Chapter Text
“I’m so sorry I’m late.”
The voice reached my ears, making me look up from the glass I was currently considering in drinking, bottoms up. The unfamiliar voice using a rather comfortable tone, spoke the words I have been longing for all night.
My eyes met a face I had never seen. He was all in sharp angles. Feline eyes, an aquiline nose, and a neat pulled back hairstyle that was revealing his forehead. His face was gathering such distinctive features, drawing a perfect picture. The mysterious stranger was probably the most handsome stranger I had ever see.
The unknown man pulled the chair of the empty seat in front of me, but before sitting he leaned in. Answering the confusion that was showing on my features, he pressed his hand gently around my forearm and reached for the side of my face, as if he was going to give me kiss on the cheek.
“Play along.”
He muttered, instead.
I frowned, watching this complete stranger take the seat across from me, as if this was where he belonged, when I knew for sure that he didn’t.
Remaining quiet, I examined him silently as he took the bottle of wine I had ordered to pour himself a drink, in the wine glass that also was definitely not for him.
But he was behaving like he had been the one I have been waiting for, for the past two hours.
“These people were mocking your loneliness.”
He made a swift movement pointing somewhere behind my back with both of his hands as he finished filling his glass. I didn’t look.
“You should have let it that way, at least this evening would have been funny for someone.”
He laughed, a hearty chuckle that turned his eyes into crescent and flashed a bit of the whiteness of his teeth. In front of the scene, I smiled too. A wearier smile that the one adorning his lips, but still a smile.
“I wasn’t expecting such sarcasm.”
I paused.
“What were you expecting?”
Once again his eyes glimmered and words that have yet to be pronounced filled the silence. I frowned. For a man that didn’t know me, expecting things from me was presumptuous. But I was curious as to why this complete stranger had decided to save my soul and sit in front of me so I kept my comments for myself and waited for him to speak.
“There’s only two kind of people that orders two covers when they’re alone at a table.”
He paused, his eyes leaving mine to look at the red liquid spiraling in his glass. He still hadn’t take a sip of it.
“Those who are waiting for someone…”
He looked back at me. Something in the way he was looking at me made me realize that he knew how long I had been sitting alone at that table.
“And those who have been waiting way too much.”
A broken laugh escaped my lips. Waiting too much, that I did indeed.
“Yah.”
I, on the other end, drank a bit of my wine.
“I paid for this table. I might have been ditched but I am not gonna leave until I got my money’s worth.”
He laughed again. Maybe it was because I was very tired, or because I was trying hard to keep the face despite the crushing pain of delusion that this evening had caused, but I found it strangely soothing. I liked the sound of that stranger’s laugh.
“How’s it going for now?”
He asked, his eyebrow cockily rose.
“The wine’s good.”
He smiled, finally bringing the edge of the glass to his lips. He nodded after tasting the red liquid. His eyes fell on me again, but he remained quiet, only silently agreeing with me.
After a little while of us just sipping calmly the wine in our respective glasses, I spoke again. I didn’t like the unfairness of our current situation when he knew more about me that I knew about him.
“And so what about you? Which side are you on?”
Once again, he gave me a perfect eyebrow raise.
“For you to come sit in front of me, you must have been alone too.”
He smiled, it was a pleasant sight.
“Actually no.”
He put down his glass and leaned forward.
“There’s a table behind you, with six covers.”
I glanced behind me, noticing the table with the six chairs, five of them were occupied. I looked back at him. I found it strange, that this guy had abandoned his group to come here, to sit in front of me and save me from this humiliating evening. But the strangest about it, was that no one at the table seemed to have noticed his disappearance, nor did they seem to care about it.
“Good friends aren’t they?”
He chuckled.
“I don’t really like them.”
He shrugged before drinking the entirety of his wine. He looked at his empty glass for a while before settling his gaze back on me.
“I didn’t even want to come here so… They won’t mind if I were to run out on them.”
I nodded slowly, there wasn’t much I could add to this anyway.
“I’d rather be here you see.”
I scoffed again.
This stranger was one of a kind. He was bold enough to come sit in front of someone he didn’t know at all, and confident enough to set a comfortable discussion between us. I usually am more shy when I meet strangers, but the charisma oozing from him – and maybe my very tired mind a bit numbed by the wine – made me feel at ease. There was in the way he was talking, something pleasant that prevented me from chasing him away. Besides I must confess that I couldn’t stay indifferent to the way his eyes were gazing at me, with that little shine in them.
“At least you’re fun.”
This time I chuckled for real.
“Then my evening is saved.”
It was entertaining, this little cession we were having. Way more amusing than waiting there alone. He was very good at making me forget that I was hurt.
He bowed playfully, and I saw in his grin, the traces of gratefulness. He didn’t expressed it with words, but it was clear that he was thanking me for offering him an exit to his dull evening. I tried to convey in the way I glanced back at him that if someone had to be thankful to someone else, it should be me. I didn’t know if he picked it up, but at least I tried. It’s the thought that counts right?
“May I ask something?”
We had fell into a comfortable silence, just drinking the wine that had grandly reduced in the bottle. It felt better to drown my sadness in the red alcohol now that I had someone to share it with – the wine, not the sadness.
The funnier out of this wine-drinking thing is that I don’t even like red wine that much. But it was the most expensive drink on the menu, and I already had been waiting for an hour. I had thought that, since I was already regretting this evening, that I should have a better reason than hoping for an asshole to show up at that fancy restaurant to celebrate our one year anniversary, to regret it. And making a hole in my bank account to pay for a crazy expensive bottle of wine that I was sure I wasn’t going to appreciate was a bad enough decision to surpass the hope stuff. I am not yet sure about it but it was fun.
“Sure.”
I was expecting from the seriousness of his tone, a question about the reasons of my loneliness, or the person I had been waiting for, at least. I was ready to – not – answer anything regarding my situation but those inquiries never came.
Instead of gravity, mischief shone in his eyes.
“Do you know how to sing?”
***
When he asked me if I knew how to sing, I hadn’t expected him to be that good at it. Actually, I had thought to myself that he must have been an average singer dude, like a karaoke type of singer. But he was not. He was not at all.
I was the one sitting on the couch with one of the tambourine in the hand while he was upfront the big screen, standing with the mic to his lips. I was the one mouth agape, staring at him hitting all the high notes of that English song while he was the one rolling dramatically on the floor to the beat of the song.
It was the very first song he played, and I wasn’t really paying attention. That’s why I didn’t understand the lyrics at first. That and also because I was too amazed by his vocal capacities to focus on whatever he was saying. Even screaming he was doing it beautifully.
Nothing changed when I understood them : she’s gone, out of my life, or something like that. I couldn’t really blame him for his song choice, that guy knows how to sing.
Besides my situation had been sad enough in itself, there was no need to make it even more pitiful by getting offended by what looked like the exact wrong choice in terms of lyrics. And he was putting on such a show that I really couldn’t take any offense.
In the end, I laughed a lot and he sung a lot, probably around two hours I lost track of the time once we stepped inside the soundproof room. I’m a polite person, I definitely wasn’t going to check my phone during the performance. Two main reasons, I didn’t want to be disappointed, and – the real one – I never felt the need to.
I did decline a lot of singing propositions. I’m the type of person who needs a bit more wine to sing heartfully at a karaoke with an almost stranger. He tried twice to hand me the mic, he eventually stopped the second time which I was very grateful for, because there was no way I’d sing in front of him like that. It’s way too embarrassing I don’t even get the beat right.
But I sang along sometimes, when he wasn’t watching, at a very low volume so that there wasn’t a chance for him to hear me. I suspect that he did see me mouthing the words of some of the songs but he did nothing out of it and I appreciated that very much.
He looked like he was having a blast just performing so that was enough for the both of us I guess.
My last memory of a karaoke room was associated with a girl’s night, after our last exam on my fourth year of university. With some friends of my year, we went to a karaoke at some point during the night. As you may have understood, my last memory of a karaoke room is a bit blurred.
This new memory of a karaoke room is going to stay printed in my brain for a long time.
It was such a nice and almost casual moment that it felt like we had known each other for years. Nothing about what was happening in this room would let anyone think that this man and I had met three hours prior, in a fancy restaurant, nor that I was drowning myself in wine or that he was running away from a get-together he hated. We just looked like two friends who were trying to have a little bit of fun. Except that we still didn’t know each other’s name.
The fifth or sixth song came to an end, I was about to clap, like I did for all the other song but he didn’t let me the time to.
It happened very fast, he half threw the mic on the couch, grabbed my wrist in the same time, and with the most serious look on his face, eyebrows slightly furrowed he dragged me out of the karaoke room.
I didn’t even have the time to whine or ask about it that I found myself running out of the place.
“Quick, we’re gonna be late!”
He told me repetitively when I tried to voice out my confusion in between two breath.
Late to what, late to where, I had absolutely no idea. But I let him led me through the cold streets of Seoul.
I hadn’t had such fun in a while.
We were there, running in the middle of the streets, his hand in mine. We both were very inappropriately dressed for a sudden run, me in high heels and glamourous dress, him in his pointy shoes and tight pants. His bowtie was somehow annoying to him, but neither him, nor I, let our discomfort be shown on our faces.
It was cold, my cheeks were burning and the air escaping my mouth was making white curls of smoke vanish into thin air. It was freezing but I couldn’t care less. My hand holding his was warmed by him, and my heart was so filled with joy that cold couldn’t reach it.
It was a weird feeling, something that I couldn’t place a name on. The overbearing joy that was filling my heart at the moment was completely clouding my mind. He was a stranger yes, a stranger that was leading me somewhere I didn’t know, yes, but this stranger was making me feel so light that I let myself be blindly guided through this route of happiness.
But what was the most beautiful things about this situation, was knowing that it was ephemeral. It felt like a dream, something so wonderful that it could only last for a fixed and short amount time. But that was fine with us.
“Stop.”
I said completely out of breath. I was almost hanging at the end of his hand, my legs were very close to give out and my feet were hurting so much that I couldn’t feel my toes. We had to stop.
“I can’t go anymore.”
He chuckled. I almost missed it with how loud I was gasping for air.
He let go of my hand and a shiver ran all over my arm at the sudden cold. I remained silent.
“It’s okay.”
He said, and with a swift movement of his arm, he showed me our destination.
“We’re here.”
I straightened myself up, still a bit short on breath, and forced my feet to go forward so I could meet him near the small wooden fence.
“It’s my favorite view of Seoul.”
He added lowly once I had reached him.
I wanted to answer him, tell him that I understood why, and that it was probably my new favorite sight of the town too but I never found the words.
I was simply speech- and breathless in front of the view.
Spread under our feet, in front of us, Seoul was resplendent. It was like looking at a peaceful sea of warm colored stars. All around us the town was shining, and suddenly the air felt less cold.
“It’s beautiful.”
I managed to say after a bit of awestruck silence.
“It is.”
He answered.
“And so are you.”
He was already looking at me when I turned to see him. His gaze was soft, caring and sincere. He smiled when he saw the confusion on my blushing face. I must have stuttered because he chuckled.
“Don’t worry.”
He looked away from me, leaning on the wooden barrier. He was looking at the town while I was looking at him.
“I’m not hitting on you, I know you have someone.”
Slowly, I matched his position, leaning on the fence too. My head remained turned slightly toward him.
“I’m just giving you something you should have been given tonight.”
In front of the visible confusion marked on my face, he smiled, his eyes glimmering even more now that they were exposed to the thousands of lights at our feet.
“Compliments.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“Tonight, you should have received compliments.”
Up to this day, I cannot fully understand how I did to not burst into tears right on the spot upon hearing those words.
My heart was melting in my ribcage. The hole in my chest was filled by that stranger’s kindness. Sometimes all it takes is six words and a special attention.
It would have felt odd to thank him, so I didn’t. Instead I looked back at the town and its thousands of lights.
I let time fly between us, making us grow apart again, after feeling so close.
“You too.”
He looked back at me.
“You’re handsome too, tonight.”
He chuckled, but it was his turn to be weary.
“I’m not saying this because I think you need it.”
I told him.
“To be honest, you look like you know that you’re handsome.”
His eyes shone again, with that playfulness that I had been acquainted with at the restaurant.
“So I’m just stating a fact.”
He laughed.
“And sometimes facts need to be stated you know, for no particular reasons-
-It’s fine.”
His eyes were smiling too.
“I appreciate it.”
That’s when I hated it, knowing that this moment was ephemeral. If that was a dream then I didn’t want to wake up. I wanted to remain there, in the cold, with that stranger and his ability to make me feel alive.
“I will remember this as a sweet dream I had when I fell asleep at this table in this fancy restaurant, after drinking too much of that wine by myself.”
Once again, I was the one who talked, breaking the silence. He looked back at me. If he had been confused he hid it.
“If that’s fine by you, it’s fine by me.”
It wasn’t fine by me, because I didn’t want to wake up from that dream. But dreams are what they are, unreal and transitory.
My life was boring and it was sad. I had a normal job that I wasn’t very passionate about, and a relationship that I was the only one fighting for. I had stopped partying once I graduated, I stopped going out in general, to focus on my work like most people do. All in all, I have a pretty average life, pretty dull and normal.
And then that guy sat in front of me. In a span of what? Four hours? Maybe five? He made me feel more alive than I have been in the past three years. And he did that without doing anything too extraordinary, just a little karaoke and a run under the stars.
“I called you a cab.”
Snapping back from my thoughts, I glanced at him.
“You’re shivering, it’s cold and late, and I thought you wouldn’t want me to take you home I mean, we don’t know each other.”
I sighed and smiled. He was right on every part, very thoughtful of him. That didn’t help my heart recover its normal beat.
“Thanks.”
He nodded, his kind eyes gliding on my face.
“No problem.”
It seemed like time had frozen around us. Like I couldn’t move – or didn’t want to move, to leave his side – but he didn’t either. We both stayed here, too shy by the implication of our goodbyes to really look at each other, but too drawn by one another to fully appreciate the scenery our eyes were unwillingly looking at.
“I…”
His eyes fell on me again and my throat tightened.
“I cannot express how grateful I am tonight.”
He smiled, a sincere and warm smile, lightened by the ambient light around us. He looked like he was sparkling.
“Really.”
I didn’t want him to speak, I was afraid of what I would feel if he did, so I kept talking. Or more like I wanted to keep talking but didn’t know what to say.
“I’m thankful too.”
He ended up replying, and my heart skipped another beat.
“Consider this as a like-for-like.”
I laughed.
“Call then.”
I paused to take a last glance at him.
“I should go.”
He nodded. If I really wanted to, I could have argued with him about how he was chasing me by agreeing to my words but I didn’t found the strength to, and I couldn’t do that to him.
I had to leave because I didn’t want to. I had to leave because in the end, I had a boyfriend and I was the one being unreasonable there. I didn’t want him to feel guilty because I was being selfish.
I walked away, he didn’t move. He stayed at the viewpoint, his back turned to me. I knew he was smiling, and I smiled too.
Just as he said, the car was parked at the bottom of the stairs, the driver was on his phone, leaning against the hood of the car.
“Hi.”
I said when I reached him. He looked at me and smiled politely.
“Are you the one who called?”
I nodded.
“Let’s go then miss.”
I had just opened the door of the backseat when I heard the call.
“Wait!”
I looked behind me, where the origin of the call was going down the wooden stairs running.
“Wait.”
He said again when he stopped next to me. His hand had grabbed the door to prevent me from opening it further. I could have giggled at his act if I hadn’t been too busy trying to calm my heart and thoughts.
Maybe it was because he had run, but his cheeks were slightly reddened. His other hand scratched his nape and his eyes shied away from mine. He removed the hand that was wrapped around the edge of the door to shove it in his coat pocket.
When he extended his arm, his fingers were holding a little white paper.
“I know your situation, and I don’t want to do anything inappropriate. I would understand if you don’t want to accept.”
His eyes were serious, probably the most he had been all evening.
“But I do believe that there are occasions you just cannot let go that easily.”
Needless to say, I was very close to combusting. He was reasonably close to me, at a respectful distance from me but it felt like he was wrapped around me. He was all I could see.
“If ever, one day you find yourself alone at a table in a fancy restaurant, or you want to remember what the stars look like or anything at all, give me a call or something.”
It was the first time seeing him so shy.
“Or not. I don’t know I just…”
I grabbed the piece of paper from his hand, with the kindest smile I could give.
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
After thanking me, he opened the door for me to get in. I buckled the seat belt and glanced up at him. He was still leaning against the open door.
“You deserve to be the one people are waiting for.”
Were the last words he told me as he closed the door or the cab.
I left before doing anything I would regret, my heart was heavy, but it was warm and content. It had been a while since I had felt that in my chest.
I closed my eyes with a smile on, thinking about the stranger I still didn’t knew the name of. A strange dream it had been, probably the strangest. What kind of dream makes you feel so loved?