I went to the bedroom to pack his things.
When I opened the wardrobe, I saw the coat which I bought for him. Back then, we just started dating. I knew that the cream colour and cutting of the coat would look good on him when I saw it in a designer shop. I bought it and ended up spending about a month's worth of my salary. It was as if a spotlight was shining on him when he donned the coat. At that moment, I knew that it was just a matter of time that he would become very popular and successful.
The thought of how a man like him was being forced to take upon the role of a husband was pretty unbearable. I could now somehow understand the feelings of his fans and their hatred towards me. It was a 'waste of natural resource'.
I took out the clothes that he used to wear and folded it. In a TV drama serial, whenever the husband wanted to leave the house for good, the wife would desperately pull him back and beg him not to leave. But here I was packing his luggage. If Mom saw what I did, she would definitely hit the roof. She had always led a straight and upright life. If she saw how her daughter was degrading herself, how could she not bite her tongue.
The house that we used to stay in was only fifteen square feet in area size. The window faced a vine-covered wall and the ceiling fan gave off a ringing sound whenever it was switched on. In the summer, there would be a lot of mosquitoes and I would light up the mosquito coil. I would read my documents and he would sit on the bamboo mat, play his guitar and hum songs that were specially written for me. He was the Siren who sang in the sea. I was the young girl on the boat, lured by him.
We were poor at that time. Whenever we went out, he would wear his washed out jeans and I would go out bare-faced. We would rush to the park early in the morning on weekends to buy a pair of half-priced tickets. We would wander from dawn to dusk. Later, when the park started charging the tickets at full price, we would stealthily climb over a wall. There was once when a security guard caught us doing that and we ran almost three stretches of streets before we managed to escape.
All these memories were memories that my parents, his friends and his fans did not know about.
He later became famous. Of course, he would be famous. Those who have listened to his songs before would definitely agree with me. It was not long before his posters were all over the streets and he soon started appearing on television. I would have fallen asleep by the time he came back but he never failed to give a light peck on my cheeks with his cigarette smelling lips before he turned around to sleep.
All these memories were memories that other people did not know about either.
His female fans shouted and proclaimed their love for him. To them, I am just 'that woman' - the woman without a name. The Siren was still the Siren but the young girl had now become an unsightly woman and a hindrance to his career.
In their eyes, I was a spoiled and pampered woman who drove a red Ferrari, swiped credit cards to buy luxury goods and had servants attending to me at a wave of my hand. I was the woman who wore a leopard print jacket and had her nails painted red, covered with a strong stench of perfume that one could smell even from ten miles away.
I stopped what I was doing. To move and pack the five cabinets filled of clothing was easier said than done. I went on to pack the table and drawer and saw our wedding ring.
I froze for a few seconds before taking the ring out of the box. I was in a daze and did not know whether I should let him take the ring as a memento.
