In the TVB sitcom "Moonlight Resonance", the character Dr Ling Chi Shun is stuck with his girlfriend of seven years. Actually there is no love between them, nor do they seem to really care about each other. They seem to have every intention of going on like that, until Dr Ling becomes so smitten with Yu So Chau that he goes out of his way to please her and win her heart. A love triangle is thus formed (or a quadrangle if "Housekeeper", Yu So Chau's admirer, is counted in).

Dr Ling's pet phrase is: "Let me be the bad guy for once!" (A phrase usually mouthed when he's holding Yu So Chau tight). What he really means is "Please promise to stick with me, so that I can make up my mind to dump my girlfriend."

Dr Ling's logic goes like this: "If you promise to stick with me, I'll give up the one in hand. If you don't, then I'll continue to be stuck with the one I don't love." But why would he stay with the girl he doesn't love? It's because the girl has worked in the black labour market in the UK to finance his college studies. So he has to repay his debt to her by "sacrificing" himself to her. His thinking is that if the girl he really loves promises to stick with him, then he will forget about repaying his debt! (He will buy the girl an apartment instead as "compensation".)

Isn't it strange? It seems Dr Ling can't do without a woman to "hold on to"!

Can he not be all by himself? Can he not stick to his plan to compensate the girl who has worked in the black market for him by buying her an apartment, and see how it goes from there? Why does he have to stick to his "one for one" policy?

But I've got to admit that actually there is no shortage of men and women out there who are just like Dr Ling. Or perhaps I myself have been like that too, being unable to do without someone to "hold on to", preferring a relationship riddled with imperfections to any "idle period" in my love life.

But is a "idle period" really that scary?

By Lok Wan