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The red lanterns hanging from temporarily erected arches glowed in the dimming evening light, shining on the throngs of people crowding around the seaside. There were many little stalls set up, just simple tables with stacks and stacks of cardboard boxes filled with mandarin oranges, and there seemed to be a never ending line of people buying mandarins on the spot.
Gong Jun had been curious to see how differently the people of Penang celebrated yuan xiao jie. 1 In Chengdu, they held lantern festivals at parks to celebrate the fifteenth day of the lunar new year, where all kinds of lanterns stretched as far as the eye could see. There were usually performances as well, and food stalls for the attendees, but the myriad of lanterns were the main attraction of the day.
In Penang, it seemed like mandarins were the star of the celebration instead.
Gong Jun watched with interest as people lined up to buy mandarins, or turned up with their own mandarins already in hand, their names and numbers handwritten on the mandarins. Then excited people, mainly women, crowded near the low barricade in front of the rocky shore and threw the mandarins as hard as possible, flinging them out to sea. All of this was part of a long running tradition where single women would throw mandarins with their names and numbers on them out onto a river or lake, and men would collect these mandarins so they could get the phone numbers of these ladies seeking love. Matching up on this date was considered to be good luck.
It seemed like an interesting way to find a date, before dating apps existed. The celebratory mood of the crowd was uplifting, and Gong Jun was enjoying himself as he watched the hustle and bustle of the excited crowd.
Until Daidai dragged him over to buy some mandarins.
“We were just meant to be watching,” Gong Jun complained, frowning as he watched Daidai scribble his name with terrible writing on a mandarin.
“And now we’re participating too,” Daidai said flippantly. He looked up to see Gong Jun’s frown and rolled his eyes, shoving his mandarin into Gong Jun’s hand before he started writing on the second mandarin. “We’re all the way here in a different country, having an unexpected holiday, so you should just relax and try out the local customs.”
“Are you writing my— You’re writing my name. Why do you want the two of us to throw mandarins too? The custom was for single women to throw mandarins,” Gong Jun complained.
“Look around, many men are throwing mandarins too. It’s fine!”
Gong Jun pointed out, “What if a guy picks up our mandarins expecting them to have a woman’s number?”
Daidai slipped the pen into his pocket — which he must have brought along because he planned to do this all along — and swapped mandarins with Gong Jun so that Gong Jun was holding a mandarin with his own name and number on it, written in Daidai’s terrible handwriting. “Your name is pretty obviously a guy’s name.”
“What if the person who picked it up didn’t read my name carefully?” Gong Jun protested, mostly to be contrary.
“It doesn’t really matter anyway. No one will actually pick up your mandarin! It seems a lot of people throw mandarins nowadays just in hopes to get some good luck in finding romance, which is why some men do it too. Hardly anyone wades into the water to pick up mandarins anymore,” Daidai explained, before giving Gong Jun a sly look. “Anyway, not like you would complain if you got a phone call from a guy looking for love, right?”
Gong Jun shook his head. “No way, I’m not meeting someone by way of mandarin oranges. What if an asshole picked up my mandarin?”
“What if an asshole picked you up at a club? That’s not stopped you before,” Daidai said with a shrug.
“That’s different. Then at least I would know if he was a hot asshole or not.”
Daidai was already dragging Gong Jun towards the stone barricade of the Esplanade as he muttered, “So shallow.”
Of course, the other major problem about getting picked by way of floating mandarin would be if a homophobic guy got pissed off that he picked up another guy’s mandarin instead. But Gong Jun kept that point to himself as it seemed a bit too much of a downer to bring up. Not to mention that Daidai was right, there did seem to be a number of guys throwing mandarins too. Far fewer than women, but they were there, so no one should be that surprised if they picked up a mandarin with a guy’s name and number on it.
With Gong Jun’s height, he rather stood out from the crowd and he noticed some women glancing at him and nudging each other, giggling as they saw him holding a mandarin as well. To blend in better, he and Daidai gravitated towards a group of obvious tourists, mostly white Americans with a few Asians from other parts of the world it seemed, probably here to participate in the local custom as well.
In front of the waist-high stone barricade, there was a stretch of rocks that led out to the sea. Eyeing the distance he had to throw, Gong Jun asked, “What happens if the mandarin lands on the rocks instead of the sea instead? Does that mean you’re doomed to being single forever?”
Daidai had just been drawing his arm back, mandarin in hand, when Gong Jun said that and he almost fumbled his throw. He lowered his hand and glared at Gong Jun. “Are you trying to curse me to be single forever, Junjun?”
Raising his eyebrows, Gong Jun pointed out, “You already have a long term girlfriend. How could I curse you to be single forever?”
“You never know with these things. Alright, now take a video of me throwing the mandarin. I want to put it in my vlog! There’s already too much of you in my vlogs, and barely anything of me.”
Since Daidai had obligingly taken many photos and videos for him, Gong Jun returned the favor without even a single eye-roll. He was being so generous. After Daidai had managed to fling his mandarin so that it fortunately landed in the water, he nudged Gong Jun in the side, telling him to go next.
It wasn’t like Gong Jun was actually against participating in this custom. He actually rather liked seeing and trying out the local traditions whenever he was on holiday in foreign places, and now that he had seen guys participating without reservation as well, he didn’t feel like he was intruding on the celebration. Although, looking down at the juicy mandarin in his hand, he did think it was a bit of a waste to throw it into the sea instead of eating it.
Oh well.
Gong Jun pulled his arm back and threw the mandarin as hard as he could, peripherally aware of Daidai taking a photo of him as he did so. The mandarin sailed out over the rocks and landed with a small splash quite a bit past all the other mandarins floating in the shallow water. Looking sideways at Daidai, Gong Jun lifted his chin smugly. His mandarin had definitely landed much further than Daidai’s. Someone on his other side laughed, loud enough that Gong Jun startled, but before he could turn around, Daidai tugged him away.
“Come on, let’s go grab some food. I think I saw some food stalls earlier,” Daidai said.
Malaysian food was well-suited to Gong Jun’s palate and he eagerly went along in search of dinner with Daidai.
In the sweltering heat, with humid air clinging to his already sweaty skin, Gong Jun was fanning himself idly with his wallet as he stood in the short line of people waiting to buy ban chang kuih 2 for breakfast. It was a type of crispy pancake with ground nuts, sugar and other assorted toppings of your choice folded inside, and Gong Jun had developed a little bit of an obsession with them, especially with added sliced banana. Daidai had gone off to another hawker stall to buy a bowl of curry noodles, which consisted of vermicelli, egg noodles, beansprouts, the softest tofu puffs ever, sliced chicken and cubes of chicken blood, in a delicious coconut milk curry soup.
The ban chang kuih wouldn’t be enough for Gong Jun’s breakfast so he was eyeing up the char koay teow 3 stall and lor mee 4 stall as potential additions to his meal when his phone rang. Pulling it out from his pocket, Gong Jun answered the call without checking his screen. It could only be Daidai, probably needing a second opinion from Gong Jun over what else he should add to his bowl of noodles.
“Just ask for everything this time, then you won’t keep wondering if you missed out by leaving out the cockles.”
There was a short pause before an unfamiliar, amused voice came through, “Thanks for the advice, I’ll remember it for next time.”
Gong Jun was completely taken aback. This definitely wasn’t Daidai, but surprisingly, whoever this was, he was speaking Mandarin with a slight accent that didn’t sound local to Malaysia. If anything, he sounded almost like someone native to China, but Gong Jun couldn’t pinpoint the exact origin.
He blinked and said, “Uh, sorry, I thought you were my friend. He’s very fickle when it comes to ordering his food.”
“While you’re very decisive,” the stranger said, sounding thoroughly entertained. “I like that in a guy.”
“Um… Thanks?”
“Oh, a polite boy. You’re welcome.”
Was this stranger flirting with him? Was that what was happening here?
Completely bewildered, Gong Jun said tentatively, “I think you’ve got the wrong number.”
“So you aren’t Gong Jun?” the stranger asked while sounding completely confident that he knew the answer to his question. Except Gong Jun had no idea how this stranger seemed to know who he was.
“Sorry, I’m very confused. Who is this?”
“I’m a guy who picked up a mandarin someone threw into the sea…”
Gong Jun’s eyes widened, and he stepped out of the queue so he could focus on the phone call instead. He apologized immediately. “I’m so sorry, I’m, uh, I’m not a girl.”
The stranger laughed, a free guffaw that was surprisingly pleasant to hear. “I noticed!”
Flustered, Gong Jun tried to explain, “I just threw the mandarin, because…well, I’m a tourist, and I wanted to join in on the tradition. Daidai, um, my friend told me that single people threw mandarins just to get luck nowadays and no one really wades out to get the mandarins anymore—”
“Well, I’m the ‘no one’ who did wade out,” the stranger interrupted Gong Jun’s rambling explanation.
“Oh no…” Gong Jun whispered.
The stranger continued, “I got my shorts wet and had to trek back to my hotel cold and half soaked through.”
In this humid weather, it was probably pleasant to have been half wet, but Gong Jun couldn’t really say that. He could only apologize, “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect anyone to pick up my mandarin. Uh, did you manage to get any other numbers?”
“Nope.”
Gong Jun was surprised. “Really? You waded into the sea and only picked one mandarin?”
“Yep.”
“That doesn’t seem very smart,” Gong Jun said, before realizing it was a bit rude. “I mean…it would probably have been better to hedge your bets by collecting a few mandarins at least, since you were already in the water.”
The stranger was laughing again, sounding very amused. “But that wouldn’t be very romantic, Gong Jun.”
It felt strange that this person knew Gong Jun’s name, but all Gong Jun knew about this person was that he had a nice laugh and was crazy enough to go fishing for mandarins. “Um, what’s your name?”
“I’m Zhang Zhehan.”
“Oh, thanks. I’m sorry for wasting your time, Zhang Zhehan—”
“So how will you make it up to me?”
Okay. Gong Jun wasn’t imagining it. This guy was definitely flirting with him. The way his voice dipped lower, the teasing, almost sticky lilt to his voice was definitely flirtation. Gong Jun was shocked. Did a gay man actually pick up his mandarin? Was his luck really that good?
Maybe this mandarin throwing tradition worked after all.
But what he said yesterday to Daidai still applied. What if this Zhang Zhehan guy was an asshole?
Although he didn’t sound like one. He sounded funny.
“Are you still there?” Zhang Zhehan asked, sounding a little uncertain.
Gong Jun realized the silence could be taken as a passive rejection. He hurriedly said, “I could treat you to a meal?”
“Now that sounds like a deal,” Zhang Zhehan said, uncertainty melting away from his tone, leaving only satisfaction.
“Oh, I’m on holiday with a friend… So he might have to come along.”
“Yeah, I get that. He can come along, we can get to know each other,” Zhang Zhehan said without concern.
He really seemed like a nice guy. Gong Jun was relieved that he was so understanding. No matter how much Gong Jun and Daidai bickered, they were actually the best of friends and Gong Jun wasn’t going to ditch him entirely in a foreign country.
“Ditch me. Just ditch me completely,” Daidai said with conviction.
Gong Jun looked at him with raised eyebrows. “No, I already said I would invite you too, I’m not ditching—”
“Oh my god, then I’m going to ditch you,” Daidai cried out. “That guy waded out into the sea to get your number, and he wants to go on a date with you! Why did you tell him you’re bringing your best friend?”
“He didn’t wade out into the sea to get my number specifically. He just went out to get any mandarin and happened to pick up mine, so it’s not even that—”
“That means it’s fate. Do you hear me? Fate. I’m not playing lightbulb to a fated couple on their first date.”
Gong Jun blushed, because Daidai was being so over the top, but also because it kind of did make him think, ‘What if? What if this really was fate?’ There was a part of Gong Jun who had never really fallen in love before, who had never done anything wild or crazy when it came to romance, who wondered if maybe this time, it would be different. He had gone to that Guanyin 5 temple before his holiday to pray for success in his career, only to find out later it was more for couples…so maybe…?
But the pragmatic side to him couldn’t help but pipe up anyway. “He could be an asshole.”
“If he was an asshole, he would have ended the call the moment he heard a guy pick up.”
“A different type of an asshole then.”
“Then you would have ended the call after a few words exchanged. You’ve never had a high tolerance for assholes,” Daidai pointed out.
Which was true, but it wasn’t like everyone wore their jerk badge on their sleeves. This guy could be a secret asshole, one who kept it hidden away to spring onto hopeful, unwitting gay guys on a holiday with their defenses down.
Alright, it was farfetched that some jerk could be plotting something by way of mandarin oranges of all things.
Concerns aside, Gong Jun decided to go ahead with the meet-up on his own since Daidai was so adamant about that. He exchanged messages with Zhang Zhehan, setting a time and place to meet for lunch. Gong Jun noted that Zhang Zhehan was using a local number. From Zhang Zhehan’s accent, Gong Jun was fairly sure that he wasn’t a Malaysian Chinese, that he was likely from China as well. Maybe he had bought a local SIM card while on holiday or maybe he was staying here for a longer period of time.
Gong Jun and Daidai’s plans to go up to Kek Lok Si, a beautiful temple with a very large Guanyin statue was somewhat derailed. Daidai hadn’t been too interested, was mainly going to accompany Gong Jun, so he decided to go off and do some shopping instead, mainly food shopping. If Gong Jun’s lunch with Zhang Zhehan went well, Daidai told him to go up to Kek Lok Si together with Zhang Zhehan in the afternoon instead, make it a whole day outing together. If the lunch date went terribly, then he could fake that he had to run off to meet Daidai in the afternoon.
After breakfast, Gong Jun went back to his hotel to do some primping, angsting over the wardrobe available to him. He had packed for a holiday in the tropics, so it was mostly light and casual clothing, but Zhang Zhehan seemed to have picked a rather fancy restaurant for lunch, based on what Gong Jun could find online. There was one nicer outfit he had packed, but he couldn’t wear that for a possible date because he needed to keep it for the livestream he was going to do later in the trip. But all his other outfits were so…plain. And boring. What if he wore the livestream outfit now, and bought a new outfit later…? But then he would have to find a way to wash it first, he couldn’t wear a new outfit unwashed after all, that would be gross.
Gong Jun tried on his various casual outfits, finding them all wanting, until Daidai forced his livestream outfit onto him, saying that they would find a place to wash it again before the livestream if need be, please just wear it and put everyone out of their misery.
So that was how Gong Jun found himself lurking inside a spacious atrium, dressed in a nice light pink shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, unbuttoned low enough to show his collarbones, and a pair of tight jeans that accentuated his long legs. He really hoped that this was the sort of restaurant that would allow him in while he was wearing jeans. The atrium seemed to serve as a type of waiting area before one entered the actual restaurant, and it was tastefully but minimally decorated with potted plants. He was surrounded by glass walls, and he could see right into the seated area of the restaurant, occupied by only four tables covered in white tablecloths and a stretch of marble counter serving as the bar. The high backed, cushioned chairs, along with the elegantly draped dove gray curtains and the golden accents at the bar fairly screamed understated luxury.
This was definitely an expensive, fancy restaurant.
A staff member had already come up to him when he stepped into the atrium, ready to assist him, except he had told the staff that he was waiting for a friend. He had been ten minutes early, as was his habit, and now he regretted this habit as those ten minutes passed with excruciating slowness.
“Gong Jun?”
Gong Jun turned around and looked at the very handsome man standing in front of him. This guy had stylishly tousled hair, and he was wearing mirror aviator shades that hid his eyes so all one could focus on was that high, narrow nose and soft, beautifully shaped lips. He was dressed in a tight fitting black T-shirt that molded to his generous chest and emphasized his tapered, narrow waist, and a pair of dark jeans that clung desperately to thick thighs and curvy calves. This man was astoundingly attractive.
Was this Zhang Zhehan? He looked more like someone right out of a magazine cover, someone whose number people would beg for rather than someone who would need to wade into waters to fish out a random mandarin just for a date.
“Hey, yeah, it’s me,” Gong Jun replied belatedly and awkwardly, feeling completely out of his depth. Was this a joke? Was there a hidden camera for some show where they had implausibly handsome men prank innocent gay men with mandarin-induced blind dates? He asked, “You’re Zhang Zhehan?”
Zhang Zhehan slipped off his shades to reveal beautiful almond-shaped eyes, but his expression still remained inscrutable. “In the flesh.”
When Gong Jun only smiled at him awkwardly, Zhang Zhehan continued, “Let’s head on in then.”
Not having come up with a way to get out of this in the last ten seconds, Gong Jun nodded woodenly and trailed after Zhang Zhehan.
Somehow, despite only deciding to meet up this morning, Zhang Zhehan had managed to get a reservation at this very fancy, very expensive restaurant. They were led to a table for two, where the waiter left them with the menus that had the restaurant’s name, Le Trésor, tastefully embossed on the front. The waiter offered to get them drinks, but Zhang Zhehan waved him off for the moment, asking for a moment with the menu. They both spoke in English, which left Gong Jun feeling even more out of his depth.
Trying not to let his discomfort show, Gong Jun didn’t try to engage in any small talk and instead, stared down at the menu with a growing sense of despair. While he had been working hard to learn English, in hopes to one day take his livestream even further abroad, his command of the language seemed completely inept in the face of this menu. He could understand every third word maybe. He hadn’t had this problem before when he had to read English menus, but this one had him stumped.
The very first item on the menu was a mystery with the name, ‘Kailan Stem Skipjack Tuna, Espuma of Pringles, Gula Melaka Soy Sorbet, Nona Gel.’
While he could understand a few of the individual words, he couldn’t quite picture what the dish would even look or taste like, which was a bit of a blow to his ego as someone proficient in the kitchen and who livestreamed about restaurants. However, he had never specialized in fancy French restaurants, so much of the terminology was beyond his understanding. He wished that they had the same menu in Chinese instead, maybe he would have a better chance of understanding what ‘Espuma of Pringles’ even meant. Did Pringles mean the potato chips? Why would they serve that here? What was Gula Melaka Soy and Nona? His English vocabulary seemed to be seriously lacking here. 6
And the price was ridiculous. One appetizer was equivalent to almost five meals here in Penang. That was another reason why his livestream had never been geared towards covering the fancier restaurants; he wouldn’t have been able to afford it on a regular basis.
Gong Jun peeked at Zhang Zhehan from underneath his lashes, but Zhang Zhehan seemed deeply absorbed in his menu, leaving Gong Jun to be the only idiot defeated by the names of food.
Any other day, Gong Jun might possibly be curious enough to randomly pick a couple extravagant dishes, since he was already there anyway. But at this moment, he didn’t need the additional stress of figuring out what he was choosing when he already felt awkward sitting at the table with a very handsome stranger who had asked him out but seemed somewhat aloof right now. Did Zhang Zhehan regret asking Gong Jun out to lunch the moment he had laid eyes on Gong Jun? Maybe Gong Jun’s looks weren’t to his taste, which would be a little strange, since Gong Jun knew himself to be a handsome man by the standards of most people. But maybe Gong Jun came across like a clumsy idiot and that had been off-putting to Zhang Zhehan.
After uselessly scanning up and down the menu five times, Gong Jun couldn’t keep up the pretense anymore. He abruptly put down the menu and said, “I don’t know what to choose.”
Zhang Zhehan looked up, raising his eyebrows. “You don’t like anything on the menu?”
Deciding to just bite the bullet and be honest, Gong Jun admitted, “I don’t understand most of it. I can read a little English, but this is beyond me.”
To his surprise, Zhang Zhehan flung down his menu and slumped back, letting out a huge sigh. “That’s a relief, because I don’t understand any of it too.”
“You looked like you were reading it fine,” Gong Jun said in surprise.
“So did you!”
“I was too embarrassed to say anything at first,” Gong Jun admitted. “Then I realized I really don’t know what’s even on the menu.”
Zhang Zhehan smiled sheepishly, and the initial cold aura he had exuded seemed to melt away. “Same here.” He glanced around and then said in a lowered voice, “Want to sneak out of here?”
Scandalized, Gong Jun said, “But you made a reservation. I’m sure you had to put down a deposit, and they’ll charge you—”
“It’s fine, I can afford it,” Zhang Zhehan said with a shrug. “And I would rather go somewhere where we’re both comfortable. You don’t look like you would enjoy a meal here at the moment.”
Gong Jun was torn. On one hand, he felt so out of place that leaving now was a very tempting idea. On the other hand… “It’s such a waste of money,” Gong Jun pointed out, uncertain.
“It’s not a lot of money to me, come on,” Zhang Zhehan said as he stood up.
It wasn’t like Gong Jun could stay seated with Zhang Zhehan already heading for the door.
Resigned to his fate, Gong Jun got up as well and mumbled, “Let’s walk really fast.”
Looking casual and unruffled, Zhang Zhehan took long strides towards the exit like he had somewhere important to be. Gong Jun bumped into a table on his way out, but he kept going without looking back, deciding that if he just walked fast enough, no one would stop them. And he was right, no one did. Then they were free!
They kept walking at a brisk pace even once they were outside, as if to outrun their embarrassment.
Shaking his head, Zhang Zhehan said, “I’m sorry for inviting you to that place. Someone recommended it to me as a fancy place with great food and they knew someone who could get me a quick reservation. I didn’t expect…well, all of that.”
“We really don’t have to eat at a fancy place,” Gong Jun reassured him.
“I wanted to impress you.”
The sudden admission took Gong Jun by surprise. He looked at Zhang Zhehan’s profile carefully, noticing how he looked far less aloof now, his expression mostly self-deprecatingly amused.
“I don’t need fancy places to impress me. Food can be good without being fancy,” Gong Jun said, and then deciding to opt for honesty. “And I’m impressed anyway.”
“Impressed by my terrible choice in restaurants?” Zhang Zhehan asked, slowing down as he looked at Gong Jun.
Coming to a standstill on the hot pavement, under the bright sun, Gong Jun said, “By how you seem to just do what you want, like wading out into the sea to pick up mandarins and calling a stranger for a chat. That’s so spontaneous and brave. And I was also pretty impressed by…all of this.” He gestured awkwardly at Zhang Zhehan, hoping his awkward compliment came across alright.
Zhang Zhehan grinned at him. “What can I say? It looked like such a nice mandarin.”
“I still can’t believe you did that.”
“Well, you agreed to meet up with a stranger who waded out into the sea to pick up an orange, so that’s pretty spontaneous and brave too. Plus, you’re looking pretty good yourself,” Zhang Zhehan said, raising his eyebrows and giving Gong Jun a lingering once-over.
Feeling his cheeks heat up, Gong Jun said, “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome,” Zhang Zhehan said. “Now, you get to pick where we’ll go for lunch since my choice was such a disaster. Please do it soon before I sweat through this T-shirt and look much less impressive.”
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Gong Jun murmured, but turned around anyway to lead them somewhere else. He had done quite a lot of research to look for good places to eat during their holiday, so he was sure he could find a suitable place once he got his bearings.
“I thought you didn’t like me once you actually met me!” Gong Jun exclaimed.
“You were so quiet that I thought you were regretting meeting up with me,” Zhang Zhehan said, shaking his head and laughing.
It was like Zhang Zhehan was a completely different person now that he was relaxed, slouching back against his chair, knee pressed casually against Gong Jun’s under the small table they were sharing. Gone was his aviator shades and his distant, upright posture, banished along with the cool, unsmiling expression he had been wearing earlier. Now, he was kind of touchy-feely instead of too cold to approach, smiling widely with little crinkles on the ends of his rather pretty eyes.
Gong Jun felt almost breathless at the stunning sight before him.
They had ended up going to Nasi Lemak Ciksue for lunch. This little corner restaurant hadn’t been on Gong Jun’s priority list of places to visit, but it had been on his back-up list and it was nearby which made it the best choice at the moment. After a twenty minute walk over, both their shirts were damp with sweat from the hot sun and humid air.
The restaurant only had a few tables for patrons, similar to Restaurant Le Trésor, but for very different reasons. Unlike the spacious and airy fancy restaurant they had just left, Nasi Lemak Ciksue was a very small, open air, slightly rundown restaurant without air conditioning or even a fan. Two ladies served the ready-made food in front of the restaurant, scooping rice and dishes onto plates from deep trays of food depending on what everyone ordered. It was fairly popular, with a constant stream of people who came up while calling out, ‘Kak, tapau satu bungkus nasi lemak!’ 7 which Gong Jun had picked up enough of the local dialects to understand meant that they were all here for takeaway. That was fortunate because it meant that Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan could grab a small table right by the tiny sink attached to a cracked and peeling pillar.
While Gong Jun had done his research, he hadn’t actually known what to order and in fact, had struggled to communicate with the lady ladling the food. She had a head scarf wrapped over her head and had grinned at his clumsy attempts at ordering unfamiliar food in English.
“Ini ayam goreng… I mean, this fried chicken is very good!” She had given him a thumbs up, emphasizing her recommendation, so he had nodded in obedient agreement. Then, she had suddenly diverted from the topic of food. “Handsome brother, you’re so tall.”
Beside him, Zhang Zhehan had laughed at Gong Jun’s embarrassed, “Thank you.”
The laughter had attracted her attention so the lady had turned to Zhang Zhehan and said with a grin, “You’re very handsome too! And very tall! I’ll give you a discount.”
Then it had been Zhang Zhehan’s turn to thank her awkwardly.
In the end, the two of them ended up with a plate of nasi lemak and nasi kerabu, plus a ton of extra dishes heaped on. Before they had arrived, Gong Jun had explained to Zhang Zhehan that nasi lemak was a dish consisting of fragrant coconut milk rice, served with crispy anchovies, toasted peanuts, half a hard-boiled egg, sliced cucumber and a type of chili shrimp paste called sambal, all served on or wrapped in pandan leaves. Depending on preference, nasi lemak could also include fried chicken, squid in sambal, cockles, stewed beef and other types of meat or vegetable dishes. 8
Nasi kerabu on the other hand was rice dyed blue with butterfly-pea flowers and served with fish crackers, stuffed peppers, half a salted egg, a herby salad and other protein options such as fried or grilled chicken or fish. 9 This particular restaurant was fairly famous for their nasi kerabu too, despite nasi lemak being part of the name of their restaurant.
The lady who served their food had added more side dishes than they had ordered, insisting that those were very nice and they should try it out while they were visiting Penang. Once they had settled down at their table with their plates of food, they had dug in while chatting amiably.
“So whereabouts in China are you from?” Zhang Zhehan asked curiously.
“It’s so obvious from my accent that I’m not a local, huh?” Gong Jun said, a little sheepish.
Zhang Zhehan looked a little taken aback, then his eyes darted to the side before he said, “Yeah, your accent gave you away.”
For a moment, Gong Jun was puzzled by Zhang Zhehan’s seemingly shifty behavior, but he figured maybe it was because the assumption that Gong Jun wasn’t local was a bit presumptuous. Gong Jun replied, “Yeah, I’m from Chengdu, although I mostly travel around right now. And I can tell you’re not Malaysian Chinese either. Are you from Shanghai?”
“I’m from Xinyu but I live in Shanghai right now.”
“Oh, Daidai lives in Shanghai too. Here, try this, it’s really good,” Gong Jun said, nudging his plate forward and indicating with his fork at the stewed beef.
Zhang Zhehan ate with open-mouthed appreciation, somehow managing to devour the food before him like a particularly hungry python but managing to be neat and tidy about it. “You really know all the good spots to eat. Have you been here long?”
Shaking his head, Gong Jun explained, “No, I’ve only been here for two days, but I did a lot of research before coming here. I would pretend it’s all for my job, but I actually love trying out new cuisine.”
“What do you do that involves food?”
“I’m a travel and food livestreamer. Mostly, I review restaurants or new cuisines in the different cities in China that I visit. Sometimes I cook during my livestream. This trip is a part holiday, part work trip on one of my rare trips out of China.”
“What’s your livestream name? I’ll check it out later,” Zhang Zhehan said with enthusiasm.
A little embarrassed, Gong Jun said, “‘Number 1 Foodie On The Go’. It’s not particularly creative.”
“Wahseh, number one? I have high expectations for your livestreams now.”
Gong Jun winced. “You should lower those expectations. I was very young when I came up with that name.” Then he asked, “What about you? Are you here for work? Or a holiday?”
“Work that I’m extending into a holiday. I actually livestream a little as well, but mostly, I produce music and I’m here for a collaboration with a Malaysian group. We were supposed to meet after the new year but something came up, and they asked if I could come over sooner, so here I am,” Zhang Zhehan said with a shrug.
“Bet your family wasn’t happy about that,” Gong Jun said sympathetically.
“My mama’s alright, she always says that work is important.” Then Zhang Zhehan grimaced. “Doesn’t stop me from feeling guilty.”
Gong Jun sighed. “I know how you feel. I wanted to come over after the new year was done, but my friend I’m traveling with, Daidai, was offered an acting role that’s starting sooner than expected. He’s been dying to go on a holiday so rather than having him cancel altogether, we moved the trip earlier and came over on the fifth day of new year.”
“You’re a good friend to miss the rest of the new year celebrations for him.”
“Well, it’s okay. If we hadn’t moved it earlier, then I wouldn’t have met you,” Gong Jun said, looking at Zhang Zhehan with an open grin.
While Gong Jun was often awkward and shy around strangers, he liked Zhang Zhehan too much not to put himself out there at least. Plus, Zhang Zhehan had already made the first move with the mandarin, so Gong Jun could hardly fall behind now.
Zhang Zhehan looked surprised by Gong Jun’s forwardness, before his expression melted into a soft smile. He said, “Yeah, that’s a good point. I guess this must be fate then.”
“Yeah, it must be,” Gong Jun said with a beaming smile.
They spent lunch in this way, talking about themselves, learning about each other, eating their delicious meals…or in Zhang Zhehan’s case, eating his own delicious meal and stealing off Gong Jun’s plate. At first, Gong Jun was taken aback when Zhang Zhehan’s fork speared a piece of spicy squid off his plate, but then the mischievous, smug smile on that pointy delicate face was enough to make Gong Jun laugh as well. Their conversation was light, filled with funny anecdotes about their stay in Penang and silly teasing, peppered occasionally by food theft and loud protests.
Coming up to three in the afternoon, Gong Jun received multiple text messages from Daidai.
‘I didn’t get a call for help so I assume he’s hot.’
‘Send pics.’
‘Are you going up to that temple place with him?’
‘I did so much shopping it isn’t funny.’
Reading his messages, Gong Jun explained to Zhang Zhehan, as an excuse for his rudeness, “It’s my friend, he’s checking what my plans are for the afternoon.”
Zhang Zhehan smiled and raised his eyebrows. “So what are your plans for the afternoon?”
A little worried that Zhang Zhehan would find it boring, Gong Jun offered tentatively, “Well, I wanted to go up to this temple called Kek Lok Si, which has a very large Guanyin statue. I heard the lights up there are very impressive to see at night. Do you want to come with? Or we could do something—”
“It sounds like a great plan,” Zhang Zhehan interrupted, smile stretching into a happy grin.
Absurdly pleased that Zhang Zhehan was going along with his suggestion and would be spending more time with him, Gong Jun said, “Let me call a car on Grab.”
Zhang Zhehan said with lashes lowered, “Well, since you paid for lunch earlier, then dinner will have to be on me.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Gong Jun said brazenly, which earned him a laugh.
They spent hours at Kek Lok Si temple, because there was just so much to see. From the gigantic pond with hundreds of tortoises to the thirty metre high pagoda they had climbed, Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan had explored everything with great interest.
Lunch had been a comfortable way to break the ice between them, allowing them to gain a gradual understanding of each other through conversation, made easy by sharing a meal together. Exploring the rather large Kek Lok Si temple together had helped them learn about each other through actions instead, to understand through personal experience how the other person ticked.
Gong Jun was charmed by Zhang Zhehan’s unpretentious way of taking photos, at his lack of attempt to be photographed at his best angle and how he preferred to interact comedically with whatever else was in the frame with him. Then, he was horrified by what a technophobe Zhang Zhehan was when he fumbled while trying to send Gong Jun the photos that he had taken on his own phone. In turn, Zhang Zhehan seemed to find Gong Jun’s shameless attempts to make the most handsome or cutest poses when he was photographed hilarious and happily encouraged Gong Jun to pose accordingly.
When they ended up taking selfies, it seemed natural to take them with both of them in the photo. Zhang Zhehan took some extraordinarily terrible selfies and Gong Jun hurriedly took command of the phone for their selfie shots.
It was Gong Jun who insisted on buying water spinach from the nearby vendors to feed the many tortoises, but it was Zhang Zhehan who almost fell into the pond when he insisted on trying to feed a specific very large tortoise in the water, one hand clinging to a stone rail as he bent forward precariously. In the end, Gong Jun had to haul Zhang Zhehan to safety with an arm around his waist, all the while trying not to notice how slim and firm Zhang Zhehan’s waist was beneath his hold.
On their climb up the pagoda, Zhang Zhehan had been the one to tug Gong Jun up the last level. Alright, Gong Jun might have played up his tiredness and whined more just so Zhang Zhehan could give him a hand, but Gong Jun genuinely had been winded on the climb up. The heat didn’t help with the physical exertion, while Zhang Zhehan seemed to have an eternal fount of energy. Then they had both stood shoulder-to-shoulder as they admired the magnificent view from the top of the pagoda, taking in the rest of the temple sprawling out beneath them, and the city with all its tall buildings that felt like a good distance away.
Later, as they walked through the different prayer halls and buildings, Zhang Zhehan waited patiently as Gong Jun slowly admired the variety of carvings and murals, as he made his diligent prayers to the different statues of gods while putting down offerings of lit candles in pineapple-shaped jars. From time to time, whenever Zhang Zhehan asked about the statues out of curiosity, Gong Jun would explain which gods they were and what they usually looked after. In this leisurely way, they made their winding way through Kek Lok Si temple until they reached the towering and majestic statue of Guanyin.
The statue was so high that Gong Jun had to stand far back and crane his head backwards to see it at its full thirty meters height. On his way here, he had already prayed for the usual stuff he always prayed for when he was at a temple; good health and safety for his family and friends, and success in his career. This time, he glanced at Zhang Zhehan who was staring up in awe at the large statue, before holding his joss sticks up to pray.
‘I hope he’s the right one, because I think I’m falling for him already,’ Gong Jun whispered in his heart, even though he thought it was far too fast, far too soon. But it was happening anyway, regardless of what his usually sensible heart thought.
Gong Jun lowered his head and prayed with sincere earnestness, prayed for Zhang Zhehan and himself, for their good health and safety, for their continued compatibility. He couldn’t ask for Guanyin to intervene on something as minor as their relationship, to guarantee happiness, but he could hope at the very least that they were blessed.
As the sun began to set, they found a spot to rest, leaning against a stone rail and looking over the beautiful lights that wound its way through Kek Lok Si downwards to the twinkling lights of the city. Gong Jun turned his head to comment on the wondrous sight to Zhang Zhehan and felt the words drying up on his lips as he looked at Zhang Zhehan’s gorgeous profile illuminated by the lights around them. How could there be such a perfect face in this world, with that nose so high and straight, those lips that seemed permanently upturned…
Gong Jun found himself saying without meaning to, “It’s a miracle.”
Turning curiously to him, Zhang Zhehan asked, “What is?”
He almost blurted out ‘you’ before he caught himself and instead stuttered out, “Everything. This place.” Then he paused and shook his head, realizing that what he was saying was genuinely true. He gathered his thoughts before saying in earnest, “It’s a miracle that you and I are from China but ended up meeting here, in Penang, on foreign land. That we met because my friend made me throw a mandarin and that you, for some reason, decided to go wading in the water for mandarins. I still can’t believe you did that!”
With an irresistibly cheeky smile, Zhang Zhehan said, “What can I say? I’m a little bit crazy sometimes.”
“A lot crazy, I think,” Gong Jun said, giggling inelegantly as he imagined Zhang Zhehan wading into the water among all the mandarins. It was a shame he hadn’t seen that himself. “I still can’t believe you went in…and I can’t believe that of all mandarins you picked, you somehow picked mine. What an amazing coincidence.”
“Well…” Zhang Zhehan said, looking away and squinting out at the glittering lights under the darkening sky.
“Well what?” Gong Jun asked, confused.
“Well…would it be less romantic if it wasn’t a coincidence?” Zhang Zhehan asked tentatively, looking back at Gong Jun with a tinge of embarrassment on his face.
For a moment, all Gong Jun heard was the first part, and he froze with breathless excitement at the confirmation that Zhang Zhehan thought this was romantic, that whatever was going on between them wasn’t purely in Gong Jun’s one-sided wild imagination. Zhang Zhehan thought this was romantic.
Then he parsed the rest of what Zhang Zhehan said and frowned in confusion. “What do you mean it wasn’t a coincidence?”
Shrugging in a clear attempt to seem mostly calm and unaffected, Zhang Zhehan admitted, “I might have guessed that mandarin was yours.”
Gong Jun stared at him, blinking rapidly. “But...what? We’ve never met before this.”
“We haven’t. But I was standing really near you when you and your friend were talking. I couldn’t help listening in when I heard your familiar accents, and you were pretty funny and cute. Then I took a peek at you and wow, you’re very, very handsome.”
Gong Jun gaped. “So…so you had seen me…”
“And heard you,” Zhang Zhehan reminded helpfully.
“And heard me…so you decided to jump into the water to get my number from my mandarin specifically?” Gong Jun was flabbergasted. For some reason, this was even stranger to him than Zhang Zhehan jumping into the water to fish out any random mandarin so he could call a complete stranger. “You could have just asked me for my number right there and then,” Gong Jun pointed out in continued bafflement.
Raising his eyebrows, Zhang Zhehan asked, “Now where would the fun be in that?”
When Gong Jun just stared at him like a stunned groundhog, Zhang Zhehan dropped his haughty look and sheepishly admitted, “I’ve never had to make the first move before. By the time I made up my mind to do so, you had already left, so my only way forward was to go fishing for mandarins.”
“It’s— It’s— I— Well, I guess I’m glad you found the right mandarin,” Gong Jun managed.
“Did I? Did I find the right mandarin?” Zhang Zhehan said in a faux wondering tone. “Or did I pick up several mandarins in the vicinity of where I thought I saw your mandarin land and call up several people until I heard a familiar voice?”
Gong Jun’s eyes were wide, jaw dropped open in what was probably a very unattractive look, as he stared with disbelief at Zhang Zhehan. He managed to gather his wits enough to stutter out, “No. No, you didn’t… You said you only picked up one mandarin!”
“I didn’t want to admit that I called two other people with distinctly masculine names before I finally got yours,” Zhang Zhehan said with a sheepish shrug, before he turned his head a little so that he was looking at Gong Jun out of the corner of his eyes uncertainly. “You don’t think that was too weird, do you?”
“I think… I think you’re amazing. You might be the most amazing person I’ve ever met,” Gong Jun said, a little breathless, a lot in awe.
For some reason, after all that bravado when confessing what really happened, Zhang Zhehan ducked his head now, ears turning visibly red even in the dim lighting now that the sun had set. “Don’t be ridiculous,” Zhang Zhehan said, obviously a little embarrassed. “It wasn’t anything that amazing.”
“It was amazingly brave. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything as crazy or courageous as that,” Gong Jun admitted.
“Sure you have. You picked up the phone and agreed to meet up with someone who called you because you wrote your number on a mandarin. That’s pretty crazy if you ask me,” Zhang Zhehan said with a grin, nudging Gong Jun in the side.
“Maybe we’ve both got a little crazy in us,” Gong Jun said with an answering grin.
Zhang Zhehan was just so nice, while being so fearless and impulsive, that Gong Jun felt he needed to step up as well. He couldn’t leave it all to Zhang Zhehan to make the first move.
“Hey, I’m getting a little hungry, what about you?” Gong Jun asked as he nudged Zhang Zhehan back with his elbow.
“I’m starving,” Zhang Zhehan said.
“Good, because you owe me a date,” Gong Jun said with sudden presumptuous confidence. “You promised me dinner earlier.”
The delight in Zhang Zhehan’s eyes was a big hint that he was more than happy with this presumption. “You’re right, I do owe you a date. Let’s go get started on one right now.”
“As long as it’s not at another fancy restaurant where they charge you an arm and a leg to serve you tiny portions,” Gong Jun murmured.
“It had good ratings!” Zhang Zhehan protested. “And you don’t know that the portions are tiny at Restaurant Le Trésor. We left before the food came, like a bunch of hooligans.”
“I’ve never done that before in my life. You’re such a bad influence on me.”
“Okay, okay, whatever you say, Junjun…”
They bantered in this way as they meandered down the stairs, back to rejoin the masses in search of dinner.
They didn’t get to explore Penang much together, or the rest of Malaysia either, because Zhang Zhehan had to get back to work, while Gong Jun already had arrangements with Daidai that involved more traveling and livestreaming together before Daidai had to go back to start filming. But they did not stop communicating from the moment they met, even when Gong Jun returned to China first. The moment Zhang Zhehan returned to China as well, Gong Jun flew in to Shanghai to meet him.
And then, they never quite left each other’s side after that, not for any significant period of time anyway, entering swiftly into a whirlwind romance that eventually settled into a sweet, mutually besotted relationship.
Zhang Zhehan casually started appearing in Gong Jun’s livestreams, the two of them traveling around the country, and then eventually traveling around the world. They went to new places, experienced unfamiliar customs, enjoyed interesting food together. Over time, when it was clear they were both to be permanent fixtures in each other’s lives, Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan’s family and friends would join them occasionally on their trips, although they mostly remained outside of the livestreams. Zhang Zhehan constantly produced new music even while traveling, greatly inspired by their travels, their saccharine romance — in Daidai’s words — and the stories they heard along the way, and Gong Jun started including Zhang Zhehan’s singing and public performances in his livestreams too.
In front of the cameras, they were friends. Behind the cameras, they were so much more than that.
Years later, they would make a public announcement and tell the world their story. Daidai would loudly claim credit for them getting together, insisting that if it wasn’t for him, they would have never met in the first place. In total disagreement, Zhang Zhehan would insist that it was actually Gong Jun’s voice and looks that got them together, because he had been drawn to Gong Jun even before the mandarin flinging began. He would emphasize how good Gong Jun sounded, how handsome Gong Jun looked, how Gong Jun had stood out from the crowd, until he got the blushes he was after.
But quietly, in Gong Jun’s heart, he liked giving credit to the single mandarin that had been flung away in a fit of excitement, and subsequently picked up in an impulsive act of courage. Anything could have happened to that mandarin after it left Gong Jun’s hands. Maybe someone else could have picked it up, or maybe it could have been eaten by a big fish, or maybe it could have floated away into a mass of mandarins, making it difficult for Zhang Zhehan to spot it. But regardless of the continuous waves and lurking fish in the water, the mandarin still reached Zhang Zhehan’s hand.
In the end, it didn’t really matter how they met, whether they began by way of citrus or by happy coincidence when Daidai dragged Gong Jun over to the Esplanade. What really mattered was how they had chosen each other and how happy they were to have found each other.
The End
Footnotes:
1 Yuan xiao jie - Otherwise known as Lantern Festival is a Chinese traditional festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the Chinese Lunar calendar. [ ▲ ]
2 Ban chang kuih - Read all about it here, complete with many photos and details on the varieties and methods of making them. The one mentioned in the story is the thinner version. [ ▲ ]
3 Char koay teow - Stir fried flat rice noodles with bean sprouts, prawns, duck egg, a specific type of Chinese sausage (lap cheong) and deep fried pork lard. There’s a couple of other potential replacement or additional ingredients. Photos of stalls and char koay teow here. [ ▲ ]
4 Lor mee - Yellow wheat noodles and vermicelli along with braised chicken feet, pork skin, pork slices, pork liver and intestines and soy egg, all in a thick, starchy savory pork and chicken broth. Minced garlic in vinegar and chili can be added as well, and depending on preference, you can opt to leave out some of the above ingredients. Photos of stalls and bowls of lor mee here.
Note: Lor mee in Penang differs to lor mee in Singapore and some other states in Malaysia. [ ▲ ]
5 Guanyin - Also known as Goddess of Mercy in English. [ ▲ ]
6 ‘Kailan Stem Skipjack Tuna, Espuma of Pringles, Gula Melaka Soy Sorbet, Nona Gel’ - This is half real, half made-up by me. This particular restaurant is made up by me, but it is physically modeled after a real restaurant au Jardin, which I didn’t choose for this story because they only do degustations and they’re purely French instead of a fusion restaurant. ‘Kailan Stem Skipjack Tuna and Espuma of Pringles’ are from au Jardin and I changed the rest of the dish to ‘Gula Melaka Soy Sorbet and Nona Gel’ just to torture Gong Jun a little.
This name is not purely in English, which is why poor Gong Jun is struggling with it. Kailan is sometimes called Chinese broccoli, and Gong Jun would have recognised what ‘kailan’ is which is why he doesn’t question that. Espuma of Pringles is a type of foam, don’t ask me how this one tastes like. Gula Melaka is coconut palm sugar in the Malay language, which is extracted from the sap of coconut palm flowers. Soy is just soy sauce, and Gula Melaka Soy Sorbet would taste salty-sweet. Nona is custard apples in Malay language. [ ▲ ]
7 ‘Kak, tapau satu bungkus nasi lemak!’ - A mix of Hokkien and Malay language to mean, ‘Older sister, a packet of nasi lemak to takeaway.’ Older sister here is not about familial relations but a respectful, informal form of address to an older woman. [ ▲ ]
8 Pictures of nasi lemak and their stalls/restaurants can be found here. [ ▲ ]
9 Pictures of nasi kerabu and their stalls/restaurants can be found here. [ ▲ ]