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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/jitterfish on 2026-02-10 21:48:32+00:00.
Oh reddit, I'm so mortified! I'm at work hiding in my office with my brain replaying the interaction. I know this is one of those moments that every so often my brain is going to throw at me... Remember when you accidentally kissed that guy on the lips?
Background: I'm a university lecturer and part of my role is outreach, going into communities or having school groups come to campus. I'm currently part of a team running a program targeting Māori students in hopes of encouraging more Māori to enter STEM. Over the past few weeks I've met with various teachers and parents, and I had another meeting this morning.
I arrived, met the teacher who I already knew and then went to meet some other people. Now for those unfamiliar with Māori culture we have a greeting called a hongi, where you press your nose against the nose of the person you're greeting. But since covid less people do it with strangers. As a female a cheek kiss has become more common and that's what I have been doing along with hand shakes depending on the person and their body language.
I walk in the room and there is an older guy, I greet him and he leans so I read this as no hand shake but a cheek kiss. I go in and as I'm moving my head he's closing his eyes coming in for a hongi and I end up kissing him on the mouth. He pulls back startled, I say nothing because I'm frozen going omg. I just walked over to where some other people were sitting and did a really awkward group hello. The older gent turned out to be the principal of the school and when I went to leave he actually took a step back as we were saying goodbye.
TL;DR I accidentally kissed a school principal on the mouth when attempting a cheek kiss.