Every love story has to start somewhere. MEET - CUTE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FIRST SPARKS
Your airport crush sits down beside you and asks you what flight you’re taking. By some miracle, they’re seated next to you on your hours-long plane ride.
The boy you have grown up with your whole life sees you for the first time in a while, and he does a double-take. “You look… different,” he says, unable to tear his eyes away.
These dreamy scenarios are examples of meet-cutes. It’s a concept we all know well, but maybe not by name. A meet-cute is the story of how two lovers first meet. However, meet-cutes can also be the first time a romantic spark occurs between two people. Oh, and it’s usually pretty cute.
We see meet-cutes everywhere. After all, every love story has to start somewhere. Two strangers bumping into each other on the MRT? A barista calling out a butchered name? Millions of meet-cutes happen every day, and literature (good and bad) is filled with meetcutes. But what makes a good meetcute? For this article, Young STAR collected some stories to show how special and heartwarming these first encounters can be. W *** e went to an all-girls Catholic school, and she was in varsity volleyball. I was in the Writer’s Club. She presented herself in a very masculine way, whereas I was considered a girly girl. I can’t lie: she was my girl crush since Grade 8. I would write high school romance stories on Wattpad about the sporty volleyball player falling in love with the romance writer, but I always changed the pronouns from “she” to “he.”
In Grade 11, we finally became classmates. Since her last name starts with the same letter as mine, we were seatmates. On the first day, she tapped my shoulder shyly. Her reserved manner was very different from how I saw her act in games and around her friends.
“You’re really pretty,” she said. I felt like I was waiting my whole life for that. — Plaid
F or our first trip since the start of the pandemic, my little sister begged my parents to go to Hong Kong Disneyland. She wanted to see the fireworks show because she was the only person in my family who hadn’t.
I was sitting on a curb beside my little sister, 45 minutes early for the show because she insisted on getting perfect seats. A pretty girl bent down beside me and asked in Tagalog if someone was sitting there. I said no. She laid out her blanket, brushing my hand as she did so. I felt fireworks before they even started.
The show was called “Momentous.” It certainly was for me.
— Churro
I go to an all-girls school, and he goes to an all-boys school. I’m not popular at all, and I was reluctant to attend the soiree of our class since I knew I probably wouldn’t get any new friends anyway, but my two friends convinced me.
When I got there, I stuck to my friends the whole time. Luckily, my friend already knew someone from that class, and he and his best friend stayed with us.
His best friend was weird. Quiet, reserved. He just sat there silently and uttered a few words now and then.
Until he saw the Genshin Impact stickers on my phone. He lit up. “What character do you main?” And that’s how it started. I like to think that, a year later, we’re two weirdos who found each other.
— Venti M y village has a basketball court where my older brother plays every day with his friends. There’s a boy around my age who isn’t that good, but God, he’s cute. He works hard to get better. On my nighttime walks, I would catch him dribbling in the darkness.
Once, my brother asked me to bring him water. I was hoping to see the cute boy, so I went. Apparently, my brother told him I had a crush on him. When I got there, his friends were saying “Uyyyyy,” and we both looked away, blushing.
When the cute boy got the ball, he made a four with his hands, then pointed at me. He shot, and everyone stared. Then, he missed. His friends laughed, but I watched the whole game and waited for him after. — Tumbler
M y girlfriend cheated on me with another girl. When I saw the pictures of my ex and the girl she was kissing at a bar, I saw red. I broke up with her that day, ignoring her teary voicemails and blocking her on everything.
Days later, I saw the girl she cheated with at school. I whispered and pointed at her with my friends, laughing at her and rolling my eyes. She noticed and seemed quite uncomfortable. After a while, she got up and approached me, asking me politely if she had done something wrong.
I rolled my eyes and said my ex’s name. She scrunched her face (adorably) and shook her head. Horrified, I realized I had the wrong girl.
I approached her during dismissal to apologize. She laughed it off, and we’ve been making each other laugh ever since.
— Red
I don’t have a meet-cute. I guess my meet-cute is when my mom and his mom put us in the same crib and we tumbled around it together. Or when my dad introduced him as my future husband. Most kids have a stuffed toy they are deeply attached to that makes them feel safe. He was mine.
We aren’t childhood best friends to lovers, because we never had a platonic relationship. I grew up in love with him. We share the same interests, friends, and secrets. He is my companion, and we have braved life together.
— Bear
W e were in college together, and he was the classic boy. Immature, loud, class clown. He talked over me and only recited right after the prof said my answer was wrong or kulang. The worst part was that profs seemed to prefer him and ignore how he singled me out.
We were coursemates, and every time I saw him, I felt heated anger. One night, he texted me and confessed that he liked me. I was stunned. After explaining my feelings to him, he grinned playfully. “You think about me a lot, huh?” he said.
He later told me that he did well because when he beat me, he knew I would only be thinking about him that night. I elbowed him after he said it, but he was right.
— Anatomy
I have spent countless hours searching for my perfect somebody, but I never expected to meet them in a video game. When I had finally given up on love, I wasted a summer playing Minecraft and met someone who helped out on a Minecraft server. We talked on Discord, which makes me smile and throw up in my mouth a little whenever I think about it. Our first conversation was about a gross food item that he loves, and our conversations thereafter have been about everything imaginable.
I fell in love with him headfirst and liked him before I even knew what he looked like. — Evergreen
S ince the start of high school, my friends would joke about me being gay. I always tried to brush it off and ignore it, mainly because I definitely was gay and didn’t want them to know.
When a cute Korean boy transferred to our school and joined our friend group, he heard the rumors about me. Even though we were barely friends at the time, he caught me alone during dismissal and told me, “Hey, I’m gay, too. Or gay. If you’re not gay.” He was the first person I told that same night.
We talked every day from then on and I fell for him. We were touchy in private, holding hands and lying next to each other. Once, he grabbed my hand in front of our whole friend group and I pulled away on instinct. I saw their shocked faces and thought, screw it. I kissed him. — Stripes E * * * ven if the meet-cutes aren’t ours, we still enjoy reading about them. To me, meet-cutes are a sign that everywhere I go, love follows. So, I hope you pay a little more attention to the smiling barista when he passes you a scrawledon napkin. I hope you strike up the courage to start a conversation with your airport crush. I hope you take your shot when it comes, and let stars fall into your lap when they choose to head your way. No matter what you do, meet-cutes show us that we should always keep looking up.
* * * Special thanks to the contributors who allowed me to publish, edit, and/ or write about their intimate stories.
An installation of 21 interconnected, inhabitable pods rise right on the beach of San Juan, La Union. Leeroy New’s “Mebuyan’s Vessel” is on view to the public starting tomorrow. An homage to the Bagobo goddess of the underworld seen at the Ateneo Art Gallery, the vessel rises as a portal to new myths for the coastal town.
La Union-based residency program Emerging Islands leads the storytelling with weekly reading classes with the Urbiztondo Beach Children’s Library; an exhibit featuring photography by Hannah Reyes Morales, Gab Mejia, Archie Geotina, Geric Cruz, a work created by Mandy Barker in collaboration with communities in La Union; and a coastal forest display by La Union environmental youth group Young Earthsavers Society (YES).
Currently in production is an environmental and sci-fi docu-fiction set in and around Mebuyan’s Vessel starring the aliens of La Union and the threats to and wonders of their lives presented by Search Mindscape Foundation.
Celebrate with the La Union creative community starting at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow with drinks by award-winning El Union, barbecue by Olympic Philippine Surfing Team member Daisy Nerida Valdez, and beats by surftown DJs Patrick Casabuena a.k.a. Loca Sun and Dan Samson.
* * * Access the installation within Waves Beach Club and Residences from San Juan Public Beach.