[1] Gone Groom | Seonghwa ✓

four | love at first recital

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'THE ITSY BITSY SPIDER WENT up the water spout—'

   I consider kids cute ... to a certain, reasonable extent. Relatively, they were tolerable yet not an addendum I wished to picture years from now. Dogs were more like it.

  Or cats.

   I like cats.

  It was one of those days where Bae had volunteered at the nursery in place of her aunt, a boisterous woman at forty-nine and again, I was forced to tag along. Watching the little angels was ... okay, to be honest, watching them was a bore. At that moment, I was willing to give anything to get out of there. In the end, I stood in a corner, clipping my nails unevenly with my teeth, whilst lamenting over how much more better it would have been to have sat things out from the very start.

   I scanned the area. Parents—mainly moms, no surprise; a few dads here and there. That stupid look of adoration couldn't have gone unnoticed. I even caught sight of an overzealous dad, his eyes tailgating themselves to the back of his skull in the name of smiling. It was hard not to tag it a spurious act. Dude definitely wanted out, wishing his wife didn't have to be engaged of all days, and he didn't have to go in her place. Watching the K-League became a hankering he was deprived of for who knew how long. Something made me feel sorry for him, till I remembered no one got him into that pickle without his consent; he accepted all of it, marriage. He agreed to serve its life sentence.

   Frustrated dad, all stumped and piteous, caught my attention longer than I would've imagined, I realised, because giving him a once over, taking my time off watching those kids to really look at him, I found out he wasn't at all bad-looking. Heck, he bested his fellow co-workers with whom he shared and lamented over the same obligatory job: Being available husbands and consistent fathers.

   That was when I saw him. Me thinking he was beyond edible probably attributed to that milky white skin. Au naturel. And if I thought I-hate-my-life might've been the best thing since sliced bread, I was inaccurate. It felt ecstatically good to admit.

   Handsome yet leaned towards beautiful (but then, it could have been the creamy blonde hair).

   Calm, collected, not entirely dapper and I thought that might've been the sole reason I felt a strong pull towards him. Imperfectly perfect, if you will.

    He watched me. What the what?! To think I could hold someone's attention for that long.

   Oh my.

   I saw an unmistakable glimmer of interest blended nicely with, dare I say, impishness. Mesmerizing. I never broke eye contact. And at that particular moment the universe chose to come to a stand still, I could care less about a fervid spider or some father who muled over having his plans for the day thwarted by his own child.

   One had to master the art of stupidity to ignore that fine piece of work.

   The corner of his lips tipped up, cautiously, I decided. And albeit how much confidence it oozed, the smile read something else. Totally ... different and had me feeling self-concious all of a sudden as I mentally assessed myself.

   The enthralling blonde man was nervous, something I could all but see tracing across every prominent vein on the expanse of white skin. Then I thought, unbelievable!

   Returning the smile should've been the right way to go but with the way I had been misinterpreting things of late—Bae would gladly accede with the fact—it shut off my own spring of confidence. Scratch that, small fountain of confidence. A humbly one.