We Are All Just Bored

"Sparklink water, please, and one of this wine here, Le Mont de Blanc."

"Excellent choice, sir."

I ordered the second cheapest wine for Yuna from HR. I didn't drink, so sparkling water it is. The restaurant we agreed to go to for the date was nothing fancy. The tablecloth was really ugly; the people around us were boring; no one was dressed to my taste. Yuna was cute—her short blonde hair fell nicely on that red blouse. She wore tight leather pants, which I always thought looked like some kind of sausage packaging. Not what I'd expect from HR, but I'd seen her wear it at work before. She must like it.

Yuna left her phone in her purse and asked me to tell her more about myself.

"I don't know what I can tell you. There's not much to tell, actually."

Yuna's voice was cute and pitchy, but her words were rough. "Leo, you're like that at work as well—stiff."

"You think so? Sorry."

Yuna's eyes wandered the room. Before she could speak, the waiter arrived with drinks.

The waiter set down our drinks. The silence was loud. Yuna didn't know how to start the conversation right now. She pulled her phone out of her purse.

"Well, tell me more about you, Yuna. Maybe after you show me how it's done, then I will know how to do it."

"I'm an Aries in zodiac signs. That should tell you more than enough." She put her phone in front of her, facing up.

"Ah, nice, nice," I said, getting bored and thinking if I should have rejected this date. Should I have also rejected the other two dates I got invited to? Three people from work invited me on a date. One of them is the CEO—if that date starts like this one, I might even get fired.

"What about you, Leo? What sign are you?"

"I don't know."

"How can you not know? Are you that uninterested?"

"I'm a Libra," I said, struggling to keep my eyes open. I was getting sleepy as well.

"So you do know?" Yuna was starting to get a little bit annoyed and was not enjoying this date at all. He's pretty, but wow, he is boring, she thought.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just too lazy to go into a discussion about dumb zodiac signs." If I say dumb zodiac signs, will I get in trouble with HR at work tomorrow?

"What would you like to talk about then, hmm? Tell me, O smart Leo the Great, the wisdom of the office. Give us a topic, because this wine will not save you from me leaving." And no, nothing you do here will affect work.

"You can leave; I don't mind. But I would rather you stay—I didn't do anything wrong."

Yuna scoffed. "But you didn't do anything right either."

"That's true, probably. But I'm just so bored of sitting and talking with someone who is, like, boring to me and not real at all."

"Excuse you, I'm boring to you? You are like the most boring guy in the world. Okay, what do you want to do then, Mr. Fun Guy?"

"I'm not really sure. I like to play games and watch series."

"That's boring as well." Yuna's voice started to get higher; her pitchy voice was now starting to be music to my ears.

I kinda liked how she got annoyed at this point and suggested something different. "We could maybe steal the wine and go to the park and then play catch with a ball. You fake Human Resources officer."

"Where are you going to find a ball?" Yuna asked, a confused look on her face, like finding the ball was the biggest issue here.

"I've got a baseball in my pocket to throw around when I'm bored."

"Sure, let's go," Yuna said, her voice not sounding that annoyed anymore.

We grabbed the bottle of wine and tried to sneak out without anyone noticing. When we were at the door, I think one waiter saw us and yelled, but we were off.

Yuna and me, running towards the park, laughing. I ran with the wine bottle, watching Yuna's clunky stride.

We arrived at the park. We walked toward four old wooden benches arranged in a circle. She was drinking wine from the bottle with one hand, and I was trying to catch the balls she would throw to me with her other hand, miles off from me in every direction. Then I threw the ball directly into her hand, and she would catch it and say, "I'm better than you at this."

She drank almost the whole bottle of wine, and she started talking about how she doesn't like to talk to people, how she must do it because she's in HR. She's got this whole persona she must be when she's at work. We took our shoes off.

"You know, Yuna, I like to be like this—barefoot. It's nice after a tough day. I work almost every day, then every day I go to the gym as well. All the time, my legs are just stuck in shoes, but now they're free."

Yuna smiled. "What do you do more when you don't work or go to the gym?"

"I just make meals, clean the house, wash clothes, iron the clothes, prepare breakfast for the next day, prepare gym stuff for the next day. Sometimes I watch TV or play chess online. That's pretty much it."

"That sounds sad," Yuna said with a face that was worried it would hurt my feelings.

The night was peaceful, quiet. The park was kind of musical and jazzy. The red blouse on Yuna looked great. I wasn't sure if a red blouse and blonde hair would look nice, but she rocks it well.

"Well, I do feel sad sometimes, so maybe I am doing something wrong. But you know, I don't have time to do much else. Even this date—it's nice, but it takes time, and there's not enough time in this world to be happy."

Yuna, who was happy just a moment ago, got a little bit sad herself. "That's a dark way of looking at it. Don't just give up on happiness. Don't just assume there's not enough time—find time," she said, with her mood solidifying as positive.

"I guess I can try that," I responded, not too confidently but with a big smile, while inside me, not really feeling sure if this deep oceanic pain that was drowning in my gut would ever disappear.

We sat there for a moment, barefoot in the grass, the wine bottle empty between us. The park lights made her blonde hair glow.

"If we kiss now, Yuna, do you think I will get in trouble with HR?" I asked while getting closer to her.

Yuna's eyebrows raised. "Who said we would kiss?"

"Stop pretending like you don't want to break this boredom that this world brings to us."

"You are probably right," Yuna said before putting her tongue deep in my throat.