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Around three o’clock they finished their meal, Jimin happily polishing off the berry crepes while Eileen blissfully enjoyed the chocolate mousse.  He watched her as she took a bite, closing her eyes to savor it as she rolled it over her tongue before swallowing.  She repeated this process several times.  He studied her, fascinated by her joy in such a simple thing.  Did he ever enjoy eating that much?  She finally took her last bite before tossing the empty container into the bag. Then she turned and smiled at him, a dot of the brown dessert bedecking her chin.  Jimin grinned as he glanced her way.

“Can we still go to the art district?  Or do you need to hide out at the hotel?”

He was still smiling as he bent slightly towards her, his hand reaching up towards her face before his thumb brushed across her chin, taking the tiny dessert with it.  And every cell in her face suddenly felt that contact like a bolt of lightning had split through her skin.  He drew his thumb into his mouth and licked the mousse away, his eyes still on her face.  

Eileen just stared at him.  Beautiful Jimin.  She couldn’t breathe anymore.  She sat frozen, even her heart seeming to have ceased beating in her chest.  The air around her was also still.  No bird’s song split it.  No foot traffic impeded the silence.  No one called to his friend.  No children’s laughter sliced through the quiet.  Even the clouds overhead were silent in the bright blue sky.  Time seemed to stand still.

She had a sudden flashback of early this morning when she’d awoken to find herself in Jimin’s arms.  Her right arm had been tucked between her body and his, her right hand resting palm-down on his left thigh.  Her left arm had been wrapped around his waist, her hand lying a few inches above the waistband of his jeans.  She had pillowed her head directly over his steadily beating heart.  She’d felt the drum of that organ pumping away as he slept under a rising sun.  The intimacy of that moment was wrapping around her once more as she now gazed at lovely Jimin.

He too was caught in that moment as he stared at her beautiful face.  Had he been asleep for years?  He had never before felt for any woman what he was experiencing now with this one.  His eyes caressed her face as he fought an overwhelming urge to kiss her silly.  He had to express what he was feeling some way.  So he did the thing that came most naturally to him.

Suddenly, Jimin took off his sunglasses and began to sing the most beautiful song to her.  It had the sweetest melody, and the earnestness emanating from his face tugged at her heart.  His eyes were speaking volumes as he gazed longingly at her.  Most of the lyrics sailing into her ears were in Korean, so she understood very little. But somehow, he was wooing her heart anyway with his sweet voice, its high, clear notes embracing her.  She wanted to hear more.  As he continued to sing to her, she discovered some lyrics she understood.

“‘When you see me, when you touch me…’”.  Those words were like arrows hitting her heart.  His fingers brushed against her arm on the last two words, and every single cell in her body stood at attention.  They were all enjoying this private concert and the intimate touch of his fingertips against her skin.  

That slight contact was followed by more coded words. What did they mean?  She continued to stare into his gorgeous eyes as a beautiful smile overtook his lips while he gazed back at her, his mouth moving with the song.  His next words made her heart turn over.

“‘’Cause you love me, and I love you…’”

She stopped breathing again as her heart jumped.  Was Jimin trying to tell her that he loved her?!

He sang a few more lyrics in Korean.  Then, his eyes intense on her own, he poured out his heart in English.  “‘Love me now.  Touch me now.’”

Why did that appeal affect her heart so?  Unwilling to resist that sweet request, she swallowed before reaching out to brush her fingertips against his own which were still resting on her arm.  Would he understand what she was saying?  His eyes widened and so did his smile.

“‘Just let me love you.’”  Her heart was soaring as he continued to sing directly into her eyes.  “‘Let me love, let me love you.  Just let me love you-hoo.  Let me love, let me love you.’”  

I will let you love me for the rest of my life.

More Korean.  Then those beautiful words again.  “‘Just let me love you.  Let me love, let me love you.’”

Her fingers rubbed back and forth against his.  She was doing it unconsciously as she locked eyes with him.  Yet, the hair on his arm was standing up as every nerve in his body sang along with him of his affection for this lovely girl.  His heart was beating away in a steady tattoo.  Why was he so nervous?  He sang for a living.  But there was something very different about actually meaning the words flowing from his lips.  They were not just coming out of his mouth; they were also streaming from his heart.  Straight into hers, he hoped.  And he found that he was very interested in her response.  It mattered more to him than he would have believed possible yesterday morning.

Eileen continued to hold her breath.

“‘I don’t wanna let go.  No, oh, oh.’”  Why was it that when he sang that last part, she felt like he was using her own breath?  The sounds seemed to get stuck in her own chest as he breathed them out.

More beautiful Korean escaped his lips to melt her heart.  His soft, angelic voice kept wooing her over and over again.  Her heart was soaring with his voice, spiraling higher and higher into the heavens.  She hoped it never came back down to earth ever again.

“‘Let me love you—ooh-hoo…ooh-hoo.’”  Jimin’s voice was riding the clouds, soaring far above them now.  She could listen to him forever.  “‘Just let me love you-hoo.  Let me love, let me love you.  Just let me love you-hoo.  Let me love, let me love you.’”  

How could another language be so beautiful?  She listened with pure bliss to words she couldn’t comprehend before he finished the English, “‘Just let me love you-hoo…let me love, let me love you.’”  He smiled sweetly at her as his lips released the last words, “Let me love, let me love you.”

Then he fell silent, and she wanted to cry.  Was that all?  She wanted to carry that captivating voice with her everywhere she went.  She couldn’t even blink.  She was drowning in those chocolate eyes of his.  On a perfect, autumn day under a crisp, blue sky, she sat in the most romantic city in the world with the love of her life.  

Whoa.  She couldn’t think like that about Jimin, could she?  But right now, as she felt herself sinking deeper and deeper into those dark depths, she realized that it was already too late.  She was madly in love with him.  Shockingly.  Completely.  Gone.  From the crown of her head to the tips of her toes.  She belonged to him.  She had passed the point of no return.  

The only question left was: Did he feel the same way?  Did he mean all the words he’d just sung to her?