In sickness and in health.
It was Nov. 7, 2016, and Andrea Teo and Choo Wei Hao were gearing up to tie the knot in six days.
Their wedding, they had decided, would be Japanese-themed. Instead of monochromatic gowns and suits, both had picked out a kimono and yukata respectively, and the wedding venue would be festooned with the reds and oranges of autumn leaves.
This design choice was meant to honour the place and time that they fell for each other — Japan, April 2015.
Teo, 36, and Choo, 32, first knew of each other via a multi-player online role-playing game, Final Fantasy XIV.
Both were a mere blip on the other's radar, until they saw each other in real life as part of a group outing consisting of FFXIV gamers. Even back then, their impressions of each other were cordial, and no romance was kindled until both happened to be visiting Japan concurrently with their own friends.
Deciding to spend a few days together, Teo recalls a "crazy moment" where she and Choo decided to leave their AirBnB wearing just hotel slippers ("ugly slippers", Choo adds) and jacket, and travel to a nearby convenience store in spite of the frigid weather in early spring.
"So we just did a very stupid thing together, and to him that was like 'Oh, there's actually someone who's willing to do stupid stuff together' and to me, he's a very nice guy la."
The two got together soon after that.
While that moment out in the cold night in Japan might seem inconsequential to outsiders, perhaps it was a foretelling of what the couple would weather through years later, and the solidarity both displayed to each other, even in the small moments.
In the week leading up to their wedding, Teo realised that something was amiss.
She started having very heavy periods, "to the extent that blood clots were falling out of me".
Although her periods had been irregular her whole life, she decided to visit her gynaecologist, and was then advised to go for a biopsy.
Sitting in the doctor's office, six days before the wedding and at the age of 30, Teo was told that she had Stage 1 endometrial cancer, a type of cancer that begins in the uterus.
The earth continued spinning, but for Teo, time stopped momentarily in that sterile office and she could only react with shock.
"I don't think I really reacted in the office. The tears didn't start until I stepped out I think."
She described that at her young age and having lived her life with a relatively carefree attitude, she'd been blindsided by the news.
"I think when you're in your 20s, you honestly don't think so much, it's just whatever la you know, also not planning for kids or anything yet, just live life."
Incidentally, Teo's gynaecologist happened to be the couple's wedding solemniser and a family friend, and he immediately asked if the pair wanted to postpone the wedding until Teo received treatment.
For Choo, it was an easy and swift decision to continue with the event despite the diagnosis. He states in a matter-of-fact manner, a trait I've come to recognise from him through the interview:
"I already decided to marry her. I felt like it was the only logical thing to do. If I say no, how is she going to feel? I mean it's not gonna help her, it's not gonna support her anyway so I just say go ahead la."
Choo's response reaffirmed Teo's decision that she would be spending the rest of her life with him as her other half. "That was the moment I realised I really am going to marry the right person," she said.
In fact, continuing with the wedding in light of this development simply gave it more meaning.
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