Being a literature student is no pleasantry. Learning will neither be heaven nor hell. As for a college student who romanticizes every single letter, space, and even punctuation marks of a literature piece, it is quite ironic to despise romance. Scratch that. I do appreciate the art on how it is being expressed on a novel or how the authors managed to give justice to the lovers, tracing why they thought of love that way, which inspiration they took it from, and what effects does that pinch of imagination give to its readers. Romance do give life to the butterflies in the stomach (people inlove exaggerates it as the whole d*mn zoo), yet, I may feel the same butterflies; it must be for a book and not a person. I don't despise romance; I'm just a bit uncomfortable talking about it since I haven't actually experienced it for real.

I'm Myoui Mina. People might not know my name since I don't talk much. It is because I smile when I'm feeling shy, and talks nonsense, disappointingly, in a nerdy manner whenever I'm excited. The latter made me all hums when responding to my socially inclined small circle of friends. College isn't actually really tough. It's just too challenging for me since I need to learn another language when I decided to study in Korea while I'm actually Japanese. I can't say no to scholarship, I want to make my okaa-san and otou-san proud. Kai included. The tough part is when my family won't be able to prepare dinner after a stressful day from school or even see that wagging tail and affectionate puppy eyes of Grandpa Rei. I soon became acquainted to mobile gaming specially when I have nothing to do at all —either too stressed to study or too bored but lazy to do anything.

Don't call me a nerd. I already get that a lot. I do believe that reading classical novels is just the same as dancing ballet to a classical music. The atmosphere of classics brings us to the traditional times of purity and innocence. I close my eyes whenever I'm listening to a classical music, indulging its message as I dance my heart out to it but I open my eyes, focusing intently to each words printed to the page of a classical novel as it brings me to an unfamiliar place, inviting me to stay a little longer. And I say no, there's not much difference at all between reading and dancing ballet.

Austen will always be my favorite. Her creation, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pride and Prejudice, completes the lacking intelligence of Conrad and Gulnare from The Corsair by Lord Byron, my favorite ballet production. The two different flavors of these authors made me realize that love comes in many shapes. It can be a sweet tale, a tragedy, or both. If the couple is likely to be too much of Bennet and Darcy, it will be too fearsome, too prideful, filled with nothing but baseless conclusions; whilst Gulnare and Conrad's love blooms too quickly, yet, restricting and without much experience.

Love is complicated but as a literature student, I should run my imagination on how I could put up a good romance story to overcome this term. I'm currently on my second year of college and the projects in my university are no joke.

"Too scripted, Ms. Myoui. Too cliché, too—" the professor gave his sharp judgments on my work, "lifeless." He gave out a disappointed sigh before giving further comments. "This sounds like combining both Grendel and King Ector in one frame: completely unrelated." He flipped the papers upside down emphasizing his rejection of the output. He then shifts his focus to me and with serious but worried eyes, he asked, "Do you know what happens when unrelated characters which do not have any connections, any sparks, or chemistry— as the youth puts it up today, join in one frame without any interaction at all?" I stayed still, anticipating him to answer his own rhetoric.

"Chaos."

I snapped. "But isn't chaos a form of tragedy? Romeo and Juliet managed to pull it off." My eyes widen in surprise. I supposed his too. Sighing in defeat, I fixed my composure and apologized politely, bowing on the process.

Park Jinyoung, the creative writing professor, playfully chuckles as he made his way to the last two paragraphs of my failed work. "First and foremost, I would like to remind you that it is a crime to interpret your own work. Secondly, Shakespeare is said to have two different views of love. One is tragic, and one is without much twist. Some claims that the guy mistakenly marry Anne Hathaway due to clerical problems while some claims that due to his financial crisis, and the latter is from a family in good standing both socially and financially, Shakespeare would have been considered her a catch." I cleared my throat and asked with my utmost calm self. "So what are you trying to imply here, Sir?"

He pursed his lips, thinking of easier words to satisfy my curiosity.

"Romeo and Juliet is indeed a tragic story and it is made through the continuous miscommunication, irrelevance, and intangible mistake of both characters. Shakespeare himself is a puzzle. We cannot solve him the same way. We just trust on the pieces he provided us. Thus," he pointed at my paper, reading what is printed on it. "Love is a compilation of untold stories deep within the heart; a collection of doubts and uncertainties. Too unfortunate for our dear Calix since the young lad would not be able to comprehend love for even a bit. Love is like a flower that is yet to bloom but playful children tried to pick it up while it is just a humble bud."

He stopped, fixing the arrangement of the papers as how it initially was. "As writers, we are what we write. You seem too unimpressed with romance. Well, bad news Ms. Myoui, this term's genre is about romance and you have no other choice but to comprehend it to be able to write confidently about it."

He paused, "I'm giving you a span of two weeks to pass a rather better version of your dull interpretation of love. Good luck, lass."

With that remark, I was dismissed. I reclaim what I said earlier too. I despise romance, yet, I needed to understand it if I wanted to finish this unit because I swear, I would never want to suffer another term with the same genre.

So now, how do I understand love?