WAITING FOR THE BEGINNING

13. First Kiss is an Event

The families come together for their traditional New Years dinner at the Chin's house. Besides the Lee and Chin family, Kai Sha's parents have come into town for a visit.

Kai Sha's mother, a former model and actress, is a beauty at 40 something but completely at ease with herself and the world. Kai Sha's father is a self-made millionaire / real estate developer who started in life as a doctor to the wealthy.

They are super happy to meet the Chins. Kai Sha is the youngest of three and the only boy. His sisters long since have debuted into society and married foreigners. It's not that they blame their daughters or dislike their sons-in-law. But for them, they will always be Chinese, no matter how long they've left the homeland nor how established they are in another part of the world.

Afterward, the elders encourage the younger kids to go and be young. And that is how the four of them end up at the Grand Hotel. The drinks ordered. The music blaring. Kai Sha and De Ai make their way to the dance floor almost immediately. Ping Ping  sips her non-alcoholic drink. Looking all too young.

"Feeling okay?" De Yi leans in and speaks into her ears. With the music, he has to get that close. The gesture ends up being more intimate than he intends. Yet, he doesn't regret it one bit.

"Yes." Ping Ping turns and faces him. The nearness of him causes her to pause. And it is as if the world has stopped spinning.

"Dance with me Ping Ping." De Yi pulls himself and Ping Ping off the couch. "It will be a while before I see you again."

"When are you leaving?" She lets him take her hand and the warmth travels from his large palm into her heart.

"Tomorrow."

For some reason, the information pains her.

"Are you going to miss me?" De Yi asks in almost a teasing manner, except he is interested in the answer.

"Why would you ask this question." Ping Ping looks at him in surprise as he brings her into his arm for the dance. Her eyes widen in mockery. 

"I'm teasing you." He sways her to the music and gazes at her.  "But I am interested in your answer."

Ping Ping blushes first before she quickly shakes her head. "Not possible. I will be too busy with the Spring Competition and all the requests I'll get after the Vogue article comes out."

The answer disappoints him in ways that he's never experienced before.

"Why are you entering the competition again? Is winning that important to you?" De Yi asks. In his memory, Ping Ping is not an ambitious person. She seems always content with being able to do what interests her. With no regard to popular opinion, nor recognition by established authorities.

"It's not the competition." Ping Ping replies, sensibly. "It's the prize."

"Which part." He guesses it is not the money since Ping Ping is rarely if ever, excited about money.

"The Scholarship to the Paris Design Academy." Ping Ping looks into the distance, imagining the future where she gets to study with the couture masters of Europe. "It's a one-year internship with the fashion couture houses of old. Once in a lifetime opportunity."

"What if you were to just apply directly."

"It would be hard. The wait list to even be interviewed or apply is about 3 years."

"We'll think of something."

"We?" Ping Ping tilts her head at him.

They stop dancing.

"I want to do everything I can to make you happy." De Yi holds her a little tighter, imagining a year without her.

"What do you mean?" An inexplicable feeling rises up deep from her soul. "I don't understand."

"Silly." De Yi cups her face.  "This is what I mean." 

 He bends down and watches with great pleasure for her eyes to react in joy. "Ping Ping, would you like me to be your first kiss?"

After a moment of pause, she nods ever so slightly.

He smiles and presses his lips against hers. A slow, tender, languid kiss.  Not too wet.  Not to invasive.  Just enough to be sweet and intoxicating.  He releases her. "Kiss me back Ping. So it would be a real kiss."

The countdown begins in the background.

She tiptoes and tentatively kisses him.  He pulls her in tighter and deepens the kiss, until he's sucking her breath away.

The room erupts into Happy New Year. They break apart. The happiness on her face makes his heart glad.

"When I come back, I want to make this official." He brings her back into a full embrace, her face pushed up against his wide chest.

"Official?" She whispers into his shirt.

"I'm going to date you." De Yi kisses the top of her head. "And wait for you to grow up."

"Grow up?"

"To be legal for me to marry you."

First kisses is not an action. Rather, it is an event. It is the shyness that lingers after the kiss ends and the realization that one's life is forever divided, before and after the kiss. 

Later that night, while Kai Sha and De Ai hold hands as they stroll back from the hotel to their house. De Yi and Ping Ping trail behind them, holding hands. 

Ping Ping spends the night in De Ai's bed. The two girls talk until into the early morning. De Ai is planning her life with Ka Sha and Ping Ping just listens. In the morning, Ping Ping watches longingly while De Ai and Kai Sha share a late brunch together. De Yi has left for Japan. And the dining room seems too empty. 

Her emotions on her face are keenly observed by Grandfather Chen.