/tre/
The color drained from her face in horror and she was filled with embarrassment as she realized she had just been trying to flirt with a man who was the community's newest priest.
Fiorella jumped off the place she was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, and straightened out her dress, before taking a step forward and grabbing his hand in both of hers as was a custom in her country's religion. Bringing his hand to her lips, she kissed it as a sign of respect, saying a stream of apologies all the while. "I'm very very sorry, Father. I had no idea you were the new priest. I really didn't mean to disrespect you in any way." Now she was nowhere near as informal with him as she was when she saw him for the first time that day. She couldn't deny that she thought he was handsome and he had captured her attention.
He pulled his hand away from her and shot her an awkward smile. In Korea, he wasn't used to that kind of thing. And even the level of respect was new to him, since he had been living in the seminary his whole life. It was up until now that he was part of an actual community. "That's fine." He told her with reassurance.
But Fiorella shook her head frantically, continuing to apologize. He didn't seem to realize how bad she could have been scolded, had someone else seen her talking to him so informally. "Its not okay. I'm so embarrassed, father. Please forgive me." As she continued blabbering, her cheeks turned a bright red. The more she apologized, the more embarrassed she became, but she couldn't stop herself.
"I forgive you. Please stop worrying." He nodded, the corners of his lips curling nervously, if only to get her to stop with her apologies. He was embarrassed of the whole ordeal as well and did not want it to go on longer than it had to.
Still, she was about to continue apologizing when they heard footsteps coming from the entrance of the activities room and they both turned in that direction. Soon they saw father Cesar emerging from the room where the party was taking place, and he was alone. The other women who had attended remained at the party. With a polite smile on his face, he called out to the young priest, his voice booming and loud. "Father Matteo, I see you already met our little Fiorellita. She's the pride and beauty of our village." He gestured to the teenage girl who looked down at her feet shyly. He spoke of her with so much pride that Jongdae fathomed the two of them must have been close.
Jongdae nodded politely in agreement, but he didn't mention their incident from earlier. He didn't see any reason why anyone needed to find out since it had been an honest mistake. Especially Father Cesar who would probably scold the poor girl. "Yes, she's a very nice girl." Jongdae said.
He also thought he was absolutely beautiful, as Father Cesar had mentioned with pride. But he didn't think it was his place to agree with something like that, something pertaining to more mundane matters. A priest had to be neutral and completely devoted and loyal to the Lord. There was no room in his mind for opinions about women, or even men for that matter.
"Her mother is Antonella Vanella, you met her earlier." Father Cesar explained with interest, referring to one of the women who had been at the welcoming party earlier. Jongdae couldn't quite remember which of the women she was, since he had been introduced to many people, but Father Cesar knew that she had been the woman who had openly called the new priest handsome. "They own a home style restaurant nearby, and that's where I have my meals every day. You will be eating there as well. Antonella and her daughter have done a lot for this church."
Again, the young priest nodded.
"I can show you to your room now, if you'd like. You probably want to rest." Father Cesar looked at the backpack Jongdae was carrying over his shoulder, and he could also see it in his eyes. The trip had been long from South Korea to Argentina and Jongdae was very tired. The foreign priest agreed with a silent, yet grateful, nod of his head. All he wanted at that point was to sleep off the jet lag he had, especially considering that he would give his first religious service the next morning at eight. The last thing he wanted was to be so tired that he would do something wrong. It would leave a bad impression on the people he was currently trying so hard to impress. He wanted them to like him, and so far he was being accepted and welcomed into their village.
The young girl brightened at the mention of his new room. "I can show him to his room and you can go back to the party, father." She offered innocently, raising her hand up in the air like a student trying to get attention from her teacher. She didn't even think anything more about the offer, again not realizing that in their religion and culture, something like that was looked down upon. "My mother and I do the cleaning for the church and I made sure the room was extra perfect for father Kim."
Father Cesar's smile dropped in an instant, unamused by her offer. "Fiorella, it is not proper for a man and a beautiful young woman like you to be together in a room alone, even if he is a priest. You have to be careful what you say. Things get around this village quickly." He scolded her in an authoritative voice and was quick to shoot her down.
"Yes father." She nodded, her smile was erased from her face. She immediately shrunk in her spot and apologized by lowering her head. "I'm sorry. I'll just stay here and let you show Father Kim to his new room."
The older priest patted Jongdae on the shoulder reassuringly and then walked ahead down the side of the church, gesturing for him to follow. There was a small path where they could see a small building in the distance, where Jongdae assumed he would be living with Father Cesar. It was gated off by chain link fence from the rest of the church and most of it was hidden away by trees and other foliage. Fiorella stayed behind, by the entrance of the activities room, and Jongdae shot her a few stolen glances over his shoulder while she continued to wait for someone by the entrance. Father Cesar was oblivious to it all, since he walked ahead of the young priest, giving him information about the church, the community, and what his duties would be as the priest of Valle Daza. His words went in one ear and out the other, since Jongdae kept looking towards the beautiful girl who had stayed behind.
Their eyes met a few times, but she looked away shyly when it happened, smiling to herself.
Despite knowing he was a priest, she was curious about him and wanted to know more about the new holy man in town.
-
i was gonna write for roulette, in celebration of the fact that its been one year since i started writing my exo lotto series. but im so tired, so i decided to just adapt from my "paradiso" story to post on here, since i have enough material for twenty chapters. more if i really edit and plan things properly.
i know its a lot of exposition still, but i promise it will start to get better soon. as for now, we see that our seventeen year old main character is quite flirty until she found out he was a priest.
thank you all loads for reading and supporting me.
-clary
