The Falling Petals...🌺

She-is-perfect...

"Oh! Mom....She is so perfect!"

I was at the airport, the last person in the long queue heading towards the British airways terminal. I was struggling with the laptop hanging on my shoulder pushing the trolley with the same hand and talking to my mom and dad on my cell. Outside, it was still dawn. The sun would rise in a few minutes. And I was damn sleepy. But the cold shower in the hotel helped me wake up. And to push me into the shower was Dae, who woke me up at 4:00 AM sharp. 

Back in my hometown, mom and dad were anxious to know what happened. Dad seemed to be enjoying my anecdotes much better than his morning news, otherwise he'd never ask my mom to put the call on the speaker while he had his morning tea. How is her family? How is her Mom? What did everyone say? What is their house like? And the craziest question was my mom's: what did you have for lunch there?

(God! Lunch?)

"Her family is really nice. I met her mother, her elder sister and her husband. Her younger sister was also there. Her mom is just like you. I liked each one of them. Dae is a very nice girl, Eomma....And I am very happy," I said after which mom said, "If you are happy, we are happy."

And the happier they were, the more they questioned me. It took me almost half an hour to answer all their queries before I bade them goodbye and they wished me a happy journey.

After a little while, I felt like calling her. Though I knew she would be sleeping. While I slept in peace for three hours in my hotel room, she was checking her cell's clock every now and then so that she could wake me up on time. Now it was her turn to sleep in peace. Still, I dialed her number. Because in another couple of hours, I wouldn't be able to call her up.

I heard her complete ring, but did not get to hear her voice. 

Disappointed, I slipped my phone back in my pocket and moved ahead. People were shoving their trolleys with one hand, their passport and tickets in the other. Some were enjoying the music flowing out of their iPods. Korean faces, non-Korean faces. The white kids stood silently in the queue, holding their parents' hands. The rest of the little ones running here and there, shouting, playing, were all Korean.

I was in the X-ray scanner, waiting for my baggage to slide out, when I heard my cell ringing. It was her.

"you awake, my baby?"

"Hmm..." And in her warm, sleepy, heavy voice she was kissing me, probably with her eyes half-open, still tired. Hearing the sweetness of her voice, I imagined waking up next to her, on the same bed, some morning.

Clearing her throat, she then started talking to me.

My queue kept moving, and we kept talking.

At the baggage check-in section, she was still with me.

At the immigration desk, she was still with me.

At the security check gateway, the officials separated her from me. They asked me to switch off the cell phone before the check. But the moment I was through with it, she was with me again. I badly wanted to talk to her. I badly needed her and I wanted to run away from the airport straight back to her. Actually, I felt like marrying her then and there. I was so much with her for those one and half hours that I didn't even notice the third and final announcement meant for me. The last words were:

"... Boarding Flight No. BA182 to New York, please report at Gate No. 2."

I know my next statement will be hard to believe; but this is true. Miles away from me, lying on her bed in a different city, she heard my name being announced (which I had missed, though the speaker box was right above me), through my cell phone. Unbelievable, isn't it?

"Shillang, I think it's for you," she shouted in haste.

"What?"

"That announcement. I think it's for you," she shouted in haste.

"Just a second."

I patted the back of a white-skinned man in front of me. He had a US flag on his T-shirt. "Wadhya mind tellin' me whom they were callin' for?" I don't know why, but talking to foreigners tends to change my accent.

"Oh, you mean the last call?"

"Yeah."

"Some Hoseok to New York. For fuck's sake, why are people not on time at the airport?"

And I kept looking into his eyes with anger but didn't say anything. Of course, the fault was mine.

"That's me," I said firmly, getting closer to his face. "But you know, hey: thanks for letting me know that it was me."

His face was something to be seen. Pale. Maybe, for a second, he remembered that he wasn't on his land but mine. But before he could start apologizing, I rushed to Gate no. 2.

On the call, Dae was still waiting for my response.

But, what happened next at the gate was surprising.

"Dae, I'll call you back in a while," I said and disconnected the call, still trying to understand what happened.

The security lady at the door had taken my boarding pass, swiped it through a gadget which punched a single word, in bold red letters, on it: INVALID. She then returned it to me with a smile on her face. I looked at the pass and then at her face and wondered. Now what the hell was this? Then, she snatched it back from me and tore it into two pieces stylishly, and dropped them into the dustbin beside her desk!

I was completely puzzled. Did they find some drugs in my baggage? Or some smuggled diamonds? Or maybe a hand grenade? Jesus! I don't even know what grenades look like.

Seeing the restlessness on my face, the lady finally revealed what was going on.

"Congratulations, sir! You are our lucky passenger. You won't be traveling in Economy but in the Business class."

With a smile, she handed me a Business class boarding pass and asked me to move ahead to the plane. The rest of the population, the poor economy class ones who were made to wait just because of me, were then allowed to follow.

What a surprise!

Moments later, I was in the plane and Dae was with me again. I told her about my good luck and she promptly said, "Because I'm in your life, only good things will happen to you."

While talking to her, I saw the same passenger passing by—the one with the US flag on his T-shirt. I waved to him sarcastically as he moved ahead to economy class as if he hadn't seen me. But I knew he had.

Thirty minutes later, the plane was good to take off. By then, one of the air-hostesses had already told me, twice, to switch off my mobile. But I was like, "Who cares?" I was still busy with my romance on the phone.

When the plane was on the runway, the air-hostess pleaded with me to switch off my cell. I am sure she must have wondered who allowed me into the business class. I was behaving like a school kid whom teacher tend to compare to a dog's tail - no matter how you try it cab never be straight.

This time, though, I gestured her to come closer and asked her, "Have you ever fallen in love?" I whispered in her ears.

"What?" she took a step back.

"On the other end is my girlfriend, whom i will marry some day. I won't be seeing her for a long time and these are the few, final moments before I leave this country. And in these moments she wanted to eb with me. Shall I tell her that a beautiful air-hostess is commanding me not to talk to her?"

She smiled at me and went away. And in a few seconds she returned with a tall glass of juice and some cookies. Helping me with the blanket especially covering my mobile and then hands-wires, she whispered, "Enjoy your moments with these."

And of course I enjoyed my moments with Dae. She kept kissing me and I was bidding her goodbye before the network got disconnected.

The plane took off.