The Meeting In Rome Part One

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

--William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

They were just two lost travellers in mystical Rome. Two normal Korean boys (or men) who did not know how to speak English. They were very sure that less than 2% of the population in Rome even knew how to speak Korean. Two normal men touring around the Eternal City holding their guide book. We are safe to say that one of them held his map upside down.

The Pantheon was the first place they met. They met by the most cliché method in the book. Knocking into each other without know, falling on the ground and losing themselves in each other’s orbs. Surprisingly, the only source of light only illuminated the features of one very hamster looking boy even more. Not that the other man would ever admit that he was secretly taking photographs of the former one. That was of course, until the heavens above decided that it was the perfect time to throw rain onto the mortals below. The handsome stranger had lost sight of the man he was so interested moments ago. Well, at least his camera caught a side profile of him. Not that he would notice till he arrived and fell into the comfort of his hotel bed.

The second time they met was at the Santa Maria del Popolo church. One was busy taking pictures of a painting by Caravaggio and the other enthralled by the painting by Pinturicchio. They only noticed the presence of each other when they decided that it was time for the long overdue coffee that they were dying to have.

“The name’s Woohyun,” the handsome stranger introduced himself to the hamster looking boy, offering him his hand to shake.

“Sorry?” Was all the other boy could mutter.

“Your name?” Woohyun could only ask again.

“Oh! I’m Sunggyu,” the hamster looking boy offered and shook the hand that was in front of him.

Sunggyu looked up at the sky to be greeted with the first drop of rain. He sneaked a peek at his watch before turning around to look at Woohyun, mouthing a quick apology to Woohyun, Sunggyu ran out the place before he could say anything or arrange other meeting.

That was the second time in the week where Woohyun had cursed the heavens for taking the angelic looking boy away from him.

Little did Woohyun know, the third meeting was not far from the second. Woohyun was roaming around St. Peter’s Square with his fourth cup of latte in hand when he caught sight of Sunggyu chomping down on a piece of Italian pizza. Woohyun definitely noticed the looks the Italians were giving the oblivious boy munching on his pizza without a care. It was only until Sunggyu dropped his pizza in shock when Woohyun ran to his side. All he need were tears threatening to fall from the small eyes to realize that the other boy was having another kind of squeeze.

Woohyun was never going to admit that he wanted to tap that cute little that bounced about when its owner walked away due to the oncoming storm that was visible in the sky. That was the third time Woohyun swore at the sky, in public this time mind you. He obviously did not catch the pair of squinted eyes looking at him from across the street, silently laughing before turning away.

The fourth place they caught sight of each other was in front of the statue of St. Teresa in Ecstasy in the Santa Maria della Vittoria. This was a short meeting as Woohyun had to take care of his little problem in the toilet from watching Sunggyu on the lollipop from god knows where. By the time he went out from the toilet, Sunggyu was already gone. That was the only time Woohyun was jealous of a lollipop. He was never going to write that down in his diary. That was beyond embarrassing.

The Fountain of the Four Rivers was where Sunggyu was waiting for the handsome man to appear again on the fifth day, he waited for hours with the help of two boxes of doughnuts and seven cups of different beverages. He had needed the restroom urgently but was afraid of missing the man he was so eager to see. Sunggyu could only leave the fountain with watery eyes. Of course, not before he kindly asked a passerby to take a picture of him in front of the fountain. The rain that fell that day was comforting to Sunggyu, he could only thank the heavens for giving him a method to protect his pride and not let anyone know that he was shedding tears.

Woohyun only appeared two hours later after the rain had stopped. he stretched his arms high as it was his turn to wait for the hamster-like Sunggyu. He only waited for half an hour before deciding that he needed to carry on with his massage in the hotel.

There was only three more days to this vacation in the Eternal City.