The weather is getting hot! Is your love life?

Don’t fret! Our resident experts Eva Cheng, Minal Jalil and Kairui Sun are here to guide you along your date-bagging journey. Tune in for a lighthearted and insightful discussion as they dish out seven tips that will help you make the most of your Homecoming experience!

Minal: Hi guys, I’m Minal,

Kairui: I’m Kairui,

Eva: and I’m Eva.

Minal: And as you saw in today’s headline, we’re going to be discussing a topic that might be at the front of your mind: how to bag a hoco date.

Eva: With the hoco dance approaching, you’re probably thinking about who’s going to be standing next to you in your hoco post.

Kairui: Not to mention having someone now would mean you can go on cute fall-themed dates later in the year.

Eva: So without further ado, let’s move on to the questions where we’ll give you our personal tips on how to approach the date selection process.

Kairui: By the way, before we get started, you don’t need a hoco date to have fun. Homecoming is about uniting as a school and having fun one night with your friends, and a date is just something extra.

Minal: With that said though, let’s get this going.

How do you measure compatibility?

Kairui: So I think that since you’re going to be with them for 3 to 4 hours, you’re going to have to have talked to them at least over text for a pretty long time beforehand. You don’t want hoco to be the first time you meet them, since you don’t know what your dynamic is going to be, and you’re not sure if it’s just going to ruin your night.

Eva: Yeah. And kind of building on that, make sure that you’re meeting in person, talking over text is very different than actually spending time with them in person. So making sure that you’re spending some time together and actually seeing each other in real life is pretty important.

Minal: The most important part of finding a person to  build a relationship with is finding the friendship first. So if you’re comfortable with them, if they’re interested in you, they care for you, and if you have that shared bond, you know that they’re going to be a good person not only for a relationship, but if you want them as a hoco date.

Eva: Especially because at hoco, you’re going to be with your friends and your date. You have to make sure that they can actually get along, or you have some kind of plan on who you’re going to spend time with, or else it’s just going to get awkward.

Kairui: And as a bottom line, don’t bring someone just for the picture, because if they’re your hoco date, you’re also their hoco date and you don’t want to ruin their experience.

Minal: I’m about to drop bars right now. It’s about the memories you make, not the pictures you take.

How do you gauge their interest? 

Kairui: If you’re talking to them on text a lot the basic things apply. If they’re responding really slow

Minal: A general rule is: over text messages, people don’t really play games. The way they respond is a good comparison to how interested they are in you. If they’re not responding fast, they’re leaving you on read, they’re not interested. That’s just the hard truth, but it is what it is, right? If they respond fast, they show genuine interest in what you talk about, maybe that is a good sign. Maybe you should consider asking them.

Where should you look? 

Eva: I think it’s really important to go to a place where there’s going to be a lot of people, like football games, like school events. And even if you want to meet people outside of school, just go to friends’ parties where there’ll be a lot of people that you don’t know yet.

Minal: Putting yourself out there is like the most important part. And if you go to it with confidence, like, “okay, I’m going to find someone here.” And if you do and if you mesh well, maybe that could turn to something. But you have to approach it with this confidence, this composure, this interest.

Kairui: Yeah, I agree, because at the end of the day, if you’re the one that wants a hoco date, you have to be the one to make moves and make it happen. Hoco dates aren’t just going to come to you and happen naturally. You have to actually put in effort.

Minal: Definitely. Nothing falls straight into your hands. There’s always work for it, and there’s always work you can do to bag a hoco date, which is why you’re watching this video right now.

Eva: But at the same time, if it feels like work to talk to them at hoco, it’s going to feel like work to talk to them. So even if you’re desperate, maybe you don’t want that person as your hoco date.

How do you know they’re the one?

Minal: To quote Lana Del Rey: “if you know, you know.” When you know you like somebody, you know; there’s no ifs or buts. It’s just a, “you know” situation.

Kairui: Yeah, I agree. There are going to be some signs like, if you’re just living your life, going through your day, there are gonna be some moments where you think, oh, I want to tell them about this. Even though it has absolutely nothing to do with them. And it’s just these small moments that, as Minal said, are going to make you know if you actually want to pursue something further with them.

Minal: I think the person you choose is like a comfort person, a peace person in your life. You just want to tell them everything, be around them. And that boils down to the friendship you build with them. I think that’s really important.

Should you drop hints? How?

Eva: I think that dropping hints about hoco is really important, because some people are just very dense and they don’t understand things. So you really need to drop hints.

Kairui: I think that while you do need to bring up hoco, it shouldn’t feel like you’re forcing all these hints or you’re forcing just trying to flirt because at the end of the day, it should be something natural.

Minal: My opinion: you should flirt till you drop. You wanna have this fun, exciting, thrilling relationship with them. And if you’re not putting out hints, flirting, doing anything that makes it a little more playful, it may seem like the relationship itself is boring.

Kairui:Yeah, I agree, because the more you do that, it’s not gonna feel like you’re trying to force anything. Don’t just be out of the blue, like dropping pickup lines. Like, I don’t think that’s going to help you very much. Definitely have, like, situational awareness when you like.

How do you ask them? 

Kairui: I think that you should be very clear about your intentions. You should definitely drop the words hoco or homecoming verbatim, so that they know that you’re actually asking them to a physical event and you’re not just saying you like them or something, which is super vague. If you guys have already been getting really close over text, I think asking over call or over text is fine.

Eva: I feel that a poster is VERY necessary. I think that putting in the effort to make a poster, maybe bringing flowers, just shows how much you care about them and that you’re willing to put in effort for that person.

Minal: I don’t agree with Kairui in the fact that you should be asking over messages. I don’t think you necessarily need a poster, but the ask has to come with meaning. And I just feel like that. It’s all about the intention you have behind it. You want them to feel special in that moment.

Eva: If you ask someone over text, it took you maybe three seconds to type out that text, like, “hey hoco?” That had no thought behind it.

Minal: If you physically can’t see them in person, call them at the bare minimum, but do not ever, ever, ever text someone asking them out. That’s terrible.

Kairui: Not even if you guys are super close and hoco’s basically understood?

Minal: No, because you want them to feel special.

Eva: Yeah. You should still show that you’re still making efforts or it’s like you just don’t care anymore.

Minal: That’s what keeps the romance afloat.

What if they say no?

Minal: Let’s say you do ask this person out and they hit you with a big fat no. How do you deal with rejections?

Eva: First of all, don’t take it personally. There could be a whole variety of reasons why they’re saying no. Maybe it’s because they can’t make it, but also if they genuinely don’t want to go with you. You should take that. Don’t keep being delulu [delusional].

Kairui: Yeah, I think it’s really important to have respect here. As hard as it is to ask someone to hoco, it’s also really hard to turn someone down because, you know, just as a human, that you’re probably ruining their day. So I think you should keep that in mind and just respect their decision.

Minal: In my opinion, this is kind of a hot take, but rinse and repeat! Just find another. Ask another; there are more fish in the sea.

Eva: But also if you’ve spent so much time trying to build a relationship with this person, it doesn’t necessarily need to die. You can still be friends.

Minal: It’s really awkward if you just stop talking to this person after you ask them out.

Kairui: I think you should circle back to the first question that we asked. “Do you want a hoco date at all?” If you actually just wanted a hoco date, then sure. I think Minal’s advice would make a little more sense, but if you were just trying to get a relationship, you should really ask yourself, “are you ready to move on?” before you do so.

Eva: And those are tips on how to bag a hoco date. 

Kairui: When we hope to see you and your plus one at hoco! See you guys! 

Minal: Stay prowling!