I have got several fantastic boy friends. Look harder, Reader. It is boy friends, two words with a space in between. I am going to tell you, in this journal entry, about the comical way our friendship started. We used to be classmates.

Our friendship got off to an embarrassing start. One day at home I was doing some searches online on the PC with my QQ on, Mum seated beside me on her job on her own laptop. I noticed my QQ icon flashing. It was a message alert from the instant messenger. I clicked it without thinking twice. Guess what, it was message from a boy called Abe in my class. It read, “I like you.”

So much blown away was I that my mind went blank at that very moment. To my horror, I realised that my mum was just by my side. Before I could close the dialogue box, I found Mum peeping at my PC monitor. I was totally speechless, my heart racing, as I frantically had a brainstorm trying to come up with an explanation. Whatever I was mentally making up, to my dismay, could not hold water, so I managed a nervous smile. Before I could say a word, my mum shot a glance over, amused, and exclaimed, “Wow, it’s awesome, my dear! I believe you can sort it out properly, can’t you?” Then she walked off and left me alone.

Having cleared my mind, I told Abe that we could be just good friends. Actually, our relationship stayed at the friends level after that. There were times when it was difficult to walk a fine line between friendship and romance, but we managed it anyway through tacit mutual understanding. Today Abe and I can share happiness and sorrow with each other. If one is in need, the other is always there. With my mum, I can talk candidly about the kind, smart boy, since she knew it from the very beginning.

Had my mum not been open-minded, I would not have such a friend of the opposite sex today and I could not be close to my mum, either. The majority of Chinese parents around me have zero tolerance for their teenage children’s relationship with a person of the opposite sex. In the adults’ eyes, if a boy and a girl are together, there is but one possibility: they are dating.

This experience of mine is just between my mum and me. We keep Dad in the dark about it. It seems that all Chinese fathers hate boys who approach their daughters.

I hope this pure relationship of mine with Abe lasts into the future.