passing strangers | wheesun

smile

yongsun waits for the train patiently, occasionally glancing up from her phone to check when the train was arriving. finally, she thinks as the distant sound of the train gets closer and louder. as passengers rush out of the train, she stands aside to let them pass before entering. just as the doors are about to close, a small, brown-haired girl rushes in. even though she's at the other end of the cabin, yongsun faintly hears the woman breath a sigh of relief and mumble to herself, "thank god,"
yongsun stares at the pretty lady, her curious eyes roaming her from head to toe. she was beautiful beyond words, almost like an angel. the woman looks up from her phone, where she is met with yongsun's curious gaze. embarrassed to be caught looking, yongsun ducks her head down, but looks back up for a quick second when she feels the woman's eyes on her.
then she smiles, adorable and sweet. a dimple on her right cheek, bright and warm eyes, and the prettiest smile yongsun has ever seen. yongsun awkwardly half-smiles back, before looking back down. and of course the train would choose this moment to start moving, throwing yongsun off balance. she hurriedly grabs onto a pole beside her to stop her from falling flat on her face.
yongsun glances up, cheeks red as she realises the pretty lady is still watching her with amusement from the other side of the cabin. her mouth rises in a small grin, and yongsun somehow finds it in herself to grin back, laughing at herself. congrats, yongsun. you just embarrassed yourself in front of the pretty lady. she thinks. what a great day to stumble on the train. this might just be the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to her.
and so the train ride continues, with yongsun occasionally glancing up at the lady at the other end of the cabin whom she has now dubbed "pretty train lady". and with pretty train lady looking down at her phone, her brown hair falling over her face as she wonders about the woman at the other end of the cabin. it takes seven stops for pretty train lady to reach her stop, and ten stops for yongsun. yongsun can't help but wonder where she is going, what she is doing, and if she was meeting someone. just before pretty train lady steps off the train, she turns her head back and shoots yongsun a smile, to which the latter smiles back, even though she feels like a fool, smiling at someone she didn't even know. but what made her feel like more of a fool was that she was attracted to the woman. she liked her, without even knowing her name or her age, or even if she was single or taken.
yongsun sighs wistfully as she watches pretty train lady leave the train, knowing full well that she would probably never see her again. with that, she dejectedly scrolls through her phone aimlessly, trying to distract herself from thinking of a particular brown-haired lady. this was crazy, absolutely crazy. how was she falling for someone she didn't even know?

the next day
yongsun waits for the train like she does every day, this had became a part of her boring life as she went to work. she loved her job, but it could get boring after a while. making coffee and being a barista was fun, but taking orders and interacting with people for half a day was not fun at all. still, she loved being able to be surrounded by the rich smell of coffee and pastries.
just as the train arrives, a familiar figure with the same familiar brown hair as pretty train lady rushes up to the platform. pretty train lady! pretty train lady is here oh my god what do i do what do i do don't embarrass yourself yongsun be cool you're cool and fun and approachable just don't do anything stupid! yongsun thinks to herself. pretty train lady enters the train and stands at the same spot as the day before, and so does yongsun. there are many seats available, but these two figures in the train are like one soul, connected in ways that we could never see. it's beautiful, but no one sees it. it's beautiful, because only they feel it.
yongsun watches her for the second time, wishing she could see her smile once more, see her chocolate brown eyes and her adorable dimple. without realising, her mouth has curved up into a smile as she looks at pretty train lady dreamily. pretty train lady lifts her head, shaking her hair out as she catches yongsun looking again. and again, she smiles, soft and pretty. and maybe yongsun falls a little more into her brown eyes that seemed so warm and inviting, so full of youth and innocence. she could drown in those eyes, could live and breath just looking into those eyes. it scares her, how much she has fallen for this beautiful stranger, but she won't stop falling.

two months later
for the hundredth time, yongsun watches pretty train lady. that's right, she's still called pretty train lady because yongsun is too much of a coward to ask her for her name. this part of her day has suddenly become the most important part of her day, she found herself looking forward to seeing pretty train lady every day, and the latter did not disappoint. although sometimes she almost missed the train, much like the first time they had met, she always managed to make it in time. and every day, her quick, adorable smile is one of the few things that made yongsun happy. even when she was on the phone talking to someone (yongsun didn't know who), she would still make sure to offer yongsun a brief smile, even if it was for the slightest second. and this, this made yongsun happier than anything. she didn't know why exactly, but her smile left yongsun feeling breathless. and so for two whole months, all they exchanged were small smiles that meant the world to both of them.
what they had, it was special. they were still strangers, both knew nothing of the other, not even each other's names. but the moment they meet each other's eyes, the moment when they smile, it's suddenly become the highlight of both their days.
they were beautiful, without even knowing it. they were meant to be, without even meaning it.