The Truth Untold

43

I didn't say anything, just saw outside and watched the landscape fly by outside. My eyes were still burning from tears and I blinked a few times. Suddenly I was happy that this morning I had decided to give up make-up. After a few minutes Leo turned on the radio and started singing quietly to the songs. His sweet, soft voice filled the interior of the car and it immediately made my heart lighter. I turned my head and supported it with my arm against the door. My legs, which were leaning against the door until just a moment ago, were now pointing in Leo's direction. Apparently he had noticed my interest because he immediately put his hand on my thigh. He kept singing, his eyes on the street, but I could tell from his suppressed smile that he had noticed that I was watching him. I watched him constantly until I closed my eyes with a broad smile and took in his beautiful voice. After some time I opened it again and gratefully crossed my fingers with his. Leo pressed my hand and sang happily on. We drove through the city, but after a few minutes we stopped. As I looked around I realized that we were on a busy promenade behind which the Atlantic Ocean stretched. We got out and I threw a big smile at Leo.

"Here my father always went with me when I was homesick for Busan," he said, looking at the sea and reaching for my hand.

"It's nice here," I said, looking at the many people who sat in a restaurant and ate something, sunbathing on the beach or taking pictures.

"Come," Leo said excitedly, pulling me with him to an ice cream parlour.

"Which one do you want?" he asked when the woman in front of us had distributed her ice cream to her children and the salesman was waiting for our order.

"Um, cookies. But only one," I said, slightly surprised.

"Two scoops of cookie and two scoops of raspberry. Both in the waffle," he explained, ignoring my protests.

"I wanted one. I can't eat two," I explained, but it was already too late.

Leo proudly turned to me with two waffles in his hand overflowing with ice.

"Of course you can do two," he said and looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

"All right, if you don't want to," he said, shrugging his shoulders and licking my ice cream.

"Hey," I said and reached for my ice cream.

But Leo held it in the air laughing, so that it was impossible for me to reach it. I was about to jump when Leo lowered his arm and touched the tip of my nose with the ice.

"Leo," I said, snorting and squinting at my nose where I could see the blob of ice.

"You've got something there," Leo said and tapped his nose after he had given me my ice cream.

"No way," I said rolling my eyes.

"Wait, I'll make it go," he said patronizingly, drove his thumb over my nose and licked the sticky ice off his finger.

"You're impossible," I said with a smile.

"And you are absolutely adorable with ice on your nose," he said and now licked his ice.

I slightly nudged him in the stomach whereupon Leo grinned broadly and turned around to go on. Leo took my hand again and together we strolled along the promenade. It was fascinating with him. I almost forgot what happened earlier.

I had almost finished my ice cream when Leo said: "You have some ice there".

"Where?" I asked and wiped the corner of my mouth.

"It still is. I'll make it go," he explained, leaning forward and kissing me in front of the other people.

His tongue slowly drove over my lower lip, licked away the sticky candy, while I ran fire-red. I tasted his raspberry ice cream on his lips and the thoughts in my head knotted into an indissoluble knot.

With a contented smile he detached himself from me and said grinning: "Now it's gone".

Still with red cheeks I quickly looked around and noticed a few interested faces looking at us. I just grabbed Leo's hand and pulled him along while I heard him giggling next to me. When we had eaten our ice cream and the sun had almost set, we sat down at the end of a small pier, which was a bit off and watched the sun disappear behind the horizon.

"This looks beautiful," I said dreamily, looking out at the sea, where the orange, pink and purple colours of the sky were reflected. All the air was filled with a nostalgia and tranquillity that one rarely encountered today.

"Yes, beautiful," said Leo. His voice sounded quiet, moved and somehow detached.

But when I looked up, I realized that he was not looking at the sea at all. His gaze rested on me as if he had the intention of looking into my soul. When I noticed that I had caught him staring, his mouth twitched. Then he leaned forward and kissed my lips. The sweet kiss made my head spongy again, made every thought disappear. There were only him and me, everything else I faded out, everything else was not important. His lips seemed to fit perfectly on mine and they moved in the same rhythm. When our lips separated from each other again, he put an arm around me and pressed me firmly to himself as we watched the last rays of sunshine disappear into the water.

"Too bad we didn't have the camera with us," I said calmly.

Leo didn't answer immediately. He remained silent for a few seconds before replying, "You don't have to shoot everything with the camera. You will never be able to forget the best moments".

I thought for a moment before answering: "Yes, but moments like this are worth recording".

Leo was silent.