Peizhi
Legacy Name: Jaimey

A True Story

"Cheer up and dry your damp eyes, and tell me when it rains
And I'll blend up that rainbow above you and shoot it through your veins
'Cause your heart has a lack of color, and we should've known
That we'd grow up sooner or later, 'cause we wasted all our free time alone..." (x)

---

A story of innocence, patience, love... and eggs.

The date was January 30th, 2014, and the brisk, night air whistled as it spread across the large and dimly-lit shopping center. The university orchestra, on the fourth day of its week-long tour in California, had finally made it back to Monterey after several hours of adventuring along the seaside cliffs. Dehydrated and starving, the orchestra students made their bus pull into the first strip mall they found, and, to their starry-eyed delight, a Whole Foods Market sat at the strip mall's very edge, beckoning to them with its wide-open doors. Its existence was practically a miracle.

For Soren, the orchestra's only harpist, that particular day had been difficult. Moving full-sized harps around was no easy task, especially on tour, and trying to wheel the rental harp down a Carmel cliff and into an awkwardly-shaped restaurant perched precariously above the ocean made it even worse. Their body and mind were exhausted, and their stomach was piloting their actions as they tore through the grocery store. They had done too much of everything that day, and all they could think about was eating her slice of pizza, and crashing in their homestay's guest bedroom. Therefore, when they started to talk with their surrounding friends, it was only natural that their conversations were a little more careless and brainless than usual...

"Man, I'm really gay," Soren suddenly blurted out, for reasons that are unknown and still hotly debated today. Their bassist friend, James, gave her a thumbs-up.

"Me too," he said, picking up his pace as the two stepped out of Whole Foods. "I'm so gay, I can't stop thinking about it."

Soren's brow furrowed. "You know what I hate about being gay, though?"

"What?"

"I hate that every girl I've had a crush on has been straight," Soren whined, in a voice that was just loud enough for probably everyone from the orchestra to hear. "I was interested in someone for over a year before I found out the truth."

James shook his head, giving Soren a sympathetic look. "That's rough, buddy."

"I wish being gay wasn't so hard. Hashtag gay problems, am I right?"

"Same."

It took Soren a few minutes to process the answer they had received, and realize that it did not come from James. Before they could say anything else, a girl they could have only recognized as a cellist sped past, neither making eye contact or any sound. Had Soren just misheard this girl? Could she have been talking to someone else instead?

Or was this girl... one of them?

Soren was determined to find out.

---

Making friends had never been easy.
For the rest of the trip, Soren noticed that the cellist girl seemed to hover in their general vicinity more than usual, but she never made any attempts to communicate. Her shyness was endearingly cute, in a way that made Soren all the more interested in getting to know her. Did she truly want to be friends, though, or was that just a silly assumption based on desperation?

On the bus to the airport, Soren finally made an executive decision to do something, as they peered over at the cellist girl sitting in the next row over. She was holding a Nintendo 3DS, which would hopefully be a safe talking point - after all, Soren liked video games, too. That would make the two of them perfect friends, right?

However, just as they were leaning in to start a conversation, the cellist girl suddenly looked in her direction, as though she had sensed Soren's extreme anxiety and awkwardness looming above her, and spoke up.

"I have a Tumblr account, but I didn't want to share it with the rest of the group last night," she said quickly, referencing the social media sharing event that had occurred between orchestra members the night before. "I thought I could show you my account."

Soren was flabbergasted. She did want to be friends! It didn't explain her reason for supposedly chiming in on her conversation with James, but this was still, at least, the first step to solving the ever-mysterious puzzle of friendship.

"Sure! Let's follow each other on Tumblr," Soren said excitedly, pulling out their phone and hastily searching for the girl's blog name despite having no internet service. "Say, I think I've heard your name around once or twice, but I don't know it for sure. Are you Gigi?"

"Yes," the cellist girl responded, smiling as she found Soren's blog just before they were instructed to get off the bus. The two of them didn't talk to each other again during the final few hours of their California journey, but to Soren, that one fateful interaction was more than enough to leave them hopeful for the immediate future. Something about the cellist girl was truly fascinating. Little did Soren know that these feelings of familiarity and comfort would become so strong over the next couple of years, however...

...because the night after they arrived home, they found out through Gigi's blog that she, too, is gay.

---

As though it was meant to be.
Nervous around each other in person, the two opted for casual banter across social media. The feeling of camaraderie between two gay individuals in a world not designed for them was enough to keep the conversation going at first, but the politeness of first impressions soon gave way to playful teasing, which in turn opened the door to more honest, in-depth discovery. They began to spend more time together in the real world, doing things as mundane as walking around campus after a long rehearsal, or eating lunch together on days when their schedules lined up. Study nights, which were mostly dedicated to video games, became much longer and later. Affectionate nicknames were made, and somewhere along the line, the mere concept of an egg in any form became an ultimate, undying meme. And as their friendship started to feel more like home, neither of them could shake the feeling that friendship was not the only thing it could ever be...

And so, on September 30th, 2015, a simple question was asked of Gigi.

Over Twitter.

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

---

A happily cliche ever-after.
Of course, this story would not exist with any answer other than "yes". And that "yes" was one of the best answers Soren had ever received in their entire life.

The Egg GFs had their final performance in the orchestra that brought them together, and put an end to their senior years of college. They brought their families to graduation, and a fine celebration was held in honor of the past, present, and future of the two. They moved into a cute little home with just enough space for their wonderfully forgiving housemate, and have learned more about each other than they ever could have imagined.

To this day, the Egg GFs are two peas in a pod, or two eggs in a carton. They manage three fish tanks together and are owned by their big gray cat, Totoro. They collect way too many stuffed animals, take long walks around the park, and play video games until they fall asleep in their chairs - and when asked if they would have it any other way, the answer is always no. How could they ever say anything else?

Life is good for the Egg GFs.

Life is always good when the Egg GFs are together.

...

---

In case you wanted an update...
The Egg GFs became Egg Spouses and bought a house! As of January 2021, they've been married for a little over a year, and now have four cats, two turtles, and a snake as their kids. They still play video games together, and they've gotten into the habit of collecting kitchen appliances. They desperately wish for the pandemic to be over, so that they may return to attending anime conventions and Pokemon trading card game tournaments.

Thank you for reading our story!

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