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UNDERSTANDING IS GREATER than love; that was the lesson my mother used to continually pour into my absent minded father. She taught us that to love is to understand and to understand is to love. It's crazy how a string of words could affect one's liking for upon hearing them, my heart knew he was the one to love. Marven understood my silence when others couldn't understand my words.

Few weeks back, I was requested to bring a set of freshly baked cookies from the school canteen to our class, but unfortunately tripped over my shoelace on the way and allowed the snacks to be devoured by the upswept floor. The entire class and its teacher accused me of my clumsiness. That is, excluding him.

Marven was able to tell I was distracted. He knew that my mind was clogged up with my mother's confession from the previous night. How she spoke about her hatred for her husband and the only reason their marriage still exists was for the sake of me. He knew how I faulted myself for being a burden. He knew I thought about the blemishes on my back that my father has so kindly left me. He knew how even though the bruises on my skin may fade; the ones on my heart would remain with me till my deathbed.

He knew things that others didn't.

Even when I don't utter a sound or display my emotions, he somehow always knows when I'm distraught and the reason behind it. He let me be and don't push me into telling him. He spent that entire week trying to make me smile and leave my traumatic family encounters at the back of my head.

Funny thing, when I first met him, his cotton candy words and actions did not appeal to my taste. Yet, as time passed by, I was craving for more of it.

Soon, we became closer and I found myself sharing fragments of me that I hadn't allow anyone to see, all these years. I was even comfortable with spilling to him about the part of me that I considered devious; the part that suffered from disturbing thoughts.

Unlike most guys, he didn't find amusement in sharing my discomfiture and protected every tale I told him inside his empathetic heart. He knew all my secrets, some negative ones as well. But I am not worried. I know even if things between Ramona and him go downhill; he will still protect my secret. I know he will never use them to dishonor me, in any situation.

Little does he know, he's a secret of mine too.