She left holding a pink rose in her left hand.
Plan for the last day: three roses
Today was my last day meeting Nga. We ordered Bun Bo Hue for lunch and ate it in the Airbnb room. Today's plan was to do some work at Phe la, do the laundry, and buy flowers in the evening.
I walked to the laundry place first. At the coin laundry an attendant woman was on duty and showed customers how to insert the coins. I recognized her face so I said "Hello" and handed over my laundry. Then she said, "You're Kota, right?"—she had remembered my name. I was really happy. It made me think how diligent and sincere she is about her work.
After dropping off the laundry, I walked to Phe la. I was really looking forward to drinking oolong milk tea; I'd become completely hooked. I had almost entirely forgotten about Starbucks.
Nearby there was Ho Chi Minh's tomb, and because it was Sunday there was a huge line. Not only foreigners but Vietnamese tourists were there too. I felt sorry for people who can only travel on Saturdays and Sundays — it must be really frustrating. I felt really lucky.
Work at Phe la, then to the florist
I worked on projects at Phe la for about three hours. Thanks to AI my work progressed insanely fast and was very efficient. Once I reached a good stopping point I went to buy flowers.
There were pink roses at a nearby florist so I decided to buy three. In Vietnam three stems convey a message of gratitude and affection, so I thought it might be a good gift for Nga on her last day.
I would have liked baby's breath, but unfortunately there wasn't any. I asked for it to be wrapped and it cost 120,000 đồng.
On closer inspection they were a bit wilted and had been around for a while. I should have picked more carefully, but it was late at night so there was nothing I could do.
Wrapping disaster
I walked to pick up the laundry holding the pink roses. But walking around with the roses was really embarrassing. I was conscious of people's glances from time to time.
There was another florist nearby, so I bought a single stem of baby's breath. When I asked the man to wrap it he wrapped it terribly, and I thought once again that I shouldn't have asked him.
I went back to the room and rewrapped them. I unwrapped the roses and added the baby's breath, but I couldn't remember how it had been wrapped, so I looked it up on YouTube while doing it. In the end I couldn't do it well. But what matters is the feeling, and there is meaning in giving these roses.
Unspoken trust
Nga finished work at 7:00 and came straight over. We had originally planned to go to Pizza 4P, but it was full so we decided to order delivery at home.
Nga arrived. She seemed a bit down. We climbed the stairs in silence, entered the room, and sat on the sofa. We didn't say a word until I ordered the pizza. But I didn't find it awkward at all. It felt like we trusted each other that much.
After ordering the pizza we hugged each other. She doesn't talk much but we hug and kiss often. She would make sounds like "aaaah—" expressing that she'd be lonely from tomorrow. We spent about seven hours together there.
Looking back on five months
We met in mid-June and today is the last day. I missed her so much that I suddenly flew to Vietnam. We reunited and spent a little over two weeks together. It was really a short time — even though it was five months, most of it was just texting, and the time we spent together in person was only about one to two weeks. Still, those days were intensely meaningful.
She held me tight in bed and then fell asleep beside me for about an hour. She was such a cute girl. We weren't officially dating, but she was truly adorable and we trusted each other. Because she wasn't good with words, she expressed herself a lot through actions. I feel really glad I met her.
When she cried in my arms I was able to think, "I am someone who deserves to be loved by someone." That alone made me really happy. Saying goodbye to her is sad, but I think it's an important step to move forward.
We spent our last sweet moments together. We said silly Vietnamese to each other and kissed. It was really fun.
With a rose in my left hand
Towards the end I told her to be happy. "Take care, be happy." At the end she wrote a message in my notebook, under the one she had written in June.
After that I surprised her with the roses and a letter. Her reaction was as if she already knew. She probably didn't know, but she didn't seem surprised.
When we got to the motorbike she said, "You can't take the roses home~", but I said, "It's okay. I can make sure your mom won't find out."
So in the end she left holding the roses in her left hand.
