Chemistry don’t always add up with logic

In my various attempts to fully understand whether boys and girls can have platonic relationships (I’ve had many many debates on this and most of the time I get singled out for upholding so), I once asked Yin, “Why can’t it work with Ira?”

Whenever we meet Yin, we almost expect to see Ira. In the general public perception, it’s impossible for two heterosexuals to be spending all this time together yet have nothing going on. Thing is, they did. 6 years ago. But it lasted only for about 2 months.

He said, “It cannot work because of fundamental characteristic differences. She and I, we rub each other very wrongly. She riles me up with the littlest things. She brings out the worst in me.”

I completely got this. Totally. How else can I explain my unusually snappy self with Suzy, my suffocating chum back at uni? Or how Jantan Sial enhanced my malay-swearing vocabulary bank so much so that I have a new word to maliciously throw at him everyday we fought?

So when Za related similar incidents she had with a particular friend, we discussed this further.

Chemistry. Some people rub us the right way; some people don’t. Some makes us feel attractive; some makes us feel bad. Some comes up with the most annoyingly insulting jokes; some says the most brilliant one-liner. Whether we like it or not, some just brings out the best in us, while some others, the worst.

Sometimes, the chemistry between two people is hard to understand. How two people connect would not necessarily appear right in the naked eye.

Chemistry is part comfort. It’s dancing without stepping on each other’s toes. It’s cuddling in your sleep and waking up still entangled together, despite various stirs.

When do you know you’ve got it right?

When it feels like home.

So let Mr. Scruffy be with Miss Prim and Proper. Be happy for the McKinsey consultant who’s going out with the painter. Let Mr. Mine be short and ugly for all that matters!

For as long as you can identify what happiness is in their eyes - despite not being able to neither relate nor understand – you still stand a chance.