"You turned out to be more than a blessing."
A man with endless charms and captivating skills pursues the woman of his dreams. Almost everyday, he buys her flowers at a particular flower shop. But as time goes on, what if he falls in love with the f...
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I stood tiredly, my numb hands placed on my waist, as I eyed the Christmas tree I just securely put up. It wasn't entirely an easy thing to do, but it was worth it. Even if this tree right here was only less than fifty bucks, it was stable and firm, not so tall (unfortunately, like me) and it was pretty on its own even without decorations; opposite to some higher-priced Christmas trees I saw on online shops, which were wobbly and fragile.
Looking at the tree made me feel like I was taken down a road filled with memories when I was younger. Here in the States, my family's tradition every Christmas usually stayed the same. Our closest cousins, together with a few other relatives of mine, would stay in our place to celebrate the event. It was so fun, as I was able to collect so many memorable moments that I'd never even dare to forget. As I grew older, our visitors lessened. My cousins (all of whom were older than me except for one) moved to Korea, they all had different reasons; some came there to pursue their study and to learn more of our race's true culture, some came there to simply start a new life.
It happened so fast, almost felt like only yesterday I was playing Snakes and Ladders with them, watching my mom and my aunt cook shepherd's pie, or casually joining my dad in fishing in our little pond in the backyard. Now, well, it was only me. The framed picture of my whole family sat on the round, wooden table in the living room, where my television was placed a couple of feet away. So every time I watched shows, it was inevitable to ignore those pieces of hanging remembrance of my life back then, which had changed over the years.
The empty space in the corner of the table was where I once placed Elena's framed photo. It was a horrible photo since it was meant for her graduation display and her senior book as well, but I thought the person was amazing, beautiful. Elena was American, but not really the typical teenager you'd find somewhere in crazy school parties hosted by rich, free kids. She was well-behaved, polite and soft-spoken. She was crazy ambitious it made me laugh, like, bringing books when I took her on dates. It was completely fine at first, until it became overboard. But I was glad she chose herself first, because as her supportive boyfriend that time, I didn't want to block her way to become the best version of herself.
I remembered meeting her for the first time in a summer camp outside of Los Angeles when I was still in my senior year in high school (tenth grade) and she was in eighth grade. When I first asked her out, she shamelessly squealed in happiness because as she confessed, she had been admiring me ever since her freshmen year. She wasn't exactly showy, especially in social media (afraid to entice a stalker), but she was out-of-this-world attractive. I admired every little thing she did, whether it'd be making sure to check on me whenever I was with my friends, getting shy due to my endless shower of compliments whenever she bought herself a nice dress, murmuring about food as she slept, or even the way she became softer every time she was around me.
We were dating for two years, through ups and downs, until she was given an opportunity to study in London—basically the place she was always eager to visit. She was the one who broke things off, and I was trying so hard to convince myself I was her favorite place, but she stated she wanted to be more than what she was, that she wanted to grow and discover things ahead of her knowledge. After the breakup, I had this feeling to also be the best version of myself, because why not? By applying that mindset and my inner willpower, I was able to pull myself out of the dirt and became much better.
