It takes one second to spot her eye-smile,

Two seconds to scan her head to toe,

Three seconds to realize I’m staring.

It takes one minute to notice my heart racing,

Five minutes to want to approach her,

Fifteen minutes to decide what to say.

It takes an hour to embarrass myself (countless times),

Two hours to get her number,

Four hours to arrange a date.

A week to confess to her,

A month to court her,

A year to want to call her and her eye-smile mine for the rest of my life.

But it also takes one second to get slapped,

Two seconds for tears to fall,

Three seconds to hear the door slam.

One minute to call her once,

Five minutes to call her thrice,

Fifteen minutes to leave ten voice messages.

An hour to leave forty,

Two hours to search everywhere in Seoul,

Four hours to leave more than a hundred—and Seoul, drunk.

A week for her to return my calls (and my heart),

A month for her to leave again,

A year for her to end our game of tug-o-war.

Two years for her to find someone new,

Four years for them to get married,

And a lifetime for me to watch the eye-smile that would’ve been mine.

Have a wonderful New Years, everyone. Let's all