Passing Strangers

Prologue

It was midsummer's day when a beautiful stranger appeared before my eyes. His face was painted with permanency in my memory. His smile was something that could never be forgotten.

While everyone was in a hurry dealing with their own ordeals, time stopped for me. It has stopped indefinitely.

It felt like for a moment, I was lost in wonderland with a dreamy stranger. A stranger whose name I knew.

He was bright in his own ways. Despite the unfamiliarity, he has captured the softest and the deepest part of my soul by his bold gaze and virile ways.

I remembered how he first called my name. His voice resounded deep within me like nobody has spoken my name as fine as he did.

Right then and there, I knew he wasn't just a stranger that was meant to pass by. My heart knew that he was the one destined to throw away all my sorrows.

"How will you know if you have found the one?" It was a vague and absurd question I had to ask.

"Your heart will know before you even realize it," said the person whom I have asked. "The heart knows better and greater things. It speaks the language we cannot and dare not to say."

It all made sense. The moment he looked straight into my eyes, I knew we were meant to fall in love. I knew something magical was bound to happen. I knew for sure that I liked him and I wanted to spend the rest of my days with him.

I used to think love was nothing but a mere exaggeration of attraction between two people.

I have proven myself wrong.

It was more than the feeling of attraction;

More than the feeling of infatuation;

And even more than the feeling of thirst for carnal desires.

I have lived my life trying to control my emotions and cultivate strategies to not let my guards down. I have always been cautious of my feelings with the fear that they might hinder all the things I wish to attain. My life perspective has been that way ever since. Never it crossed my mind that somebody would come into the picture to prove me wrong; that somehow I needed someone to share my morning cup of coffee with; that I needed someone to laugh with while watching my favorite Sunday sitcoms.

My hands were shaking. I bit my lower lip in my frailest attempt to hide the anxiety that was building inside me. Was it because of the movie we were watching? Or was it because of the heavy tension between me and the person sitting next to me? I was not quite sure but I thought it was because of the latter.

We were sitting on my couch with a can of beer in our hands, just like our usual weekend habit - he'd come over, we'd watch either chick flicks or action movies and indulge ourselves with spirits.

Our skins were touching which caused me to feel something unusual. I was staring at the television screen while hugging both my knees close to my chest and trying to decipher the pottery scene in the Demi-Patrick movie.

Thank God, Unchained Melody was playing on the television or else, the room would have been filled with nothing but awkward silence.

No one dared to speak. I tried my best to stay as calm as possible.

I wanted to tell him how much I like him but a part of me was scared to speak the truth. The fear of being rejected was all over me.

"Bin..."

"Ye Jin..."

We called out each other's names in sync.

"You... please go ahead," I timidly said.