It's an interesting question, and he has to think about it, before finally shaking his head. "I don't think I've ever been in love. I mean, sure, I've had crushes. I've been attracted to people. I've even been stupidly attached to people I shouldn't be. But I don't think I've ever fallen in love. My first crush, though, I was maybe..."
His childhood can sometimes be a blur of indistinct memories, and there's nothing at all there from before the time he was five or so, but he doesn't need to tell Ned that. He'd wanted happy stories, not reflections on things that could easily turn gloomy with the slightest provocation. "I think I must have been in first grade. Six or so, right, that's how old kids are in first grade? There was a little girl named Jane -- weird, I still remember her name, I haven't thought about her for years -- that I was absolutely crazy about. It was my first year of school in the US, I could barely speak English, and I was just as awkward then as I am now. Needless to say, she didn't exactly reciprocate the feelings."
Maybe that doesn't count as happy, but he's smiling as he says it, so at least it's a decent memory. "I started trying to figure out how to say sweet things to her, but the problem was that I had to ask my dad how to say stuff, and he didn't speak English that well either, at that point, and I didn't want to tell him why I wanted to know how to say your dress is pretty, or whatever it was I was trying to say. So, long story short, it was a completely unrequited love, and I learned all of my flirtatious lines from my father, which explains why they're all awful."
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His childhood can sometimes be a blur of indistinct memories, and there's nothing at all there from before the time he was five or so, but he doesn't need to tell Ned that. He'd wanted happy stories, not reflections on things that could easily turn gloomy with the slightest provocation. "I think I must have been in first grade. Six or so, right, that's how old kids are in first grade? There was a little girl named Jane -- weird, I still remember her name, I haven't thought about her for years -- that I was absolutely crazy about. It was my first year of school in the US, I could barely speak English, and I was just as awkward then as I am now. Needless to say, she didn't exactly reciprocate the feelings."
Maybe that doesn't count as happy, but he's smiling as he says it, so at least it's a decent memory. "I started trying to figure out how to say sweet things to her, but the problem was that I had to ask my dad how to say stuff, and he didn't speak English that well either, at that point, and I didn't want to tell him why I wanted to know how to say your dress is pretty, or whatever it was I was trying to say. So, long story short, it was a completely unrequited love, and I learned all of my flirtatious lines from my father, which explains why they're all awful."