askuroppa

Irony

She is starting to ride the subway train, and she happens to see him every time,and he lives a few blocks away from her and she wishes to befriend him, but she's too nervous and tongue–tied.

Have you ever heard of pessimist people saying coincidence doesn't exist? They would tell you it's something the hopeless ones refer to when miracle (if that, too, exists) happened to them.

In other words: very ironic.

*

Taehyung doesn't waste much time to squeeze himself in between the people rushing out. Or else, he'd be squished by them himself. And that's not good for him, because he doesn't want anyone to get hurt, considering that he possibly is going to reflexively hustle aside the ones who did first.

Standing in between a man in glasses and another one in shirt, he clings to a pole instead, since he forgot to spray some deodorant on him, afraid that he might be leaving the house late thus miss the train.

*

Sitting behind him is someone whose eyes brighten at the sight of him. The back of his hoody is tinted with spots of sweat, the after–effect of his struggle at the entrance earlier. It also appears to be strange to her that he doesn't notice it/her yet.

Although she sits in the same seat from her first day experience of taking the train, has her eyes laid on him since, she's always there but it seems like he only sees the opposite side – the direction they're currently facing.

*

The two of them usually ride the same coach of railway home in the same hour; sometimes a little later, sometimes a little earlier – but never one minute over the sixty.

Hopeless people have said that if you spend too much time looking at a stranger, you might want the person to start taking notice of you. And then you will get greedy, they say; you'd want the person to start exchanging smiles with you, and then start talking to you, and then start standing/sitting nearer to you, etcetera.

If you are really looking forwards to those, then the (left with no choice) pessimists will make you work your arse out to make it happen instead of waiting like the distressed Disney princesses.

But sometimes you're an arsehole yourself, having a pride too big to swallow, hence you wait.

*

Simply being a human who has curiosity and will and, at the least, effort, she has discreetly figured it out where he lives: Approximately a couple of blocks up the road where she will pretend she has to walk past to get to the train station.

Which bloody means she has to do a U–turn from her own building to the back alley of his, and then does the slow–motioned walk, the one actors do in dramatic film scenes, just by the corridor outside his building.

(But you see, that's a lot of effort for someone who acts all coy and stubborn.)

*

All the time, Taehyung makes a bet with himself of how long will he not smell from the moist his armpits already contain. Once in a whilst he will ensure it if his arms aren't raised too high – or else somebody may cold-shoulder him for being unhygienic that day.

This bloody means he has to put on a straight face as long as he's breathing the same air with that particular person (or until one of them reaches their stop), and then crosses his fingers so that no one else is staring at him, thus leaving him with the same experience.

(But you see, that's a lot of misfortune for someone who innocently wakes up to the idea of work on a daily basis.)

*

And it's just like that every day. Nothing much has changed. Except that earlier, she didn't see Taehyung, and he wasn't standing in front of her, and they didn't come across each other on their way home. It's pretty sad and all for her, but tomorrow is yet another wishful thinking.

Pessimists will hate this sort of person. However, the hopeful ones are clearly laughing in their faces right now: On her way to gawk through the panels of glass door for Taehyung, he was late and running and jostling, and that's how she ends up with blood running down the nose and him buying/shoving her a stick of ice cream (and one for himself to distract himself from the thought that he's going to get his arse swatted by his colleagues for being absent today).