All Chapters of The Secret Island: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

           When Celine was studying fashion, she had to read the research on beauty and its philosophy. One article that she read and stuck with her was this Japanese philosophy called Wabi Sabi (侘寂), which describes beauty from the perspective of imperfection. She didn’t really understand it back then. Why do we have to find beauty in broken things? Could imperfection be beautiful? Why do we have to be satisfied with simple, uninteresting materials? Is that type of beauty truly beautiful or some meaningless philosophy?         The philosophy she read was in stark contrast to her life at the time. Celine always wears new clothes, shoes, bags, everything—everything she chose was classically beautiful, expensive, new, and the best. She threw away everything old and broken and bought new ones. That was just common sense to her. Why should she keep flawed goods?

           Celine woke up with an aching body. She couldn’t explain how much she didn’t ever want to leave this bed. The word lazy is probably an understatement. She halfhearted wanted to get rid of all the activities she planned out for the day. The reason for these aches was the man sleeping next to her.         Last night was more than a dream. We went on for hours under the moonlight, embracing each other, and it was glorious. But she must admit, she should exercise more for this. Gosh, she hadn’t touched anyone in four years—that was the price of her wait for him, and she must admit she felt a bit like a teenager when it came to things like this.         Still drowsy, she saw him turning his back to her. We were under the same thick blanket, and the warmth she felt was from him. &nb

           The upside of being on holiday and emailing everyone in her office not to contact her was an obvious private that Celine found to be so rare now. She had always been too busy for her own liking. She had become a lot happier. She didn’t even know why. Maybe because no one knew her here and no one expected anything of her, she only enjoyed her time off with Martin. Just walked around town and enjoyed the moment. There was nothing else to do other than appreciate the view; the vast blue sea, the cool breeze, the sounds of the waves, and the soft hand of the person walking beside her.         Although he was feeling a bit down during breakfast, once Martin saw her smile, he could smile as well.         “The weather is wonderful today. We could see the sun, that’s a rarity in this country, don’

            Until dusk, Celine walked out. She walked out alone after saying goodbye to all her friends. Her hand was still holding a bottle of wine. Even though Martin guessed it was considered normal considering the context of partying after the ceremony, Celine appeared strange; Martin observed that she wasn’t particularly enjoying the time. Still, with the intention of giving her a gift, he followed her from a distance. He was really worried about Celine, seeing that her head was down when she walked. She was very drunk by that point, and no friends were around to take care of her.She sat down on the bench and removed the crown of olive leaves. She sat there and stared blankly into nothing for a while and took out her phone, and looked at the screen. He saw she was calling someone, but it seemed like the end of the line could not be contacted, so she put down the phone and covered her ha

   The sunrise this morning was so peaceful, and Martin felt the light on his skin so warm that he hadn't felt it in a long time.When we were staying side by side together like this, Martin blamed himself for letting the time pass for so many years before he had to courage to talk to Celine again. If he had gone back to see it as he initially promised, we could have been seeing the sunrise together time and again.But he also knew that everything had its own time—just like his mental wound that needed time to heal. Memories can be forgotten, but deep down, Martin knew full well that he got good memories. All the emotions and every event were still vivid in his memories. He just needed to accept that fact.         One day, he had to tell Celine what had happened to him. And that day would arrive soon enough.         Before the day