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Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen. 

I always get blown away by Ellie Goulding's "Your Song", over and over again, every single time I hear it. Of course, there's Janet Devlin but still, Ellie Goulding's version is the one that manages to tug on my heart strings so badly whereas for Janet Devlin, it's her voice that gets me. Hmm. Here, have her version of the song too- "Your Song" by Janet Devlin.

Anyway! I've been delaying this post long enough that I decided to just go ahead with it.

Many a time now, I've preached my love of romance stories. Well, recently, I decided to confront my perception of love and romance and I'm actually quite surprised to realize the things in which I consider romantic. Oh, to start off, let me just tell you just a day or two ago (maybe three), I completed a story in which a gay boy pretends to be straight so that other gay boys hit on him.

Sounds pretty twisted, huh? Well, I did enjoy it, and not just for the sex. Yes, if you don't know already, I've confessed to reading porn many times already. It's nothing new. I'm tainted and my innocence is never coming back. I still get shy if I do watch M18 sexual scenes or whatever because reading is not the same as watching, evidently.

While my mind is quite accustomed to written form of sex or sexual scenes, I still get uncomfortable at looking at naked or nearly naked or not very covered bodies close to sex or actually engaged in the act or any variation of it, including those before the actual act.

Okay, I reached my limit for talking about sex. Moving on.

I love cliches like crazy. Why? Well, it's not because they're so dang predictable, for one. This is going to make me sound deeper than I am but I assure, I'm not. My sister claims I'm 5mm deep and while I'm not impressed by her assessment or her reference, I can't find it in me to vehemently deny it. Ahhhh. The life and times of the shallow. Always hard to defend oneself, yes.

I like knowing how the story will generally play out, so I can concentrate on other things instead. The techniques, the progression. Since I already know how the story will roughly flow, I can focus on the execution instead. And, if any plot devices or twists surprise me, they'll be more likely to impress me instead. Things like a character having an unexpected trait, a development I never thought would happen or perhaps, an ending that makes my jaw drop- in a good or bad way, sometimes both.

The one cliche I always fall in love with is the geek and bad boy one. It comes in a variety- nerd and jock, loner and popular guy, good girl and bad boy, plain girl and hot guy. Whatever it is, I love it when they play with two people from different social status in high school and somehow, make it work. Usually, the girl is the one who's (I don't really like using the term but-) inferior to her male counterpart and it can be a story about balancing it out or making it more pronounced, anyhow the writer wants it to go.

Alright, for the next few, I won't be going into details, just touch and go... Other cliches I like include when the girl falls for her step-brother- not incest but when her parent remarries someone and the guy she falls in love with is the kid of the person her parent marries. The girl falling in love with her best friend's brother or her brother's best friend.

That's about it. Those are the ones I really like.

From time to time, I enjoy an occasional story about childhood friends falling in love with each other but those kind of stories are usually pretty slow, so I don't read them too often. You have to wait for the characters to get over the denial, get attracted to each other, yada yada.

I don't really like hate/love stories, where the two characters hate each other and then, after a series of events, then fall in love with each other. I don't really like love triangles either.. I mean, it's okay once in a while but I get tired of indecisive female characters. Then you get a lot of dilemmas and who is it I really love, blah blah blah. I love watching the story play out but sometimes, it gets annoying.

From time to time, I do read original stories. Usually, when I have a craving, I look for a specific genre I feel like reading. Anyway, now, about the more specific things I like or find romantic. I won't go too much into detail because there's one main thing that I'm puzzled that I find so romantic, especially seeing how practical I'm trying to be these days.

The one thing that really gets me is when the girl or guy follows their counterpart wherever he or she wants to go. The kind of "We're going nowhere but we're together" thing. I know it's probably the idea of two people against the world, fighting against the odds on their own that makes the idea or concept so appealing to me. However, I can't tell you how it always manages to make me feel this rush of adoration.

Awash is a good example of that. It's a simple piece but the main idea is extremely strong.

Other things.. I like the idea of a person changing because of another person. Not for another person. It's a very different thing altogether. I believe that you should only change if it's you yourself who wants the change in your life or your person. Never change because of someone else.  I love it when the bad boy changes because of the good girl, because they want to be deserving of the other person, to be able to match up to them.

Another thing I really love is when the character sleep together. No, not have sex but just sleep in a bed with each other. Usually, no matter what the situation is, it will make me smile- whether it's meant to be sweet, fluffy, sexy, just plain crack or however else.

Truthfully, I think my ideas about romance and love are a little warped, at best. Yeah. The one thing I really love is when a character says, "Wait." Also, I like it when one character grabs the other's wrist. Ugh. Yeah. There's a lot of other things which I can't remember at the moment but all these will do.

That's all.

:)