Debate ensues as to whether he’s a creepy stalker or clever romantic.

It’s often said that you’ll find love when you’re not looking for it, and that seems to have been the case for the friend of Japanese Twitter user @ah44444h. Recently she was contacted by a friend who told her she was getting married.

Many people in Japan keep their dating activities on the down-low, and this was @ah44444h’s first time to hear about her friend’s husband-to-be. Since her friend had brought up the topic of her love life, though, @ah44444h didn’t think it’d be prying if she asked how she met her fiance, to which her friend replied:

“I dropped my phone while I was out, and he found it. After he returned it to me, we ended up going out, and that’s how our relationship started.”

That’s pretty sweet, isn’t it? Almost makes it feel like the two were destined to become lovers, like the stars of a lovey-dovey TV drama or anime. However, @ah44444h’s friend’s story wasn’t done yet, and a sudden plot twist makes it sound like something from a darker genre than pure romance.

“After we’d been dating for a while, though, I found out that I hadn’t dropped my phone. He’d actually stolen it from me, after he saw me and fell in love at first sight.”

Setting aside the debate as to whether or not love at first sight is possible or not, the fact remains that the guy stole the phone of a woman he’d never even spoken to, just so he’d have a reason to talk to her. And yet, there are still a few more surprises left in the tale of how @ah44444h and her boyfriend got engaged.

“When I found out he stole my phone, I was actually deeply moved that he’d felt such love for me as to do that.”

And finally, @ah44444h’s friend wrapped things up with:

“Oh, and also I got pregnant hehe LOL.”

Like a good friend, @ah44444h’s listened patiently until the end of the story, then, when her friend was done, told her:

“THERE IS NOTHING TO BE LAUGHING ABOUT!”

The highly unorthodox courtship rubbed a number of Twitter users the wrong way as well, as they left comments such as:

“That’s…creepy.”
“Most people would be seriously done with the relationship if they found that out.”
“So scary how he stole her phone.”
“So that makes him a thief right?”
“I can’t imagine marrying someone who’d take someone else’s property like that.”

Then there was the commenter who said he’d foolishly tried doing something similar, but in reverse:

“I put my phone into a girl’s bag one time. Obviously I never got it, or my feelings, returned.”

But on the other side of the discussion were those who shrugged their shoulders and figured if @ah44444h’s friend honestly felt like the guy stealing her phone was a genuine romantic gesture (and judging from the cheerful tone in which she relayed the story, it seems like she does), then whether or not to marry him should be entirely her decision, with more than one commenter saying “He stole her phone…and also her heart” or “Everyone has their own values and definition of what love is.”

Finally, the third class of commenters could understand the logic of both sides of the debate, and thus had trouble sorting out their personal stance, such one who simply said “I’m not really sure how I feel about this, and that’s troubling me.”

Perhaps the most level-headed comment of all came from one commenter who said “There must have been other ways for him to start a conversation with her.” While it’s sometimes tempting to adopt the philosophy of “All’s well that ends well,” snatching the personal belongings of an attractive stranger technically qualifies as theft, and with smartphones now generally being more expensive than all the cash most people keep in their wallets, there probably aren’t too many people who’d see it as the laughing matter @ah44444h’s friend does.

Source: Twitter/@ah44444h via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso (1, 2)