It’s been three days. Three days of moping, three days of whining, three days of lying-in-bed-looking-up-at-the-ceiling-with-a-hand-on-my-forehead for Seunghyun. It has been three days since the kiss he shared with Jiyong. He blamed himself over and over again for not reacting quicker. He should have not let Jiyong go that day. He should’ve asked for Jiyong’s number, email or whatever. But he had nothing; nothing except for the pink-haired beauty’s name - Jiyong. Not even a last name.

He was frustrated that Jiyong was nowhere to be seen when he went after him that day. He was sure that he wasn’t dreaming, but how did Jiyong disappear so quickly? The hallway was empty when he stepped out except for a couple of students walking down towards the staircase at the other end of the corridor. He dashed to the nearest stairwell and looked up and down to see if Jiyong had used the stairs to escape but to no avail. How did he disappear so quickly?

He went back to the filming room and told Zen that he’s going back to their room if he’s not needed on the set anymore. When Zen nodded and gave him a thumbs-up, he let out a heavy sigh and left. On the way back to the dorm, he kept his eyes open; they were on stealth mode scanning for Jiyong. But long before he knew, he was already in front of his door. So he mindlessly pulled out his keys, unlocked the door, and threw himself on his bed as soon as his knees knocked the edge of the bed. Jiyong was just a dream.

However, the next day, Seunghyun was determined to make finding Jiyong his life mission. Walking to classes, Seunghyun let his eyes roam his surroundings, keeping them alert at any flash of pink. He paid more attention to the faces in his classes now; Jiyong could possibly be one of his classmates but he was too oblivious to care or to notice before.

But how could anyone miss the pink hair? It’s not possible. Or could it be that the pink hair is new? Arghhhh..I’m going crazy! Seunghyun groaned in his head.

He had also tried searching for Jiyong in the campus online directory. It turned out that there were about ten Jiyongs in the campus and Seunghyun, with the sanity that he had left, thought that it was ridiculous to email each one of them asking if they were his ‘Cinderella’. There was one ‘Jiyong’ in the directory that matched his assumption; same faculty as Zen. He even had composed a short email to send to him.

Hi Jiyong,
I’m Seunghyun from the ‘Kissing the Stranger Project’. Remember-

/DELETE

Hi Jiyong,
I’m the stranger you met-

/DELETE

Hi Jiyong,
You probably don’t remember me, but-

/DELETE

/SMASH KEYBOARD

Hi Jiyong,
It’s Seunghyun. :)

He let the cursor blinked several times.

/DELETE SMILEY FACE

Hi Jiyong,
It’s Seunghyun.

He was ready to hit send when the tiny voices inside his head started to discourage him. What if it’s not the Jiyong you were looking for? Wouldn’t you be embarrassed? What if it is Jiyong but he wouldn’t reply? Wouldn’t that be a rejection? Aren’t you scared of rejection?

“Arghhh..shut up!” Seunghyun groaned and deleted the whole thing along with the draft.

There was one obvious option, though; one very obvious, easy to access, option - Zen. Seunghyun was sure that Zen had a way of contacting Jiyong. They looked like they were close friends at the filming set. They should know each other, right?

But Seunghyun felt his stomach churn from anxiety every time he gathered enough courage to ask Zen about Jiyong. Apart from that, he felt somewhat embarrassed. Maybe because he was very stern about the kiss being a favor for Zen and nothing more before he actually met Jiyong. Maybe because he thought his roommate’s idea of matchmaking him with a stranger was ridiculous. Maybe he was embarrassed to let Zen know that Jiyong had got him on a string and he couldn’t make himself do anything until he could find a way to contact Jiyong.

“Seunghyun,” Zen called him from his desk, but he was too immersed in his thought he recognized it as white noise. “Hey, Choi!” And that snapped him out of his head.

“What?’ He looked over with a confused frown.

“The video is done, wanna have a look?” Zen offered, gesturing to his computer.

“Video? What video?” His frown deepened.

“The kissing video,” Zen rolled his eyes. “It’s done, we’re gonna submit it tomorrow. Do you wanna have a look?”

Seunghyun felt his heart flipped and he pursed his lips to stop the stupid grin that was starting to creep up his face and bounced over to Zen’s desk, a pillow closely embraced in his arms. I get to see Jiyong again.

“Why is it in black and white?” Seunghyun complained as soon as the video started playing. I wanna see the pink hair again.

“You really don’t know anything about the art of photography, do you?”

“Faculty of Engineering,” Seunghyun thumped the logo on his shirt. “Represent,” he held a smug on his face and a stupid gang sign with his fingers.

Zen groaned and hit the pause button. He had explained this so many times before but his roommate was obviously too dumb to care. “It’s in black and white so that it wouldn’t distract the viewers from the main focus of this project, which is the human interactions, with other factors and features; like colors. Because human brains couldn’t stop processing details either consciously or otherwise. So the monochrome will narrow down the information received and allows our brain to process the emotion depicted in pictures and videos with minimum distractions. Why do you think classic romantic movies are such tearjerkers?”

“Ahhhhh..” Seunghyun mouth gapped as he nodded like it was a new revelation.

Zen rolled his eyes and hit the play button. “Now watch.”

The video started with a short credit and introduction, alternated with short snippets. A soft music started playing as soon as the first couple appeared on screen; it was him and Jiyong. He felt his cheeks getting warmer so he hid half of his face into the pillow that he was hugging. He could vividly recall all the tingly feelings and all the butterflies in his stomach that he felt that day. Even the soft hums and little gasps and sighs that Jiyong let out that deafened his ears; and how overwhelming it was to be surrounded by Jiyong’s scent; and how the possessive streak in him had made itself prominent from having his arm curled around Jiyong’s waist; and above all, the taste of Jiyong on his lips, on his tongue.

“So,” Zen clicked here and there on his computer before continuing with his question, “what do you think?” He turned to face his roommate.

Seunghyun blinked. He was lost in his head that he didn’t notice the video was over. “Umm..” he paused. What is he expecting me to say? “I like the background song. Who was it?”

“You like the background song?”

“Yeah, it was kinda...refreshing.” What the hell am I saying? It doesn’t make sense?

“You like the background song?” Zen repeated his question, sounded a little bit aggravated.

“Yeah, I do.” Seunghyun retorted back, trying to sound affirmative. Why am I being defensive?

“So you have nothing to say about your kiss with Jiyong?”

Seunghyun stiffened. Yeah, I’m freaking glad I got to see his face again. And thanks for reminding me of that kiss again. Very convenient.

“Dude, all you gotta do is ask.” Zen stated all of a sudden, way astray from the main subject.

Zen continued when Seunghyun just glared at him. “I know you’ve been itching to ask me. You think I didn’t notice you being restless for the past few days? Did you even shower?” Seunghyun shoved his roommate away when the guy leaned in to sniff at him.

“Ask you what?” Seunghyun asked although he knew well what Zen meant by the question.

“For Jiyong’s number. Or email.” Zen pointed towards his phone. “It’s right here, just a few taps away. I could give you right now if you would ask me.”

Seunghyun glare faltered. He sighed and reached over to his bed and grabbed his phone. He buried his face into the pillow before handing his phone over to Zen who squealed as he takes the phone out of Seunghyun’s hand.

After a while, Seunghyun felt Zen put the phone back into his hand which has been hanging all this time. “There you go.”

He looked up at his roommate; half of his face still buried in the pillow and mumbled a thank you. He retreated to his bed quickly, but of course not before Zen welcomed him in a ceremonious tone like a circus ringmaster.

Seunghyun was at that phase again; type and delete, type and delete, type and delete, that he didn’t notice Zen has become anxious and couldn’t help from being nosy. He peeked over at Seunghyun’s phone from behind, when Seunghyun was preoccupied with the task at hand.

“JUST SEND IT ALREADY, DUDE!” Zen shrieked as he was getting impatient watching Seunghyun being self-conscious over the text he was about to send to Jiyong.

Startled by the jump, Seunghyun dropped his phone and he scrambled about to pick it back up. He looked at the screen and gasped.

“Zen, what the hell?! I hit send when I dropped my phone!”

Zen smirked and walked passed Seunghyun’s bed. “Huh. Had I known, I would’ve startled you earlier than just now.”

“UGHHHH!” Seunghyun groaned and smothered his face with his pillow. But he jostled up after a few moments. “Zen, what if he’s not interested? What if he’s not even gay? What if it was just a kiss to him?”

“Do you think I would not consider that before introducing him to you?” Zen smirked. “What did you say to him?”

Seunghyun scrubbed his face. “I just-” he let out a sigh. “I just said ‘Hey, it’s Seunghyun’ and I offered to take him to dinner some time.” Clearly he was paraphrasing.

“Ew, you’re corny it’s so gross.”

Seunghyun hung his head and let out a resigned sigh. He was seriously going crazy. But it was mere minutes when a reply came in.

Hey Seunghyun :) Of course I remember you; how could I forget? I’d love to take up on your offer, but I’ll be away the whole week next week (family getaway to Bali for a cousin’s wedding); a week with family, gotta love that lol. I’m leaving tomorrow and will be back next Sunday. I’ll make sure that you would be the first to know when I get back. Looking forward to the dinner date. Till then.- Jiyong

If previously he thought ‘cloud nine’ was just an unexplainable, ridiculously sappy term romantic people came up with that doesn’t make sense, Seunghyun was ready to fight anyone who thought the same way about it now. Because he sure felt like floating from the warmth that spread from his heart, almost bursting at the seams. And he was sure he could light up a lighthouse with the smile on his face at this moment. He was so happy that he could die right now.

Date. Jiyong said it’s a date.