Underneath Cherry Blossom Trees

The sky was clear and we were enjoying a nice walk in the park when all of the sudden, a gust of wind blows through the cherry blossom trees and a flood of cherry blossom petals came fluttering down to temporarily block my vision from what was in front of me. The friend that was walking with me abruptly began coughing due to his allergies, and after throwing me a “You’re crazy for staying out, dude” over his shoulder, he walked away. I was going to leave too but stayed because of what I saw next.

He was sitting in front of me on a wooden park bench with a book in his lap and a pencil in his hand.

Underneath the sun-dappled shade of the cherry blossom trees, I could see a beautiful man with light skin, long mahogany hair flowing around his shoulders, high cheekbones, and amber eyes as clear as the sky. Suddenly, he lifted his head up from his book to look at me―as if feeling my dumbfounded gaze on him―and after a momentary flash of surprise crossed his face, he smiled.

At that moment, one million crimson butterflies exploded to life in my stomach and fluttered about in a flustered frenzy. My heart skipped a beat and I sucked in a breath at the beautiful man's angelic smile his peaceful and composed atmosphere.

I found myself tilting my head to the side and approaching him slowly like one would approach a small puppy, then sitting on the bench next to the seemingly smaller man. He looked up at me gently while leisurely closing what appeared to be a sketchbook and a watercolor palette, then tucking a pencil behind his ear.

Looking at his pale skin up close made me want to touch it, made me want to hold his hand, caress his cheek, wrap my arms around his waist and pull him closer to me. But, I simply looked at him and smiled back, fiddling unconsciously with my ripped jeans and long braided silver hair as I admired his soft appearance. Suddenly, I found myself whispering, “You’re beautiful." The man's eyes quickly widened at the statement and just as quickly, I lifted a hand to cover my face in mortification as if to say, 'I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud.'

The man merely chuckled and said, “Thank you, sir…” He then moved a bit closer to me, making my heart stop temporarily at his light carefree laugh and the close proximity. Then, he opened the sketchbook that was resting in his lap to a certain page that I recognized as the one he was working on earlier before he closed it when I sat down.

He turned it towards me so that I could see, and what I was faced with confused me but left me in awed silence.

Looking at the page, I saw an intricately colored sketch of a man.

A tall man with a sharp jawline, high cheekbones, a casually smiling face, and long silver hair tied back in a braid that went down past his shoulders to dangle halfway down his back. He wore ripped black skinny jeans with large holes at the knees and a white turtleneck underneath a long loose black cardigan. The man looked up at my face to see my reaction, and I simply stared at him and asked, "This is me, isn't it?"
The man smiled and nodded, resting a hand on my leg as if to coax me to move a bit closer to his side.

"Why me?" I asked, confused.

He simply lifted his amber eyes to meet my green ones and said,

"Because you're beautiful."

He didn't say anything else and just rested his head against my shoulder, lifting his hand from my leg and tenderly playing with my hair. I smiled and took his other hand in mine, drawing small circles on the back of it with my thumb. I rested my head on top of his and nuzzled my face into his feathery mahogany hair, inhaling his scent and closing my eyes contentedly.

‘I think I found someone special’ is what I thought at that moment underneath the cherry blossom trees.