Hiraya's Point of View.

Suddenly in our dark moments, our desperate hearts meet. We were both young, but longing for support, love, and care.

- PRESENT DAY -

It's the first day of work in my dream country, and also the place where someone I love lives, South Korea.

I finally made it like what you promised to me. You may not remember it but I do. You were the one who should accompany me to your country but now… all I have is myself. I really wish that you were here with me today.

The weather is killing me. I never knew that the winter would be this cold. But sadly, you were colder. Through the help of the cool breeze, I suddenly remember how you were before you left as I keep walking towards the building that I am assigned to work as one of the make-up artist teams.

At least when you're still interested in me, you were a warm person.

Before I take another step, I gather my pride and strength. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. As I open my eyes, I saw a man walking and laughing who makes my heart pound.

After all these years, I thought I forgot what you look like. After all these years, who knew we would meet again? Though it could be not you, I'm certain and I trust my heart.

I could not move my feet nor take my eyes off to you. And before you take another step close to my direction, the snow starts to fall. I am hoping that my fairytale would come true as I keep wishing for this white snowfall. I want you to look at me, even if it is just a glance. 

Everything begins to move slowly and my heart beats like crazy. It looks like a romantic drama scene. That can be possible if you will look at me, but you pass by and never let your beautiful eyes meet mine. 

Our encounter is almost a romantic scene but, there is no romance. When we were young, we become each other's shoulders to lean on. But now that I'm an adult, I'm all alone again. 

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It's raining there is nothing new. What can I expect from my country? I hope there will be another weather comes to my poor country, the Philippines.

It is the season of rain again and I hate it because it reminds me that I'm fighting alone in this cruel world. Though I'm not alone, it's just I feel that I have no one to lean on. Well, I guess this is what we called 'puberty.'

I'm on my 17, looking for something or maybe someone that can make my rainy day a sunny day.

I tried to scroll to my Instabook to ease my loneliness until I reach a post about an online dating app called 'MeetMe.' Here, you will put your interest then the app will find another user with the same interest as yours. Then, that's it! You will talk or not it is up to you.

It sounds interesting, but no. I'm not even on my legal age, and besides, I am not looking for a date. 

As I keep scrolling, I keep having thoughts about the so-called 'MeetMe.' I don't know, but okay! If I saw another post about MeetMe, then I'll give it a shot. 

I keep on scrolling and scrolling. I found myself like I am finding the sign that should be finding its way to me. After minutes of scrolling to my feed, I finally found it to try the application.

What could be an exciting thing awaits for me there?

I go to the app store. In the app store, I type 'MeetMe,' and it has hundreds of results, but I just clicked the first one since it has the most number of downloads. 

It starts to install. As I expected, the internet connection does not go with the flow. 

“You're offline. Check your internet connection. My god Philippines!” I shouted out of frustration. 

Is this a sign for me not to use this app? 

Eventually, after minutes of waiting for the internet connection to restore, it starts to download again. After minutes of downloading, it is installing. After a long, I start to sign in to my Instabook account. Since it will be a hassle for me to create an account, it is better to connect the MeetMe app to my Instabook. Besides, I cannot even memorize all of my passwords so, why would I add another one to recall?

“Speaking of passwords... What was my password again?” I asked because of having trouble remembering my own password. 

I look around while hoping that I can maybe found an idea about my problem. After minutes of thinking, I finally remember my Instabook password by accidentally seeing my face in my mirror.

“Oh Right! It's a combination of my name and birthday! How can I forget about it?” I laughed as I start to realize how dumb I am.

“My gosh! Hiraya Noel Chavez! Where is your brain?” I said while patting my head, by that maybe my brain will come out.

When I logged in, it asks me what I want to talk about, which makes me freeze for a second. I place my chair near to my windowpane, I laid my arm on it and let my head rest on my arm, and at the same time, I stared at my window and observing how the rain was dropping.

The rain does kill the mood. Maybe someone out there feels the same way as I do now. I think I found what I want to talk about so, I input the rain as my interest. Hoping that on the other side of this application, I can find someone to talk to that can brighten up the mood on my rainy days.

After I set my interest, I saw two options on how you would like to communicate, either text or video. I choose the first option since I do not want them to see how gloomy I look today.

Next, I clicked the text, and it starts to connect with another server. After a second, MeetMe found a stranger. It states that we both like the rain, but before I typed hi, I got disconnected.

I think it's hard to find someone to talk to within the app because it seems like there is no hope for me to find someone who can bring me sunshine.

I am slowly losing my hope. I almost spend an hour finding someone through this app. I am hoping that maybe someone could help me to ease the feeling of being alone.

Does MeetMe doesn't want to give me a chance to meet a stranger, or it's maybe because it's not for me?

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say Hi!

You both like Rain.

Stranger: Hi?

Stranger: Do you like rain?

I finally got connected with a stranger. Magically, it does not feel like I match with an unknown person. The atmosphere feels different but familiar. With an unexplained simple greeting, I think my heart has pound. I am getting a strange feeling about this connection but, it doesn't matter. It is not something awful because I feel that MeetMe finally gave me my match. It gives me the one that could bring my shine back.

You: No, I don't like rain. It kills me, but strangely I think rain is sometimes good.

You: How about you? Do you like them?

END OF CHAPTER 1.