اوووه! هذه الصورة لا تتبع إرشادات المحتوى الخاصة بنا. لمتابعة النشر، يرجى إزالتها أو تحميل صورة أخرى.
N I G H T T W O
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DECEMBER 15, 2021
Wen and Mei are twenty-one
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HONG KONG'S CHRISTMAS-LIT skyscrapers rise like ribbons of starlight outside the wedding reception's floor-length windows.
To be precise, it's Wangmin's wedding reception--Wangmin's wedding with Yingyue, after years of on-and-off dating and dancing around commitment after breakups from long distance and diverging career paths. But they're here together, now. They're seated at the front of an expansive warm-lit dining area, their table swathed with sweet pine and candlelight, just shy of the dance floor.
Wen still can't believe this is happening. He sits at a table crowded with bridesmaids and groomsmen, including Yingyue's older sister, the maid of honor, who's dressed in a light shade of faded pink. Though Wen still has school to finish in New York, Wangmin has moved back to Hong Kong, taking up a job at a wildly successful communications agency in Tai Koo, where he's reunited with Yingyue and arranged for his wedding to be here, on the twelfth-floor restaurant in one of Wan Chai's wealthiest buildings.
Wen's mind spins as a room of glimmering spectators laughs and awwws at the slideshow. His cheeks hurt from a thousand smiles tossed to friends and family and extended family he's met only now. His ears ring from hearing the same phrases, repeated over and over again, in English and Cantonese. Congratulations! Gong hei! Your parents would have been proud. Wah, sou joh woh (you've gotten leaner)...
Swallowing, Wen tilts his head as his fingers tug at the silver tie digging into his throat. Pulls up his speech on his phone and fiddles with the mic in his hand.
