Serenade
Love is a very powerful emotion. It can destroy as much as it can create.
Eunize was never a head turner. Most guys tried to ignore her, and it's what she preferred. No boys, no nuisances, is what she would always say to herself in attempt to suffice her unsatiated heart with petty excuses. However, with one encounter everything changed. Her life, which was once scarred by love was again lit up by love itself, although this time it was for a different man.
It was the start of spring when she first saw him. He was with his guitar, playing at the plaza while singing. That time she was picking up something from the market.Their meeting was coincidental. However, by the time she heard his voice, she faintly believed that it was a destined meet up.
His voice was subtle. He sang so whole heartedly, so soothingly, that his voice alone was already enough to attract her. Even if she hadn't finished picking up the things she needed, she headed toward the source of the voice. She walked past stores and benches with anxiety filling her senses. Finally, she became one with the crowd near the fountain.
Her heart was pounding that time, but she didn't mind it. She forcibly made her way through the crowd. With every step she took she got closer and closer to him and as she did, his voice grew louder, yet the subtlety was still present.
Yes, the voice was enough to have caught her attention-- her affection-- but when she saw the man...
It was sealed.
She fell in love with him even without knowing anything about the man. Odd and foolish as it may seem, she was truly in love with him. Everyday she would visit him, would listen to him play, as often as possible. However, she made sure she was unnoticed. That was all she could do, to be invisible.
Alarmed by her growing love for him, one day she decided to stop seeing him.
This is for your own good. You'll only get hurt. She always thought.
Months passed but she still did not try to see him. Everyday she has kept her distance from him and every single day it has hurt her. Not seeing him was already painful enough, not being able to hear his voice was even more so.
Until one summer morning, she finally decided to see him again. She said to herself that if pain was what she would have to pay just to feel the happiness that love could bring, then let it be. She would be very much willing to endure any pain that would come after. She paid no attention of the consequences she would gain from the one sided love that she was offering him. She didn't care of the negative aftermath of this unrequited love, because the positive ones were too overwhelming. All she could think about are happy thoughts and emotions that she had felt the first time she saw him, and of the possible happier emotions that she would feel if she continued to see him.
That very morning, when summer has hit the season, she went to the plaza to see him. Her heart was hammering of excitement with every step she took walking toward the fountain. Mixed emotions rammed her thoughts. She knew not what emotion to express. Anxiety? Happiness? Sadness?
When she, at last, reached the fountain, her heart and mind finally settled into a single emotion-- disappointment. There, she saw no man playing guitar nor singing a song. She heard nothing but the normal sound of busy people trading products for money.
She did not go back home that time. She was too disheartened to head back home, because there she knew nothing would distract her of the sadness that she was feeling. So, instead, she strolled the park. Her mind was occupied and floating. She was anxious, because she did not know what had happened to him during the times she stopped seeing him. She hated herself for what's happening-- hated herself for worrying and getting depressed over someone whom she never even got the chance to be acquainted with.
Settling at a spot far from the crowd, she sat and felt hatred towards herself conquer her body. Tears fell down her cheek continuously, but with every drop her depression didn't lessen, instead it grew larger eating her up from the inside. She hadn't prepared herself for the possibility that he might not be there for her to see. She was too excited and happy to even think of it. Tears continued to fall as she sat in solace-- in silence. However, suddenly, she heard someone sing, and suddenly every nerve, every muscle in her seemed to have stopped. Her heart began to pound. The man was standing beside her. He was smiling down on her and as she lifted her head, she noticed the handkerchief that the man was offering, but she saw more than that. Suddenly, everything was better.
Everything was as it should be.
-------------------
They spent their time together. He told her that he has been long waiting for her and that he has long noticed her and was just too much of a chicken to make his move. Hearing that, Eunize got embarrassed. However she made the great effort of also confessing her feelings.
"Ever since I saw you... No, I mean, I heard you" she started, looking down shyly "I have loved you." The man managed a smile.
"Marcus." He said. "My name's Marcus."
Eunize lifted her head and also said her name, this time she also managed a smile, a smile she has long been entrapped inside of her-- a smile that has now been set free. A true care free smile that can only be brought out by love.
"Eunize, can I continue seeing you?" Marcus asked with honest intentions. He knew that if he were to let go of this chance he would regret it alll the days of his life. Fortunately, Eunize knew that too, so she said yes. And ever since then they had spent most of their times together.
It really is amazing, how just one encounter could change your life forever.
