xx. the renaissance (I)

Villa Strassburger, 1975

Avenue Strassburger, 14800 Deauville, France

[ strauss ii - rosen aus dem süden (roses from the south) ]

CHAEYOUNG.

A pleasant smile plucking up the morning sunflowers to breathe over the newborn day has gestured a warm feeling from my heart. With the sweet tunes of the french birds singing the song of the sunrise, Jennie got out early to pick up some flowers to arrange from our hectare wide garden. Now, of course, as the nicest wife she ever has I drove myself out of bed and accompanied her, amidst the drowsiness of my body.

"Why can't we just hire a gardener to pluck fresh flowers for you to arrange?" I protested as I try to be present as I could. My stance was sloppy, I couldn't care less since the heaviness in my eyes were enough burden.

"A one hectare backyard with no chance of experiencing the wellness of picking flowers in the morning? Now where's the fun in that?" Jennie rejected my idea as she fondled her hand along her beloved flowering children.

"We're not actually on our teenage years now are we? You're still pretty vulnerable with your asthma. Too much work would trigger that." My voice emphasized concern.

"And we're not actually a hundred years old. For Pete's sake i just turned 30 and you're treating me like a grandma." She mocked my sincerity. Jennie Kim has always been a stubborn lady, even if you've put a ring on her finger her self-epitome would still be on her flesh.

"I'm your wife, what else should I treat you like?" I puffed sarcasm.

"We are not married." She deadpanned, with no mercy.

"I was trying to be sweet, Jennie Kim." I prompted with my lips pursing at the end of my sentence.

"Not when you're acting like a mom rather than a wife." She scoffed.

"I am a mom, and so are you." The tone I implied was more of a reminder.

"Oh. Right." As if it she just have known that we adopted a french child and that she wasn't so ecstatic to the point she haven't slept for a week before her arrival.

"In that case you should turn your concern more at that child of ours." Jennie stands adequately as her eyes looked at the direction of our house. Then I followed her gaze and saw a little girl in her night PJs squishing her dazed eyes as a pout appeared from . "She seems to have woken up." Jennie added as I continued to look at the angel who was guilelessly standing on our back porch.
 

I felt a squibble down my heart as I called her name. "Ella, come to mommy!" I bended my knees as I opened my arms to greet her with a hug. Then she ran, as the wind tangled her long ebony hair from the back then with a hazy smile, she reached for me out in the fields and gave me an embrace.

"Good morning baby, how's sleep?" I asked as I put her in my arms and raised her up to carry. "You two left me in bed." She said dearly. My wife and I looked at each other, pushing on who's fault was it. But Jennie drops her basket of flowers and moved closer to Ella as she cupped her face. "I'm sorry, baby. We didn't want to wake you up." Sweetly, my wife reasoned.

"Wanna pick up some flowers?" I gave an invite and with a smile tracting her dimple she nodded in agreement. And just like that we spent our early morning picking up sunflowers.

It's been five years since Jennie and I settled in Deauville, France. A little town that had greater liberty than itself, it was the perfect place to settle down. When Jennie turned 25 on a fluttering evening she landed one knee to the ground and asked me to settle in and build a family with her. Of course, I cried.

"So will you say yes or you'll just keep crying?" 

I scoffed a chuckle at her words as I tried to control my tears from falling. "And you still wouldn't let me have my moment."

"I mean, I'm just making sure." She playfully shrugged.

"Then it's a yes." 

"YES?!"  She quickly stood up as her orbs were excitingly wide. "YES!" Then she threw a fist up in the air, as if she have just conquered the Roman empire. She was that happy. 

Although we couldn't get married officially, just because this timeframe still has huge grudges for homouality to thrive, but still she had me as a wife. And that's for a lifetime.

After what we've been through, amidst of the universe's intervention to kill me and the love I had for Jennie, we managed to find ourselves back together regardless of the difference of our lifetime.

We now had the chance to grow old together.

...

The middle of the day came in a brief moment. Hence, to think, all days in Deauville has been fleeting too fast. Like an ever perfect daydream to be vanquished. I was murmuring these thoughts in the balcony as I  was casually sightseeing the view with my silk pink robe taking comfort of my restless body while the english tea provided the strong and bruised taste that I needed to shake myself off my drowsiness. I've been in hectic nuisance this week since I have booked two concertos at the Toulon Opéra and I needed more rendering with the pieces I had to play. Thankfully they've given me this weekend off to go back home and rest with my family. 

I was at the brink of these thoughts when familiar hands graced the surface of my waist as it locked me from behind. "Why is my lady drowning herself in deep thinking?" So dearly, she spoke underneath my ears with her chin resting on top of my shoulder. Her evident verbal caress took my heart into safety, into calmness, into a haven only she can provide. So I grimaced a smile. "I'm just trying to appreciate the reality we have right now, because this is too perfect to be true." I confessed as I tilted my head to her side meeting hers and rested it there. "Right. Who would've thought that going back in time would give the future life that we wanted." Jennie rectified.

"Did the universe have this planned? I mean, we weren't suppose to exist here." 

"Well maybe we loved too much that it annoyed the universe and gave us a chance." Her voice was very spirited, it was more like a perky statement to be amused of. 

"I'm glad that I love you too much." I uttered with honesty flowing.

"Hmm. I don't know about that." Jennie's skeptic phrase made my face crumple. "What?" I wondered.

"I mean, ever since Ella came along, you weren't as the same as before." A pout was thrown at me. Oh, she's trying something. 

I scorned. I can't believe this thirty-year old is jealous. "Jennie, she is our child."

"Pssh. So what? Am I not allowed to be jealous anymore?" She shrugged as her lips pursed in annoyance. Jennie was so adamant.

"You big baby. Come here." I giggled at her cuteness as I planted soft kisses on her face. A smile formed between her lips, kiss after kiss after kiss. 

"Are we good now, baby?" I halted as I grinned over her petulant gummy smile, her mushy cheeks rising over my hands that was cupping her face. "Nu-uh. More." She demanded and of course I complied and continued giving her kisses all over get munchy lips.

"Gah! Now that's more like it." Her voice groaned satisfaction as she wraps her arms around my nape. "Now it's my turn." Quickly, her vibe changed. A smack of mischief was in her eyes. Oh god, no. I'm too old to handle my wife's antics but she never retires.  it.

Jennie then suddenly buried her face under my neck as she shoots me with ticklish kisses. I squealed as I continuously laughed. Wrinkling eyes and stretching my smile up to my cheeks. My body was in mayhem.

"Hey Jennie Kim stop! I'm ticklish!" I barely uttered it since I was drowning myself in laughter. Not a moment later we both collapsed on the floor, catching our breaths. Jennie was on top of me with that spazzing gummy smile throbbing my heart.

"I guess I'm good at this tickling game." Jennie said while she continues to giggle out of amusement. Then I realized I had the moment to stare at her in just a short distance. Her succulent lips that showed her two bunny like teeth when they're apart, her nose that feels like the inclination of a perfect line, her plump ravishing cheeks which was a favorite place of my lips since it always felt like i was kissing the softest cotton candy ever made, and of course, her eyes. Those salubrious orbs. That very versatile eyes that's hiding the soul that cost me a million constellations to understand, yet I could never love it any less.

Jennie Kim, the being that you are is timeless itself and my love will never fathom that vastness, but let me love you still, until the day my soul forgets, until my after lives get tired of finding you, and until the last dust of the galaxy fades. You shall remain mine.

And all of my adoration has boiled down to a phrase that casts down the purposes of all languages known to man. "I love you." I simply said as my eyes yearned hers.

"I love you, too." Her response swelled my heart even more. Isn't love too wonderful? Or is it just Jennie who's just so perfect to be loved?

...

It was dinner. Everyone gathered in the island kitchen as Ella and I watched her mother from across the counter cooking some Beef bourguignon and chocolate soufflé. The event was kind of a tradition, besides who wouldn't want to watch their y wives cook in front of them every night?

"I still remember the time you first cooked for me." I asked.

"Yeah? When was that?" 

"In 2018. When we had plans for dinner at the Eleven Madison Park but your parents were there so we just ended up at your apartment and you cooked us pasta." She reminisced a thought.

"Oh, right. That was a buzzkill. I needed to avoid them since New York wanted to get my reaction after publicly humiliating me when I decided to turn down my heir right