Our Story
Once upon a time, a boy pondered by the sunny beach, a girl chased snowflakes between tall buildings...
At the start of 2016, life was chaotic for Di. Her stepdad was in the late stages of cancer, so she moved from New York to Houston to support her mom.
Meanwhile, Tom was wrapping up his New York “gap years.” He had quit his job, ended his lease, and was preparing to move back to Israel.
Neither of them had clear intentions when they began chatting online, but their conversations quickly deepened — from TV shows and novels to morality, family, and life choices. What started as casual exchanges became daily, essay-length messages. “He’s the most eloquent, intelligent, and cute guy I’ve met,” Di told her mom during one of their sunset jogs.
More than a month later, only a week before Tom’s flight home, fate placed Di back in New York. Tom suggested to meet. A dinner at Tom’s parents’ favorite restaurant and a Broadway showing of The Lion King. When neither wanted the night to end, Di suggested frozen yogurt. Tom, flustered, accidentally spilled strawberry sauce in the store, and rushed to clean it up. She found it endearing, and admired his sense of duty. At midnight, they parted at Times Square. “Let’s keep in touch,” she said. Tom took it as the polite sort of goodbye that means the opposite.
Di, meanwhile, spent the next morning replaying every moment in her head, her heart fluttering, but unable to stop dwelling on the fact that this man would soon remain forever a pen pal. She asked for a second date. They spent it wandering through Greenwood Cemetery, the Whitney, Chelsea Market, to Brooklyn Bridge. And from then on, every day together until his departure.
On the eve of his flight, Tom called his family, confessing he’d met a lady who was kind, intelligent, understood him really well, and hummed songs softly. That night, he realized he had to pull off the task of getting a new job, a new apartment, and another U.S. visa, all in one month.
For almost a thousand days, they shared a life together, moved across five apartments, new jobs, and routines kissing each other goodbye before work, watching anime together before sleep, exploring new theater and food on the weekends, and bursting out in random laughter. But eventually, both felt the need to grow independently. Tom prepared to return to Israel again; Di focused on upgrading her life in NYC. They were young, each with promising careers and aspirations to chase. The two shipped Tom’s belongings in boxes, donated the rest to the Salvation Army, and made it to the airport. Before the security check point, they shared one last hug. Only this hug didn’t end, and the flight left without Tom on it.
One skipped flight might have been a coincidence; two meant something to be learned.
After five months of LDR and deep reflection, Di knew where she belonged. Whatever awaited her in her future, she wanted to face it beside Tom.
Through relocations, startups, COVID and wars, they stayed each other’s constant partners, traveler companions, debaters, and co-dreamers.
Christmas Eve of 2022, summer in the southern hemisphere, they reached Paradise Bay, Antarctica.
After a long climb up a glacier, Di noticed that Tom’s hands were shaking and earnestly offered her pockets for warmth. Instead, he told her to look at the penguins on top of the other mountain. She was doubtful that penguins would climb up so high, but she trusted him anyway. When she lowered the binoculars, he was on one knee in the snow, asking the timeless question.
She burst into laughter and tears, “Finally!” she exclaimed, before saying yes.
Later, Di admitted she also had a ring hidden in her coat. They had unknowingly bought matching rings: the Lance of Longinus. Its design is inspired by the double helix of DNA. In their favorite anime — the subject of their first chats all those years ago — it’s the only artifact that can pierce through the barriers of human individuality and unite souls.
Its first use in the show, fittingly, was in Antarctica.
2016–2025. They have been pen pals, colleagues, lovers, unwavering supporters of each other. They share the same hobbies and daily rhythms; they have traveled the world side by side, debated boundless theories, built a non-profit, taken turns leaping into new jobs and startups, and crossed continents for one another.
Decades ago, at opposite ends of the Asian continent, a boy and a girl could never have imagined that, decades later, they would meet in a foreign land. Israel would no longer be the pixelated desert of bombshell smoke seen in the news, and China not just the nation where red lanterns fill the night sky and dragons soar amongst them.