My day officially begins once I step inside the subway train, when I feel myself squished between all these people. As I stand here, I feel as though I'm like any other person in this large city hustling on the daily in a set routine: wake up, go to work, go home, sleep, repeat.

Having a routined life isn’t all that bad. If anything, it has that stability to it that I like. A part of me does want to try new things. But, another part of me is content with how things are now. As of the moment, I’m currently set on the latter. That’s why my friends call me boring. I don’t mind. Boring can be good especially when I see how hectic other people’s lives are.

And maybe, I’m just waiting. Waiting for something. Something to break this monotonous life of mine, a rock thrown in a still pond to cause ripples in the water.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m currently on the subway train. I’ve always ridden the subway to work. It’s not that I can’t afford a car nor do I do it to save gas. But I guess you can consider it as my way of helping reduce car emissions. Yay.

I just got used to it. At least I don’t have to deal with traffic or road rage. Besides, I found interest in observing people while commuting to work. It became a hobby of sorts to keep myself entertained as I wait for my stop. Over time, I’ve become quite familiar with a lot of faces who ride the train at the same time as me.

Today wasn’t so different. I did the usual, scanning the crowd and looking for anything interesting. As I looked to my right, there’s this man, a businessman, I had presumed, judging from his ‘company employee suit’. He always looked so tired whenever I saw him. But, I couldn’t help be intrigued by how he would always smile whenever he pulled out his phone, scrolling and swiping on the screen. At first, I thought he was just simply playing with his phone but he always had this gentle smile. I got curious about what it was that could have made him smile like that. By chance, I caught a glimpse of his screen and I couldn’t help but smile to myself after that. He was looking at pictures of his family.

Ah, he’s a family man.

Besides him, there’s this girl, a university student I had guessed. You can’t really help but notice her. She’s easily one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen. What really made me interested in her besides the obvious was that she always had some sort of food in hand whenever I saw her.

Is she eating breakfast on the train? She must have woken up late. The typical university student problem.

At first, I thought she was the studious type since she was always focused on reading what I assumed were lecture notes or reading material. How wrong was I. I laughed to myself when I saw it was a food magazine. She was staring at it so intently and would murmur something like “I’ll eat you one day” or “I’ll go eat there next time”. I’m a food enthusiast myself so I felt some sort of kinship. I managed to chat with her sometimes. Our topic? Food of course.

When she met my eyes, I greeted her with a smile and a nod. She did the same. That had been our typical way of greeting.

I looked around once more and saw most of the faces I’ve familiarized myself with over the years. After deciding that there wasn’t much to observe, I decided to turn to my phone to help pass the time. But as my eyes roamed the crowd one last time, I saw her.

I couldn't help but stare.

Beautiful.

It was the first thing that went through my mind.

I was still staring even after a considerable amount of time had passed. In my defense, I think my actions were justified. She was just simply breathtaking.

She was busy typing away on her phone. I saw her eyebrows furrow and her nose scrunch up, seemingly irritated as she read whatever was on her screen.

Cute.

She might’ve sensed she was being stared at because she suddenly lifted her head and stared right in my direction. Fortunately, I avoided her eyes by looking the other way the very last second. When I was sure she wasn’t looking anymore, I looked back in her direction. She no longer fiddled with her phone and just stood there awkwardly. It was quite obvious that she was uncomfortable. She kept playing with the hem of her shirt and I saw her flinch whenever someone got close to her. I guessed she wasn’t that much of a fan of crowded places.

Moments later, I saw her pull out earphones, placing each bud in her ear, and plugging it to her phone. A small smile graced her lips after that. I don’t know why but I felt relieved she found a way to distract herself. Realizing I’ve probably stared too much, enough to be called a creep, I finally decided to mind my own business. But, not without pulling out my own set of earphones and listening to some music.

In the next few days, I’ve chanced upon her riding the train at the same time as I did when I go to and leave from work. I forgot about my usual routine of observing people and instead would search for her once I get on the train. I would always ride the same passenger car as her.

I know it’s a bit stalkerish but she piqued my interest. From our rides together, I guessed we both work the same hours if we ride the same train together everyday. I couldn’t help but direct my attention to her every time during my whole commute. I was careful not to get caught of course. I forced myself a lot of times to stop staring but whenever I do, my eyes would always find their way to her.

All my staring had led to some observations. She’s probably working in or closely related to the fashion industry judging by the high-end clothes she wears and the handful of fashion magazines (in different languages I might say) and portfolios I’ve seen her scanning from time to time. On the way to work, she gets out one station before mine. I was really surprised the first time I saw her ride the same train as I did going home. I don't know which station she drops off at since she’s still on the train when I arrive at my station.

It certainly didn’t escape me that a lot of men and women would keep glancing her way. Well, she’s certainly Miss Popular. Go figure. I saw a few guys come up to her occasionally but she’d greet them with a cold glare.

Damn. If looks could kill, they’d probably be dead ten times over.

Her glares may have managed to keep any interested parties at bay but it didn’t stop the leers though. Sure I admit, I look at her myself but definitely not in the way these men were clearly looking at specific regions on her body. By no means do I see men objectifying women as appropriate. They didn’t even bother hiding it.

Shameless.

I’d get so annoyed and frustrated that whenever I met eyes with one of them, I was sure to give them my own glare. Other times, I’d walk up to them and gesture to them that I was aware of what they were doing. I was happy they got the message as they looked the other way in embarrassment.

It was a Saturday.

I didn’t usually work during the weekends but I wanted to get this current project over with. I entered the train as usual and scanned the crowd. Since it was the weekend, the train wasn’t as crowded. I would have done the usual observing but I wasn’t really interested in other people. I was interested in just one particular individual these days.

To my shock and delight, I noticed her sitting in a corner, her eyes closed and head propped against the wall with her arms folded.

I guess she works the weekends too?

I don't know what exactly came over me when I decided to sit near her. I was feeling protective. Here she was, being all vulnerable so early in the morning. I haven’t witnessed many bad things happen on the train before, but you never know these days.

And just when I thought nothing of the sort would happen, I saw a man slowly coming this way. He was wearing a sleazy grin as he eyed the sleeping woman. I quickly moved and sat next to the girl and met him with a glare. I’m sure my glares aren’t on par with the sleeping woman’s but it seemed to do the trick as the guy turned and walked the other away. I heard an annoyed groan from the man but I could care less.

I turned to the woman beside me. I couldn’t help but smile in amazement at the sight of this woman sleeping so peacefully, oblivious of what had just transpired. We were nearing her station but she was still in deep sleep. I contemplated whether I should wake her or not.

I began to panic when the train finally stopped at her station and she still hasn’t woken up.

It was decided.

I gently shook her awake. It would be bad if she missed her stop I thought to myself.

“Hey, wake up, miss. We’ve arrived at your stop”.

“...five more minutes…,” she mumbled and went straight back to sleep.

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Why does she seem so cute all of a sudden?

I shook her once again. This time it was successful as she opened her eyes slowly. After blinking a few times, she finally met my gaze. I smiled at her and spoke again.

“You’ll miss your stop if you don’t wake up, you know?”

She looked out the doors to confirm and then slowly stood up from where she was sitting. I watched as she sluggishly walked towards the sliding doors.

That’s it? No thank you of some sort?

It was a bit disappointing.

Although, that didn’t stop me from letting my gaze follow her all the way until she exited the train. Her back was facing me when the doors closed but to my surprise, she turned around at the last moment and flashed me a smile.

She smiled at me.

As cliche as this sounds, I think I felt my heart skip a beat.

The whole day at work, I couldn't help repeating that moment over and over again in my head. I was so distracted from my work that my co-workers (which was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one with unfinished work) would ask me if I was alright to which I responded with an “I’m okay”. Of course, that didn’t stop them from looking at me weirdly. Ignoring them was easy as I practically locked myself in my office the whole day. Pulling myself out of my thoughts, I distract myself by focusing on finishing what I came to do.

Imagine that, calling my work a distraction for a distraction.

Hoping to see her soon again, I rushed to the station after finishing work. As I entered the train, I immediately looked for her. Disappointingly, I didn’t see her that evening. I reflected on my disappointment.

How am I affected this much by some stranger?

But a beautiful stranger at that.

Maybe that was it. I found her easy on the eyes. But that reasoning doesn’t settle well with me.

When I saw how late it was, I slumped onto my bed. I spent a considerable time just staring at my ceiling, waiting for sleep to overcome me. All the while, all I could think of was that fleeting moment when she graced me with her smile.

She’s even prettier when she smiles.

I slept with my thoughts filled with the beautiful stranger on the train. I wasn’t even surprised that I dreamed of her that night.

Her smiling face.

Beautiful.

So beautiful.

That was all I could think of.