The love story of Lee Seon-jae and Oh Hye-won of the top Korean drama series 'Secret Love Affair' continues...
This story is dedicated to my friend and visual collaborator Tess Angeles, whose edited pictures are almost as beautiful as her sweet natu...
A drinks reception was held after the concert in the Town Hall but it was a chaotic, noisy affair and after the obligatory few minutes, all 5 were glad to stroll in relaxed fashion, back towards their hotel.
'Walking like this in such a place, on such a night, you could imagine it was a night in summer - hundreds of years ago - and a group of friends were doing much the same as us,' Hye-won mused aloud.
Ciara teased: 'and I'll bet that group of friends stopped at - la taverna - the tavern - on the way home, for a much-needed libation.'
Hye-won laughed: 'sure, let's do that.'
Ciara grabbed the arms of Dieter on one side and In-seo on the other and dragged them ahead to find the perfect spot, while the couple continued to stroll - hand-in-hand - along the narrow street, where shutters, open to the night air, allowed brief glimpses of family life - lights, voices, music - and the scent of the profusely flowering bougainvilleas was so pleasant.
'While the others have gone ahead, how are we doing?'
'We are doing super, thank you. Remember no stress - so don't worry.'
He looked apologetic and she out-stretched her other arm and took a deep breath while resting her head back on her neck.
'Oh Seon-jaea - I'm the opposite of stressed, love. I never want this beautiful night to end. Even the air is perfumed sweetly here and look,' she gazed above their heads to the spangled canopy, 'could it be more perfect?'
He had stopped walking to look at her expression of pure contentment and now he stepped to her and enfolded her in his arms: 'no, you're right. It's just perfect right now.'
He lay his hand on the back of her head and just held her gently and she closed her eyes, knowing that this night would always shine in her memory. I think Seon-jae isn't the only one falling for the charms of Italy - and Milan tomorrow.
She looked up excitedly: 'Milan tomorrow - isn't that sort of amazing too?'
He laughed: 'that's for sure. Though how will we adjust to it after this wonderful little place?'
They heard Ciara's voice from the end of the street: 'come on swan-types, keep up, some of us are thirsty here.'
---
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
An unexpected piazza and a taverna with small tables nestled under flowering trees seemed such a gem of prettiness that they just had to sit for a few minutes. Looking around at the shining faces and happy smiles, In-seo gave a little smile of his own: 'you see what I mean - it's impossible to resist the spell of Italy, though this,' and he looked around - at the twinkling lights under the starry sky, candles on every table and informal late night customers laughing and chatting, some still eating, 'this is definitely special.'
It was such a pleasure to breathe the cooler night air and see the lights reflecting everyone's smiles. When a small troupe of musicians began to play along the side of the street, everyone's sense of well-being was topped up even more. An accordion and fiddle player spun through one folk tune after the one, with no great regard for technique but with plenty of speed and energy. When they circulated the tables for donations, In-seo was generou, while Dieter and Ciara spoke a little Italian to them. When they had passed on to other tables, Hye-won laughed: 'we are such a group, aren't we? Korean, German, Irish, speaking what - 5 or 6 languages between us? And we get along so well together.'
