Kyi Aye - Outsider

I saw him suddenly appear at the entrance of the wedding hall without expecting him. I had not expected to see him among the crowd, especially among such a smiling crowd. He was also neatly dressed in a silk scarf and a Bangkok tie, which made me feel a little relieved. On his forehead, a piece of unkempt hair fell. As was his custom, he scanned the crowd before he saw me. His eyes widened and he walked straight to the table where I was sitting, leaning against the corner. He smiled a little.

“I'm going to sit down,” he politely asked for permission, and I smiled and said, “Yes, sir.”

He sat down at the empty table, as no one else wanted to sit. He sat down on the table, leaning back, as if he were resting, not like at a party, but as if he had just returned from a journey. Then, as if he had just met her yesterday, he smiled at her and said, “I have been wanting to see Aye Aye for a long time.”

“We are just old friends... and relatives, too,” I said softly, and he smiled brightly. He didn't say anything.

“You can come home, and then … • • •”

“I know you invited Nu Nu and her mother to your house. Thank you, Aye. There are so many things I want to say. I don’t even know where to start.”

"Well, I don't think that place is a good place to talk. But since we've just met, how can we?"

“Yes, I have also been to Inya Laik Ho and played it a lot. I came to listen to the Harp U Ba Than group. I also want to meet Harp U Ba Than. • • •”

We stopped talking for a moment, and I picked up on the reason I was dissatisfied.

“You • • • come home, my son. It’s been over ten years since you left my house, and you’ve never come here. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen your son.”

He was sitting there with a dark face and didn't say anything. At that moment, a love song came out from the band. I didn't know who it was and stopped talking. The music got louder. The audience, which was gradually filling up, was shining brightly even in broad daylight.

"The bride and groom will arrive at 12 o'clock... " I heard the woman's voice from the table on the right say.

“It’s only 10 o’clock now. I’ll be wearing a diamond ring. It’s just a reception time. • • • If you have the money, you can expand it whenever you want.”

"Both roses and orchids are blooming. They were ordered from Hong Kong."

“Even the invitation was sent to Reuters in England. • • •”

“Diamonds are from America • • •”

The band's music suddenly became less loud, almost drowning out the noise of the audience. There was a mix of laughter, the sound of orange juice being squeezed into glasses, and the sounds of conversation.

"Do you think I'll sit here until 4 o'clock in the evening? They're like that," he suddenly asked.

I hesitated a little and •••

“I don’t know • • • My daughter’s mother is from school, so she has to come. Do you and I have to stay for the whole (6) hours? • • • I don’t know.”

“Come on, let’s go out of the way and go to the swimming pool. I can see the breeze, the water is so clear and refreshing, or maybe sit under a tree. I have something to tell you. Listen to what I have to say as if you were a friend, just like you used to. Don’t act like a man who broke up with his cousin and got into a fight, okay? • • •”

I looked out the glass door and saw that it was just as peaceful as he had said. The water in the swimming pool was green and moving gently. The shade of the trees was cool.

"I don't know if the glass door is an openable door or not."

"Let's open it," he said, getting ready to get up.

“Wait • • • He's also a cat, he's coming out the same way he came in. But I'm thinking. Like you said, do you want to leave the wedding hall with me and go talk to me under the tree?” she said quickly. “Think about it,” she said softly, and started smoking a cigarette.

I only thought about the love I had with Nu Nu about 15 years ago. Nu Nu was a womanly, delicate, and beautiful person. She would often get angry with him. He would cry and say that he was ignorant. He accused me of never really loving him. I had said that I was okay. “He always wanted to see Nu, and when he saw her, he was happy. Did he ever fall in love with her? He felt sad because of Nu. He felt happy because of Nu. He followed Nu’s wishes. What more do you need?

Nu Nu said. “She didn’t take the exam. She didn’t want to work for a salary. She didn’t want to go to the jungle. She’ll go back to the jungle and farm. If she goes to Shan State, she’ll go too. Nu is the one who came from Yangon, yes. She wants to be an officer’s wife like Nu’s mother, and she wants her children to go to high school.”

At first I sighed and didn't know what they were planning. Nu Nu and He went out together while they were still in college. They lived in Mayangone. When Nu Nu gave birth to a son, I went to see him. I thought they were happy. But they had only been together for three and a half years. Nu Nu called me on the phone.

“Aye, Nu and I won’t be together anymore. I want to come and live with Aye. Will you accept? Nu has applied for a job as a middle school teacher. Will you be reluctant?”

"What happened?" I asked.

"Don't ask me, I'm afraid Nu won't answer," he said, and all he could hear was Nu's sobs through the phone.

In the ten years that Nu Nu has been with me, he has never visited me, never written to me, never spoken to me on the phone. Although Nu Nu did not speak, I could sense that he had been waiting for me to call him. Nu Nu was still unwell. He was still dizzy and sleepless. He was still holding his little son and crying. He could not hear Nu Nu's parents calling him back.

"You never came. I didn't try to see you," I said, returning to the wedding.

“That's just a small part of the story,” he said in his usual literary tone.

“Let’s go to the clean room, okay?” “••, if we talk all day, we’ll have to talk.” “I don’t want to go yet. I’ll change my mind later. I can sit here and talk for now. No one is looking at us. People only want to see the bride and groom.”

"Whether it's Amar Sein dancing or U Ba Than playing the harp..."

"Yes"

"But what I want to say is also important. It will be even more important than the wedding eulogy, and it will benefit the bride and groom even more."

"It's my first time doing it, why?"

“Because I don’t want to tell you what love is, • • •, because it’s a very appropriate subject for a wedding.”

He took a clean white handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face. Then he took a sip of the orange juice he had just poured and wiped his lips with the handkerchief. I was still amazed, noticing for the first time how beautiful his lips were, he said calmly.