Today, Intae and I left Cafe Lin with a heavy heart. As for me, I only stayed in Cafe Lin for 1 week. Intae?? 1 month. I can imagine how much he felt for Cafe Lin and the lady boss who is an extremely nice person. 0830hrs. We arrived on the dot at XinKeZhan. Waiting for us is a double decker luxury coach. This is probably the most luxurious bus I've ever taken. Actually, it doesn't matter what grade is the coach, it's the companion that counts.
I had a good chat with Intae on my journey to Kunming. On the surface, we are world's apart. He's Korean, I'm Chinese. His default language is Korean and mine is English. But upon closer examination, we realise there's lots of similarity between us. We are both thinkers. Not that we're great philosophers. But we like to ponder about life, our past, the present and future.
He was the only child and I was the only son. We shared about our relation with our fathers. For most men, we love both our parents but in a slightly different way. Moms are usually the one that we are more emotionally attached to. Dads are usually respected by us, in particularly how he work so hard to raise us up. Men tend to not want to let their parents down. Take for instance, part of the reason why I study was to do my parents proud. Part of the reason why I joined the air force was to take the financial burden off their shoulder. My father, in one sense, is very liberal on the choices I made in my life. For e.g., on my academic path and career path. In recent years, even my faith in Christianity and God.
When my ORD (Operation Ready Date, meaning the day I get out of Airforce) was approaching, one of my concern is what to tell my dad about my plans for future. I think all parents hope that their children can secure a good job. I was afraid that dad would not support me, so I hesitate to share with him my plans for the next 3-4years- First (and immediately) to travel for 6 months. Secondly, to get a job in OBS as an instructor. I thought these unconventional plans wouldn't have won the approval of my seemingly conventional dad. That is why in the past, I used to tell him the 'safe' answer that's I'll secure in job in Singapore Technology or Singapore Airline Engr. (SIA engr) as a mechanic. Last year, I decided to be really honest with him everything about my plans. I was surprise by his response. He didn't object, instead, he even ask me in details about my travelling plans and also how's it's like to be an instructor in OBS. I was encourage, really. Pursuing my dreams with the approval of dad was such an unexpected bonus.
It's amazing that how in such a short time, my relation with Intae grow so much. Now we talk about everything, conversation beyond the weather and stock market. We shared about things deep in our hearts. It was a great feeling to get connected with someone (ever since Nov). For the past 4 days, we've been praying together. Initiately, he prayed in Korean. Yesterday, he prayed in English for the first time in his life. It was refreshing. Really appreciate him for making special effort so i can understand his prayers. I was moved by his prayers as he express his feelings to God and especially how he prayed for his family.
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