The Following Lesson...

At the end of the lesson, I packed up to leave. A little quicker than usual cos subconciously afraid of the mother's "advances". Alas! Not fast enough...

The mother: (Jumped up from the couch) Wait, wait! My son, he's very shy. (Called for Son)

Me: (Laughed awkwardly) Er...

Student: (Laughed) I didn't do anything. This is not my business.

Son came out. Embarrassed? Shy? I couldn't tell.

The mother: Come, don't be shy. Introduce yourselves. Don't worry about me.

Son: Hi, I'm XXX. (Offered to shake hands)

I'm dreading shaking people's hands over the weekend because my hands were constantly sweaty and clammy, either due to the blazing weather or due to my illness, or both. But I had to shake his hand out of politeness. So I did. I took his fingers and shook and released his hand immediately.

Me: (Smiling to hide my embarrassment) Please to meet you. I'm Melissa.

Silence.

The mother: Why you all so shy? Here, (handed me a pad of notepaper and a pen) get her number or something. Don't be shy la.

Son: (Chuckled) I'm only shy in front of pretty girls.

Me: (Laughed) Auntie, why you so anxious? He's only twenty years old.

Son: Actually, it's not that they're anxious. It's me who's anxious.

Me: Oh, hmm... (Smiled) What do you want to know?

I gave him my number and MSN contact. He gave me his in return, although it was pretty much redundant. The mother told me she got to know her husband through note passing "too".

Son: So I'm supposed to walk her down?

The mother: Anything, anything. Up to you la. Go, go.

Student: I didn't do anything. This is not my business.

Me: Okay...

As we left the house...

Son: This is so embarrassing. It's not the first time my mum tries to do something like this. You're not the first one.

Me: Oh... (Forgetting I asked this before) Why is your mum so anxious? You're only twenty!

Son: Actually, it's not that they're anxious. It's me who's anxious.

Me: Oh... Then why are you anxious? You're only twenty...

Son: Well... All my friends are attached and they are really happy.... (I wasn't paying attention to what he said cos I was feeling a bit disoriented from the weirdness of the whole episode until...) My sister told me you don't have a boyfriend.
Me: Uh huh...
Son: I was quite surprised.

Me: (Secretly happy for unfathomable reasons) Oh, I don't know... Erm, all my friends are attached too.

To digress... Titbit from yesterday: One more name has been added to my List of the Smugs.

And the conversation continued into what I studied and what he's going to study. If you want to know, he will be going England to study next year, for four years.

As we reached the gate...

Son: How are you getting back? By bus or train?

Me: Actually, I'm waiting for my friend to pick me up. She's waiting for me at the bus stop. (Stopped at gate) You can leave me here. (Beamed)

Son: Oh okay. Byebye.

Me: (Waved cheerily) Bye~

******

This is getting really weird.