house of the virgin mary

"where is kim doyoung-ssi?"

donghyun told me that if doyoung wasn't to return in 10 minutes, the tour bus will be leaving him. though ephesus isn't that far way from where we are right now, it must be taken concern that a. the house of st. mary is sitting on top of a very steep hill (hence the connection sucks) and b. the bus only arrives every 30 minutes to prevent traffic.

the thing is, the house st mary itself is such a small complex, people barely spend more than two hours there. so how in the world did we lose kim doyoung again?

so i grab doyoung out of the crowd once again, ran down the slippery rocks as if my life were to depend on it, but when we reached the exit, our bus were already gone.

doyoung dims, noticing the disappointed look on my face. "i'm sorry." he mumbles quietly.

fighting the urge to curse, i hide it with a sigh. "it's okay. let's just wait for the next bus."

doyoung doesn't seem like he's a fan of waiting (because waiting for another roughly 30 minutes means he could've stayed longer at the shrine) but because his gaze shows the upmost pity for me, he decides to stay put. we sit on the bus stop in silence, letting the bustling wind be the only voice in their ears.

"are you religious, lee doyoung-ssi?" i ask to break off the tension.

he shakes his head. "why do you ask?"

"you showed deep interest of the ritual they performed for mary at the shrine earlier on."

"i don't believe in any gods in particular, but witnessing how the women had wholeheartedly executed their prayers with such dedication makes me believe that there is a godly figure in this world," he explains. "even if it's not the same as they depict it to be, there must be a god. are you sure they'd do all of those things out of genuine, out of their unconditional love, if there weren't any god?"

"perhaps they do it out of the need of sheer hope," i carelessly answer, "and religion gives that to them. i could understand why. when life gets out of hand, people start praying."

"do you believe in god?" he asks me back.

"i observe the many aspects of what a 'god' is supposed to be like, but nonetheless have never chosen one."

"why?"

"i spend most of my time in an ancient greek city that was infiltrated by christians and is now located in a muslim country." i point out. "i must admit i have a decent understanding. i'm just not interested of any of them."

he purses his lips. "then that's one thing we have in common."

i nod. i did not expect the lack of optimism out of him, but i simply believe that it is to respect my opinion.

the next bus appears. we slip into the city of ephesus.