Man So Invested in Stranger's Airport Sign He Refuses to Go Home

A video of a "romantic soul" who was determined to see the outcome of a stranger's reunion with her loved one at an airport has gone viral on TikTok. The clip was posted by @scoutshmygol and has garnered over 476,000 views since it was shared on June 24. A message overlaid on the video says: "We aren't waiting for anybody (and we have somewhere to be) but he saw a girl with a 'welcome home my love I missed you' sign and he wants to see their reunion." The man is the husband of the poster, according to hashtags shared in the post. The footage shows a man standing at an airport holding a suitcase, while looking intently at the arrivals gate. Desperate to witness the reunion, he turns to the camera and says: "Wanna see this love," before turning his gaze back towards the gate as the video ends. A caption shared with the post simply reads: "We love airport love." The man's eagerness to see the strangers reunited is understandable, as many people across the globe faced separation during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel ground to a halt due to lockdowns and other safety restrictions in place. An October 2021 study in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy said the pandemic saw parents face "unprecedented challenges linked to social isolation, uncertainty about the future, and financial, employment, and school‐related stress." The passenger's fixation with the woman's love story in the viral video makes sense because "communication is a shared activity resulting in a transfer of information across brains" and "on average the listener's brain activity mirrors the speaker's brain activity...," noted an August 2010 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study's findings indicated that "during successful communication, speakers' and listeners' brains exhibit joint, temporally coupled, response patterns." So, it's not surprising that the man in the latest viral post appeared to be so invested in the woman's long-awaited reunion, as if it were his own story.

'The Greenest Flag'

TikTok users adored the moment captured in the latest post and the man's investment in the reunion at the airport. Jason said: "I'm a sucker for a good airport reunion." "Ummm we would also like to see this love...," said c985211. "Green flag. Remarry him," said nuts_xo and Becca Marie agreed, saying: "The greenest flag." "He loves love," said pretpickle. Sarah N wrote: "Love a good romantic soul," and Alyssa R said: "He's a gem." Newsweek contacted the poster for comment via TikTok and email. This video hasn't been independently verified.

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