Zach is not the kind of guy to believe in fate. Coincidences, those can happen. Luck, that too. Fate? That felt like something straight out of a romance movie. Which is where he likes to think he is now.

He had his usual routine, that's now ruined. It started when he was leaving his economics lecture. He walked from the students center to down the business hall whilst his fingers were preoccupied, lazily scrolling through his phone.

When he saw you, you weren't not doing anything remotely dramatic, just walking, like everyone else around, and that was enough to get his attention. He wanted to know your name, what you studied, where you were from, even if you ever noticed him. Throughout the week, around ten in the morning, he found himself walking down a completely different hallway.

Zach was walking and waiting.

He told himself it was just a coincidence, that he just happened to be in that part of the building. Then somehow, he started slowing down his pace, pretending to tie his shoe, or stopping to check a notification on his phone that didn’t exist.

He was doing it on purpose.

The worst part? He's never spoke to you, not even once, or shared any sort of eye contact with you. Zach wasn’t shy, he could talk to anyone, befriend anyone. Yet how do you approach someone you've only ever admired from a distance? What would he even say? “Hey, I've seen you walk down this hallway and now I can’t stop thinking about you?"

He'd rather stay silent and watch you from a distance, like a secret admirer, only without the gifts and notes that might freak you out.

On an early Friday morning, he was fully ready to perform his rehearsed act.

Shit.

His shoes were already tied, and his phone, faced a black screen.

Dead. No notifications, no reason to linger.

The worst part, he didn’t know how to fix it. You would be walking down this exact hallway sooner or later. That realization sent his heart into a tailspin.

It meant he had to do something about it.