We first met in September 2018 in North Carolina, when Mika was a senior at Duke University and Ares was doing his third-year exchange at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Our first date was at Cocoa Cinnamon in Durham, North Carolina and ended up lasting five hours, as we talked about music and our multicultural backgrounds. It felt like we were old friends picking up from where we left off. Over the next six years, we stayed together across countries, time zones, the COVID pandemic, and grad school! It wasn't easy, but our sights were set on each other. In September 2024, we got married at St. Georges Town Hall in London and are now building a life together in NYC!