True love found in a chicken joint

This archived article was written by: Christopher Palo

I have seen few examples of true love in my life. I have seen lust portrayed as love. I have seen love being one sided and have seen love used in a negative way. Every time I get down and think that love couldn’t possibly exist, I think of a couple I met in South Korea in 2004.
The man: blond hair, rugged-looking man appeared to be made out of granite. He wasn’t too big but had an air about him that let you know that he had all the answers and to never to mess with him. He was a gentle, yet terrifying man, who if you were his friend you were protected form every danger of the world. But, if he disliked you, all the dangers in the world seemed pleasant compared to him. Luckily, he was and is my friend.
The woman: border line, super-model features, brown flowing hair with features soft as an angel. The sweet and angelic creature was hard as nails. There was not one-single physical activity that I could do that she couldn’t do better. Her personality was that of your best friend. She would sit, have a beer and make fun of you at the same time.
After months of courtship and dating the man felt that it was time. He asked me to accompany him to a nearby shop to by his beloved an engagement ring. As he picked up the ring, I saw a slight smile cross this otherwise rugged and ultra-manly man’s face. It was love, honest to God, pure untainted love.
He told me that he would be asking her to marry him that night. I was giddy like a school girl. Two of my best friends were going to become one awesome, ultra-friend.
The three of us and another friend and we went out to this hole-in-the-wall chicken place that had the best chicken I have ever tasted.
They were sitting next to each other. She was devouring this culinary miracle like it was never going to be available again. He had a look on his face that I had never seen: slight anxiety, slight fear and the rest concentration like he was planning how many ways she could say no.
Finally it looks like he is working up the nerve. ”Um, beautiful, I love you…” he trailed off.
“Love you too,” she said, chicken leg half gone, her face covered in chicken grease (yeah, I told you it was good). I kept thinking, “How did she stay in such great shape eating like that?”
After that slight exchange of words, I saw him start to cower away. After a stern kick to his leg under the table I said, “Dude just do it!” He reaches in the deepest parts of his stomach, got down on one knee, looked straight at her and said “I love you. Will you marry me?”
“Okay” she says nonchalantly, chicken still in her mouth.
He tries to put the ring on her finger. She pulls away, “look, there’s grease all over my finger and I’m a little busy here.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, we both knew we were going to get married, so chill. “ She said sweetly and lovingly with an almost condescending tone in her voice.
Love is being the weird, completely awkward, person that you are when you are alone and being able to be that with another person. Love is acceptance for who you are, nothing more nothing less.
In this foreign country, in a dive chicken joint, Adonis found his Aphrodite. They continue even to this day to live a weird and completely awkward, albeit happy, life, still as deeply in love as the day they met.