Kris sighed as he woke up one early morning in November. His daily routine was extremely boring – wake up, go to work, come home, maybe watch a little television, sleep, and wake up the next morning to repeat the same thing over again. This morning, however, was a little different. As he walked to his car, he noticed a huge dent on the side. Cursing his bad luck, he angrily kicked he next car, thinking whoever drove that car gave him the dent. Now driving to the station with a throbbing foot, he mentally cursed himself for being so stupid. While waiting for the train to take him to work, he heard the announcement for a different train. His spontaneous decision to take that other train caused him to miss work that day. He didn’t know why he did it, it just felt right.

       Kris chose a window seat, hoping he could sleep on his decision. Before he had the chance to fall asleep, however, he felt two eyes boring holes into his skull. When he looked up, a pair of dark, intense eyes meet his. It was not love at first sight, but Kris would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t the least bit attracted to this stranger on the train. During the next few minutes, the two continued to steal glances at each other until the other took the initiative and sat down next to Kris.

       “Hi, do I know you,” the other inquired.

       “Uhhh, no, I don’t think so,” Kris said.

       “Sorry, it’s just that you look really familiar,” the other said.

       He turned around, but then quickly looked back at Kris and said, “Do you by any chance go to that bookstore by the Han River?”

       “Uhhh, yeah, I go there sometimes,” Kris replied, feeling a little uncomfortable.

       “Maybe that’s why you seem familiar, I work there part-time,” the other said, taking a seat next to Kris.

       Although the train was nearly empty, Kris suddenly felt very claustrophobic.

       “Yeah, maybe, you seem familiar too,” Kris said.

       “Yeah, I dye my hair a lot, so maybe that’s why you didn’t recognize me,” the other said.

       “Oh really,” Kris said.

       “Yeah…” the other said.

       The two fell into a comfortable silence before the other interrupted it.

       “By the way, I’m ZiTao, but you can call me Tao,” the stranger said, finally giving Kris his name.

       “I’m Kris,” Kris replied.

       “Cool, a foreign name, have you ever been out of Korea?” Tao asked.

       “Yeah, I was born in China, but moved to Canada until I moved here,” Kris said.

       “Nice, I’m from China myself, but I thought I should come to Korea, you know, see the world,” Tao said.

       “Okay, cool,” Kris said.

       “You don’t talk much, do you,” Tao said.

       “No? I’m sorry?” Kris replied, unsure.

       “God, you seem so boring, but somehow I feel you’re more than that,” Tao said, looking up at the ceiling of the train.

       “Good to know I’m boring,” Kris sulked.

       “I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” Tao said.

       The train stopped and Tao stood up.

       “Anyways, this is my stop. I’ll be off now Kris, Maybe I’ll see you around soon,” Tao said, throwing a wink back at Kris.

       “Yeah, maybe,” Kris said, a small smile forming on his lips.

       The train ride after that seemed a little quiet to Kris, but he fell asleep dreaming of the fiery, red headed beauty that was talking to him just a few minutes ago. Butterflies were forming in his stomach, and he couldn’t help but let the small smile stay on his lips while he slept. He couldn’t help but think his day was turning out to be not so bad after all.