Instead of being a trial for their relationship, National Service proved a boon for Sandy and Jia Jun's relationship.
Sandy, also known as Jia Bao, tells her story:
"My name is Sandy and my dearest boyfriend is Marcus. We met in the year 2009.
"We met through Facebook through some friends. Then he added me on MSN, so we chatted there for quite a long period.
"We were just friends after a few weeks. I couldn't wait to see him online to chat with him, as whenever I was feeling down, he would know it, because I posted my feelings on Facebook.
"So he would say to me, 'Why are you feeling down? Jing Ling ('Angel' in Chinese) is here'. He would be always there when I needed someone to talk to.
"Once, when he was going to school and he was worried he might fall asleep on the bus, he MSN'd me, saying, 'can you give me a call after 30 minutes?'
"I replied, 'ok, but what's your number?' Haha, so we traded numbers.
"After a few weeks later, all his online status updates said that he would be 'Missing In Action'. I asked him why, but he wouldn't say.
"A week passed after he went 'MIA', and I received a text message from him, saying 'I've fallen for you.'
"I was like 'eh, don't joke with me la'.
"From what I knew of his past, he was quite the playboy, so I felt that the leopard would not change its spots. Also, I had no feelings for him at the time.
"A few days later, he said 'I hope I can still be your angel whenever you need me.'
"After that, we texted each other without fail every day.
"In September, I knew I had fallen for him already. I was afraid to tell him so, because of his reputation. I was afraid I would be 'played' by him, but still I fell in love with him.
"One day, I went drinking with my friends, and I was really tempted to call him and confess my feelings to him. So I told him not to pick up the phone if I called.
"In the end, I still called him up and told him everything.
"On Feb 19, 2009, he came to look for me at the void deck of my flat to ask me to be his girlfriend, but he was too shy to do so. He left, just as I was going out.
"The next day he finally summoned the courage to come out and say it.
"He came looking for me, with a bottle full of words. He asked me to take out the little notes and form it into a sentence with 20 words.
The whole message was in Chinese.
"It read: 'Qin ai de Xie Jia Bao
Zuo wo nu you hao ma?
Ai ni wu tiao jian, Zheng Jia Jun.'
('Dear Xie Jia Bao, will you be my girlfriend? Zheng Jia Jun, who loves you unconditionally.')
"Our relationship went smoothly for the first few months. But as time passed, we started to experience conflict. We broke up after months of quarreling. I was tired of the disagreements, and so was he.
"We starts to argue through SMSes, but I really could not get over this relationship. My heart was hurting, so I was left with no choice.
"At the time of the break-up, he was about to enlist.
"I wasn't there with him throughout the period he was waiting for enlistment into the army, as we had gone our separate ways.
"He had deleted me as his friend on Facebook to keep the matter private, so I had no way of contacting him. I texted him, but he did not reply.
"So one day, I decided that giving up was all I could do.
"I tried to make myself as busy as I could. He texted me, but I didn't reply several times.
"One day, we met up about five months later.
"I realised he had changed a lot after he enlisted into the army, and I'm really glad we were back together again.
"My love for him will never change.
I know he is the guy I've been looking for. I love you, baby." 
