It probably wouldn't have gotten much further than that if it hadn't been for the Bus Incident. Even though that was the name I cherished it with, the Bus Incident really had very little to do with buses of any sort. I only call it the Bus Incident because it had happened because of the bus. Sort of.
See, I'd been waving to one of my friends and walking backwards when I'd run straight into a warm body.
Imagine my surprise when I turned around, apologies on my tongue, only to come face-to-face with none other than Brown Eyes.
He looked at me and did a double take. "Oh, God," he said. "You're Stalker Girl!"
Well, would you look at that. He had a nickname for me too!
"You recognize me?" I said, with a little bit of wonder. Before I realized that I'd all but confessed to stalking him with those three words. Gosh. I should've just ignored and escaped as soon as I could have.
I blamed it on those brown eyes of his. A glance into them and I would end up doing stupid things.
Stupid, stupid Jennie.
"Who wouldn't? You're suddenly everywhere I go."
His expression as he looked down on me was a mixture of a smile and a frown. Although his nose seemed a little too sharp. But he had really nice cheekbones and a firm jaw-line.
And I realized I'd been staring again.
"Uh," I said, flustered. He'd been saying something before, hadn't he? "Right. Sorry for running into you like that. And sorry for that... other... night."
He laughed. There went my heart again.
I was saved from going into a cardiac arrest from prolonged exposure to his smile when he abruptly frowned and dug around in his pocket to fish out his cell phone. He glanced at the flashing screen and said apologetically to me, "Sorry, but I need to take this."
"It's fine," I said, watching as he turned a little away from me to answer his phone. Staring at his back view, I wondered if this was the time to politely make my escape. It wasn't like I needed to stick around––
Wait a minute. Was that... Japanese?
All thoughts of escape vanquished, I pounced on him the moment he hung up.
"Was that Japanese? You speak Japanese? That's so cool!"
"It was mandarin," he said dryly.
"Oh," I waved off my mistake. I liked mandarin too. And Japanese, and Thai... He looked a little wary but I didn't let it get to me, "You speak mandarin? Are you Chinese? But you don't look like you are Chinese."
"I'm half-Chinese," he said, smiling just the slightest bit. I could tell he didn't want to stand here and continue listening to my crazy chatter, but manners were preventing him from walking away. Aw.
"Really? I'm half-Korean," I said proudly, then paused. Half-Korean didn't sound almost as cool as half-Chinese did. Huh.
"Really?" He was frowning a little bit now, looking suspiciously at my almost-black hair and almost-black eyes. I decided I didn't like it when he frowned. "Are you sure you aren't the whole thing?"
"No! I have an American first name, see?"
"I don't see," he said slowly, when I didn't further elaborate.
"Jennie," I revealed. And I stood beaming at him.
"Right. And your last name is?"
"Kim."
"Kim Jennie ?" He raised an eyebrow, but he was smiling again. I guess my name did sound quite odd when put together.
"I want a name that's lively, fun and spontaneous! So I go by Jen."
"And Jen is such an exciting name?"
I pondered that. "Actually, the name Jen reminds me of a Quiet and shy person. Not my kind of person at all."
He looked amusedly exhausted. "You..." he closed his eyes briefly, as if trying to find out the right word from the back of his mind, "are confusing."
"And you really have the most amazing eyes I've ever seen," I said.
Oops. Verbal diarrhea.
He was smiling, though. I supposed he found my obsession with him – with his eyes, rather – amusing. "Thanks," he said, said eyes dancing when I looked into them.
Without quite knowing how, we found ourselves heading to the nearest bus stop, where we spent the next hour sitting on the benches and getting to know each other. I found out that he was in his first year, a Business major, and one of the nicest guys I'd ever had the fortune to meet.
"I have to go," he said. "I have a class at four."
"What do you mean at fo–– Oh crap! It's four!" I looked for my bag. "I have a class at three thirty!"
He grinned. I'd come to realize he smiled a lot. "Oops." He stood up along with me, flicking a curious glance over the textbook I'd taken out. What? It'd been weighing down my bag! It wasn't like I was trying to look studious or anything. So that, you know, he wouldn't think I was only good at stalking. "Psychology 101? Fun."
"It gives me an excuse to do crazy things," I said.
He raised his eyebrows. "Like stalking guys you've just met?"
I lifted my chin. "I could say it was a social experiment for my thesis paper."
He laughed. "You could."
Hugging the book to myself, I adjusted the strap of my bag and hesitated. "So... will you be here again tomorrow?"
He eyed me suspiciously. "Why? Are you going to conduct your 'social experiment' on me again?"
I grinned. "Maybe."
I was kidding, of course. I was. Really! Sort of. Probably.
...Maybe.
