SOME women dream of knights in shining armour, but not Miss Joanne Ong.

For this 21-year-old already has her own knight in the flesh - her fiance, Mr Muhammad Zuhri Bashir Ahmad.

Mr Zuhri, 23, is not buff - 'he has a 2-pec', offered Miss Ong - and this former band leader of the now-defunct group Firqah carries a guitar, not a sword.

But the auxiliary security officer was the one who pulled his girlfriend out of her troubled youth, and filled her world with love when they met in 2005.

The couple are among those who entered the Durex's Sexiest Couple contest. (See below). Durex, the world's leading condom maker, launched the contest as part of their 80th anniversary celebrations.

But things were not always this rosy for Miss Ong, a receptionist.

When she first met Mr Zuhri as a 17-year-old, she had just failed her O levels.

Her parents separated when she was 10. Her dad is serving a 20-year jail term in Taiwan, and her relationship with her mother is turbulent, she said. Miss Ong left home after a fight with her mother.

It was around this time that Mr Zuhri came into herlife.

'I was asked to join his band as a vocalist. I didn't know it then, but everything started changing,' MissOng, who now lives with her grandmother, recalled.

The band members had MMSed their pictures to Miss Ong before meeting her, and Mr Zuhri's picture caught her eye.

'I don't know what exactly it was about him that I liked because he had no fashion sense, but I dared him to go on a date with me the next day at Sentosa.' she said.

It wasn't exactly the romantic first date Miss Ong had dreamt of. They were next to the Merlion - Mr Zuhri finished half a pack of cigarettes while she did all the talking for three hours. He did not even offer to send her home after the date, she said.

But there were obvious sparks between the two. Later that day, she received an SMS from Mr Zuhri asking her to be his girlfriend.

Friends were sceptical that they would go steady after just a three-hour date. They told the couple that they would be a 'miracle couple' if their relationship survived. That they were an inter-racial couple made their friends even more cynical.

Their friends were wrong.

The couple's band may have broken up within the year it was formed, but the couple's love blossomed as they worked through their differences

Learnt Teochew

Miss Ong said: 'Zuhri learnt Teochew so that he could communicate with my grandmother.'

And on her 21st birthday in February, he surprised her with a diamond ring, nine months after asking her through SMS if they could be engaged.

Said Miss Ong in mock disappointment: 'He didn't even say 'Will you marry me?', but I said yes because I know he is 'the one'.'

The couple are saving up for their wedding. They decided to join the Durex competition in the hope of winning the prize money of $2,000.

So what makes them a sexy couple?

Miss Ong said: 'We may not have the bodies, but our love and communication make us sexy.

'Zuhri's patience, in particular, is very attractive. And when his big arms are wrapped around my waist, I just melt and think how he's my hero.'

- Hoe Pei Shan, newsroom intern

This article was first published in The New Paper.