You were standing at the veranda of your room to inhale the night breeze after the long day you had. You then saw a man waiting and hitting the bell button of the house next door looking frustrated, the same scene you’d seen for the past one week since your young girl neighbor moved out. The difference when it happened every time was, a different man showed up after another. You couldn’t forget the epic moment when two men showed up at the same time looking for the girl and you began to wonder how wonderful she was to play with those feelings. There was also a day when you felt conscious upon realizing a car was waiting for almost the whole day outside your residency. It made you think the person inside was a stalker, robber, and anything bad a person would be, but then you remembered he was probably waiting for your long gone neighbor.

Numbers of men looking for her decreased after two weeks, to almost none, but then came another guy. You couldn’t help but felt amused when the guy persistently waiting since you’d seen him in the morning when you went out to hang out with your sister until you returned home that night, seeing him still there. By this time, he was no longer in the car. Looking at your watch, it was almost midnight and you felt pity for him, so you approached him before went inside your house.

 

“Hey, dude.Don’t waste your time, just go back. She ain’t living here anymore and you’re not the only one looking for her. Night!”

He was taken aback by you.

“Where did she go?” he asked before you could continue your steps to your house compound. You told him the girl and you were never close, rarely met gaze, which meant of course you did not know about her whereabouts.

You proceeded your steps thinking you had help one to save his time and energy.

 

The reason of your hangout with your sister was her, buying a new apartment and needed your help to move in her stuff. You gladly accepted her request since she promised to get you the brand new shoes you two saw earlier at a mall.

On the day you were supposed to come, your sister texted you to get her mails from the mailbox if there’s any before you head up. Being an obedient lil sister, you did. You gave the few letters to your sister, and while she checked them one by one, you took a tour around her newly bought house. It was spacious and neat and clean and you knew you had to do nothing much in helping, so you would have the chance to just lazying around. That was just your thought until,

 

“This does not belong to me,” she showed you a letter.

“So?”

“Give it back to the owner, maybe the mailman made a mistake. Looking at the address, this person must live on level 6,”

 

You nodded to your sister, not giving much attention cause you were busy munching on the snacks she had prepared. Before you knew it, she snatched the bowl of snacks away from you and handed the letter forcefully.

 

“Go. Return it,”

 

You had no rights to say no since she really got you the pair of new sneakers you wanted even though they were pricey and you thought she was just joking to lure you into helping her. You took the letter, went to the sixth floor, and searched the apartment number based on the letter. You stopped in front of one door to recheck the address, but someone may have assumed wrongly.

 

“Miss, no one’s living here. Someone might have given you a fake address,”

You turned around to look at the owner of the voice and it was no other than the last guy appeared in search of your ex neighbor. You smiled at him,

“Speak of experience, huh?”

 

He chuckled and out of the blue introducing himself, “I’m Kris. Never thought we’d meet again,” “I know right. I’m Jace. You look like you live here, so perhaps, do you know where is the apartment no. 11 on this floor?”

“That’s mine. Over there,” pointing at no. 11 door.

You scoffed at his silliness mentioning how he said his name was Kris and the one on the letter was Wu Yifan, totally different. You laughed it off and he seriously claimed that both are his names. You gave him the letter since he did not look like he was playing a joke. He thanked you and you two were interrupted with a delivery man standing at Kris’ door with hands full of food in bags.

“I see, you’re throwing a party. I’m better off now, my sis is waiting,” you were about to go when he cooly said, “No party. Just ordered it out of frustration caused by the girl. Wanna join?” “No, thanks. I wasn’t cheated by anyone. Just wanna return the letter to its owner who turned up to be you.”

With that, you excused yourself.

Your sister wondered why you took so long, and you, did not want her to exaggerate and make up stories in her mind, told her that you couldn’t find the room initially cause it had no numbers on the door. She believed you though.

 

An evening at a cafe, you found yourself in the ladies panicking over your suddenly lost lipstick. Without it, you thought people might mistaken you as a walking corpse since your face was to pale thanks to the cold weather.

“Looking for this.” a girl handing me a familiar lipstick. Indeed, it’s yours!

“Oh my! Yes, that’s mine,” you were too focus on the finding before you had a look of the girl’s face. She was your ex neighbor the many guy had been looking for.

You thanked her and she was not as bad as you thought even though she did look sly and flirty. She was all smiled when you brought up how she used to live next to you and how many days men went crazy waiting for her after she moved out. The small talk ended and you saw a familiar face sitting at the bar counter of the cafe. With the sense of humanity and indebted for finding your lipstick, you quickly rushed back into the ladies to warn your ex neighbor. She looked clueless so you had to explain clearly to her that Kris was out there, probably would not think further to attack her if he saw her. You offered to distract him so she could come out without being noticed by Kris.

 

“Hi, Kris. What’s good here?” you said as you took a seat next to him.

“You’re here too. I don’t know. I’m not a regular here.”

“Then you should try this,” you pointed to a random dessert on the menu hoping he’d pay attention to it, and yes he did! You saw that girl came out and mouthed thank you.

“We should get that then,” you were snapped by his voice.

“Sure,”

 

You were so thankful that the random dessert you chose tasted great and suddenly your mouth was too light to ask Kris about what would happen if one day he bumped into your ex neighbor. He returned your question with his, asking how the girl was like so far you had known her. You told him what you witnessed, the guys, what happened when she left, and how you ended up knowing one of her victims. Basically, the unintended conversation you had with Kris was pleasing. He continued by stating that he would not hold grudges against people who he knows their nature is just bad.

 

“Is that so? Then I just wasted my time.”

“Why is that so?”

“Your ex girl was here and I helped her to sneak out, afraid you’d harm her if you see her,” you said half mumbled.

“She was here?!”

“Hey, what’s with you? You said you don’t hold grudges, and now you’re mad?”

He denied being mad and you kept teasing him. Before you two made your way home, you two exchanged phone numbers. That’s how your relationship grew friendly and closer, leading to hanging out whenever one of you was bored.

 

One day, you were shopping for your groceries and not surprisingly Kris was there too, doing the same thing. You two met often either intentionally or coincidentally. You wondered if you two had actually passed by each other many times before you knew him.

“Buy me a drink after this,” you smiled cheekily while pushing your loaded trolley beside him.

“Sorry. Need to hurry today. Maybe next time and it’s gonna be a date!” he said and you both stopped at the pay counters. Once he’s done paying, he left, not bother to wait for you. You thought to yourself, perhaps he did have an urgent matter and about the date he probably exaggerated his sentence.

 

You were at work when you received a text from Kris, asking if you’d be free on Saturday night. You simply replied him a ‘Yes’ and what happened next actually shot an arrow to your heart.

 

‘ It’s the day of our date then. First date. ’

‘ I’ll pick you at 8 ’

 

You bet he could not be serious.

 

‘ I’m dead serious. Wait for me to prove it or you can call me a liar if I don’t show up. ’

 

Even though you didn’t anticipate much from him, you still made yourself look presentable in case he was really going to pick you up at 8pm on that day. Your heart was beating fast while waiting and thinking if you two were really going to start dating each other. Your thought was stopped once you heard the bell rang. It was really him at your doorstep, in a pair of jeans and shirt. He looked neat, though simple. Your jaw was slightly dropped, so he wasted no times linking both yours and his arm together,

“Your hand is icy cold,”

“Cause I’m nervous,” you blurted out.

“Oh, don’t be. Instead you should feel excited for our first date,”

 

You could only smile at him, not knowing what to say. You both now at his car and before he let you in he looked at you,

 

“Let’s date! I like you. A lot. I know I can trust my feeling this time and most importantly, I trust you,”

“Why is that so?”

“Why not? I know you’re still living here and if you plan of running away, I can always ask your sister,” he smirked.

“I won’t move out. Don’t worry, you can always come to seek for apology if you do any mistake towards me,” this time it was your sweet little counterattack.

You gave him a peck on his cheek and said “Lets get going with our first date!” then get into his car by yourself. He was pretty shocked by your sudden move and his smile never faded even when he’s driving.

 

Who has ever thought you would ended up being together with a complete stranger who was dumped by someone. And you, never once had in your mind of how he would be when he ask you for the first date. Was he ever asking? It was more like an exclamation ‘we are going to date’, leaving you no room to give any answer.

He who got dumped, managed to win your heart.

The work of destiny wasn’t a bad thing after all. You two were already meant to be together.