Fandom: So Close (2002, starring Shu Qi, Zhao Wei, Karen Mok)
Sue and Hong meet just once a year, on the anniversary of Lynn's death. They don't meet at the cakeshop; it's a little too cheery and brings back bad memories for Sue. Instead, as soon as the local florist opens, Hong will pick up a small bouquet and make her way to the resting place of Sue's parents. There, she inevitably finds Sue beside an already spotless grave, humming or chatting away to Lynn, Mom and Dad. Like a ritual, Hong will smoke her cigarette, waiting until Sue finishes whatever story she's on and announces her arrival.
"Hey, Hong's here," she'll say, squatting and grinning, absolutely ignoring Hong. Then she'll proceed to tell her family about Hong's happenings in the last year. At some point she'll get ahead of herself and start embellishing the bad parts, and Hong will clear her throat firmly and lay the flowers down with a glare that's really more habit than anything else.
Hong doesn't know how Sue knows all that stuff about her. Well, she does, but she'd rather not bother feeling outraged about it. Sue's a bird you can't hold on to; she'll come and go and do as she wishes, which includes spying on Hong's personal life at regular intervals. It's a good thing Hong's an unrepentent workaholic through and through, because otherwise she suspects things would get uncomfortable rather quickly if she had to endure any grilling about a potential love interest.
Hong likes Sue. A lot, in fact. There is also a healthy dose of respect and wariness thrown in, which certainly makes for a fascinating combination. It took Hong nearly a year to admit it to herself, and when she did she tracked down a particular headstone on a particular day, and wasn't at all surprised to find Sue waiting for her with a cheeky smile, saying, "I knew you'd be here." They sat, they walked, they talked about everything and anything except their lives, and when Hong woke up the next day the bed was cold and Sue was gone.
Sue will always make the first move, usually after dinner, although once she started it in the dark movie theater of a horrible romance film. There was another year when Sue dragged her to a club and danced so perfectly wildly that Hong almost kissed her, but she squeezed her eyes shut and managed to hold off until Sue finally wrapped her arms around her and pulled her head down. The most she's let herself do is hug Sue from behind as she stared with wide doe eyes up at the fireworks of Disneyland. It's good that Hong has never given in to her own impulses, because she suspects that Sue would be surprised and not terribly delighted to cede control of the situation.
Hong's learned very early on that Sue loves to be in control. It's what makes her an excellent stalker, she admits cynically. Lingering guilt over her sister's death has made her tendencies even more extreme, but Hong will hardly fault her quirks even though the psychologist inside is incessantly pointing out all the ways Sue could go really, really wrong. Especially if she still plays with lethal weapons everyday, which Hong is pretty sure she does.
Hong loves control too, but for Sue she is more than happy to give in. In any case, blindfolds, handcuffs and ropes aren't really more than an unspoken expression of affection, and for Hong they are less scary than hearing the real words. After all, when you think about it, who's to say what's right and wrong, when a soldier is allowed to love a bandit, this one day.
