Book of Love 爱神の书

Chapter 2


As you flip opened a book today, have you ever wonder.
How many books do you think existed in this world?
Millions? Billions? Millions of Billons?
I don’t know about the true figure.
Maybe nobody bothers to count it anyway.

Book existed a long time and would exist until maybe all the trees in the world are chopped, shredded into pieces.
It has come a long time when we began learning about life.
Books bring with them vast knowledge and meaning of things which we don’t know, we don’t realized.

Could you still remember during young times when our teachers would ask us to treat a book gently?

Do not draw on your book.
Do not tear away pages that you like.
Do not keep the book for yourself as good things must be shared.

And most of all.
Love your book & your book will love you in return

My name is Mark Lee.
I'm a healthy male & turning 28 this year.
I cannot say I'm handsome although I have been constantly compared with a Taiwanese singer by the name ‘Leehom’.

I love sports, especially cross training running and swimming.
Do not imagine that I have a well toned body as not all runners are like that.

Hobbies?

Other than my sporty lifestyle, I love corresponding with people. Maybe that explains why I’m in the line of Customer Service as I’m a Customer Service Engineer in a Multi-national company.

I remembered that I also like reading, although I’ve forgotten the last book that I’ve read.

My ideal kind of date would be to find a cozy place, have a drink or two and talk about everything under the sun.

My ideal girl friend is someone who understands the value of our relationship. Someone who knows me enough and is willing to let me comprehends her as much.

Do you have the same hobby as me?

Are you someone who understands what love is?

Drop me a note.

Perhaps we will know each other better…”

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As he keyed in the last words,
Mark took a stretch after starting his online blog.
It was something that he wanted to do for a long time.

Everyone has a blog nowadays. It seems like people like to correspond online and save the meaning of meeting up unless you are good looking enough.

“What do people know about love nowadays? Two people that never see each other except web chat can also get married.”

Mark shook his head as looked at the clock.
It’s 7.45am and he’s all set for work today.

The journey is the same everyday for the last 2 years.
The routine tour of Bukit Panjang town as the LRT moves around before it reached the MRT stations as he traveled to Yishun.

Mark was always at the last cabin of the train.

It was something that he had done since the first day of work. Theoretically the first & last cabin should have the least people as it is the furthest from the escalator.

The crowd onboard the last cabin had a few familiar faces. People who he doesn’t knew but shared the same place in the last cabin throughout the 2 years.

There were the usual office guys & ladies heading for town, students heading for school and there was a bespectacled girl who always keeps her head down reading.

For 2 years, Mark had always wondered what book she had read.

“She must love reading a lot based on the fact that an average person can finish a book within a week…”

“Wow..! That’s 104 books at least for 2 years”
Mark tried to hide his exclamation in the train.

The he did something which he hadn’t for the last 2 years.
Mark took a step forward towards the lady.
The he advances, until he was right in front of her.

The girl did not react to him.
She continued her attention on the book.

Mark tried to peek at her book.
Unknowingly to him, someone was staring at him from behind.

“What you looking at pervert?”
A woman in her forties suddenly shouted across the cabin.

The girl looked up and Mark stared at her.

The woman walked in front of the girl and start scolding Mark.

“You pervert! You were looking at her down blouse right?”

“Auntie, I think you mistaken…I never”
Mark tried his best in defense but the attack came too strong.
“I saw you looking at this lady from afar, and then you advanced to take a closer look right?”

“Auntie, I was looking at her book”

“Looking at her boobs right??”

With all the commotion going on in the cabin, the girl blushed and tried to hide her face with her book.

When the train reached Woodlands, the girl made a dash for the exit as she could no longer bear the embarrassment.

The train door closed before Mark could react.

As the woman continue her scolding and swearing at him, Mark make his way to the front cabin still couldn’t understand the bad luck he had early in the morning.

Deep down he had hoped the girl will not be too bothered by the incident.

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“What's with the black face?”
Shaun asked as he saw Mark walking into the office.

“*Sigh* Bad luck! I was looking at a person’s book then was framed that I was peeping on her”

“It’s normal lah…”

“What normal?”

“Normal to say you look at her books instead of her boobs lah brother!”

“What!? Even if you don’t believe me??”
Mark wanted to throw a file to Shaun’s table but was stopped by Christine, the undisputed office bitch.

“Eh Mark, boss looking for you...”

“Over?”
“Over Customer complains… what else? Your product didn't reach on time. If not for me, boss might have fired you already.”

“Yeah, if not for you, Boss would not have known”
Shaun talked back as Mark heads into the Manager's office.

After an hour of thrashing and verbal assault, Mark was out from the rings of fire injured emotionally.

As he tried to recover from the physiological blows, Mark begins surfing the internet.

“I wondered anyone been to my blog?”
Mark thought as he typed his address on the address bar.

There were some counts from the counter bar he had installed.
Then he went on to see the shout box.

There were no tags.

“Maybe it's still early”

Disappointed as he was, Mark wanted to close the web browser.
As his mouse went to the ‘cross’ window.

A short message appeared on his shout box.

It was his first tag.

“Do you know love?”

It read.

Its sender,

Someone named Psyche.

[To be Cont]