Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and we want to celebrate the thing that makes us feel alive – love, that many-splendored thing that’s better than ice cream and comes in all shapes and sizes.
Today we celebrate young love; the butterflies-in-your-stomach thrill of a first kiss and sweet innocence that only comes with teenage romance.
17-year-old Ayisha noticed Ben Aurel right away the first time they met. It was the beginning of 2020 and she was on her look-see trip visiting the German Embassy School of Beijing, where Ben is a student. He said hi and asked where in Germany she was from. She answered and then moved on with the rest of the tour, but she remembered him because she thought “he was good-looking.”
Funnily enough, Ben didn’t actually remember her from that first encounter. “That year we had many, many visitors – some stayed for days and others for months. She was only there for that day so I didn’t really remember her.” It wasn’t until November of that year when Ayisha started school, that she would really make a mark on him.
Ben shares, “One of her best friends had some trouble with one of my friends, so we met up after school to talk about it and started hanging out. We were also the only three students in Chinese class where she teased me about my bad pronunciation all the time.”
After a few weeks of getting to know one another and staying over at each other’s homes, Ben announced casually one day that he had told his parents that his girlfriend would be having a sleepover that night. The label made things official.
Sleepovers were rather common for Ayisha back in Germany, where many of her best friends were boys. So while spending the night at Ben’s place was no big deal for her family, Ben’s parents laid down some rules: Separate beds and no locked doors. These rules have never been broken.
“In Beijing, there aren’t that many places to go where you don’t have to spend money. Solana is one of our favorite spots because there’s actually spots where you can just hang out without buying stuff,” Ben tells us. Ayisha adds that “it’s also right next to Chaoyang Park where we take walks.”
Walks are one of the ways they like to spend their time together, and one of Ayisha’s special memories of their relationship. “We have so many special moments together it’s hard to choose just one, but I remember going on a walk [around their residential compound]very, very late at night, around 3am. We just talked and it was really nice.”
For Ben, their recent shared family holiday is a cherished reminiscence. “Our families have gotten quite close and we ended up spending New Year’s together in Sanya. By luck, we ended up on the same flight back and sat next to each other.”
Ben carries Ayisha’s little sister
Another thing that he treasures from Ayisha is a Miami Heat basketball jersey that she got him to replace the one she didn’t like – which admittedly hurt his feelings a little. He rarely wears it because “it’s precious.” Ayisha loves the giant stuffed panda that Ben got her for her birthday.
What makes the two of them work? According to Ayisha, “We get each other’s humor. And now that we’ve been together a while, he can be very caring and thoughtful. If he sees that I’m sad, he’ll come and give me a hug or a kiss on the cheek. He’s always cheering me up.”
The adolescent pair just passed the one-year anniversary mark. “One year and five days” at the time of writing, to be exact, and things are looking good. When asked about their upcoming Valentine’s Day plans, they had none, though their class is getting together on the day to sell roses and raise funds for their prom. Let’s hope they raise enough to make it a memorable one!
I’ll show you all of the places I’m dreaming of. I’ll take you to the ocean, I’ll bring the sun. We are 17, we have just begun. ~ Ellie Gouling, “Animal”
KEEP READING: What’s It Like To Be in a Throuple?
Images: Ayisha and Ben Aurel
