He knows a lot about me. I know a lot about him.
He knows my mom is a very good cook. I know neither of his parents can do any housework.
He knows I am an only child. I know he has two siblings, a bigger brother in Japan, and a little sister back in Thailand. His brother is a very good guitar player, and his sister looks exactly like him.
He knows that I am from China, eighteen, living in central Shanghai for my whole life. I know that he is from Thailand, nineteen, enjoys his life in a suburb of Bangkok. We have had conversations about places we prefer to live. He says that he likes to live in the suburbs of big cities so he isn’t bothered by the crowdedness but still enjoys all the resources in the city. I tell him that I would feel insecure not living in a big city since I am not used to walking in an area for five minutes without seeing anybody.
Both of us have a passion for music. He knows that I am such a super fan of One Ok Rock that I even tattooed it on my left arm. I know that he likes post rock but finds it too painful to tattoo anything on his arm (“I won’t even tattoo my wife on my arm!” he says). Our music tastes never match except that song about dropping out of school.
He knows that I sing. I know that he plays guitar. So we decided to give a performance at our high school head’s dinner. The song I picked was “Hard to Love” from One Ok Rock. I picked it because that’s one of the few songs I played for him that he didn’t make fun of. When we sat in the practice room for the first time, I thought I was going to sing and he was going to play. I thought it was just going to be a pure combination of two elements. I didn’t know he knew the words. But he gave the song something new—when I got to the refrain part, I heard him trying to harmonize. It didn’t go well the first time. So we tried again, recorded it and adjusted. My voice was deep, his more crystal and clear. The additional harmony functioned like stars at night, and the more we practised, the more brilliant these stars became.
He knows that I love the style of Taiwan boys. I know he is addicted to Korean drama and finds Korean girls cute. He always says that every Taiwan pop male star I like looks weak. I always remind him of the fact that he is never going to date any of the Korean drama stars.
He knows that I get stressed out very easily. So he imitates me in an overly feminine way by saying, “I want to get into college.” That’s so annoying of him, but it always makes me smile. I know he gets very confused in the morning since he always goes to bed way too late. Thus, I always laugh at him, saying, ”Look at you! If you got more sleep you wouldn’t be that short.”
He knows that I really like to eat seafood and spicy food. I know he has lactose intolerance. However, he is always eager to show that he can handle dairy products. When I visit him in college, he brings me to an Asian food house. He recommends Thai milk tea to me. But I persist that the Taiwan Boba tea with grass jelly in it will be better.
All of a sudden, he calls the waitress. “Please give me a big Thai milk tea!”
Surprised, I respond, “I said I didn’t want it!”
“No, that’s not for you. That’s for me!”
“Ha?”
“I will tell you how wrong you are to think Taiwan tea is better than Thai tea! Also, I am not going to be beaten by milk!”
Well, it ends up that he keeps on leaving the table after drinking the whole bottle. But his behavior does encourage me to drink Thai milk tea. I order another two bottles after the first try.
It seems like he knows a lot about me.
Does he?
He doesn’t know I often check my messenger, which I don’t usually use, because he likes to text me by that.
He doesn’t know I have started to eat more Thai food and listen to Thai pop music that I have never tried before.
He doesn’t know I have put Thailand on my “will travel next summer” list because he goes back in the summer.
He has asked me what kind of boy I am attracted to. I tell him I like smart Taiwanese boys who can play instruments very well. Also, that boy needs to be tall. I do that intentionally. He is not tall and he is not Taiwanese.
Does this mean he also intentionally says that he likes skinny Korean girls because I am not Korean and I am not skinny?
Oh. What does he know? He doesn’t know.