The First Song – 《Hello》

My earphones had connected to the bluetooth of the same person’s phone in the subway twice in a row. There was a week’s break in between, but both times, it happened in the morning and at the same time. The reason why it left a deep impression on me was because the first time I accidentally connected, it was only for a little over 10 minutes, but three of the songs which they had on their playlist were also on mine. So it could be seen from this that like me, they had a good though uncommon taste in music. Forgive me for using ‘they’ as the pronouns, for I have absolutely no clue as to what gender they may be.

However, today, oh so coincidentally, we met again for the second time. 

Last time, I was preoccupied with my surprise and enjoying the music. But when the song was suddenly cut off in the middle, it was only then that it finally registered. The other person had probably gotten off and walked out of the required connecting area, breaking the connection.

After arriving at my workplace, I carefully thought about this entire situation. Did this person not realise their earbuds weren’t playing anything after their phone connected to mine?

Or, were they purposely playing them for me? 

The craziest thing was, the moment they realised the one who connected to their phone today was me, they immediately played the song, 《Second Time》. 

At that moment, I realised they were doing it on purpose and raised my eyes, while somewhat at a loss for what to do. 

They were probably afraid I would disconnect, so they quickly switched to another song. The second song was 《Please Don’t Go》.

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Gaswde vld plnsdep zyvla, vblu nbydtle vbl psdt vs Gelzl’p 《Tlzzs》.

Yu qynl oyp cltkddkdt vs qzwpb. R oyp pwarakple cu vblka tallvkdt.&dcpr;

Rd yd kdpvydv, vbl psdt nbydtle ytykd. R bye dlhla blyae vbkp psdt clqsal. Rv oyp y qlxyzl hsknl, vbl hkcl oyp y ckv zygu yde vbl zuaknp oldv:&dcpr;

“Qwlppkdt tyxlp tlv naygu

Uywtbv wr kd vbl eykzu

Jsu usw tsv xl nayhkdt

Rq xu nblljp vwad ale oswze

Zsw zlde xl uswa ealpp pbkav…”

From the lyrics, I could guess they were probably a very interesting and bold kind of girl. 

Our interests were pretty similar, it wouldn’t be bad to be friends. 

I couldn’t remain passive like this any longer. I quickly stood up from my seat. A mother with a child in front of me, squeezed her daughter past to quickly grab the seat while probably thinking I’d be getting off soon. 

I hadn’t reached the station near my office yet. So of course, I wasn’t going to get off. The reason why I stood up was to widen my field of view, and to see all the passengers within a five meters radius who were using their phone. 

But things didn’t go as planned, about three-fourths of the people in this area were using their phones. Mobile phones were like a tightly closed invisible box, they could automatically lock everyone back into their own comfort zone.

There was absolutely no way to find this person. 

I looked around for quite some time with my hand gripping onto the handhold. I wasn’t able to find them. The song playing in my earbuds had also changed to G.E.M.’s 《Goodbye》.

They were bidding farewell. They were about to get off.

Damn it, the stop arrival reminder sounded above. I pursed my lips together. I couldn’t help but feel regretful. In a city with over tens of millions of people, people come and go, wave after wave. How high were the chances of meeting someone who was of similar kind. It was like the subway which hurtled past, difficult to grasp. 

Fine, I’ll accept being late to work. I held onto my phone and quickly followed the crowd getting off, my eyes flicking around as I repeatedly searched the surroundings. 

Looking around, it was as if I was fishing a needle from the sea. 

After cluelessly walking around for a short while, the song playing on my earphones suddenly disappeared. 

It’s disconnected?

My heart immediately sank to the very bottom. 

Just as I was about to turn back and take off my earphones, a male voice suddenly rang into my ears, like a drop of clear dew falling into a noisy sandstorm. 

“Hi?”

It sounded like they’re testing the waters; sounded pretty young too, and the voice was nice as well.

“Are you still there? Why are you still connected to my phone?”

I couldn’t answer, we were in two different dimensions, two different planets. Also, ‘they’ was actually a guy! Only a ghost would know how red I was, as I was caught following him down his stop, frantically searching like a headless fly. 

“You can hear my audio recording right? All right, I’m talking to myself, and I’ll finish talking to myself. Just to let you listen to it, are you listening?” It seemed like he was laughing at his own weirdness, a really short laugh,.”Anyway, I don’t know, if you can hear me, don’t move, I’m scared it’ll disconnect.” 

I immediately stood still, didn’t even dare to take a step, and due to this situation, my breath turned slightly unsteady. 

“Don’t move.” He reminded me again. 

“Take out your phone, open your memo, and note it. This is my phone number, you can also find me on WeChat.” 

The smile on my face started growing wider and wider, a peach-orange wave of pleasant surprise washed over me. The surroundings suddenly became quiet, I could only hear his voice, and the sound of my own heart beating.