Love is an umbrella, for when it rains, with someone who is important to you. A bowl of hot boiled noodles with chili, sautéed garlic, Chinese cabbage, and half-boiled eggs. Embraces with kisses on the forehead, smelling the armpits of your beloved, listening to stories about school friends, trivial matters like a car breaking down, or rain flooding the backyard. Occasionally telling a dry joke that gives them shivers and makes them burst into laughter.
Love is also sitting together in a coffee shop. Ordering two portions of chicken wings, two shots of espresso with a glass of ice. Hearing office gossip about annoying colleagues. Or unpredictable weather. Trying out a new restaurant. Also, discounts at your favorite clothing store. Looking at their eyes while they are busy reading or observing their expression while playing PUBG. Comforting them when they lose and praising them when they win.
Love is sometimes a long journey by car. Falling asleep while holding your partner’s hand. Apologizing for any mistakes. Stopping being annoying. Bringing their favorite snacks. And long phone calls before bedtime. Love is sharing favorite readings, touching quotes, or intricate details about an event. Love is trusting someone to read together and grow together.
Love is the rhythm of music you enjoy. Giving song recommendations, listening to peculiar melodies with a furrowed brow. Echoes of past conversations, about trauma, sadness, suffering, and future dreams. Conversations that make you more caring, more affectionate, and ultimately more understanding. Love is the hymn of Sunday Mass, love is the sound of prayers during Friday sermons. Things that bring you tranquility, things that make you realize how weak humans are and how fragile emotions can be.
Love is a cigarette after a meal. Tobacco smoke entering your lungs. Love is a vanilla-flavored ice cream with a pancake sprinkled with a little sugar. Cold Earl Grey milk tea. A plate of barramundi steak with lemon sauce. Food photos on Instagram with two crossed legs under the table. Simple intimacy that cannot be captured by a camera. A long gaze at the fine hairs on the neck, sniffing the scent of sweat on the nape that brings you peace.
Love is two hands holding each other along the street, mall corridors, and tight grip in the cinema. Tender kisses before parting ways. Negotiating the AC temperature and sharing fried chicken skin. Love is a spacious house with bright white walls. Walls with many windows. A bed against the wall with a central space filled with books, vinyl records, and a dog. Love is the future dream together that has been nurtured for 20 years of hard work.
Love is the morning sun. The sound of waves on the beach and sitting together watching the sunrise. Light conversations about desires and how life should be lived. Love is a polaroid photo in your wallet, in the gap of your phone case, which you see every day. Love is sending funny memes, silly pictures, and playful jokes about your shared secrets to your loved one. Love is waiting for a new Korean series and hating a character together.
Love is the unheld fart, the bathroom after taking a dump, and bursting into laughter when your loved one smells its lingering stench. Love is sharing your favorite shampoo, smelling their hair, waiting at the train station, sending a message after arriving home. Love is planning holidays together, booking tickets well in advance, trips to the mountains and the sea, and creating a culinary map together.
Love also realizes that sometimes you need to let go. Giving yourself a space, creating distance, and if necessary, leaving. Because love is a blanket that keeps you warm. Love is a glass of water that brings refreshment. Love is not a shackle that makes someone suffer.
