Dr. Raymond Joseph Parungao and Andrew Chich-Hao Chen had been attracted to one another when their eyes locked.
It was on February 28, 2010. They usually had been on the homosexual bar the abbey in West Hollywood, California.
“The music was sturdy, but it surely light once I stared at Andrew,” mentioned Dr. Parungao.
“I noticed Ray and time simply stopped,” mentioned Mr. Chen. “I used to be like, ‘Who is that this? “I needed to discover out extra. “
The 2, who had been there with mutual associates, drank drinks, headed for a quiet nook and started to speak. They break up round midnight and made plans for a gathering three days later, once more within the abbey.
Dr. Parungao, 55 -year -old, is the primary to reach. “My coronary heart was beating quick whereas I used to be ready for Andrew,” he mentioned. “I hadn’t stopped enthusiastic about him since we met.”
Tonight it made it clear that their mutual want was intense and genuine. They talked for hours about their households, the upbringings and shared a love for the journey. “We talked about the whole lot and nothing and will discuss for days,” says Mr. Chen, 37 years previous. “By the top of the night time we talked a few break collectively and even begin a household.”
The following month, they exchanged rings as an emblem of their engagement and eight months after the assembly, D -Chen moved to the western Hollywood ground of Dr. Parungao.
On the time, Mr Chen labored as a department supervisor of a financial institution in Los Angeles, however dreamed of being a hairdresser. In September 2013, he did the job at New York Trend Week, “And after this expertise, what New York supplied me professionally, he known as me,” mentioned G -N Chen. “I made a decision to maneuver.”
Dr. Parungao labored as a pediatrician in intensive therapy at Kaiser Everlasting in Los Angeles and his contract made a problem. The 2 break up in a nice approach and in October 2013. Chen went to Manhattan. “I needed Andrew to be free to observe his ardour and I didn’t need him to really feel the burden of long-distance relationships,” mentioned Dr. Parungao.
They had been shut and continued to speak every day. In June 2016, they overlap their romance when D -Parungao visited Mr Chen and so they each attended the Pleasure parade. “We danced to Kylie Minogue, who carried out” all lovers “on the pier live performance and all I might do was stare at Ray,” mentioned Mr. Chen. “We had been kissing and knew there was no creature.”
They determined to strive bicoagitic relationship, every alternating to fly to see the opposite two to 3 weekends a month. The wedding was within the playing cards. “We had talked about it early in our relationship, however we by no means mentioned how or when,” mentioned Dr. Parungao.
They acquired married in September 2016 as they traveled to Iceland with Mr Chen’s mom, Patti Chen, to have fun their sixtieth birthday.
The trio took a night bus tour of the countryside close to Reykjavik to see the northern glow. After they stopped with the sector, Dr. Parungao requested Mr. Chen, with d -Jong to take a look at if he would marry him. “We made a 3 -way hug and wept below the lights,” mentioned Mr. Chen.
[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]
Dr. Parungao, who grew up in Koniers, Georgia, has a bachelor’s diploma in science historical past from John Hopkins College and a Grasp’s diploma in Public Well being from George Washington College. He holds a medical diploma from Howard College.
Mr Chen is from Diamond Bar, California, and works as a contract hairdresser at Stephen Knol’s New York Salon. He has a bachelor’s diploma in enterprise administration from Peporth College and studied hairdressing at Santa Monica Faculty. He’s now in his final 12 months in a graduate program for the Surroundings Science on the New College.
After their engagement, they proceed their life as Bikoisa, besides throughout Covid, when Mr. Chen was out of labor and moved to Los Angeles for 2 years.
However by 2024, after returning to their bicose relations, life was wearing each. “I took the early Kaiser retirement bundle and moved to New York in February to be with Andrew full -time,” mentioned Dr. Parungao.
Now they’re staying in Lengthy Island Metropolis, Queens and are within the course of of a kid by surrogate. “It is such a way of aid,” mentioned Mr. Chen. “We will go for spontaneous walks collectively or take lunch with out the whole lot upfront.”
On February 28, 15 years after the primary assembly, D -Chen and Dr. Parungao married Janfang Chen, an worker of the workplace of Manhattan’s clerk, with their dad and mom as witnesses.
After the ceremony, they made a photograph shoot on the Metropolis Corridor Park and took a Zumba dance class. That night, the couple celebrates with 70 members of the family and associates on the Chinese language Shan Restaurant in Borum Hill, Brooklyn.
“We danced, we cried, we had been cheerful, we had been burning,” mentioned Mr. Chen.
