Return to Nami Island

Annie and I had planned to ride the zipline
from the mainland to Nami Island,
famous as the romantic setting for Winter Sonata,
the classic K-Drama progenitor.
We’d decided this our previous visit in 2019,
when we discovered, as we were leaving,
you could zip across rather than take the ferry.
But we arrived too early this time, the tower
not opening up for another hour,
and the fog so thick anyway,
we’d be lost in it
for most of the time over the water.
Later, as we sat eating ice cream on the island,
admiring the little Winter Sonata snow-persons
littering the landscape,
she and I watched the thrill-seekers
soaring heart-poundingly high above us,
undoubtedly screaming with pleasure,
and we pledged, crossing our hearts,
the next time we’d ride or else,
even if by then, diehard romantics,
we were using walkers or wheelchairs
to pull off our pilgrimage.