Saturday, July 9, 2011
The Language of Love
The Language of Love
Do you believe there is a language called love? Well, I never knew there was one, until I experienced it first hand, by myself.
I was still at campus when I found the most miraculous feeling ever. It was the time when I first met Ariel Cho. She was a beautiful American born Asian. She had a mixed parentage of Korean and Spanish. She has big, dark eyes. I on the other hand, was a pure Korean guy, but had been living in America for the whole of my life. Basically, we are both from the Asian culture. I remembered oh-so-clearly the day I first saw her.
I was walking around the campus compound, finding a decent place to study. I found a bench half occupied by another human being; a girl with her grey hoodie up, covering her flowing dark hair. She was doing her own work, busy writing her assignment, didn’t know I was standing next to her. I decided to ask her whether was the side of the bench was empty. “Hey, is this seat taken?” I asked. But there was no reply. So, I decided to tap on her shoulder. The girl turned to me. That was the first time I saw her eyes, those beautiful dark brown eyes. “I…erm, is this seat taken?” I stuttered, indicating the empty seat. Why am I so nervous out of the sudden? She gave the most beautiful smile I had ever seen and nodded. I smiled back at her and took a seat beside her, leaving a very huge gap in between the both of us.
She continued writing her notes. I wanted to continue my own work, but, my eyes kept wandering towards her. Her headphones popped into her ears. Soon, I did not bother doing my own work, and kept stealing glances from the corner of my eyes to look at her. But unfortunately, she did not notice it. So, I observed her while she studied. Soon, I noticed those little things about her that somehow attracted me. Like, how she would chew on the end of her pencil when she was frustrated. I wanted to strike a conversation with her, but I didn’t know how. Soon, I decided a way. “Hey, can I borrow a pen?” I asked. But again, she didn’t look up. So, I tapped on her shoulder, and asked again, showing through hand signs. She smiled and took out a pen for me. Before she could turn her gaze back to her book, I asked her another question, along with some easy hand signs. “What are you listening to?” pointing to her headphones. She pointed to her headphones, and put her index finger on her lips which I thought it indicates it’s a secret. I took out my general notebook and scribbled:
Is it a secret?
and showed it to her. She smiled and took the notebook out of my hands and scribbled something beneath my writing:
Yeap. It’s something very personal to me. =)
She returned me the book. I scribbled something else:
Oh, I see. By the way, I’m Paul Chang. What’s your name?
She took the notebook and scribbled her name:
My name’s Ariel, Ariel Cho
I stared at her writing, I stared at her name. Her name imprinted onto my mind, sticking like glue. ‘Ariel…’ I said in a very low and soft voice, very close to a whisper. I continued to scribble something on the notebook:
Can I have your phone number? I really want to meet you again. =)
She read whatever I had written and gave me a sad smile. She had written something in reply. She held up the notebook for me to read:
Sorry. I don’t have a phone let alone a phone number to give.
“Oh…” was all I had replied. After I had read it, Ariel started writing again. When she was done, she gave me back my notebook. I read what she had written:
But, we could meet back here again tomorrow. =)
I gave a laugh when I read that and turned my glance to her. She gave me a sweet smile in return. “Promise?” I asked. She gave a nod. Then, we both heard the bell rang. Quickly, we both grabbed our stuff and flee to the inner building of the campus.
The next day, I brought my sticky post-it stack to use instead of writing on my notebook. When I reached to the place we had promised to meet, Ariel was already there. I sat down beside her, this time; the gap between us was smaller. I waved at her. She gave a shy smile and continued to read her book. I took my pen and wrote on a piece of the post-it paper and stick it on her book:
Am I late?
She smiled and shook her head. I gave her the post-it stack and a pen. This was her reply:
Of course not, I’m just early. =)
For the whole time there, we had our conversation like this, through writing. Through this, I fell for her. I fell head over heels for her. I love her smile, her eyes, and especially that little twinkle in her eye. I noticed very minor things of her. She had this small freckle beneath her right eye, she would be wearing her iPod headphones all the time, and that she never spoken out loud before, well, maybe to me. But still, talking to her, but in this case, ‘writing’ to her makes me feel happy. Through the post-it papers and a pen, we talked about everything under the sun; music, studies, movies, teachers, fashion and all sort of other things. We continued like this for nearly 3 weeks already. We promised to meet back at the same place and same time. Every time we met, the gap between us when we sat became smaller and smaller until suddenly, no more.
After bringing my yellow post-it stack, she decided to bring hers too, only hers are purple. I remembered the time we wrote so many things and stick it on each of our notebooks. Soon, both of our notebooks were filled with yellow and purple post-its. Soon, we found another way to entertain ourselves. We wrote like so many post-its and stick those onto our shoulder, face, hands, shirts and so on so forth. We really had fun then. Sometimes, she would just lie on my shoulder while both of us write on the post-its and stick it anywhere we wanted. I really loved those times.
One day, I got curious again. I wanted to know what she was always listening to in her iPod. So, I wrote it on my post-it:
Hey, what are you listening on your iPod?
I took the paper and stick it onto her notebook. She pointed to her headphones and gave me a knowing look. I nodded in reply. I thought she was going to not let me hear it. But to my surprise, she took both her headphones off and gave it to me. I accepted her headphones and put both into my ears. I waited for a song to come up, but heard nothing. I took both of them out again and gave a quizzical look. “But, there’s nothing?” I said and I looked up at her. Again, she gave me this sad smile and showed me sign language which I did not understand. She took her post-it and written something on it. She took the paper and stuck it onto my palm. This was what it read:
I am deaf and dumb. I could not hear anything or speak anything since the day I was born. I’m sorry for not telling you this sooner. It’s not because of anything. It’s just that, I have no other friends. You are my first friend. In this short time, I had grown to love you.
I was stunned at first but then, I thought it does not matter whether she could talk or not. All it matters is that, I had grown to love her, and now, I knew that she does have feelings for me, too. I took my post-it and written something on top. I decided to push my luck more and kissed her cheek. I stuck the post-it paper onto her notebook. It read:
You’re still beautiful…
*Credits to a video from YouTube, Jubilee Project-The Language of Love*
© Mabel Soong
Do you believe there is a language called love? Well, I never knew there was one, until I experienced it first hand, by myself.
I was still at campus when I found the most miraculous feeling ever. It was the time when I first met Ariel Cho. She was a beautiful American born Asian. She had a mixed parentage of Korean and Spanish. She has big, dark eyes. I on the other hand, was a pure Korean guy, but had been living in America for the whole of my life. Basically, we are both from the Asian culture. I remembered oh-so-clearly the day I first saw her.
I was walking around the campus compound, finding a decent place to study. I found a bench half occupied by another human being; a girl with her grey hoodie up, covering her flowing dark hair. She was doing her own work, busy writing her assignment, didn’t know I was standing next to her. I decided to ask her whether was the side of the bench was empty. “Hey, is this seat taken?” I asked. But there was no reply. So, I decided to tap on her shoulder. The girl turned to me. That was the first time I saw her eyes, those beautiful dark brown eyes. “I…erm, is this seat taken?” I stuttered, indicating the empty seat. Why am I so nervous out of the sudden? She gave the most beautiful smile I had ever seen and nodded. I smiled back at her and took a seat beside her, leaving a very huge gap in between the both of us.
She continued writing her notes. I wanted to continue my own work, but, my eyes kept wandering towards her. Her headphones popped into her ears. Soon, I did not bother doing my own work, and kept stealing glances from the corner of my eyes to look at her. But unfortunately, she did not notice it. So, I observed her while she studied. Soon, I noticed those little things about her that somehow attracted me. Like, how she would chew on the end of her pencil when she was frustrated. I wanted to strike a conversation with her, but I didn’t know how. Soon, I decided a way. “Hey, can I borrow a pen?” I asked. But again, she didn’t look up. So, I tapped on her shoulder, and asked again, showing through hand signs. She smiled and took out a pen for me. Before she could turn her gaze back to her book, I asked her another question, along with some easy hand signs. “What are you listening to?” pointing to her headphones. She pointed to her headphones, and put her index finger on her lips which I thought it indicates it’s a secret. I took out my general notebook and scribbled:
Is it a secret?
and showed it to her. She smiled and took the notebook out of my hands and scribbled something beneath my writing:
Yeap. It’s something very personal to me. =)
She returned me the book. I scribbled something else:
Oh, I see. By the way, I’m Paul Chang. What’s your name?
She took the notebook and scribbled her name:
My name’s Ariel, Ariel Cho
I stared at her writing, I stared at her name. Her name imprinted onto my mind, sticking like glue. ‘Ariel…’ I said in a very low and soft voice, very close to a whisper. I continued to scribble something on the notebook:
Can I have your phone number? I really want to meet you again. =)
She read whatever I had written and gave me a sad smile. She had written something in reply. She held up the notebook for me to read:
Sorry. I don’t have a phone let alone a phone number to give.
“Oh…” was all I had replied. After I had read it, Ariel started writing again. When she was done, she gave me back my notebook. I read what she had written:
But, we could meet back here again tomorrow. =)
I gave a laugh when I read that and turned my glance to her. She gave me a sweet smile in return. “Promise?” I asked. She gave a nod. Then, we both heard the bell rang. Quickly, we both grabbed our stuff and flee to the inner building of the campus.
The next day, I brought my sticky post-it stack to use instead of writing on my notebook. When I reached to the place we had promised to meet, Ariel was already there. I sat down beside her, this time; the gap between us was smaller. I waved at her. She gave a shy smile and continued to read her book. I took my pen and wrote on a piece of the post-it paper and stick it on her book:
Am I late?
She smiled and shook her head. I gave her the post-it stack and a pen. This was her reply:
Of course not, I’m just early. =)
For the whole time there, we had our conversation like this, through writing. Through this, I fell for her. I fell head over heels for her. I love her smile, her eyes, and especially that little twinkle in her eye. I noticed very minor things of her. She had this small freckle beneath her right eye, she would be wearing her iPod headphones all the time, and that she never spoken out loud before, well, maybe to me. But still, talking to her, but in this case, ‘writing’ to her makes me feel happy. Through the post-it papers and a pen, we talked about everything under the sun; music, studies, movies, teachers, fashion and all sort of other things. We continued like this for nearly 3 weeks already. We promised to meet back at the same place and same time. Every time we met, the gap between us when we sat became smaller and smaller until suddenly, no more.
After bringing my yellow post-it stack, she decided to bring hers too, only hers are purple. I remembered the time we wrote so many things and stick it on each of our notebooks. Soon, both of our notebooks were filled with yellow and purple post-its. Soon, we found another way to entertain ourselves. We wrote like so many post-its and stick those onto our shoulder, face, hands, shirts and so on so forth. We really had fun then. Sometimes, she would just lie on my shoulder while both of us write on the post-its and stick it anywhere we wanted. I really loved those times.
One day, I got curious again. I wanted to know what she was always listening to in her iPod. So, I wrote it on my post-it:
Hey, what are you listening on your iPod?
I took the paper and stick it onto her notebook. She pointed to her headphones and gave me a knowing look. I nodded in reply. I thought she was going to not let me hear it. But to my surprise, she took both her headphones off and gave it to me. I accepted her headphones and put both into my ears. I waited for a song to come up, but heard nothing. I took both of them out again and gave a quizzical look. “But, there’s nothing?” I said and I looked up at her. Again, she gave me this sad smile and showed me sign language which I did not understand. She took her post-it and written something on it. She took the paper and stuck it onto my palm. This was what it read:
I am deaf and dumb. I could not hear anything or speak anything since the day I was born. I’m sorry for not telling you this sooner. It’s not because of anything. It’s just that, I have no other friends. You are my first friend. In this short time, I had grown to love you.
I was stunned at first but then, I thought it does not matter whether she could talk or not. All it matters is that, I had grown to love her, and now, I knew that she does have feelings for me, too. I took my post-it and written something on top. I decided to push my luck more and kissed her cheek. I stuck the post-it paper onto her notebook. It read:
You’re still beautiful…
*Credits to a video from YouTube, Jubilee Project-The Language of Love*
© Mabel Soong
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