to try every dish I had seen on a television special. We knew that not far from there was a particularly famous street where we could get all kinds of souvenirs and see the comings and goings of people drinking and having fun in a wild way.

But we weren't like that. We just walked through the crowd, tasting our meat skewers and looking at it all. The deafening music was heard from afar.

"The taste is very different! "I commented, trying to make myself understood between the noise. "I don't know why I thought it would taste just like your mother's food."

He smiled without looking at me.

¨ Eastern Asia and Southeast Asia are different, plus each country is unique, "he commented thoughtfully after chewing. "Mom wouldn't know any of these recipes, they don't know hers either because her village is very far from any big or cosmopolitan city. Also, China has changed a lot since she left. "