I think it's about time to put in detail this Kdrama-ish story

Jan 04, 2018 16:26

A noona love story.

An office love story that involves a boss and a subordinate.

A love triangle that turned into a love-square.

...and a whirlwind of emotion that's both frustrating and addicting.

K-drama much?

That is how it is in my romantic arena these days.

It started as something so cliche and innocent. We were teasing an office friend who wants to experience romance and setting her up with a bachelor in one of the office clusters I am heading. I was supposed to just play cupid and set them up together but then this twisted-thinking fate supposedly has other plans. So now I find myself caught up in this K-drama-ish turn of events.

Ironic, funny, frustrating, exciting, addicting... heartbreaking at times but nevertheless... nevertheless... one hell of a joyride.

So how did this all start and how did I get caught up in this one hell of a ride? I guess that's the story I want to tell before any other fiction.

It started with a heart-to-heart talk between office friends. A younger friend who is also as inexperienced in romance as I am decided that she wants to date someone. Being the ever-supportive peers, the four of us decided to set her up with a bachelor. This bachelor happens to be working under me, under my direct supervision and I know... we know... that he will not reject me if I try to set them up.

And so I did.

Who was I to know that what will follow after is an emotional journey?

It was probably a twist of fate but he was the first to send me a social media message (a.k.a an FB messenger harmless chat). It was my birthday. With carelessly structured words, I thanked him and asked him if he is single. He must have chuckled, as what appeared in his reply, and told me that there are many single men in the same cluster and he is one of those.

First step to playing cupid... done.

And so in another clumsily structured sentence, I told him that there is someone I want him to take out on a date. If I were someone else looking at myself from another angle at that time, I would probably be covering my face in secondhand embarrassment. He must have been thinking what sort of sorcery messed with his supervisor’s head at that time for her to utter such shameless sentences.

Oh and he chuckled. Yes, I remember he answered me with a series of hahahaha’s and hehehehe’s. There was a pause in the three lines in FB messenger that signals the other party typing a reply.

“… ikaw na lang, Attorney.” He told me. In very rough translation it means “… you be the one [I date], Attorney”.

I laughed. Oh, how I laughed. I was in a moving car, completely ignoring the fact that I hate typing messages while inside a vehicle, and I was laughing hard. I did not take it seriously and I told him that I am way too old for him. I am a noona in all sense of the word and his reply made me chuckle just as hard.

“Di bale… matured naman akong mag-isip” (nevermind, I am already matured in thoughts). And when I laughed, he added the words that would, in the future, make this whole thing so damn confusing. “It’s just a joke.”

It was, indeed, dismissed as a joke. Who would even think of dating a grumpy lawyer who’s a few years older and at the same time, his supervisor?

As fate would have its tricky ways, the conversation did not end there. If anything, it was the start of everything that is both confusing and addicting. We talked more after that and I told him I was serious when I told him he has to date someone. He asked me who it is and I told him it’s still a secret until he agrees. When there was an opportunity for us to talk face to face, he told me he already knew who I was matching with him and asked me to tell her “hi”.

Overwhelmed, I eagerly related to this friend what he said. She was not the least bit thrilled. Oh? I thought she wanted this. Something told me… us… she doesn’t. So when he sent another message days after, I asked him if he really wants to pursue the date. I even told him I was a great matchmaker, having matched two co-workers. One was his friend and the other is a girl from the human resources section.

… and there goes the love triangle.

After a series of pure hahaha’s… he told me he’s courting the woman I am trying to match with his friend. If I were another third person looking in on the conversation, I would have face-palmed and never talked to him again. But I am his shameless supervisor and I am shamelessly playing cupid and not talking to him again did not even cross my mind. Without a hint of shame, I said sorry that I was too tactless and I didn’t know the circumstances and offered to do another matchmaking session. This time with the woman he is courting.

He laughed and did not answer for hours. When he did, he told me he drank a little because of what I said but he’d like to decline the matchmaking offer. Haha. He’ll be the one to play his own cards and deal with the matter.

It was the end of the story for me… or not. I did not even think for a single second at that moment that we would continue to talk further after that.

But we did.

Our conversations continued and it was about everything we could think of. I told him I go out alone most of the time and he asked me if he could tag along as a younger brother some time. I never really answered him properly. I was not interested. He was a younger brother and nothing more. There were several offers to go out after that but again, I declined. There is no reason to go out with him, I said. He was… a younger brother.

But this younger brother was the first person that came to mind when I need the services of an engineer for a house expansion project. He was too slow to reply when I asked if he could do it so I asked another engineer under my supervision. This one’s story will come later.

It is at this point that we should name them as Engr. 1 and Engr. 2.

They both said yes, they could do it. One after the other. So I was forced to ask for both their help. For some reason, Engr. 1 was so excited and he told me he wanted to match me with Engr. 2. That was the perfect opportunity, he said. I shrugged it off as another one of his lame jokes - one that I got so used to in our countless secret FB conversations. Haha.

It was on the way to our place when things shifted a little. They were supposed to inspect the site, do some measurements and things like that and since they’re doing it for free, transportation is on me, I said.

I was sitting beside Engr. 2 when we were travelling to my house. Engr. 1 was sitting in front of the cab, laughing and shooting me funny faces and expressions. He was excited that I was sitting beside the man he wants to match with me.

But there wasn’t any spark, there wasn’t any tingling feeling even if Engr. 2 and I were sitting close. After their mission was accomplished and we were heading back to town to have dinner, I was thinking why something is different. There is a comfortable discomfort, if you all get what I mean.

I looked beside me and it was not Engr. 2 who was sitting there. It was him… Engr 1. It was him sitting beside me, laughing, talking animatedly about how Engr. 2 and I should have dinner together because he has to go somewhere else. And even now, as I am writing this, the tingling feeling is still there. He was, also sitting close… shamelessly close. I guess he’s not one to cringe at physical contact. But there is something inexplainable and it made me so conscious even to this day.

There was probably a trigger at that point? I, myself, am not even sure anymore but I'm sure some of you have experienced that moment when you happen to sit beside a man and you kind of... feel him? Not in a lecherous kind of way. It's that moment when, by some unexpected turn of events, you happen to sit beside him and you feel... you feel that he's a man. And that discovery puts you in some sort of dilemma because what used to be something unnoticeable suddenly makes you feel aware that you are a woman and he is a man.

And boy, was he a man at that split second.

He was (still is) a mischievous one. He was insisting that Engr. 2 and I go on a dinner date without him and I accused him of faking an errand. He playfully showed me a glimpse of his phone to prove that, indeed, there was an errand but before I get to read it, he snatched the phone away, took advantage of the traffic jam and went out of the cab with a loud laugh and a peace sign.

I cursed him after. But months later, I would find out that there was indeed an errand. Haha.

He sent an apology SMS message after that and I cursed him some more, at least in my mind.

… and I have to continue this in another post because it got too long and boring…

:)
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