You were at the restaurant with one of your cousins to celebrate the end of the semester when you saw him for the first time. The restaurant you were at was special: singers and bands could come here to play music and get known. That evening, there had been nothing good so far, and you were hoping for something acceptable to happen when your cousin poked your arm before pointing the stage.

“Hey, look.”

“Eh?”

“There, on stage. Is that a new singer? I’ve never seen him before. He’s Asian. Do you think he’ll sing in Chinese? That would be funny!”

You sighed. Your cousin was so stupid and narrow-minded sometimes… “The fact that he’s Asian doesn’t mean he’ll automatically sing in Mandarin, you know. And Mandarin isn’t especially funny. It’s just another language.”

“No, it’s funny! All those tching tchong tchang! It sounds like someone who can’t play the guitar!”

“Oh, shut up. If you have nothing useful to say, just shut up.”

“What, are you mad?”

“I said, shut up. He’ll start singing soon.”

Indeed, he was sitting on the piano bench, on stage, and seemingly done preparing his microphone. He tested everything just to be sure it was working, and started softly by playing a few notes. His voice then resounded, in a perfect English:

“Nothing has ever broken me like you did

No one I ever wanted more than you

Nobody else can make a man so weak

Make him fall in love so deep

Baby

No one has ever known me like you did

There’s just no other girl to see me through

And every single memory I know

Reminds me that I’m all alone, all alone

If I could just get over you I would

Don’t wanna love you anymore

And missing you is like fighting a war

It’s a battle I’m losing

And I’d give up girl if I could

If I could walk away as easily as you

I Would”

You had stopped moving. Almost stopped breathing. The song was sending shivers down your spine. His voice was resounding in perfect harmony with your soul, and you felt like crying, just from listening to this handsome Asian guy singing. Your heart was beating like crazy in your chest as he kept on singing, his voice so full of emotions you knew he was sad, for real. Sad, and alone. Heartbroken. Desperate.

He finished his song in a sigh, and you opened your eyes, only noticing now that you had closed them. Only noticing now that you had stopped breathing, and your lungs were desperately in need of oxygen. Only noticing now that you were almost crying just from listening to his voice.

“Ladies and gents, that was Henry Lau!” the usual animator announced, before letting the next singer in.

The singer – Henry Lau, it seemed – got down the stage and was almost immediately swarmed by a bunch of girls that seemed to know him. Maybe he was quite popular after all, but you had still never seen him before. You poked one of the girls, who was waiting for her turn to get an autograph. “Who is he?”

“You don’t know him?! It’s Henry Lau! He’s super popular in Asia, and all over Internet! And he’s so handsome! I bet he could get all the girls he’d want!”

You thanked her and kept your eyes on the singer, ignoring your cousin, who was babbling nonsense about her clothes and her last boyfriends, like usual. You admired his long lashes that were half-covering two pure, dark irises, a bit hidden under pitch-black fluffy hair. He had round, puffy cheeks, and beautiful lips that would look even more beautiful if he were smiling… but he wasn’t. He looked sad, and you could almost see an aura of loneliness all around him.

Before you knew it, though, his eyes locked to yours. You stayed silent, only seeing him. Only seeing the despair in his eyes. Only seeing his need of love.

“I’m Henry,” his lips said, without his voice emitting a single sound.

You understood. And you accepted to help him. Help him do what? You didn’t even know. You just knew you wanted to help him.

When he went by you, he put a piece of paper in your hand before he left. You watched him leave the restaurant, and took a look at the piece of paper. A phone number was on it, along with a few words:

Here’s my number. Call me later.