The Falling Petals...🌺

Vow$...

It was the beginning of October-almost three months since we knew each other. I had talked to her entire family by then, and she had talked to mine.

In fact, she had become a good friend of my mother. Eomma always wanted to have a daughter. Gradually, she started sharing her joys and sorrows with Dae. She used to talk about my childhood, my nature, my likes and dislikes, the things that made me angry. She also talked about her life in this family, a family in which men outnumbered women by a ratio 3:1 and where, unfortunately, the majority dominated. 

There were things about my mother which i had never known earlier. But Dae would tell me those things. Like any other son, I also love my mother, but the problem is that we never know when we become part of this male dominant society. Dae used to explain to me the nature of a women and her expectations. She used to tell me what i should do for her when i went back home, on weekend. She used to give me tips. At times, she also used to shout at me If i forgot them. I had one more reason to be happy then, for Dae understood the important of relationships, she knew the importance of family and how to care for it.

One more responsibility that i had given her was to neither all me up after 10:00 pm, nor talk to me if at all I happened to call her up after that time. the reason was that the CAT exam was lose and I wanted to devour 3-4 hours a day for preparation.

So we took a vow, albeit reluctantly.

"Till the Exam is over, we will not talk to each other after 10:00 PM", I said.

"And this rule will only be followed on weekdays," she added her clause, reasoning that on weekends we have surplus time to prepare and didn't need to make our lives tougher by not talking to each other.

"Ok. now repeat after me," I said.

"In the name of god, I, Hoseok...." I paused for her to repeat after me.

"In the name of God my Shillang and I, Dae..." And i felt so good for the 'my Shillang' in her statement. Inside, I felt like kissing her one more time for these small but wonderful things she often did for me. Outside, I went ahead with my vow.

"...take a vow that..."

"....take a vow that..."

"...we will not call each other on weekdays after 10:00 PM, unless there is some kind of emergency..."

"...we will not call each other on weekdays after 10:00 PM, unless there is some kind of emergency...and even if there is no emergency but, somehow, I am not able to sleep, I will only call for 5 minutes," she added another clause to the vow.

"What is this...?'' I asked, and laughed. Not being able to hold back my love for her, I kissed her. One afternoon, those kisses flew all the way to her place.

Dae made me enjoy every moment of my life: the good, the bad, the challenging. She made them all simply wonderful.

The first week , it was quiet tough to abide by our vow but, somehow, we managed. The truth was that, because of this vow, the urge to talk to each other, especially after 10 at night, increased even more- it is human tendency to desire what is prohibited. And during our morning calls, we realized that night was such a beautiful time to tak to each other.

"Taking at night used to be so romantic hmm?'' she asked in her cute, innocent voice one morning.

"I miss them so much. This decision makes me feel like I've struck my foot with an axe, by mistake," I said.

"No dear, it's not like you've struck your foot with an axe," she started politely, then suddenly shouted, ''rather your foot wanted to lick that axe and, willingly, you jumped one a sharpened one, that too bare-foot! Now enjoy your wounds." she was fuming