Impossible Diagnosis of Heartbreaks and Falling In Love

Him

"They say the road to the Feelings market is a secret kept to a few people in Under Town - the town to nowhere."

Curious, I asked, "Why do they keep it a secret?"

"Sir, what's important is for you to buy the forced happiness pill. That's it. Nothing else."

As we walked down a road leading to nowhere, night fell, and the darkness made me a bit scared.

"Hey, stay close to me, Mina."

Mina giggled, "Are you scared, sir?"

I lied, "Nope."

"Okay, remember this: in order to find Under Town, you need to take four forward steps, and then two steps to the right."

"Wait... Mina?"

Looking around, she was nowhere to be found. "Mina? Please, where are you? What did she say? Four forward steps?" I counted, "1...2...3...4..." And then, "Two right steps." I counted again, "1...2..."

In a blink, Under Town revealed itself. The market was busy and crowded with sparkling lights everywhere.

Mina smiled, "Oh, it took you a while, but we're finally here."

She led the way to the market where I was searching for the infamous 'Feelings Market.'

A middle-aged lady in the store with golden accessories and traditional tattoos said, "So, you need a forced happiness pill? I have only one in stock, hijo. And hija, I have two in stock for the love emotion drink. You could buy it now before it gets out of stock."

"Yes, we'll buy them both."

But Mina intervened, "Um, lola, just one forced happiness pill, please?"

"Okay, whatever you say, hija," she said with a humming voice before winking at us.

On the way back home, Mina asked, "Why do you need to buy the happiness emotion, sir?"

"Just in case I get my heart broken. I drank it like my vaccine, I guess," I said with a shrug.

"So you drank it already?"

"Yes, when you weren't looking, just joking. I'll drink it later."

We both had a chuckle.

In a trance with her sudden words, she said, "We are very out of the ordinary, don't you think, sir? I can't fall in love, and you can't get your heart broken."

I shared my unspoken thoughts, "Sometimes I think of it as a gift, but oftentimes it's like a curse. By the way, it's going to rain soon. Do you have any plans?"

She shook her head, "No, not really. Why?"

"Can we hang out? We could eat and wait for the rain to stop."

"At Jollibee?" she asked, eyes wide.

"No, something different, maybe at Chowking since my dad owns a branch near here."

She looked impressed. "Wow! I wish I was rich like you. I would have many perks in life if I was rich."

"Rich people have problems too. You don't wish to have my life, I swear."

"I would love to be in your shoes because I will definitely not be broken-hearted, hello? I can't fall in love, so living your life is a dream."

We reached Chowking and stayed there chatting about life, and for a while, I forgot about my responsibilities and problems. I kept avoiding falling in love most of my life, but here I was, falling for her.