Out of Goodbyes

"Tell me action speaks louder but there's something about her words that hurts."

Your expression changed immediately when I told you about me being engaged. You tried to distinguish it with a shrug in a split second, but I managed to capture it in my memory. It kept playing back after you walked me to my room and waved goodbye.

The past two days together with you, in a place I've never been before, literally and unilaterally. The air smelt of dog odor every morning which I later found out was pollution emit from fertilizer not far from where the 3-star hotel we stayed at for the next couple of days.

The first two days had made me feel, we were warped back to the past 6 years, the moment we first set eyes on each other. The moment you kept stealing glance in curiosity. The moment where I realize, I was worthy enough to be interested in despite my broken heart from my high school lover at that time. The first two days made me almost forget that 6 years had passed.

You didn't change. Your stare was still the same, eyes filled with light and curiosity. Eyes of an eagle. Your smile was still the same, that smile I thought I would have every morning of my life. Your hands were still the same, the hand that held my hand as if saying you are protecting me despite you being younger than me. How much I wanted to hug you when I first saw you after not seeing you in such a long time. I realized I missed you.

It wasn't that the last 6 years we hadn't seen each other at all, we met once in a while but not like this, not in the same exact atmosphere like the one we first met. Maybe that's what made it different. But in reality everything had changed. This was not 6 years ago. This was the present. The condition was not the same. I was just engaged precisely the day before I met you.

All these years we kept in touch, said our hi and goodbye, but I knew this time is the last. This was the last of our goodbyes. Your expression said it all. I couldn't help myself wanting to be close to you in our last moment. Your action told me that you too.

I wished I could reset my life to the check point 6 years ago, and redo everything so I wouldn't have to be in this position. But life is not a video game, I made my choices in life just as you did with yours. And we have to accept to let go of each other when the plane took of later that week.