Since he has a longer torso for a tall guy, my sight directed right away on his broad shoulders, I tried to raise my head a little bit and saw him staring at me. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know if any word can even make someone comprehend his visual perfection.

His flawless jawline, his naturally contoured cheek bones obviously made me want to think that he is one of those detailed carved statues that came to life and escaped from the museum. I am running out of oxygen. His pebble like eyes were still focused on me and his sharp nose line spoke enough elegance for my heart to stop beating. The influx of his manliness is too much to handle for a normal human like me. I’m so scared to death since I might embarrass myself anytime in front of him, I was completely out of my league.

He looks like he wanted to say something. His lips were trembling and kept on avoiding to speak by means of biting them with his dazzling white teeth. I can’t help him. I am so dazed with his presence. I just want to evaporate. He is too much.

“Please do not.” He whispered. 

That was his first sentence and with three words I made my mind. Hearing his husky voice made me go back to reality. I can’t handle something like him. I can’t fry myself with my own oil. I need to unsee him while I still have a chance. Yes, I meant to swap! I WILL.

I aimed to raise my hand. My muscles are already trembling ever since I saw him. Everything started so intense. I don’t want to be in this uncomfortable situation anymore. I will make a way.

He grabbed my hand before I can even move a single flesh. I froze in fear for no reason. He was holding my hand tightly and was quivering at the same time. It looked like he was as nervous as me. His palm was sweaty cold but he didn’t care – he didn’t let me go.

We just looked at each other with strain. I looked outside the window to distract myself and tried to pull off my hand from his grasp. He doesn’t have any plans of cooperating at all. No matter how hard I try, he sat there calmly with a poker face while clinging on my hand. I gave up and he released me when he felt my muscles relaxed on its own.

I suddenly realized that his hands were not cold and sweaty. It was mine which was cold, his was warm and the moment our skins collided, moisture began to fill our pores. I immediately felt cold, the familiarity of his warmth change my mind. They say that people with warm hands, also have warm hearts.

Maybe I am just too paranoid that is why I am overreacting. For the first time in forever I’ve never been completely taken by someone until today – an effortless stranger surged this unknown calamity in my chest. His gaze made my heart skip its normal jumping routine, this is madness.

The facilitators started to walk along the aisle and collected all of our mobile devices. WOW – this is indeed a serious retreat. I thought they wouldn’t be this strict since we are all adults now. They offered each pair two other items; an mp3 player and a digital camera to share. This kind of concept, I have underestimated the organizers.

Mr. 216 took it politely from the coordinator. I was surprised when he turned towards me so that I can choose what to have. My first impulse was to get the mp3 player of course. Music is my only escape from reality. My partner excitedly checked the digital camera and leaned close to me as soon as he figured out how to take a picture using it. A surprise selfie – he is really unreadable.

I am positive that mine will surely look like a messed up mug shot and totally sure that his wacky pose will still look pretty at all angles. He smiles like a child yet gives a very firm and charismatic stance when on poker face. He doesn’t speak that much but I can see that he is very playful. He might have wanted to tell me lots of things and I want to congratulate him from holding back. His gem like eyes communicates a thousand words with every expression that he makes; it is obvious since most of the time he got that blank stare as consistent signature on his face.

 “Speak to each other with the music bank that we gave you and enjoy each other’s silence all throughout the trip.” The proctor said with an excited tone of voice.

“For our whole trip, we wish you to take turns on playing music on the mp3. See it as an opportunity to know each other with the kind of melody that you are into.”

Right after hearing that I checked the device and noticed that the headphones slot was with a splitter. It was meant to be shared from the very start. My mind started to run through the songs that I have been listening to for the rest of the month and figured out that I am too outdated. I tried to scan with the cursor up and down to check for a good song to begin with while Mr. 216 already put his headphones to listen to our first song. This will be a first impression test I guess.

Seeing other pairs not having any issues about it pressed more pressure on me, I instantly became a master on wasting time. Our vehicle started to leave the location and here I am still stuck on the foreign playlist. He’s watching me while I am starting to get upset. I saw him waving his hand towards me on my peripheral vision and looked at him like a helpless kid. He gave me a signal saying - “Let me try first?”

I gave it to him right away in shame. While I am still sulking and sighing with embarrassment, our earphones started to blast with bad groovy hip hop songs. It was a total eargasm. I looked at him for the first time with my genuine intent to praise him. I like his style. I listened closely to the lyrics and all have deep and meaningful messages. I can’t hide that I am impressed with his taste of song.

The first song ended and he gave the player to me right away. I gave up with my preference and allowed him to take the lead instead; I shook my head while smiling at him. He understood it right away and he enthusiastically lined up the next songs.

to be continued..