What's the ちゃう form doing in this sentence?


Basically, it's an actress talking about how she has kept in touch with one of
her costars from a play they did together

> ... 終わってからも,  
>  実は定期的に会っちゃったりして

What is the chau form doing in 会っちゃった? I know the 2 most common usages for
this grammar are to say you have finished doing something or to talk about
things done unintentionally, neither of those seem to be what chau is being
used for in this sentence. What is the function and nuance in this context?




From my understanding, 会っちゃった here, being the casual form of 会ってしまいました, does
in fact take on the meaning you had assumed with "doing something
unintentionally"; as she is describing how she has 'unintentionally' or
'coincidentally' ran into this person from time to time.

You can think of 会っちゃった, as meaning "having bumped into someone"
(unintentionally). You didn't intend to meet said person, but you just
happened to run into them.

