At First Glance
I used to say love at first sight was a myth. Oh, what a foolish child I was.
The first time I saw Yagazie, for the first time in my life, everything paused. The beauty of the skies faded into oblivion — the scenery, the songs of the birds — everything stepped back and let the object of my affection shine. He was jogging towards me, ears plugged, eyebrows furrowed in concentration, eyes forward, and yet my heart skipped a beat, and my feet slowed down.
The second time I saw Yagazie, he was sitting, tapping his feet anxiously. He was waiting for something or someone, scrolling on his phone. He didn’t notice me, couldn’t notice me — his attention was somewhere else. Yet, I felt the skip in my heart again, my feet slowed down again, and something strange started to tug at my cheeks until they formed a smile.
The third time I saw Yagazie, he was looking at me, smiling at me. A mutual friend was introducing us, but after my ears caught his name, they zoned out. As if they had forgotten their purpose, they joined my eyes in taking in the beauty that he, Yagazie, was.
The fourth time I saw Yagazie, he was walking towards me. Somehow, we were at the same event. He smiled at me and asked if I remembered him. I laughed — maybe a little bit more than I should have. How could I not? When every day since the first time I saw him jogging, my dreams had been plagued — no, blessed — with him.
“Of course, I do,” I replied.
We talked, we laughed, and I realized he was as fascinated with me as I was with him.
The fifth time, the sixth time, the seventh, eighth, the… I’ve lost count.
The ‘I’ve lost count’-th time I saw Yagazie, he asked me — on a lightly dimmed beach, in the cool breeze of the evening — to marry him. And the beauty of the skies faded into oblivion — the scenery, the songs of the birds of the evening, and the waves of the water. Everything stepped back and let the object of my affection shine. And they gave me audience as I shone with him.
