The Falling Petals...🌺

Happy-new-year!!

Back in Gwangju, life got back on the same track. Office, phone calls to her, gym, phone calls tp her, CAT preparation, phone calls to her. But what was different this time was that I had started relating her voice to her appearance, her body language, her fragrance.

Days passed and our desire to be together kept increasing with each day.

It was Seoul lantern festival and, in the evening, our entire country was shining with the lanterns and crackers. I was carrying my cell phone in one hand, and helping my mom with the preparations in the other. We were telling each other about the atmosphere at our respective places. The phones on both sides were shuffling through different hands. First, it was me talking to her, then my mom and her, then her mom and me, then my mom and hers, then she and I again, then me and her sister.....he, she, she, me....everybody. But each one of them mentioned this: She would be celebrating her next festival as part of our family.

A few more days of our life passed.

Life returned to its best after we were released from our vow of not talking to each other after 10:00 PM on weekdays. Yes, CAT was over. It went well for both of us. (Everybody has the right to say "It went well," till the results are out!) But yes, the completions of CAT marked the beginning of our best days. Well, actually it was nights. December, January. Winter. Cold nights, blankets and, wrapped in those warm blankets, our cell phones and us. (I tell you- winter is the most romantic time. And so are rainy days. And.....and....and, wait a minute, summer too! Am I getting something wrong? Or , maybe, it's that every season brings a different flavor if you are in love.)

One night, it was 12:10 AM and we had left the year 2010 behind, and 2011 was 10 minutes young for us. Despite the overloaded telephone network, somehow we were among the lucky ones to get connected. Of course, we had to try a hundred times to call each other. 

She was the first one to reach me and do you know what her first words were? No, she didn't wish me a happy new year. Instead, she shouted with happiness, "Shillang! We are getting married this year. 2011 has arrived. Wow!"

Time and again, all these little things (which, for me, were big things) she did would make me feel, more and more, that I would never be able to live without her.

"Yes! We will marry this year and then we'll live together. Happy new year, dear." I wished her.

"A very happy new year to you too."

Network congestion that night did not allow us to talk much. Still, we were satisfied enough. And we felt that, just like us, there must have been so many couples dying to talk to each other. Who knows, maybe some among them were going to get married the same year.....