A White Lily

 

 

Long time ago, when I was still feed by some stories about Greek Gods, when I chose to believe in everything my grandmother told me before bed, I had my own thoughts. She always told me about the beauty of a flower, the one she adored a lot; White lily.

I thought about her being insanely stupid because of her one-sided love toward the flower. I called it one sided because it seemed like only her who was deeply in love with that white creature, and the flower—being on its nature, would keep staying mute, unspoken—.

She believed that white lilies are formed by the tears of Hera—the mother of Hercules—when she was feeding her son. The milk spilt out and it made a milky way on earth, and it became a bunch of white flowers which soon is known as white lily. What a good story before sleep! And great, I believed in it.

My grandmother told me that white lilies are also the symbol of Mary’s purity. Holy Mama, I also believed in it. There’s nothing more magical than telling a good story before bedtime to a six year-old kid, isn’t it? And worse, I kept on believing about it till I was seventeen. The worst part is, I am twenty-four now, and I still buy white lilies once in a month.

Grandma passed away when I was eighteen, a year after I realized that all the fake folks she’d been telling me the whole times were just the sweets before I met the tooth fairies in my dreams. And hell, tooth fairies aren’t even real. But I really loved my grandma, I cried a lot during her funeral. She asked me to buy her white lilies in a fantastic amount, and I was glad I had enough money that originally was about to be used as my college tuition. I loved her really much, did I?

I did love her till I didn’t realize that white lilies are also dangerous. You know what? These flowers are suffocating you slowly. White lilies are famous of their specialty to tie the oxygen and release more carbon dioxide, which was worse, because my grandmother was ill and she kept on inhaling the scent. I was late to realize it and once I found about the fact, I got mad at her. I threw all the flowers. I even managed to burn the rests. I didn’t obey her request for visiting her grave with a bouquet of that flower and just replaced it with red roses. Well, I’m a good kid. I wouldn’t let the flowers kill my already dead grandmother inside her grave. Haha.

But then again, my grandmother seemed to have another trick for making me fall in love with the flower. I don’t know what she had whispered to God—well, she’s with Him now, right?—but one thing I know for sure, I have become the part of white lilies fanboys organization. Yup, I’m a guy.

My name is Byun Baekhyun, soon to be twenty five year-old, and I just fell in love for the first time. The real love, the love between a man and a woman, not between a grandson to his grandmother.

 I know it’s kind of late. While the rest of my friends are now busy fooling around with their girlfriends, I am here busy to keep my mind sane every time I see her. I hated her, really. I hated her for entering my safe zone when I least expected it. I hated her even more when I knew her name; Song Lily.

Were her parents drunk? I know it’s not her fault, but lily is just… You know it right? That’s why I hated her. She had a beautiful black hair, and she still owns it. She is beautiful. Who is Hera? Who is Aphrodite? I just know Lily, Song Lily.

She is two years younger than me. I met her at a coffee shop when she was alone, probably finishing her job. The clumsy and awkward girl in an apron, who approached me with a wide smile plastered on her angelic face, is my Song Lily. I claimed her as mine that nobody can lay a finger on her. Overprotective aren’t I?

First impression: She was clumsy as hell.

Second impression: She was awkward. Duh.

Third impression: She was annoying.

Fourth impression: She was addicting.

I kept coming at her workplace—the café—and annoyed the hell out of her. She couldn’t help it, right? I was the customer. It continued till I found the fact that she worked for her family. She didn’t make her workplace as a playground, and I was touched. That’s why I stopped annoying her and later became her guardian.

I’m not kidding. I kept being by her side till she’s used to my presence, and I even brought her to my house and meet my parents. Brilliant, I introduced her as my girlfriend and she was mad at me.

The pretty girl ignored me the whole day, she rejected my calls, she didn’t reply to my messages, and she didn’t even care whether I visited her or not. But, it didn’t take long until she ran onto me, crying like a baby in my tight embrace when she found out about her mother’s illness which was leukemia.

She sobbed, she told me everything about how hard her life had actually been. She kept crying until her pretty face looked swollen, but was still pretty for me. It was hard for her to accept the fact that her mother would no longer stay healthy as she always wished, and it was even harder to see her face that remained me of sadness and sorrow.

I hugged her, I cherished her. I didn’t care about anything anymore. I only knew about her, her tears, and her hopes. I promised I would forever stay beside her, even when the deadliest tornado attacks us, I would never leave her alone.

And that’s when I saw her crying alone in a cemetery, wearing a white dress and a white lily. Only one. She was crying rain when I got there, kneeling in front of a grave that I knew it was her mother’s. Her mom also loved lily, that’s why she named her daughter like that.

After letting her crying and mumbling some words I couldn’t understand, I came to approach her. I whispered something that made her eyes rounded twice larger than its original size, cute. I smiled, reaching her hand and reassured her about my decision, and I could see her smiling softly.

I kissed her in front of her mother’s grave, for the first time, with tears and also choke. But I didn’t really care, I loved her. I mumbled to the silent gravestone that I wanted to marry this girl, making her life becomes more beautiful, and living our life beautifully with two sons and two daughters.

Now, I’m finally standing here, waiting for her to come and approach me. In front of God, in front of the people who give their supports toward me. And she’s coming, with her father on her side, wearing a beautiful white gown and some white roses on her hands. My lily, my white lily, my goddess, my wife…

 

 

THE END