Their beautiful love story lasted a whole decade, with many ups and downs. The handsome young man from Hanoi was willing to devote his life to the girl with paralysed legs. They loved each other and stepped out of the virtual world to build happiness.
Eight years ago, Le Thu Huong (born 1982), a girl with paralysed legs, was 23 when she was put in charge of an Internet room at Lane 34/232, Vinh Tuy Street (Hanoi). Her love and her life over the years since began with an online game.
Huong’s dream gradually came true, even though the shop was not hers but was opened by her brother-in-law for her to look after. With her parents, workers at the 8/3 Textile Factory in Hanoi, having taken early retirement to raise Huong and her two siblings through school, how could they afford to open a shop of her own for her!
Never mind, that alone made Huong very happy and joyful. Huong always described herself as lively, intelligent, quick, and sociable.
Quick and capable as she was, Huong still decided to leave school after finishing high school, because she knew that although she was a good student, well able to study at university, what would it be for after graduating? “Even healthy, able-bodied people find it hard to get a job, let alone a girl with a disability with both legs paralysed?” Huong told herself. But she was not sad about it. Huong always accepted herself as she was and lived happily.
After many years of diligent training and competing in sports for people with disabilities (Huong was a member of the Khuc Hao People with Disabilities Club, Hanoi), she still dreamed of a stable job and an income to support herself and help her parents. So when her brother-in-law suggested opening an Internet shop at home and letting her manage it, Huong was delighted!
Looking after the Internet shop was easy, so Huong also learned to play games, so that if customers had questions she could answer them. And so she got to know games, with the first online game she knew: Gunbound. And from here, the story of her life began.
Love given by fate
Huong still remembers clearly the first day she met him, of course in the game Gunbound. His very name made Huong dislike him intensely: RooneyMU – while her idol was the striker Michael Owen. The team Huong loved was Liverpool, while he adored Manchester United, and was that fat Rooney (the MU striker).
What is more, seeing how VIP he was (a famous person in the game), Huong disliked him even more, with a kind of jealous resentment! His level was far above hers (Huong was only a stone hammer, while he was at the red staff rank), and he wore only cast items, things you had to spend money on top-up cards to buy.
With that first impression, when they entered a room to shoot at each other, they shot little and teased each other a lot. As it goes, the angrier Huong got, the more she lost her calm, and being a novice her level was poor, so he kept shooting her down. Furious, Huong finished one game and left the room at once.
To her surprise, as soon as she left the room, Huong saw him add her nickname (connecting to get to know her online). Huong told herself, he probably found her nickname intriguing: cobelangman, “Have you been tricked in love yet?”. Huong smiled to herself. At first Huong was unsure whether to accept his friend request. Then she thought, having a VIP in her list of friends was quite impressive, and having someone to argue with again was fun, so she agreed.
Before she met him, Huong had dozens of virtual loves, online loves. She had enough experience and intelligence to know that those loves were not real, only for fun; if she liked someone, they bought each other a few items in the game. She casually had virtual loves with five or seven people at the same time, without knowing who they were, because it did not affect her real life. From that day on, every day online he messaged her inviting her to shoot in the same room.
Loving a very real person
Playing with Huong, he was at quite a disadvantage, because having to shoot with a novice (someone who had just learned to play) meant losing a lot, yet he still liked shooting with her, strangely enough. He said he was born in 1983, but they did not address each other as elder and younger sibling; the two called each other by name.
When they had finished playing, they chatted online, every day, until it became a habit. Though she told herself she must not have feelings for someone online, Huong could not stop her heart; on days when she did not meet him, she missed him. And he felt the same about her.
After a few months of playing together, one day he asked:
– Can Huong be D.’s girlfriend?
She was silent for a moment. In truth, her heart was pounding then; she had longed for this for a long time, but she was also shy, quite unlike her earlier virtual loves, and then she hesitantly said: Yes!
And so the two officially became “lovers”. He made Huong call him “anh” (older brother), and not address him by name any more.
Talking every day, Huong saw that he was a gentle, simple and very REAL person. And she was startled to realise that her feelings for him were not simply VIRTUAL LOVE. She feared she would be hurt; she feared that love was real in her heart. Because two years earlier, Huong had had a real love of three months with a student at Hanoi University of Commerce. After that first love broke up, she lost faith.
Some people came to Huong, but she was indifferent and felt nothing. Someone in the same situation – she did not like that, because if she was like that, and the person she loved or married was like that too, who could help whom in life?
Two months is not a long time, but she knew how deep her feelings for him were. Huong kept feeling guilty for not having told him everything about herself. And she decided to tell him, by chat:
– Anh, I have something I want to tell you.
– What is so serious?
– I… I haven’t told you everything about what I am like…..
– I know already, you don’t need to tell me.
– What do you know, saying you know….
– I told you I know already, you don’t need to tell me…
She wanted to shout, but only pressed the Caps Lock key to write in capitals on the keyboard to emphasise:
– I AM A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY, WITH BOTH LEGS PARALYSED, DO YOU KNOW???
– I have known for a long time. I don’t care about that.
Huong was stunned:
– How did you know?
– It’s a secret, he he. I have something I’ve been hiding from you too.
– What is it?
– Actually I was born in 1984, two years younger than you, not 1983, hahaha, but I was afraid you would think I was childish, so I made up being born in 1983.
Huong was happy and joyful, surprised and curious as to how he knew everything about her, though they had never met. No matter how she asked, he would not answer. He always said it was a “secret”.
According to tienphong.vn