Interesting

missed turns, beaches at dusk, Pistachio macaroons

Do you know that feeling, a premonition, that what you were seeing, who you were meeting, was going to change your life forever? And yet somehow, you find yourself teetering between curiosity and caution. That was me, in the seat beside yours, sneaking glances to my left behind a curtain fallen strands of hair.

fuel-efficient cars, les champs-élysées, frozen greek yoghurt

 The silence wasn’t awkward even though we both weren’t talking.

You weren’t trying too hard to land an impression, but maybe that’s what did. As the headlights trailed off into the distance, so did my mind, to the many times I felt you in my dreams. A lingering feeling, waking to a familiar hollowness. It wasn’t big, but a nagging tug, as if I needed to look for something, someone—yet not knowing who you were and how I would even begin to find you.

the I-10, tropical R&B, midnight boba runs

Now you are here and it all makes perfect sense. In that moment, I found ukiyo (浮世): wanting to stay suspended in our little space for a while, forgetting the essays, problem sets, final projects that await once the car engine murmurs into slumber.

And afterwards, I can never go back to a life before this moment.