That would lead us to the next photo where we were both standing on our bed doing comical poses. I couldn’t help but chuckle looking at how silly we looked in the photos.  I was posing as if I was running with one of my leg in mid-air while you were acting as if I was going to catch you with a shocked expression on your face. That picture was taken on the next day of my graduation when we officially moved in to stay in the apartment to stay together before our wedding. I remembered how shocked you looked when I finally pushed open the front door and when you stepped inside, you couldn’t stop looking around in awe. Our apartment was actually a penthouse with two levels. The first level consisted of the living room, kitchen, bathroom and balcony whereas the second level had three bedrooms and another bathroom.

This house contained the most memories for we had spent one whole year together in this place. I remembered how I had come home from work one day to see you hovering over the stove. You had wanted to cook for me, knowing how tired I was from work but in the end, dinner was rather inedible thanks to your lack of culinary skills. You wanted to throw it away but I refused to let you do that since it was your hard work and forced myself to swallow every single thing that you had cooked. And I ended up vomiting everything out that night.

 Those memories were bittersweet as we had most of our fights in here. It couldn’t be helped since we were finally staying together which meant more interactions and more friction. Our arguments were mostly childish ones. Like how we could not agree on which channel to watch and you ended up stomping up the stairs into our bedroom to watch your favourite cartoon series while I watched the news in the living room. However, the most unforgettable fight would of course be the one we had when we were deciding on our destination for our honeymoon. We were both sitting in the living room and looking at the laptop that was on the coffee table.

“Look at Maldives. It’s so beautiful!”you clicked on a tab to change the website.

“But Paris is the city of love! It’ll be so romantic if we were to go there together,”I suggested as I grabbed hold of the mouse to change the website.

“Paris is so cliché! Everybody goes to Paris for their honeymoon,”you looked at me with a bored face.

“There’s nothing to do at Maldives. All we can do is stare at the fishes and each other,”I explained.

“That’s the whole point of going on a honeymoon! Spending quality time with each other!”you exclaimed.

“We can at least do something productive while spending time together! We can go to the many museums and visit the Eiffel Tower,”I showed you the picture of the Eiffel Tower.

“But we’ll be so distracted with everything to really spend some quality time together,”you argued.

“Hey, Paris is a good place to do your shopping,”I smiled, trying to tempt you.

“No, I don’t want to shop on my honeymoon! I want to just relax after my final year in university!”you insisted.

“I’m not sitting on a plane for hours just to sit on a beach for one whole week,”I stated firmly.

“Well, I’m not sitting on a plane for hours just to look at art pieces either!”you said in an equally firm tone.

“Can’t you just give in to me for once?”I sighed.

“Then why can’t you be the one giving in?”you asked me.

“That’s because we only go on a honeymoon ONCE and I want to be able to enjoy myself!”I replied.

“Same reason here!”you raised an eyebrow at me.

And that was it. It became a full blown fight and we refused to speak to each other that night. Even though I didn’t get kicked out of our bedroom, there was still this thick scent of tension in the air. I feel rather stupid thinking about the fight back then. I wasn’t able to go to both countries since I had work commitments and I had to be so stubborn to insist on Paris. If I had known better, I would have just settled on Maldives without any fight. Even if I had to spend my honeymoon in a pig sty, being with you was all that matters.

In the middle of the night, I woke up since I wasn’t able to sleep too well. I felt bad for arguing with you and decided to book air tickets to Maldives while you were asleep to surprise you. After doing so, I fell back asleep and in the morning when I woke up, I saw that you were not in bed. I washed up and went downstairs to look for you. You were sitting in the living room, watching television. As I neared the sofa, I reached out to hug you from behind. You jumped in shock and turned to look at me.

“Good morning, baby! I’m sorry about yesterday. Let’s stop this cold war, shall we?”I nuzzled my nose on your neck.

“Stop it, it’s ticklish,”you laughed.

“Forgive me?”I looked up to stare into those big beautiful eyes.

“Yes, of course! Come, sit beside me,”you smiled.

I walked over and sat down, ready to surprise you.

“Baby, I’ve something to tell you,”I said.

“What?”you asked, eyes twinkling.

“I bought tickets to Maldives!”I grinned.

Your eyes widened and I smiled, knowing I had succeeded.

“WHAT?! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME EARLIER?! I JUST BOOKED TICKETS FOR PARIS!”you exclaimed.

“YOU WHAT?!”I blurted.

So, in the end, we cancelled both since they were for the same day and rebooked tickets to Mauritius which we had decided by pinning a world map on the wall and throwing a dart at it.

Thinking of how silly we had been, I could only laugh with tears flowing down my cheeks. How I have missed being silly with you. I missed every single moment with you. How you would wake me up with a kiss every morning and how I would find you with your head buried in your school books at the study table. How you cried when the male lead in the drama was being a total jerk to the female lead and I had to lend you my shoulder to cry on. How you would always love to destress by taking a bubble bath, leaving me all alone in the big penthouse.

How we would have pillow fights when we were bored. How we fixed a tent on our balcony and camped under the stars. How we built a fort in our bedroom and watched movies using our portable DVD player. I miss the annoying things you did too. Like how you don’t pack your study table. How you leave your things lying around and would shout for me to look for it with you. How when you were taking clothes out of the wardrobe, other clothes would fall out and you would just throw it back in without folding it. How you don’t dry your feet after coming of the bathroom and leave wet footprints all over the house.

Every single thing that was not even significant to others was important to me and I hold it dearly in my heart. I miss you, Haemin. Can we meet again some day?

End of Chapter

DarkAngel