"If it's meant to be, we'll meet again." You said to the stranger you had spoken with through an online platform. You never saw his face, but you found joy in the simple conversations you had with him.
"If we meet again, I'm never letting you go.." He replied. You smiled with a gushed and rushed feeling. You felt your cheeks stinging as the tint of red slowly came out.
"Alright. Sure. Let's meet again." You said with a soft laugh. "Until the next time." You told him. After that, you left the chat hesitantly, mindlessly wondering if the day in which you two would meet is something that would ever come.
•••
It was a playful afternoon. You were just bored and you had no one to talk to. In that case, you thought that the best solution to your situation was to go on some chatting website and converse with a few strangers. It's not your first time so you were familiar with how people spoke within the chat. Most of the people present are looking for partners or hookups, basically the stuff you really weren't too interested in. Their language is usually so rude, or... 'forward'
After going through several chat sequences, you were ready to close the website until you accidentally clicked, 'New Chat'. That's when you told yourself that you were going to stick around for one last chat, then you were going to leave and do your deliverables.
"Hi." You said. It was just your voice as you weren't comfortable enough to show your face. You waited for a few seconds and finally, someone replied.
"Good afternoon, Miss." His voice was like smelling fresh hazelnuts, it was smooth and warm and welcoming in ways that you couldn't understand. He had an accent, and his voice was in a sense deep. Admittedly, you were smitten by his tone alone, not to mention the words that came out of his mouth. Your heart fluttered by his respectful nature. He was immediately unlike anyone you've spoken to for the day.
"Uh–um, Good afternoon to you as well, sir." You replied, quite invested in the way that he addressed you.
"What's with the 'sir'?" He asked. You could hear the slight laughter that he had on as he spoke.
"I mean, you started it." You replied.
"That is correct, but it's just basic respect." He spoke. At that point, you were quite awed. In this day an age, you never thought you'd meet someone with such morals. He was a gentleman, and you found that quality of his quite attractive.
You laughed quite shyly. You weren't necessarily shy, you were just touched. You don't know how they got there, but butterflies were in your stomach and flying around.
"Are you laughing? Did I say something wrong?" He asked you with a hint of confusion. The way he asked wasn't so serious. You could even see or hear his light smile as he spoke. Perhaps he was just really confused, but he was also laughing along.
"No." You replied with a chuckle. "You didn't do anything wrong. Actually, you're SO FAR from doing anything wrong. I was just taken aback by how nice you are. The few people I've met on here were very much different." You explained shyly.
"Oh." He laughed shyly too. Something about the way he did it was so electrifying. Either that or you were just getting so much good vibes from him.
That being said, the two of you spoke for a while, until eventually, he had to go.
The two of you said your goodbyes, and your day went about normally.
You did all of the things you needed to do, you made sure to fix your schedule and just do your responsibilities in general. Every now and then, you'd think back on the conversation you had with the stranger and you just can't help but turn to a smile whenever it comes around.
However, the existence of that stranger continued to remain in your mind for long months. Nothing much had happened. After waiting for a while, you thought that perhaps it wasn't meant to be.
•••
A whole year passed without anything too exciting. You had gotten a side job managing events and venues. For the day, you were tasked to make sure that everything was going smoothly while the guests were present.
You had a group as a guest. They were quite famous people and you knew that from the number of people who lined up to see them.
You thought nothing much of it at first, and you were even planning to leave the main venue to do rounds outside until you heard a very familiar voice introducing himself.
"Hi, I'm Taehyun." He said as he communicated with all the fans present.
You were frozen at first. You never thought you would hear that voice again. You tried to find him. You even when back to that chatting website to check whether you'd meet him there again. However, that failed. You were there for long hours, but you just kept meeting with people whom you were uninterested in.
As you continued comparing his voice to that of which you had spoken to, everything was so similar. You then concluded that perhaps it was really him.
"Taehyun..." You carefully unttered his name. "So if I'm right, then Taehyun is the one I've spoken to." When you said that, you couldn't help but laugh. You had thought of the probability of being able to talk to someone like him on a chatting website. The chances were just way too low.
It can't be him, right?
You posed so many questions to yourself, but you wanted to know if he would actually recognize you if you spoke.
Now, as if fate was pushing for something to happen, your co-intern gave you a small box of snacks and water bottles.
"These are to be given to the guests. I have to check on the systems backstage, so can you please do it for me?" She asked you.
Your eyes brightened up slightly. You smiled at her as you thought about how you were given a chance to heal your curiosity.
You gently receive the box from her and walked towards the stage to the members.
You were just going to leave the box to the managers, but they told you to distribute the water bottles as they were busy with managing the group.
Even so, you couldn't really say much. It would be unprofessional. All they heard from you was, "Here is a bottle of water." And nothing more.
You were hoping that Taehyun would recognize you, but he didn't. More than that, you weren't even sure if it was him.
You waited for a while, but he didn't seem to recognize you. He didn't turn his head once. You got the message from there. Perhaps it was just a false alarm. You just sighed and continued to do your rounds. Even if you had a slight distraction for a moment, you were still working and you want to keep it professional as much as you can.
When the event ended, you were a little bummed. You hadn't thought about that online encounter for a while, but now, it's back within your mind once more.
As the guests and the fans left, you went to the tables and began packing up. Another staff member approached you as you approached the table and you were confused as to why they were holding out a piece of paper towards you.
"Oh. What is this?" You questioned as the paper was handed to you.
"I'm not sure either." The staff smiled. "It just had your name so I assumed that it's for you."
"Oh, okay." You said with confusion as you thrned the paper front and back.
"Thank you." You lightly said to the staff, and he left immediately after.
There was a short note attached to the back of the letter.
"Meet me at the parking outside." That's all that it said.
You were more so confused again. It's not something new that you were invited to the parking space of this specific venue. Your co-interns and work friends always invited you there from time to time. It's just that they usually sent messages not letters on paper, so you were a bit halted.
Nonetheless, you decided to go the parking spaces for a bit. There was no one around your usual hangout place. You kept on looking around, seeing if there was anyone there. All that was present were big vans, and the only movement came from one of them.
A black van's doors suddenly opened. You were a little concerned. You were ready to run if someone begins to run at you.
But no. Those intense things in your head didn't actually happen.
Someone just gently got out of the van.
Taehyun.
Your movements softened. You didn't even know they were still here.
You were just gripping the piece of paper given to you as Taehyun walked towards you.
As he got closer, you stepped back a little bit.
"Um... Mr. Kang, is there anything I can help you with?" You asked him. Thinking as though he might have left something inside the venue. You were naive enough to not even think about the fact that he might have recognized you.
"Miss, it's you, isn't it?" He asked you. You were confused for a moment. You even furrowed your eyebrows at first. But then, you realized what he was implying and what he just called you.
"Oh." You said almost in disbelief. "Y-You do remember me?" You asked him. You then proceeded to chuckle.
"I was the one who called you—"
"Sir." He replied, before you could finish.
You laughed gently, still in disbelief.
"So, it was you. I had my suspicions. I recognized your voice. But I can't believe I met you again." You told him.
"I feel the same way. It's been a year, and I never thought I'd hear your voice again." He told you with such sincere eyes.
You never thought to notice it at first, but he looks amazing. His voice complemented his looks. He still speaks like a gentleman. Very respectful and... gentle.
"How did you even recognize me?" You asked him.
"Oh." He smiled. "When you ushered us in the venue, I was able to hear your voice and I thought it was familiar. I couldn't quite pinpoint it at the time, but then it came to me." He explained.
You had honestly thought that he recognized your voice from you saying, "Here is a bottle of water."
"Oh, and my assumptions were confirmed when you gave us a bottle of water. It had only sunken in me when you already left so I had to find a way to talk to you."
Oh. So giving the bottle of water helped in a way. You couldn't help but thank your fellow intern.
"I can't believe this." You smiled with a bursting chuckle. This was not at all what you had expected. You were flustered and happy and you wanted to jump around like a little child.
"I'm not sure if you remember, but I said something to you back then." He said to you.
Of course, you remembered, how couldn't you?
He told you that if you two were to ever meet, he would never let you go. It might have been a joke back then, but it always stuck to you.
"I want to fulfill that promise. Will you let me do so by asking you out to dinner and getting to know you more?" He asked you with no hesitation, but a hint of nervousness.
You smiled at him. "Of course. I've waited a year to meet you. So, yes. We can go out for dinner." You replied to him.
He didn't say anything more, but he tucked his lips together and smiled brightly to himself.
You then picked something out of your pocket. It was your calling card. You gave it to him so that he would be able to reach you through different means. You also didn't want him to give you his number, because you don't want him to be in any type of risk.
"I thought it might be quite impulsive and risky for me to ask for your number, so you can have mine instead." You told him as you handed him your calling card.
"No, it's fine actually." He replied, but you couldn't help but feel a shake in his voice.
"No please." You smiled at him with assurance.
"Here. Let's have a deal. You can give me your number once you get to know me and actually feel like you can trust and rely on me. For now, you can have mine or you can talk with me through media apps." You explained.
He looked at your calling card with a touched expression on his face. "Okay. Thank you, miss." He said to you.
Ah, that gets you every time. When he calls you miss, you just can't take it. It was way too fluffy and it made you flustered.
You smiled at him. "I guess, I'll be seeing you soon then." You told him.
"Yeah. We should probably both get going now." He replied with a smile as well.
You nodded in agreement.
"May I have your name, miss?" He asked.
"It's Y/n." You told him.
He looked at you for a moment before proceeding to smile with more feeling and awe.
"Y/n... it's a beautiful name. It suits you." He uttered.
You laughed. "Hey, stop that." You spoke as you were getting more and more flustered.
"Anyhow. See you soon, Taehyun." You said hesitantly. It seems that every time you have to say goodbye to him, you always had hesitations. After all, you really don't want to say goodbye.
"See you soon, Y/n." He replied with those set of genuine eyes.
As you two turned your back on each other, you both looked like you had just won some type of grand prize. You were smiling from ear to ear as Taehyun was taking tiny jumps and skips as he walked back to the van.
It was an interesting turn of events.
Who knew that you two would meet again?
Well, perhaps one entity knew.
Fate.