Life's Affairs

Yanki sat lonely in the Chopstick restaurant. She took the table at the corner overlooking the street below. Time and again she looked out into the street and a cloud of dreamy tiredness hung around her eyes.

Not long after, a lone man walked in. The restaurant wasn’t packed as it usually was. He sat at the other side of the table and ordered for a beer. He looked at her for more than he intended. Yanki noticed that he wasn’t an old sagging man but a smart young man hung down by beer.

Yanki had her dinner and stood to go; and so did he.

He seemed a little peculiar. Why would he drink alone? But of course she was dining alone and he might have had the same reason she did. Yanki never thought that, though love struck like a lightning, it would blow away hearts like thunders. It did and she had to take the pain.

She had been seeing Lotay for six years and they had been childhood friends. Their parents knew about them and their friends thought they were the perfect couple. Perfect was only when the sea was calm. When the wave rose, it stirred the whole ocean. She didn’t cry. Did she think to split from a relationship would break her heart?

She denied all pain and hurt. And for her to know most emotions, she was numb. But she had no catch on her work. Neither could she remain indoors and think of life. She took solace in the solitude among the crowd. Sometime, to just watch the crowd, it takes you away in the dreams of multitude and you forget you are alone.
She met the alcoholic young man at the same restaurant after two weeks. This time the guy looked far too straight and long, and said, “I guess I have seen you somewhere…” and the conversation began.

Oh yes, the hurt heals.

They got married after two months. Lotay cried on the phone, as he congratulated Yanki.