ONE moment, he was asking her for help to fix a TV remote control.
When Class 95 radio DJ Jean Danker turned around to face him again, boyfriend and fellow DJ Glenn Ong was on - not one - but two bended knees.
A stunned Danker, 33, didn't realise her boyfriend of more than two years was proposing to her. She told The New Paper last night: "In that first second, I didn't connect the gesture. I asked him, 'What are you doing? Stand up.'"
Then, it dawned on her.
Ong, 40, popped the question on Friday night when they were at her parents' place for dinner. Recalling that "simple and tender moment", Danker said: "He said, 'Please marry me'. He had those cute, earnest puppy dog eyes.
"I said 'of course,' then followed up with a 'yes' in case I wasn't clear enough.
"It was old school, nice and genuine - exactly the way I wanted it to be."
Danker said they had discussed marriage and their future, but she "didn't see it coming this soon".
"It definitely caught me by surprise."
Ong told TNP last night he was so nervous that he ended up on both knees.
The Morning Express host said: "So it looked like I was begging her. I had butterflies in my stomach."
Danker announced her engagement on her Twitter account on Friday, and then on her evening show on Class 95 yesterday.
Her engagement ring from local jeweller Larry Jewelry is a 1.75-carat brilliant solitaire set on a platinum band.
It cost Ong, who had been looking around for a year, $40,000.
After receiving the ring on Friday afternoon, he decided to pop the question that night at her parents' place, since they had planned to go there for dinner and he didn't want her to suspect anything.
This was the first time he asked a girl's parents for her hand in marriage. He got their approval earlier and they played along by pretending not to know about his proposal.
Ong said: "I could feel her parents were okay with me. But I wanted to be sure of their approval. I just wanted to do this right.
"I feel...a connection with her parents. Maybe because they remind me of my parents. My mum is Eurasian and my dad is Chinese. For her, it's the other way around."
Admittedly, he hasn't exactly been successful in the marriage area of his life.
His previous two marriages - first to ex-radio DJ Kate Reyes from whom he divorced in 2003, and then to TV host Jamie Yeo, which ended in 2009 after five years - ended acrimoniously in the public eye.
This will be Danker's first marriage.
But Ong said he has never given up on marriage.
He said: "Deep down, I wanted to get married, but I also resisted it...I was stressing myself out over this for the past year.
"For me, marriage is important. There may be people who may laugh when they read this article. They may say I'm on the road to becoming Singapore's Elizabeth Taylor (who wedded eight times).
"(Danker) has never at any point pressured me to get married. Everything is rosy right now, but something is missing. It's like being married will make the difference.
She's the one
"I really, really feel she's the one. I really want to get married to her. I feel so blessed with her in my life."
The couple have known each other for 16 years since their Perfect 10 days in the 90s.
Danker said she knew Ong was "the one" very early in their relationship.
"At the end of the day, I want to be with him. Getting married is just an official documentation. I just want to be with him. And he wants to be with me," she said.
Despite Ong's track record, she'd never doubted him.
"Past relationships happen for a reason. Whatever it is, he is who he is after learning from the mistakes he made in the past.
"I know why those relationships failed. In both instances, I know he tried his best. And that's all you can ask from a person..."
Still enjoying the moment, the happy couple have not decided on the wedding date and the scale of the ceremony, though Danker wants it "intimate and full of heart".
As for kids, the couple have no urgent desire to have any for now.
Danker said: "I just want us to really enjoy the two of us for as long as possible.
"But I'm sure at some point - maybe two months later - I'll start thinking about it."
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This article was first published in The New Paper.
