Prologue
Those eyes stared directly into mine. I saw nothing but deep green irises, widening with intensity. His stride toward me was a blur, but it was smooth and graceful like the movement of long brushstrokes. I didn't take notice any facial features, hair, clothes or the rest of his body. His eyes were like a magnetic pull, unwavering. Warm.
The intensity felt knowing, bare and honest and it was materializing in this interaction with this...stranger.
The moment was quick, but I gathered that entire short phenomenon into something non-empirical. It was surreal, like the world slid into slow motion and stood still for those seconds as our eyes met and then returned to its free form.
He turned his head and continued on the same sidewalk and passed me.
And I continued on and wondered. Did I just get all hot and flustered because of his gaze? That was odd. I didn't even recall his physique. Usually when I notice a handsome looking guy down the street, I inwardly smile and blush a little, because the guy was physically attractive. Natural instinctive reflex. Whether the guy was in a business suit or jogging suit, it was always a passive moment. The guy would be gone in a second and I was indifferent. But this was different. The encounter did not pass by me; it felt like it passed through me. The warm heat came from inside my chest and up to my cheeks. Then as I exhaled, the warm was gone with my breath into the thin air. It was something I did not see coming, let alone feel it coming. I didn't even see his face. How did I feel his eyes?
I wanted to turn around just to see his figure even if it was from the backside and knowing I wouldn't see his face. Seconds passed, and I had enough curiosity to stop and peek over my shoulder. He was gone. He had turned the corner around the block. I flinched and faced forward again.
I chuckled at myself of how I had reacted so differently to this man than all of the others and I had barely gotten a good look at him. How did I get like that over a stranger? My normal after-effect should have been some mix of absurdity and guilty pleasure. Instead, something else came like a tidal wave from the top of my head down to all my extremities. I suddenly became perturbed. I felt sad.
I found myself still in place, just standing there with a blank expression. And wondered where all this angst in my chest was coming from. I was just fine a minute ago, right before the eye-to-eye contact. And now I was saddened in a strange position unprepared for whatever would come next.