I added her randomly on Snapchat because we had three mutual friends. Initially, we only exchanged boring snaps of ceilings, books, and half-visible faces to maintain a streak. For almost forty days, I didn't even know what her voice sounded like.
One night, she sent a snap from a hospital waiting room. I asked if everything was okay, and she told me her younger brother had been admitted. That was our first real conversation. We talked until 4 a.m., and after that, the empty snaps slowly turned into voice notes, video calls, and daily updates. We discovered that our colleges were only six kilometres apart.
Our first meeting happened at a small café near her college. Six months later, she still jokes that our relationship started because I replied to a black screen with "You okay?" Sometimes I wonder how many important people we ignore because we assume a random online connection means nothing.