in this life and the next

As many of you already know, we met in freshman year of high school and we became official on October 25th, 2012. It was during our lunch time in between F and G Hall (if you went to Cleveland then you know exactly where this is haha). We only knew each other for ten days before we started dating and now, twelve years later, we have the rest of our lives to look forward to! SCOTT: We started to talk to each other on October 10th, 2012 and from that day on we would communicate nonstop. It seemed like we had known each other for years, but in reality it was only about a week and that was all it took to know I had to have her. The best date that I could think of was 10-25-12 to make sure it was before Halloween so we could celebrate that holiday as a couple. When we would talk during school, we would often go on walks between the halls to get away. Thursday, October 25th, 2012 was the day I had set for my plan, which was to wait until lunch to ask her on these walks and hopefully make it a good surprise. Lunchtime was winding down and it was finally time for me to ask ... "Zeph, Do you want to be official and be my girlfriend?" Her initial reaction was to laugh at me and that threw me off because I was expecting to hear a yes or no answer. I honestly didn't understand what was happening, but she ended up saying "Yes" and the rest was history. ZEPH: He asked me out during lunchtime on October 25th, 2012 and I remember the exact time was 12:45PM. When he asked me, my initial reaction was to burst out in laughter because I was caught off guard lol. He had this butthurt look on his face as I was still laughing out of awkwardness, but I obviously said "yes"!

Zeph transferred into Scott's Biology class two months into the start of the 2012 school year! SCOTT: I met Zeph on October 15th, 2012 and little did I know, ten days later, I would be asking her to be my girlfriend. It was a typical day in Biology when our teacher made an announcement that a new student would be transferring into our class. It was love at first sight, because I knew when I laid eyes on her I had to do something. I told myself, "It IS your first year of high school, why not go for it?" The first day that I met her was the start of our relationship. I was hooked and maybe she was too, because on our way to our next classes somehow our eyes always crossed. That started our little game of always trying to find each other in the rush of passing period. Before we started talking seriously, it was simple elementary school tactics of teasing her like borrowing her mechanical pencil and asking her to tie my shoelaces. I never even had the courage to ask her number myself, so much so I had to ask a friend that knew her in volleyball to try and slip her my number. Our texting conversations had me sprung and ten days later I knew she was the one. The combination of love at first sight and our perfect chemistry gave me a gut feeling that this was something I could not mess up. The joy and butterflies that our early conversations gave were something that had me in a hold and knew I had to make her mine. ZEPH: When I walked into the classroom I introduced myself to everyone then went straight to the back where there was an open seat. I didn't even notice Scott until, during the middle of the class, he asked if he could borrow my Chococat mechanical pencil and I let him take it. I thought he was a little weird because: 1) He asked me to tie his shoe laces (me, a girl he just met, but also tell me why I tied them anyway) 2) He had no sense of personal space and would always talk so close to my face! But, the next thing I knew, I kept subconsciously looking for him in the hallways, walking from class to class. If I didn't see him I would get disappointed and look forward to the next time. I became friends with his friends and one of them gave my number to him and we started texting constantly after that! Don't ask about what we texted about because they were all cringe lol

SCOTT: The planning started after we went ring shopping in February 2022. I knew Zeph would be highly suspicious of any movements of mine that were out of the normal since we share our location with each other, so I made sure to pick the ring up while she was at work to limit the suspicion. The initial plan was to surprise her, but I had no idea how to do it because Zeph thinks so logically all the time. I wanted the proposal to be a complete surprise which meant I had to choose the perfect moment that she would not expect. I reached out to some of her close friends to see if they had any plans coming up so I knew what dates to work around. In the months leading up to December, I was told a plan of Zeph and some of her girlfriends planning a dinner. It had most of the elements that I wanted in this situation. I knew she would be dressing up very nicely so she would look amazing in the pictures. It was a plan that she was already involved with so if I changed it into a proposal, ideally she wouldn’t have thought anything about it. The plan was to use the dinner plan as a façade when in reality I would be waiting in the back patio of Elsy’s parents' house. The day started very cloudy with a huge chance of rain during the time that I was trying to do the proposal, but even with the weather scare we still pushed on. I enacted the help of Jaewon and my brother David to keep me hidden on Zeph's radar. I left my phone at home with Kuya David so he could respond to Zeph as if it was me, so my location didn’t raise any suspicion. Finally, the patio was set up and close friends who I invited were in place with confetti poppers on the balcony above us. The rain came in like a paid actor and added the perfect romantic effect to the whole thing. I think I blacked out when I was proposing because I don’t remember what I even said. I just remembered getting on one knee and asking “Will you marry me?” then next thing I knew we were surrounded by confetti, rain, and camera flashes to capture that special moment. ZEPH: On December 27th, 2022 I had planned a dinner with my girlfriends and got ready for a night of delicious pasta. I went to Elsy's house to pick her up and she asked me if I could go into her house to "help her choose a pair of shoes to wear". She then told me that in order to go to her room we had to go outside into the balcony (I still had no clue, I was just like "okay lol"). It was raining, I was wearing boots and was scared of slipping down her stairs, so I was holding onto the umbrella and railing. Once I was near the bottom of the stairs, I didn't even look up to see Scott waiting there until Elsy told me to look! At that point I honestly blacked out, I don't remember what Scott said except that he asked me to marry him and I said yes! Some of our best friends were waiting in the upper balcony, popped confetti cannons and played my favorite, Vitamin String Quartet, after I said yes to Scott. It was unreal and I absolutely did not expect it to happen the way it did, but I'm so grateful for everyone involved!

Glen Oaks Big Sur 47080 Highway 1 Big Sur, CA 93920 United States