On that one fateful day, my eyes met hers.

Such a beautiful young lady with all her talents and good personal traits.

Her skin was white as snow and her lips as red as rose. Her hair was black, long, and well-remarked as healthy and beautiful. She was the love of my first sight.

As a guy who just newly moved to Indonesia for a business purpose, I would definitely have lots of dilemmas and worries regarding whom I could meet or whose friendliness met mine.

How could I possibly live and work in this city, Surabaya? While pondering a lot about that, I was already here. Neither my skill nor experience of Indonesian language was adequate.

But now, here I was, sitting in front of a young beautiful Indonesian lady waiting for her to teach me the first few lessons of Bahasa Indonesia.

"Good morning, Mr. Ben. My name is Carly. Today, I would be teaching you some verbs and adjectives that are commonly used in everyday talks in Surabaya."

"Good morning, Carly. Sure, but just skip the easy parts. I have been studying Bahasa myself, so there should be a progress going on already."

"I see. You seem like a keen learner. I'm more motivated to teach you now."

The girl smiled at me. Her smile was as beautiful as it was so difficult for me to breathe normally without being nervous.

I knew that I seem ridiculously strange. I didn't want it to seem that way. But anyway, we did manage to go through some of the most commonly used and hardly identical or most commonly confused words.

By the time I learned the language, I found myself doing a double job of learning about her in a few very simple ways. I payed attention to every detail she told me, I chose to take notes before she asked me to, and I didn't forget to tip her with gratitudes and approvals of her own skills in other languages.

This girl named Carly, was a talented and confident young woman who spoke 5 languages by her own innitiave and passion in self-study. Which were Japanese, Korean, Chinese, English, and of course, Indonesian.

"Ben, do you have a question?"

She suddenly asked me.

"Yeah. I mean, no. Do you have a boyfriend, Carly?"

Without a single thought, I uttered that sudden question. I didn't know why I would ask such a thing. But, of course it appeared that I would not be able to undo my question that moment.

The atmosphere was suddenly so.. weird. My body was quite tempering, and I didn't have a word to say.

"Ben."

She spoke suddenly.

"Yes?"

"Would you mind if we try?"

"What do you mean by--"

"I mean, let's try to get to know each other. You're interested, right?"

I couldn't believe what I had just heard. For a second, I thought that I would never say no to that. And..

"You wouldn't know. By the time we get to know each other, you will be mine."

And, again. Another stupid and thoughtless words came out from my lousy lips. Without noticing myself, I slapped my mouth.

"Hahaha. You are so funny. Maybe I would consider that. And.."

I was pretty much surprised with her response, and was even more mesmerized when she leaned her elbows on the table, folded her hands, looked me in the eyes and said; "You're charming, Ben."

---

And so, from that day on, I had decided to make her mine. If I ever could put a spell on her to love me the way I had loved her for 5 years now. But no magic spell or empty wishes would ever make a man get his dream girl.

I, myself, was not a man of devil. If I ever had a lust or thirst for sexual stuffs, I would just kill them with another thing popping on my mind.

I just wished.. I would get a wife, as soon as possible. I was not considerably too old or young for this purpose. I was 30 years old. So far, a complete single in my whole life.

This was the reason why my parents were so worried about me. I didn't even inform them that I was planning to stay in Surabaya for a long period of time. I didn't have a choice, but to forget about my old life in Singapore when I was an owner of my own pizza shop. If the virus had not interfered with my business, I wouldn't had decided to take this huge step.

The corona virus which was firstly found in Wuhan, China, had been terrible to many businesses and economy to adapt and survive.

I would be the one who should take all the responsibilities for my family. My parents were old and we had just lost Sasha, my younger sister, in a tragic car accident.

I would highly understand their feelings and how they would react and act to that terrible loss, even after some period of time. Not to forget, I had now moved here.

If I ever had a chance to succeed in Surabaya, I would praise God for His kindness. That was what I could think I would do as a Christian.

Therefore, I was so delighted to know that Carly was actually an active worship leader at an Indonesian church. I was thinking, maybe we were fated to be together.

But, unexpectedly, this wonderfully unique and attractive friend of mine.. was so damn popular. She was no 'Carly Rae Jepsen', but she was a pop star of her own way.

Carly was smart enough to know that I had a strong feeling for her, but she just wouldn't act like she knew. She was so welcoming and kind to me, as a friend?

She had me thinking of her day and night, night and day.. How could I possibly make her feel the way I felt for her?

I decided that it was now my mission.

"Carly, in no more waiting, you will be mine."

I spoke to myself in front of the mirror in my bedroom like an idiot. My African-American roommate since moving 5 years ago, Chris, was there to mock and yell at me for being too long staring at the mirror.

"You have never fallen in love, have you?"

I spoke to him without a single hesitation about my feelings for Carly.

"Yeah. I don't wanna be an idiot like you, dude."

"Whatever. You will soon get it anyway. Women. Who could possibly stand against them?"