Khoackie

THE PROPOSAL

~~~~Warning! Content may be excessively long…skip to “His Side” if you want the jist. =P~~~~

HER SIDE:
So for my side of the story, I’ll avoid the “girl-talk” syndrome and try not to go off on too many tangents. We have known for awhile that we would get married someday, but I never quite knew exactly when he was actually going to pop the question. I had my hunches, and I seriously thought he would do it on certain days, but I was wrong. He always tends to throw me great surprise parties and for him, it’s always about catching me off guard and really making me feel special. It’s like a sport to him haha.

For those who know us, we thought it would be really nice to get married on 9-9-9, because that’s my favorite number and it’s such a lucky day, once in a lifetime! Since we wanted at least a 1 year engagement, he was really cutting it close! So finally September 9, 2008 comes up, and I had already made plans with my dear friend Kat that night. I told Khoa WEEKS in advance too to see if it’s ok if I go out that day. He nonchalantly says “of course” and so I felt slightly disappointed that he did not object. So I take me time and I ask him too that today was the day for the 1 year mark, and he assures me that he has nothing planned! I kept telling myself that it’s not a big deal and that I’m SURE he has something up his sleeves, if not now, then later. I kept envisioning him practicing and going over his mind over and over again exactly how he’s going to do it, some fancy way!

Later that night, it was really late, I was on my way home and I call him up. He said he would buy me milk tea because he knows how much I like it. We chatted while he was driving to the milk tea place, and soon enough, he was already there. I thought that was kind of quick and I was sort of suspicious and he assured me that it’s THAT close…despite the fact that I know exactly where it is. So I just went along with it. I didn’t think he would be THAT predictable so propose today! So later he called me after he got the milk tea and we chatted till he got home, and he said he’ll call me once he gets inside the house. I thought that’s weird because I didn’t see why we couldn’t stay on the phone while he goes in, and he said “’Cause I have to bring the milk tea in, DUH!” So now I’m really suspicious because he was on his Bluetooth and he has only 1 cup of milk tea to carry….why does he need 2 hands?? So I wait for him to call me back and it was taking him awhile. So I almost get to his house when I call him back, and he said that he had to “settle in” and I’m like “what is there to settle into?? Haha! So I’m just brushing it off and I keep thinking he’s just acting silly cause I was soooo sure he wasn’t planning on anything.

I get into the house and I tell him to come down ’cause I’m home! He ignores me and so I go inside the house and he pokes his head out from upstairs. I see him wearing a nice shirt at like 11:30pm! Who does that? Usually he’s in his pajamas! So IMMEDIATELY I knew…and I was sort of freaking out because I was in disbelief. So to stall, I keep telling him to come downstairs while I went to the kitchen to look for my milk tea. I open the fridge and there’s none in sight! What gives?? Where’s my milk tea?? So I still hear no peep from Khoa, so I slowly start to upstairs…KNOWING that he’s up to something crazy!

I walk into his room…it was lit by candlelight! Red Roses were sitting there waiting for me. He was sitting there all cute and pretty on the bed with a guitar on his lap. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I saw the video camera up on my desk to capture my reaction! I moved closer to him, out of the way of the camera, because I didn’t want to be on camera haha! Even though I knew what he was doing, I could not believe it! Next thing you know, he was already halfway through his song, he played Simple, Starving to be Safe by Daphne Loves Derby. It’s the same song he asked me out to. It was funny to watch him play and sing to me because I can tell he was SUPER nervous! He would speed up at certain times and his voice would shake when it normally doesn’t, it was really cute. I then sit on the bed next to him and the ring box was right there!!!! I kept saying “What are you doing?!?! Oh my gosh!!” and then he gets down on one knee, and I’m like screaming inside!! I couldn’t believe it!

He takes my hand, shows me the ring, and then asks me the infamous long awaited question!! I was just in awe and it felt so surreal! I was like “maybe…haha” just to play with him since me made me wait so long! Then I said “of course!!” I could not tell you exactly what he said to me because I was busy saying “OH MY GOSH!!” but I can assure you, it must have been something sweet haha. Turns out he went to Vons, not the milk tea place, and got roses and Martinelli’s Apple Cider to celebrate! Simple is the way to go, just like the song title, and I could not ask for more. It was special, nice, and real. It was an amazing feeling =).

HIS SIDE:
This is my story on how I asked Jackie to marry me:

They say, when you know, you know and with Jackie, I knew for a while. I just got caught up in details that I later realized weren’t important. Anyone who knows us knows that we always try our best to outdo each other in surprise parties and things like that. For the longest time, I kept stressing about extravagant ways to propose. “Maybe I should do it at Disneyland, or at the beach.” I thought. You also have to take into account Jackie’s constant questioning, “when are you going to do it already?” “how are you going to do it.” I thought there was no way to think up something big enough to surprise her.

On a normal Tuesday, Jackie made plans with a friend to go eat dinner. At this point, the custom engagement ring was ready to pick up from the store. I took that opportunity to pick up the ring without Jackie knowing. She actually called me while I was at the ring store, and I told her I was at work. The best part about it is that some people were conversing in Vietnamese very close to me; I guess Jackie didn’t catch it. Now at this point, I finally made the decision that I would ask her over dinner on Friday. The plan was to have a friend take her to dinner and sit her down facing away from the door. I would then come in sometime later, without her knowing, and plug in the guitar and start playing and the rest would be history. Great plan right? Anyways, at this point in time, Jackie would ask me “are you going to do it today?” quite often. She did it while on the phone with me on this particular day as well, and I said, “no, I promise I don’t have anything planned today,” which was the absolute truth. With the ring finally in hand, I finally started to think, all that fancy stuff doesn’t matter, all that matters is that I want to ask Jackie to marry me. I looked at the clock and I knew Jackie would be home in about an hour. Keep in mind that Jackie will call me while she’s driving, so I’d have to prepare while on the phone with her.

Right before I left for Vons, Jackie calls me and I told her I was going to get her some of her favorite drink, milk tea. When I arrived at Vons, I told her I got there (to the milk tea place); like an idiot, I forgot that Von’s was much closer than the milk tea place. She said, “wow that was fast,” and I tried to play it off. I really had no excuse except to say, “no it wasn’t, you’re crazy.” I rushed into the store and bought Martinelli’s sparkling cider, and roses. I had to rush because it doesn’t take all that long to grab milk tea. If I was in Vons for more than 5 minutes, she would start asking questions. Luckily she didn’t notice any time difference, and I went back home. I went up to my room, put a few candles here and there, and laid the roses out. I practiced the song a few times since I haven’t played it in a long time. The song I am referring to is the one I used to ask her to be my girlfriend; I thought it would be fitting. I set up a camera pointing to my bedroom door because I know she wanted me to capture her reaction.

I finally heard her come home so excitedly I waited in my room. Problem is, I usually give her a big hug when she gets home so she started yelling up for me to come down. I stepped outside and told her to come upstairs, I wanted to show her something. Reluctantly she started to climb the stairs. When she finally came in, I started to play the song. I was actually pretty nervous; my voice was shaky and I didn’t play well at all. My camera idea worked for about a second because she didn’t stay in the doorway where the camera was pointed, she moved to sit on the bed next to me. I apologize for anyone expecting camera footage, it’s mainly a video of an empty doorway. After the song, I got down on one knee and presented the ring. Up until that point she was giggly and kept repeating “what are you doing,” “are you for real?” I finally asked her the question, “Jackie Nguyen, will you marry me.” AND SHE SAID MAYBE. The nerve, right? After the maybe, she said just kidding, of course she would. Not long after that, An happened to walk out of the room and kinda froze when he saw the room (with candles and all that). He had the look on his face like, “holy crap I should go back into my room right now.” So by sheer luck, he was the first to know.

The End