you like boys, i like you

there's this tune i found, that reminds me of you

you stood in front of me for what felt like an eternity

my soul aching for something that's never meant for me

 

Karina let out a frustrated huff and combs her hair using her fingers exasperatingly. She should stop writing these kinds of things. She closed her diary with a loud thump.  

 

She had definitely moved on but still doesn't mean she's no longer bitter. She unblocked her ex's Instagram account for the second time that day, before blocking it again because goddamnit why can't I stop this obsessive behavior of checking her profile every single time?

 

Giselle, her roommate, chuckles on her side of the room as she watched the emotions change from her friend's face in a span of few minutes. 

 

"Grumpy? Hungry? Bored?"

 

"All of the above." Karina huffs, tossing her phone on her bedside table and grabbing her diary again. It's another hobby she recently started, realizing she loves writing things down and she's not bad at it. However, today, she feels like the words are dancing and swirling, unable to formulate the right words from her vast vocabulary. 

 

She stared at the poem she has recently written and gripped her pen, hoping to put in a second verse to it but it's nothing. Pure blank.

 

Giselle chuckles at that and just continued swiping on her phone. She's bored too.

 

"You know what, Rina, why don't you install Tinder or something," Giselle said, showing up her phone to the older. 

 

"I'm bored, but I'm not that desperate."

 

"Come on, it's nothing serious. It's a fun way to waste your time." Giselle added. She skips to her roommate's side of the room and grabs Karina's phone, typing her passcode and installing the app herself. 

 

Both girls know each other's passcodes for a variety of reasons, and they both trust the other would value their privacy anyway. Giselle flops down beside the girl and looks at the empty page Karina is now staring at, the said girl just clicking her pen repeatedly.

 

"Okay, so...." Giselle started, "-where is that picture of you again when we went to the Red Velvet concert?"

 

Karina rolled her eyes and kept mum. She will not go on Tinder just because she's bored.

 

"Found it!" Giselle yelped before going back to being serious, fingers tapping on Karina's phone. "Okay, I'll put here Karina, 21, Looking for someone awesome so I can uninstall this app." Giselle reads as she type, adding few more selfies of her roommate before hitting save. Giselle swipes right for few accounts before handing the phone back to Karina.

 

"There you go, wait till you get—" Giselle stops when she hears the notification before smirking at her roommate mouthing matched.

 

Karina stares at her phone and is unsure of what to do really. 

 

She's not looking for a date or something, no. 

 

But she's so freaking bored.....

 

She's so freaking bored, so might as well make use of the created account for her.

 

She knows the basic swipe left and right anyway, (which in few minutes of getting the app installed, she has already swiped right for a lot of people.)

 

What? I'm bored!

 

—But she was really surprised at how people talk in here.

 

 

Jeno, 23, 25km away

Respiratory Therapy Student

Cute enough to take your breath away, smart enough to bring it back

 

Jeno: Hey! So funny we matched! I didn't think I'd see you again.

 

 

Karina scrunched her eyebrows at that and looked at the picture again. She's pretty sure she hasn't seen this guy before.

 

 

You: Uh, we've met?

Jeno: Haha do you not remember drunkenly walking on my dorm?

You: What? When was this??

Jeno: Next weekend.

 

 

 

Smooth. She'll give him that. But if she's going to meet someone, she's not traveling 25 kilometers for them, thank you very much.

 

Karina ignores that one and heads over to the next message. 

 

 

 

 

Fahar, 22, 15kms away

Roses are red, bacons are red, poems are hard. Bacon.

 

Fahar: Hello, I'm a Nigerian Prince and I can make you rich beyond your wildest dreams. I just need your phone number. 

You: Haha wow that's actually smooth.

Fahar: And your bank account

Fahar: And your resident registration number

Fahar: And your mother's maiden name

 

 

 

Okay, well now Karina is entertained. Giselle looks at her and tells her I told you so.

 

 

 

Heejin, 21, 6kms away

80s music brings me back to good times like when I wasn't alive

 

Heejin: You into girls?

You: Yeah, you?

Heejin: Cool, are you a top or a bottom?

You: A what now?

Heejin: I'm a bottom so if you can top me, please?

 

 

 

Nope nope nope not going into this . Karina was about to close her phone when another notification came in.

 

 

 

 

Winter, 20, 1km away

I'm a cat. Meow meow meow.  

 

Winter: halp pls

You: Umm?

Winter: oh thank god u replied

Winter: ur near me right

Winter: save me from this boring date please

Winter: *sends address*

Winter: thank u ill wait

 

 

What?

 

Karina stares at the picture of the pretty girl on her phone. Is this girl for real? How sure is she that someone will just randomly agree to meet her without so much context aside from save me from this boring date please?

 

Karina knows this girl is clearly straight and is just really looking for someone to help her get out of the mess she's currently into. 

 

Karina knows she said she isn't that desperate, but this girl is just 1km away from her. She can just run back home if she turns out to be a murderer or something.

 

So Karina grabs her denim jacket over her tank top and pulls her white cap over her hair, before slightly fixing her makeup. She grabbed her wallet and her phone, checking the address one more time before heading to the door. Giselle looks at her curiously and Karina just yells that she'll be back in 30 minutes. 

 

Karina ended up in a cafe just around the block. She looks at her phone again to check Winter's face, hoping she can easily identify the girl in the crowd. From the outside, she takes a quick look at the people inside, easily spotting the girl from Tinder luckily sitting on a window seat. She looks bored to hell, nodding absentmindedly on the guy in front of her. Karina opens the door but stops when she realized that she's not sure how she's going to crash that date. 

 

Gosh, I didn't think this through. Karina murmurs, taking her cap off and running her fingers through her hair. Someone was about to enter the coffee shop but Karina was standing in her way, looking at Karina confused. Karina opened the door for the stranger instead before smiling at her weirdly. 

 

Geez, I look so weird. Karina takes a sharp breath and pushed the door to let herself in as well.

 

She looks at Winter (and wow, she's prettier in person too) and sees the empty seat beside the girl. She crashed into it and looks at the girl excitedly.

 

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry Winter, I'm late. Have you been waiting for a while?" Karina starts, hoping the girl would at least know she was the one she swiped right to ask for help.

 

"Oh- oh! Yeah um, yeah just in time, really." Winter said awkwardly.

 

"Oh, sorry I didn't know he's going to come with us. I'm Karina, by the way." Karina extends her hand to the guy looking at them surprised. 

 

Karina ended up ordering a large Iced Americano and talked to the girl like they haven't seen each other in a while. The girl, Winter, entertains all her questions and looks at the guy across them, silently willing for him to just end the awful date already.

 

The guy though is probably dense or just doesn't know what to do really. Karina sees him fidgeting in his seat, and decided to end his suffering. 

 

"Oh wow look at the time. The movie is about to start in 20 minutes, we better run before it starts." Karina said, opening her phone to show a screenshot of a digital ticket she had already used just a week prior with Giselle. 

 

"We gotta jet, but thanks a lot! Here's our share of the bill." Karina placed down few bills and grabs Winter's hand, waving goodbye to the guy who looks like he was just robbed. 

 

They turned into a corner and were not able to hold back their laugh, doubling over right away. 

 

Once everything died down, Winter looks at Karina thankfully before quickly muttering "Thank you so much for that. I thought I won't be able to get out of it."

 

"Yeah sure. I was just around the corner anyway."

 

"Well thanks again, Karina-ssi." Winter said, angling her body asking permission to leave.

 

"Yeah yeah, no worries. See you around, I guess." Karina said and waved back as the girl bid her goodbye.

 

Karina pulls out her phone and updates her Tinder profile. She laughs as she imagines the look on Giselle's face.

 

Karina, 21

Professional Date Crasher

 

-

 

Karina didn't think of checking her Tinder app again, thanking Ning Yi Zhuo for getting her busy on one of her projects. They were out in a street market to look for ingredients for Ningning's recipe, the culinary student asking her help once again to recreate her mom's special Korean Stew. Karina got her phone in her back pocket, both her hands holding the eco-bags of the items they bought from different stalls. 

 

She felt her phone vibrate and notify her of another message from Tinder. She was about to ignore it when she read the notification pop up, showing the same girl she had recently saved earlier that week. 

 

Winter: halp again

Winter: are you around the area? 

Winter: *sends address*

 

Karina checks it and found out she is indeed a few minutes away, the restaurant Winter's at is somewhere they passed by earlier. She looks at Ningning walking in front of her, smelling spices and even tasting some. She calls the attention of the girl. 

 

"Ning, I just need to check something real quick, but I'll be back in few minutes." She said. 

 

"Oh, okay unnie, let me take that—" the younger said, pertaining to the eco-bags the older was holding.

 

"No all good, I'll bring this with me, go continue looking around." Karina said, awkwardly holding her phone in two of her fingers, not letting go of the bags. I need props. "Say, meet me in that Bulgogi diner around 5th street?" Karina said, already walking backward. 

 

The young culinary student looks at her friend weirdly, nodding instead.

 

Karina smiled at the younger before running off to the address Winter has sent her, internally asking herself as to why this girl keeps going on bad dates. She recalls how pretty, no, beautiful the girl is, and Karina knows she can definitely get whoever she wanted. Not some random dudes in a dating app.

 

She arrives in front of the restaurant, a bit out of breath, not realizing she was walking-running all the way there. She checked the bags she's holding before heading inside to save her damsel in distress. 

 

She sees Winter sitting on a table with a guy beside her, a little too close for her comfort. The guy was trying to whisper things on the girl's ear who looks so uneasy, and Karina wanted to roll her eyes because why can't she just stand up and leave if she's too uncomfortable?

 

Karina gathers all her inner self-control, takes in a deep breath, and puts on her I'm so happy to see you smile.

 

"Hey, hon." Karina starts, grabbing the attention of the couple on a date. 

 

Winter smiles at her widely, relief washing on her face, and Karina almost wanted to melt on her spot. 

 

She's so uwu!

 

"Hon?" The guy- who looks like he's the human version of majin-boo asked Winter, as if he's perplexed that someone is calling her date hon. 

 

"Oh, um, she's my umm-" Winter starts, unable to put the right words she needed at the moment.

 

"I'm her best friend. We're doing grocery and she told me to pick her up in a few. And you?" Karina said in one breath, her intimidating look radiating from her position. She hasn't sat down yet so she's full-on towering both of them, even making an act of showing the bags she's holding.

 

"Well, I'm—" the guy started, his smirk growing, about to boast that she's on a date with the girl.

 

"—not interested. Come on hon, I gotta get this one ready for dinner. You're in charge of the dishes tonight yeah?" Karina said, cutting off the guy. "You— go home. I don't like you for my best friend. And you know what they say, you gotta pass the vibe check first. Scram." Karina said, her face falling and eyebrows arching. 

 

Karina watched as the guy lost all the confidence in his face and almost fell on his chair, trying to get away from the scene. Karina laughs loudly as soon as the guy left, looking at the girl she has saved for the second time.

 

"What's with that one this time?" Karina asked, trying to get Winter to explain why she needed help getting rid of him.

 

"He's too pushy, and already tryna make a move on me, you may have seen some of it," Winter says. She looks at the bill in front of them and smiled when she saw the guy has paid it in full earlier so she didn't have to pay anything for their meal. She stands up and thanked Karina, motioning for the other to get out of the restaurant with her. 

 

"So... Thank you again, Karina-ssi. Are you from around here too?" Winter asked.

 

"No, but I was doing some shopping with a friend." Karina said, showing off the bags again.

 

"Ah, makes sense." Winter hums. "Well, I should probably get going then?" Winter asked hesitantly.

 

"Yeah, yeah sure. See you around." Karina said, turning around.

 

"Uhm - Karina-ssi?" Winter calls back.

 

"Yeah?"

 

"Can I probably get your number so it's easier to reach you next time?" Winter said, smiling slightly.

 

Next time.

 

She's still planning on going through those awful dates!

 

"Yeah, give me your phone." Karina types in her number and hands it back to Winter.

 

"Thanks, umm see you around?"

 

"See you around, Winter-ssi."

 

-

 

It took two more weeks before Karina is done with it.

 

"So this mystery girl, she hasn't texted you after getting your number?" Giselle asked, munching on the kimbap roll from the bento box Ningning made for them. They decided to have a picnic in the nearby park, enjoying the way the sun is heating up their skin. Karina is lying on the blanket and staring up at the sky.

 

"And you met her on Tinder." Ningning probed.

 

"Yeah..."

 

"You, the great Karina, was on Tinder." Ningning chuckled.

 

"Yah— it was Giselle's fault."

 

"I was merely a humble servant, your Highness, I only did the minimum." Giselle teased. 

 

Karina sits up and looks at the two before losing her focus because of the couple walking in the pathway behind Giselle and is that Winter?

 

She sees the girl look in their direction as well, smiling widely when she spotted her. She's with a guy who looks twice the size of the girl, making Karina gulp visibly when she saw Winter typing on her phone. 

 

As she thought, she sees a number on her notification bar and the word halp? in preview.

 

"Ugh, Winter is still going on those ty dates!" Karina exclaimed, knowing well the girl wouldn't be able to hear her from their distance.

 

"Winter?"

 

"Tinder girl." Karina said, eyes following the two.

 

"Oh, she's here??" Ningning was about to look back so Karina pulls the younger's face, effectively missing Giselle who looked at the two right away.  

 

"Oooh can we save her this time?" Giselle said, thrilled that finally, something exciting will happen in their lives. 

 

"No, of course not."

 

"We can pretend to like kidnap her or something." Ningning offers, now looking at the couple whose backs