And then there was that other time. As soon as the caretaker came to the ward, I took a taxi and went straight to Olympic Park. He was wearing his black hat and backpack as always, but the white shirtsleeves he had rolled up to his forearms and the sunscreen that gave his face a white tint made him look so cute I couldn’t stand it. It was a weekday morning, and there weren’t many people at Olympic Park.

When I thought no one was looking, I snuck a kiss on the back of his hand. He snatched his hand out of my grasp and said, “Don’t do that,” but he didn’t seem to have disliked it. There was still an anxious atmosphere between us, which made us keep a six-inch distance from each other.

The cherry blossoms were in bloom, and white petals fell like snow whenever there was a breeze. The artificial reservoir was placidly still, the air was clear of pollution for once, the mood was calm, and there was an occasional young couple pushing a pram, or an old couple strolling hand in hand down the paths.

Stopping in front of a forsythia bush, he snapped off a twig of blossoms and slipped it into his buttonhole. This was somewhat shocking, the kind of old-man thing an elementary schooler’s parent would do on Parents’ Day.

—Uh, baby, excuse me, but what are you doing?

—I asked you not to call me that in public.

—I’d think what you’re doing right now is a lot more embarrassing.

—And don’t come up so close to me. Do you want to tell the whole world what we are?

—The entire universe knows what we are.

This offhand comment upset him so much that I ended up walking three steps behind him. Then he relented, came back to me, slipped the forsythia twig behind my ear, and took a photo of me on his iPhone. Pretending to want to look at the photo, I lunged at him instead, grabbing his waist, and this made him jump out of his skin. His reaction disappointed me, then seemed adorable, then annoying, my feelings shifting every second. But Olympic Park in the spring was so tear-inducingly beautiful that I wondered if these mood swings were because of the change in weather or because I was mentally exhausted from having looked after a patient for so long. These were my thoughts as I fooled around, propping blades of grass behind my ears and doing other silly things that couples do.