Serendipitous meet

At this time of the year, there is quite a selection of romantic comedies on Netflix. Do romantic love stories only exist in films and fictions? I think they happen in real life except that we need to manage our expectations while keeping our heart open. When love strikes, it could be all that testosterone or oestrogen in our bodies that is making love happen. It could be just an infatuation or the concept of love that you are falling in with or it could be that you are looking and you want that to happen. It could also be that you happen to like each other and love grows.

Two Chinese words yuánfèn  (緣分)come to mind. When two people meet and get married, yuánfèn (緣分) suggests that it is predestined and fated. According to the old Chinese concept, when two people meet it is yuan and if you do not end up together it means that while there is yuan there is no fen . Yuánfèn suggests some interaction of karmic energy at bay . In this technologically advanced age, with the introduction of dating Apps and online platforms, the chances of finding the one may cast a wider net but it appears to be more calculating because algorithms and data will rationalize and optimize in one’s search for suitable partners. It feels less instinctive and not as spontaneous and romantic as two people happen to be present in the same physical space and they feel a certain attraction and kinship for each other.

In The Friend Zone Experiment by Zen Cho , two months shy of thirty-one Renee Goh is beautiful and rich but she is lonely. Renee founded Virtu, a thriving fashion business in London. She is estranged from her family in Singapore. Her Taiwanese pop star boyfriend, Jason has just broken up with her. ‘On paper, her life looked perfect —- at least, until this morning. But even before then, had she been happy with Jason?How could you be happy with a boyfriend who lived thousand of miles away; who refused to be pinned down for regular calls; who left your messages on read while plastering selfies with gorgeous starlets all over social media? ‘

Since she is no longer going on holiday with her boyfriend, she is back at the office. She has an invitation to the Dior exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum and her personal assistant tells her that Selfridges buyer called up in the morning asking if she would be there. She sees herself sipping champagne (probably prosecco) and pitching Virtu to a major retailer at V&A instead of wallowing in her sadness ‘bingeing kdramas in her pyjamas and eating Ben & Jerry’s straight out of the tub‘. Her dad had provided the capital for her to found Virtu selling bespoke cheongsam to monied women. Renee’s design is a mix of heritage and modernity. Besides the two Virtu boutiques in Singapore, the brand has stocked in Malaysia and Thailand. She has plans to grow her business further.

As it happens, her kind of estranged father, Goh Kheng Tat telephones to tell her that he wants to pick one of his children to succeed him in managing Chahaya, the family business that he had founded. She will have to prove her worth and be up against her two older brothers , Su Beng and Su Khoon who have in the past sabotaged her in her business venture.

At V&A, she meets Yap Ket Siong, whom she had a crush before.Ket Siong and his family have fled Malaysia after Stephen Jembu, a close family friend has mysteriously disappeared. When Renee first fell for Ket Siong, he was an aspiring classical pianist and just as she thought he was equally attracted to her, he abruptly broke off with her and went back to Malaysia. He had to quit his music course at the Royal Academy of Music because he could no longer afford it. His mother had been fired from the solicitors’ firm she worked in for reporting on a client who was suspected of money laundering and the firm’s dodgy client had insisted on her dismissal.

Now that she meets Ket Siong again in London a decade later, she resolves that they can only be friends since she is vying for the successor role in her father’s conglomerate.

In the meantime, her second brother, Su Khoon is in UK to pitch for a big development job. She manages to convince Su Khoon that she could be a team player after the latter fails to blackmail her with her nude photos purportedly provided by Jason in exchange for money . She finds out that for the development project she has to deal with her ex-boyfriend, Andrew. During their working lunch, Andrew acts inappropriately towards her making her angry. When she walks out causing a scene, Su Khoon is angry with her and expects her to grovel and apologise to Freshview team led by Andrew.

As the story develops, Renee has to decide if she still wants to take over Chahaya. Though her romance with Ket Siong is slow burn , their emotional journey is well executed and sweet. The story also raises social issues about corruption, sexism and misogynistic behaviour. It is about how far you would go for your ambition.