Unveiling beauty " Ambw"

Our summer romance

Note: your comments & votes mean a lot. & help me rank! *

Nani • 2012

As a gentle, warm breeze filtered through the window of my bedroom on a summer evening of 2012, I was laying on my bed, my mind miles away.

Ki's parents were out of town, and my aunt was vacationing in Jeju. It was the summer of our senior year, and we had planned a group outing to go clubbing that night. Ki and I had mutually decided to put our romantic involvement on hold, to revisit it perhaps in college.

Both of us had priorities set on academic pursuits over the dramas that had unfolded with Jae-hwa's father pressuring Ki for a union.

I had quickly realized that when it came to matters of the heart for Ki and I the lines separating the elite and the ordinary were blurred. The vortex of expectations and societal norms felt suffocating, leaving little room for my desires or his. Yet, I couldn't bring myself to ask Ki to choose me over everything else - that felt too selfish, too demanding.

While Jae-hwa had never hesitated to express her feelings, Ki and I found ourselves in an undefined, yet taunting territory, a flirtatious dance of sorts that we hadn't quite figured out.

Just as I was playing with a water bottle, tossing it up in the air and catching it, Ki sauntered into my room. It was as if he had a sixth sense for catching me in the most awkward of moments.

"Aren't you getting ready with the others?" His voice broke my concentration, causing me to fumble slightly with the water bottle. I glanced at him, noticing the curiosity dancing in his eyes.

"Ha-na is. They are more her friends than they are mine. I'll meet up with them in a bit," I replied, my gaze drifting back to my water bottle.

He gave a nod of understanding, his attention now shifting to a magazine lying on my bedside table. "What do you crave?" He read out the cover story headline, the question hanging in the air between us.

"Hmm?" I queried, slightly confused.

He repeated the question, this time lifting the magazine for me to see. The simplicity of his smile and the genuine interest in his eyes were disarming. I playfully tossed the water bottle towards him, and he caught it effortlessly.

Finding a spot next to me on the bed, he held my gaze, waiting for an answer. The question felt heavy, layered, like there was something more hidden beneath the words.

Did he want me to admit that I craved him? Or was I overanalyzing? Lost in the ambiguity of his question, I found myself teetering between giving a casual response and spilling out my deepest desires. This was the dance we found ourselves entwined in, a dance where every step held a deeper meaning, a dance that spoke volumes without uttering a word.

Still caught off guard by his probing question, I found myself gazing at the half-finished cup of tea sitting on my bedside table, now lukewarm. My fingers absentmindedly played with the spoon resting in the cup, the tinkling sound filling the room as I grappled with a response.

Looking at Ki, I offered a perplexed sigh. His chuckle reverberated around the room before he clarified, "I meant, in life, what do you crave most? What do you desire to do?"

Feeling the rush of embarrassment tinting my cheeks, I let out a small, nervous laugh, my gaze dropping back to my cup of tea. "Ah, so that's what you meant... I'm not quite sure, to be honest. I have this longing to be successful, yet I also want to be happy. Sometimes, these two are intertwined, other times they seem to be at odds with each other. You can be successful yet unhappy, or happy but not successful."