A Fake Flower

I LOVE YOU ‘TIL THE LAST FLOWER DIES

The sky was already dark. The fierce wind blew from the west and took the greyish cloud along with it toward the east. The thunder light was running through the black sky like branches of a big tree. The rain started to drop down. Running as fast as he possibly could in order to avoid getting soaked; Pichet saw a small empty shop which was located at the left side of the road. So fast he ran though, without an umbrella and raincoat, he was still soaking since the droplets were as big as pebbles.

Trembling, Pichet was waiting, patiently and silently in the shop, for the rain to stop so that he could go back home without catching a cold. Surprisingly, five minutes later, there was a beautiful girl running, from nowhere he didn’t know, into the shop in which he was sitting. Pichet opened his eyes wide upon seeing her approaching him.

At first the two were very shy, so the atmosphere was very quiet for a long time until the young man started the conversation at last. He uttered: “Hello! Nice to meet you!”

The young girl replied shyly “Yes. Nice..to..meet you!”

Pichet smiled and asked one more question: “Where are you going? It seems you are in hurry.”

The girl replied: “Yes, you’re right. I’m in hurry. Today I have a final exam, but as you see, I can’t go to school now because of the rain.”

The young man burst out shouting with a great surprise:  
“ A’…A’…A final exam!! What will you do, then?”

“I don’t know,” the girl replied with a sad voice.

The atmosphere was harsh awhile before the conversation started again.

“What do you think if I take you to school?” the man asked. 

“Now? It’s raining so hard. How can we go out?” replied the girl. 

The man smiled and said at last “Just say yes or no. Will you?” 

The girl nodded her head up and down gently with a radiant smile.

 Upon seeing so, he said abruptly to her “Just a sec!”, and ran very fast to the other side of the road. The young beautiful girl watched him running under the rain until she lost his sight. She stood there waiting.

        Five minutes later, the man came back on a bicycle, which he borrowed from his friend, with a raincoat. He suggested her to wear the raincoat, while he didn’t, and she jumped on the bicycle. The two were paddling to the school in which the girl studied….. It was raining so hard that it was not easy for them to get to school. However, Pichet rode his bike persistently despite the difficulty he was facing.

      He felt for the first time a soft slender hand touching his back. The time that everyone hated so much became the loveliest one for him. The rain which he didn’t want to walked under because he was afraid of catching a cold became a great shower for him. The thunder light which was so frightening became the firework which he used to see during the Water Festival. Everything which was previously a galling thing became an adorable one because of love, love at the first sight.

      Arriving at the school, the young girl said thank to Pichet and told him that they would meet each other the next day at the same place and the same time. Pichet said nothing besides smiling at her, for his heart was running up to his throat making him unable to utter even a single word. His face became as rosy as the flower which had just bloomed when getting dew in the early morning. Pichet, getting soaked by the rain, was trembling, so he hurriedly went home and changed his clothes. He had dinner with his two younger brothers and a beautiful, high school sister. After everything was finished he went to his room and started thinking about his unexpected memory. He could hardly do anything because he always saw her smiles as vividly as she was smiling in front of him. His heart was swelling when thinking about her beautiful, round, pinky face and rosy cheeks, pinky lips, slender legs and arms, slim, good-built body, and her melodious, soft voice. Suddenly, he was ashamed of what he was thinking because he was not quite sure of it. He did not even know her name. Yet he was very happy since it was the first time that he stayed close to a girl.

      The shadow of the darkness was falling upon his room. He tried to close his eyes. Still, he could not sleep. The image of his young girl still appeared in his mind.  He sat up and lit the candle. Looking at the clock hanging on the wooden wall, he noticed that it was 12 a.m. He pulled the door open and went to the front court of his house. He then sat down on the bamboo bed watching the full moon which was surrounding by thousands of brilliant stars. “Even though I used to admire the beauty of the moon very much, but this time there is another moon which is much more beautiful,” he said to himself. “I will confess my love to you if you are to give it back to me,” he continued, “my love.” He sat silently thinking about it until the dawn broke. 

     The sun rose in the east shining a soft, yellow light on his face. He went in to wash his face and put up his school uniform and went to school on his motorbike. Actually his class started at 7a.m, but he always arrived at school at 6 o’clock. He was a fan of the phrase “Time is money”. He never wasted his time doing useless things. He always showed up at school an hour before the class started so that he could review all the lessons he was going to study. But this time was different. He could not concentrate on what he was reading because whenever he turned up his new page, the image of the young girl appeared in front of him.

     It was 7 o’clock. Everyone arrived and sat silently in the class waiting for the teacher to come. Later then, the teacher arrived and the class started. The teacher walked around the class to check homework. She shouted in consternation when finding that Pichet had not done his homework. Everyone turned their heads to Pichet because it was the first time that he did not finish his work, but Pichet said nothing. The teacher did not also want to know more about this, so she just pretended that nothing had happened. The class, then, continued as usual.

   Pichet, who fell in love with the young girl since the very beginning, didn’t pay any heed to his study. He smiled while watching the tree waving to and fro when blown. The sound of the bird singing on a broken branch of the big tree outside the window lured his heart away. He was still thinking of the rain the day before. The teacher noticed that Pichet acted strangely lately, so she asked “Hey Pichet! What’s wrong with you today?” Pichet did not answer, for he was deeply in his dream like a stone which sank deep to the bed of the ocean.

“Pichet! What’re you doing?” repeated the teacher.

“The Rain,” answered Pichet unexpectedly.

“What? What’s about the rain? It’s sunny today,” retorted the teacher.

“Hahaha…” Everyone laughed.   

“Huh,...huh,... nothing,” answered Pichet shamely.

“I am thinking of nothing. It seems,” he continued, “that it’s going to rain this evening.”

The teacher frowned and said shortly “I hope so.”

The teacher ignored about this and continued the lesson, and Pichet stopped looking outside the window. But he still could not concentrate on his lesson. He always looked at his watch every five minutes.

“Eight thirty-five,” he muttered.

“Eight forty… Eight fifty, Eight fifty five,”

“Nine!!,” he said at last.

    The bell rang and the teacher left the class. Pichet ran hurriedly to the bookshop and asked the shopkeeper for the “Love Book”, and then the shopkeeper gave it to him.

     It was time to start new session. It was English Literature Studies class which Pichet liked the most, but that day he seemed to pay no attention to it.  He was a responsive student, but not now. He sat silently in his seat reading the Love Book he had just bought. Two hours had passed and he also finished reading his book. It was time to go home.

    Pichet went back home and took a nap after having lunch because he was haggard after spending a night staying awake. While sleeping, he dreamed about the young girl, so he smiled. His younger brothers and sister, upon seeing their brother Pichet smiled like this, grew suspicious of what was going on but dared not to wake him up. They just kept it in their mind and walked out.

    When getting up, Pichet was very surprised to know that it was already evening. He intended to take only a short rest, but he fell into a long, safe and sound sleep because of tiredness. He immediately went to the bathroom and bathed himself clean. Not wanting to waste his time, he jumped on his motorbike and told his siblings that he would come back home late that evening.

   Pichet rode his motorbike as fast as the airplane because it was already five minutes late. He had promised to meet his Rain girl at 5:20 p.m., the same time as when he met her the day before, at the same place. When arriving, he saw her standing there waiting for him.

“I’m sorry. I’m late,” Pichet apologized profusely.

“It’s ok. I’ve just arrived too,” reply the girl gently.

“Hmm… May I ask you something?” Pichet asked humbly.

“Huh. Go ahead, please?” replied the girl.

After hearing her giving a chance like this, he asked hesitantly “What’s..uh..what’s your name?

“Phala,” replied the young girl.

“Phala?” shouted Pichet, “it sounds sweet.”

“Thanks!” said Phala.

     They continued to ask for more information from each other until they got to know each other well, and they parted to their own home.

     From then on, they met each other again and again for three months until one day they decided to go on date. It was on 13 July 2008. As the time passed by, they went on date many times. They went out together as boyfriend and girlfriend and told each other to stay focus on study while keeping their love eternal.

    Four years later, the two graduated from universities and had good jobs which paid them pretty salary. One day, on rainy evening, Pichet proposed Phala for marriage. He bought her a bunch of flower and said that “I WILL LOVE YOU UNTIL THE LAST FLOWER DIES”.

“Are you serious?” asked the girl, “until the last flower dies? It’s not long lasting. You don’t love me? Maybe you see another girl better than me.”

Pichet saw her sad expression but did nothing besides smiling and then he said “Do you want to get married with me?”

“No I don’t,” the girl replied angrily. “I don’t want to get married with a man who doesn’t love me forever. I want eternal love.”

“Ok. I let you think for a night and give me your answer tomorrow. I’m waiting,” said Pichet and smiled once again.

“But keep this bouquet,” the man said before leaving.

Phala went home and lay on her bed crying.

“He loves me only until the last flower dies? Hah,, what’s a goddamn!! I want to love you forever,” she said to herself.

Then she remembered the flower, so she picked it up and looked at it. Then she angrily crumpled the flower one by one between her fingers and thrown them into the dustbin. Then she was very surprised to see the last flower was the plastic one. Suddenly, her phone rang and she got a message from Pichet. It read “Dear darling. I love you until the last flower dies.” She smiled and her eyes were brimming over with tears. “I accept your proposal. The last flower will never die, and so does our love,” she said.

I LOVE YOU ‘TIL THE LAST FLOWER DIES.