Love Me Once Again

Thirty-six

After more than twenty hours of flight time, I finally touched down at Incheon International Airport.

My six months in Ghana was more than what I could learn in my almost forty years of life. Compassion, love, patience, tolerance, perseverence and endurance. I had grown to be a better person. I had learnt so much. And, I didn't want to leave. But I had promises to people that I would be back. To the dept's director, to Mandy, and my boyfriend. This was still an unfamiliar term to me. Because this relationship had been a remote one. From the day I had said yes to date him, we had not yet gone on a physical date, or held hands and no thanks to the network connection, we talked only once every two weeks when I went into town. It was killing him more than it did to me and he said if I wasn't coming back he would fly to Ghana himself and drag me back.

As soon as I stepped off the plane, I shivered. It was Autumn now and the weather would be turning cold. Ghana was anything but cold. I had sort of gotten used to the weather there. But welcome back to Seoul..

The first person who welcomed me when I came out of the gates was Mandy.

She threw me a big hug.

"Gosh! It's been ages! And you've gotten so dark!"

I have a good tan, I must say.

But so much for her being here, she doesn't drive. So we had to hail a cab back to my apartment where she dropped at the hospital. She said she took special permission to go in later today.

Nothing had changed in my apartment. Mandy had kept it well for me in my absence. While it was nothing like my apartment in Toronto, this was home. I still preferred a smaller place. Less maintenance.

I started unpacking right away, throwing all my laundry into the washer. I hadn't brought too much clothes to Ghana anyway and all my other stuff had been shipped back to Seoul six months ago. Mandy had kindly unpacked everything for me. I have to properly thank her for it.

I was going to take a shower when the doorbell rang. My heart started beating faster. It would be him. I had texted him that I had touched down and he said he would be on his way to my apartment.

It was as if I had been transformed back to a teen, the twenty years ago me, meeting my crush. It was toe tinkling exciting.

I opened the door and there he was, standing right before me. He had dyed his hair again, blond this time. The last time we spoke was three weeks ago. He seemed to have put on a little weight. His face looked chubbier but I know better to tell him that!

"Hey.." I called out softly.

He, without a word, simply stepped in towards me and pulled me into a fierce hug as the door closed behind us.

He hugged me so hard that I had difficulty breathing.

"I - can - not - breathe -" I choked as I patted on his back. Then he let me go reluctantly.

My hands were still on his back as I looked up at him and grinned.

He looked down at me with, can I call it - eyes full of love.

"Welcome home," he said softly.

"I'm home," I said. "Now, can you let go of me..?"

"No," he said.

"I want to go take a shower. I have been on the plane for more than twenty hours. I want to get out of these clothes.."

Then he let me go reluctantly.

I went into my bedroom and closed the door. This bedroom now feels unfamiliar yet familiar. I stripped and removed my plane tired clothes and stepped into my bathroom. It was nice to take a shower..