Memories of Summer

Act 3: Scent of Summer

They say that the sense of smell and memory are intimately related. What scent reminds you of Summer?

Different scents. She smells like vanilla. Her perfume is vanilla. And cat soap. And food.  Food mainly.  She liked to eat…. A lot. That woman is a vacuum cleaner in her past life. I mean… I eat a lot. But for a woman… She is a monster. Food monster. 

I remember our first real date. I don’t know what has gotten into me but after three days I… I called her and asked her how she's been. You know.. Stuff like that. Then she tells me about this eat all you can Italian restaurant 10 minutes away from the café where we met. So we went.

It sucked.

The food wasn’t great. The service was bad. The owner was an old lady who shouted at her employees every 15 minutes. The place smelled like rotten kimchi if that even makes sense.  And there were cockroaches everywhere. God I hate that place. 

But we ate anyway.

I just can't fathom how could she eat that and how could they sell those vile stuff. We left early after about three plates.

Then she dragged me to apgujong. Had a few drinks. Then ate some more. Then walked. And walked. And walked. Till we couldn’t walk no more. We sat at a park. God, I was so tired and so was she.

She slept a bit on my shoulder.

How did you feel back then?

I don’t know. I just… enjoyed it. I enjoyed her company. She was hilarious. She loved to make jokes and strange contortions of her pretty face. She does a lot of those imitation of personalities… well it doesn’t look like them but I gotta admit that it was funny.

But you know what's the funniest thing she did that night?

She looked me in the eye and asked me, "Will you be my boyfriend?"

It was insane. She's insane. I don't know what to make out of it. First time I saw her she made me buy her coffee and dragged me places. And then there she is, on our first official date, asking me to be her boyfriend. It was just so on the spot and… it doesn’t make any sense. Why would you ask a stranger to be in a relationship with you? Not that I didn't like her… She… she was beautiful. And mysterious and intriguing. But I just… I don't know.

I declined her.

 Yes.  I told her that it was too early and we've just met. I told her that I wanted to know her more.

What's even stranger is how she answered.

"You're not rejecting me right? Ok then. Pick me up at school tomorrow." she smiled and just left.

Vanilla, food and cat soap. She smells like vanilla. Ok. But cat soap, why?

Well she doesn’t really smell like cat soap. Her cat does. She calls it Yoseob.

I just don't understand why would she name that thing after a boyband member.  But when I found out the name of the band is Beast, I just laughed at the back of my mind. A well fitting name for that little beast. I hate that cat. Why couldn’t she have had a dog instead? Cats. Always crawling, pouncing, scratching, purring… and meow-ing…. Is meow-ing a word? Anyway, I hate him.

Speaking of that cat, I remember the day I asked her to be my girlfriend. I waited for her in front of her apartment. Looking like a fool, all dressed up like I'm going to some  damned prom. Holding sunflowers bigger than my face. They were her favorite flowers. It took me forever to find them in early January.

Then she arrived. I stood there, rooted in my spot while her cat walked around me in circles. I was lost for words. I wonder how she could have asked me to be her boyfriend on our first date so easily and there I was, fumbling.

What did you tell her?

I said sorry for the things I've done… If I'd made her sad…  Although I can't remember anything I've done, intentionally or not, to piss her off or anything. More on her doing things that drive me crazy. She's like a roller coaster ride. That woman...

Anyway that wasn’t the point. I… I told her that I really, really liked her. And I promised things. A lot of things… Too many to enumerate now, but you get the point. I really liked this girl at that point in time that I didn’t care anymore that I was acting like a lovesick teenager…

Ok let's cut the crap out. The point is I confessed to her. She said yes. And being the stupid, lovesick person that I was, I tend to do cheesy things. Let's just say I pretended to pass out from excitement…

 Well, you see… she passes out a lot. I don't really know why. She says that it's nothing serious. But yes. She loses consciousness when she's too exhausted… and believe me. It happens a lot. She practically knows every personnel in the hospital. I think she even has frequent customer discount or something. So yeah… she passes out a lot so I was kidding around and pretended to faint.

I was kinda waiting for her to kiss me… don't laugh. I was inlove.

Then the friggin cat kissed me. That little beast kissed me. I hate that little sucker. I hate him and his owner. He smells like old ladies' perfume. She says its just cat soap and powder. Why does she have to bathe and powder it anyway? Cats lick themselves. That's how they clean. But god, do I hate that cat. It kissed me.

I hate her.