Life is Perfecto

She began fooling around at 16, with Xuan-xuan, most Saturdays.
They took the train from Keelung to Taipei.
They'd go into the toilet together, take drugs, and get high.
She first met Hao-hao in a club on He Ping Road, 'Spin'.
That day she and Xuan-xuan planned to go to a karaoke club with friends.
But the girls were stood up.
Hao-hao and his friends started chatting to them.
Asked them to sing.
She noticed that Hao-hao was staring at her all evening.
Shyly, without saying anything.

She never finished high school.
He stopped her sitting the final exam.
The night before the exam, they were in a motel together.
He deliberately didn't wake her.
He didn't want her to take the exam.
He was afraid she'd move on if she did.
Later, they began living together in a rented apartment in Taipei.
Neither of them had a job.
Sometimes, he'd ride his bike back to Keelung to borrow a little money from his friends.

She broke up with Hao-hao, but he always tracked her down.
Called her...
Begged her to come back...
Again and again.
As if under a spell or hypnotized...
she couldn't escape.
She always came back.

This happened ten years ago, in the year 2001.
The world was greeting the 21st century and celebrating the new millennium.