(a true story of a city, foreign students, and adultery)
you're breaking my heart
you're shaking my confidence daily...
...I got up to wash my face
when I come back to bed
someone's taken my place.
She had noticed me and I had noticed her. Void of awkwardness,
I waited for her on the steps outside of the chapel. In
a hurried-for-no-reason-almost-interview-like exchange,
I found out that she was a music major at Barnard, lived
in Queens, and was in London to study Theology.
As we continued to talk, we drifted out to the Strand entrance
of King's. Loitering for just a few moments longer, we decided
to meet where we stood, the next afternoon. She left for
the Underground (more popularly called "the tube")
and I made my way over to Covent Garden. As I navigated
the arc of cobblestones that connected the Strand with Covent
Garden, I played a loop of seeing her stand at the fellowship
meeting to watching her walk into the darkness toward the
tube.
Free-associations ricocheted in my head:
Barnard... Columbia... Harlem... music... Queens... Flushing...
God... the tube... Simon & Garfunkel...
Once I arrived at Covent Garden, I turned right around
and walked home instead of taking the tube. I passed the
Strand entrance to the school once more as if to remind
myself not to miss the appointment the next day. After pausing
there for just a second, I continued on home, stopping again
in the middle of Waterloo bridge, watching the water of
the Thames pass underneath me. Once the tip of my nose began
to get cold, I got going again, walking slowly, distracted.
I sat at the desk in my tiny room, trying to read, trying
to write something, anything... After twenty minutes of
just sitting there, I fell into bed, falling asleep with
a smile on my face.
Where I couldn't concentrate on work the night before,
I was surprisingly focused in my classes the next day. Understanding
the professors' accents wasn't as difficult, my classmates'
comments were more intelligible, and the texts seemed clearer
too. Without anxiousness, I packed the books from my final
seminar of the day into my bag and made my way to the doors
leading out to the Strand.
From thirty feet away, through the glass doors, I could
see her waiting out on the sidewalk. After simple greetings
and asking how each other's day had been, I asked what she
wanted to do. Without hesitation she excitedly said that
she wanted to go find a place to have udon (thick Japanese
noodles in soup).
We found a place that served noodles near Chinatown, and
over steaming bowls of udon, at the same pace of conversation
as on the steps the night before, I learned more about her.
She played piano, she played piano for her church's choir,
she was taking music classes along with the Theology classes
at King's. We also talked about getting used to living in
London, she lived south of the river too, though not close
to my apartment. We talked about looking for a church together.
And as we finished lunch, we both got around to letting
the other know that neither one of us was dating.
I rode with her on the tube to her stop, said goodbye,
and crossed the station to get on the line to Waterloo.
Everyday thereafter found us spending more and more time
together, exploring London, eating tons of Chinese food
and Japanese food at Misato in Leicester Square, and getting
more and more comfortable with one another.
After yet another meal in Chinatown, I melodramatically
told her that I would kill for Korean food. We both ran
off lists of what we would eat if we were back home in the
US. After fantasizing about Korean food and having some
coffee near the school, we rode the tube to her stop. I
got off the train with her, said goodbye, and crossed the
station.
The next day, I found her waiting outside of my morning
Philosophy lecture. I asked her if we were supposed to meet
early that day for some reason. As I asked, she pulled a
little container out of her bag and handed it to me. It
had rice, kimchi, and some other bits of Korean dishes in
it. I must've broken into the biggest, goofiest smile, because
she just laughed, said she'd see me later, and walked down
the hall.
I was already attracted to her in so many ways. She was
gorgeous, easy to talk with, smart, musical, Christian...
but this floored me. In that moment, with the lunchbox in
my hands, watching her walk away from me, I fell for her.
[part 3]
About JC
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