Jonghyun was not freaking out about flying. He wasn’t. The vibration of the floor, the seats, the walls and the one small window, none of that bothering him. It wasn’t. At all. The fact that, if he looked out of the window, all he could see was clouds or occasionally the ocean when the cloud cover broke, wasn’t bothering him. Even the lack of in-flight meal, the exorbitant prices of plane food and the fact he had forgotten to eat breakfast, wasn’t bothering him.

However, there was one thing he was freaking out about.

The seating arrangements.

In his infinite wisdom, Manager had decided that Jonghyun had not been spending enough time with Onew. Apparently the man had noticed that the composer had gone on solo assignments with all the other members of the group (some more than once) but had not yet tailed the leader. This wasn’t all Jonghyun’s fault. Most days, when working out who he would shadow the next day, Onew would deflect Jonghyun’s presence onto someone else. Apparently, Manager had also noticed this. The man also seemed to think that a flight was the perfect place for them to bond and talk… or something.

It had been awkward from the start, even before they had entered the airport. Jonghyun had requested a seat change, even going so far as to claim that he needed to sit with Taemin to discuss compositions. However, Manager wouldn’t hear of it, claiming the seating arrangements were fixed. Not ten minutes later Onew had also walked away from the man looking pouty and annoyed. Jonghyun would have laughed if it hadn’t meant that he was stuck sat next to his ex-boyfriend for over an hour; the singer had clearly been told the same thing Jonghyun himself had and clearly wasn’t happy.

The SHINee members had boarded the plane first, before the general public, in the hopes of minimising attention. For the same reason they had all changed outfits the second they got past all the reporters and fans in the airport entrance and were now sporting much more inconspicuous clothing. Their staff, including Jonghyun, were to board later, with the rest of the ticket holders. This unfortunately meant that the composer had to awkwardly climb across two SHINee members in order to get to his seat next to the window. Taemin had snickered as the blue-haired male stumbled over his feet, prompting Jonghyun to stick his tongue out at him. Unfortunately, this stumbling had resulted in him almost falling into the lap of Onew who was sitting in the middle of the row, between Jonghyun and Taemin.

“Sorry,” Jonghyun apologised, shuffling into his seat and sitting down quickly, not making eye contact with the older male. He fumbled awkwardly underneath himself to find the seatbelt which he had sat on in his haste and clumsily belted himself in – despite the fact that the seatbelt sign was off and they weren’t due to start taxiing for a good ten minutes.

“No problem,” Onew replied, barely looking at the composer. To a person who didn’t know the singer well, this would be a perfectly adequate response. However, the slight shake in his voice was noticeable to Jonghyun. “How are you finding the job?” He asked, with the same forced blank tone to his voice.

“Good. It’s good.” Jonghyun said, quietly. He started to fiddle with the buckle of his seatbelt, the metal clicking open and closed, the clip slipping out a little each time until he released the mechanism and it sprung back into place. If he was paying attention, he would have seen a flash of happiness cross the singer’s face as the blue-haired man spoke. A look that was quickly muted as his face returned back to its previous blank expression.

Jonghyun may not have seen it but Taemin definitely did. The younger idol was watching the interaction with interest, an irritating little smirk on his lips as he did so. This was sure to be interesting.

“That’s good.” Onew said, still not looking at his ex-boyfriend. “I hope my members are treating you well.”

All except you, Jonghyun wanted to say but he was unable to be that blunt and merely muttered a quiet, “They’ve been good.”

“I’m glad.” Onew said, buckling up his own seatbelt as the air crew came over the intercom and began requesting people take their seats.

Jonghyun nodded, the continuous clicking of the seatbelt in his hands finally coming to a stop. The air crew members were moving through the cabin now, checking everyone was in their seats, their belongings stowed and their seat belts on.

“Have you flown before?” Onew asked. It almost seemed like he was forcing himself. Like he didn’t want to be having this conversation but social conventions were forcing him to do so – social conventions or the continuous forceful looks Taemin was shooting in his direction.

Jonghyun may be feeling incredibly uncomfortable right now but that didn’t make him blind. He had once mentioned to Taemin, not long ago, that he found the radio silence from Onew a little uncomfortable. He had been quick to reassure the younger male that he sort of understood why his ex-boyfriend was acting this way but that Jonghyun would much prefer they go back to being friends. Ok, there would always be a residual tension between them and they probably couldn’t be as close as they were before, but he wanted to have at least some of Onew in his life.

He was sure that Taemin had taken these words to heart and had had some sort of conversation about it with Onew. The composer hoped the dancer wasn’t too brash, he could be a little insensitive at times and it had caused problems in the past. In a way, he was glad Taemin had done so but, on the other hand, he felt a little bitter that he had stepped in. It was an irrational thought, he knew, but it made him feel a little weak that other people needed to keep stepping in to help with his relationship issues. Surely, he should be able to deal with it alone.

“No.” He said, gasping as the plane began to move. They were still a few minutes from launch time and the plane was only taxiing to the runway but the blue-haired male wasn’t used to this, the feeling of such a large mass of metal moving at once. Even without taking off they were a long way from the ground and the fact that his seat overlooked the wing – a small, flimsy looking thing, when taken in context of the size of the plane – was not helping matters much. 

Onew looked at him, as if he wanted to say something, then looked away once more. His left hand, nails manicured and perfect as always, skin smooth and well cared for, made an aborted movement towards Jonghyun’s knee before gripping the arm rest tightly.

“You’ll be fine. It’s only a short one.” Onew said, voice tight.

Jonghyun nodded, he knew that. Knowing that and being able to reconcile that fact were two different things however. A deep rumble emanating from the base of the plane made the male release a squeak that he was very glad was drowned out by all the background noise. The plane then began to vibrate more, the solid floor under his feet sending the vibration up his legs.

Then they were moving, the plane racing down the runway. The wind noise was louder than he expected and the speed much much less. This couldn’t be fast enough to get into the air, right? Jonghyun shot a look at Onew, sure that his face was a mask of fear but he wasn’t able to care too much at that exact moment. The idol had shut his eyes at some point since Jonghyun began looking out the window and appeared completely calm. This actually reassured Jonghyun a little, if Onew wasn’t worried then this was normal?

Looking back out the window, Jonghyun was reassured that yes, it was normal. In the seconds he had looked away, the plane had apparently left the tarmac, in a motion so smooth he hadn’t even noticed it happening. The large vehicle was now ascending gently, the runway getting smaller and smaller below them.

Jonghyun leaned towards the window, fascinated. He could see the roof of the airport now and out across to the city proper. It was interesting. There were so many people down there. They were all going about their day to day lives and here Jonghyun was, above them all. A trail of cars stretched down a highway, the traffic unmoving; the people probably cursing the long delays. Another plane approached the airport, the little lights on its wings blinking and flashing. There was farmland, the fields all different colours, the elaborate patterns not visible from the ground but from up here they spread out in a rainbow of colours, like a patchwork quilt. And then they broke through the clouds, the view being replaced by a blanket of white. The surface of the clouds was lumpy and formed strange shapes, like when you put too much bubble mixture in the bath and it all frothed up to far above the rim of the tub. The colour was fascinating, it was not just white, but pinks, greys and many shades in between. Over in the distance a large streak of grey, almost black, could be seen and he knew that the people living beneath that were sure to have a wet day. The sun was bright up here, with no cloud cover to mute its light, it shone off the surface of the white, fluffy forms, reflecting off the millions, billions, of tiny water droplets forming beautiful and blinding patterns.

Then the plane evened out, no longer ascending. The seatbelt sign dinged and turned off and many people around the composer stood up to stretch, fetch something from their bag or go to the bathroom. The loud engine sounds levelled off, becoming a steady background hum and the conversations of the others on the plane could be heard clearly once more.

“Woah,” Jonghyun said, as he leant back.

The composer heard Taemin snicker at his reaction and turned to stick his tongue out at the younger male. He had forgotten for a second however, that Onew was seated between them. He found himself freezing, staring at the older male. He had the strangest expression on his face. It almost looked like… amusement and longing. But that couldn’t be right. Could it?

Onew caught Jonghyun staring and seemed to shake himself out of his thoughts, “It’s not too bad, is it?”

“No,” Jonghyun said faintly. “No it’s not.”

Feeling the awkwardness encroaching on their conversation again, Jonghyun turned towards the window. There was a cloud out there that looked a little like a bunny, if you tilted your head and squinted a little. It rose from the main mass of clouds, protruding upwards like a strangely formed statue. It looked lonely. It was the only cloud that had such a distinct shape and one of the few that was above the rest. Jonghyun watched it, as the plane coasted along, the shape changing slightly over time. The area that initially looked like ears seemed to flow and change, their form being lost into the mass of the head and leaving behind only a vague blob that, once upon a time, sort of resembled a bunny.

Jonghyun turned, feeling a gentle tap on his shoulder. He was a little surprised when he realised it was Onew who had garnered his attention. He was now holding a snack and Jonghyun absently noted that he hadn’t noticed him purchasing it, having been absorbed in watching the clouds.

“I…” The singer trailed off awkwardly, “Do you want the rest of these?” He offered the composer the packet of chips, shrugging in that painfully endearing way of his, “I was hungry and I know I shouldn’t because of my diet. So I only ate some of them. You can have the rest.”

“Thanks,” Jonghyun said, accepting the gift. He really was hungry. His stomach had been complaining since before he boarded the plane. He had not eaten breakfast and their schedule was so tight that morning that he had no chance to slip off and grab a snack at any point between leaving the SM Entertainment building and boarding the plane.

The chips were his favourite flavour too. Reaching into the packet, the blue haired male popped a single chip into his mouth, fully intending to savour the remaining food. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Onew quietly conversing with Taemin. The younger singer looked smug for some reason, though they were talking too quietly for Jonghyun to hear why.

Across the aisle, Minho and Key were both sleeping. The former looked much like a vampire. His head was tilted back and his scarf pulled over his nose, his long arms folded over his chest neatly. Key slept next to him, his look much less sophisticated. His hair was ruffled in a way Jonghyun was sure would anger the prissy male if he ever saw it, his face was pressed against the headrest and his mouth was slightly open. Manager was sat in the aisle seat, acting as a barrier between his idols and the rest of the plane. He was reading what looked like a stack of incredibly boring documentation, however he periodically shot looks at all the idols around him, as if to check the group were all ok.

By the time Jonghyun had depleted the remaining chips in the bag, the plane was starting to tilt downwards once more. The composer hadn’t spoken to Onew again, the singer acting incredibly absorbed in his conversation with Taemin. So, Jonghyun had continued to look out the window.

As they descended, the seat belt sign having come on and all stragglers ushered back to their seats, Jonghyun enjoyed the experience. As he watched, the white of the clouds got closer and closer and then he could see nothing, his view obscured completely by white. Then, as quickly as the plane had entered, it exited the cloud layer and he could see the world below. It was interesting, observing the differences in the two countries. Tokyo was big, stretching out as far as he could see and there were large clusters of tall buildings dominating the skylines. The streets were narrow and the cars and people moved around like ants in an ant hill. It was interesting how two cities as close together as Tokyo and Seoul, could look so different from above. He couldn’t quite pin point what exactly these differences were but he could just feel them.

As the plane neared the ground, all thoughts of the city itself were wiped out of his mind. Instead he only felt a wave of nerves wash over him. They were moving so fast and they weren’t even at the right angle to land on the runway. This couldn’t be right. Could it?

Jonghyun shot a startled look at Onew, only to see the singer was once again leaning back in his sat, eyes closed and appearing the epitome of relaxation. Taemin met his eyes over the other male and mouthed, ‘stop freaking’ at him. Well, Jonghyun thought that’s what he was mouthing. Either way, the action was encouraging. That didn’t however, stop Jonghyun from watching with wide, fearful eyes for the entire descent. Even after they landed – a gentle one with only the slightest bounce – he was still a little shaken.

He was glad the SHINee members and their staff were to exit the plane last, in order to minimise the public inconvenience their exit would cause. It gave him enough time to stop shaking and the calm himself down before he was expected to stand up and function like a normal human being.

As the group walked along the gang plank ten minutes later, Taemin leaned across the Jonghyun, “Well that was awkward. “ The look he shot at Onew made it clear exactly what he was talking about. Jonghyun just shrugged, not able to disagree. “Luckily you broke the window blind rules otherwise you’d have nothing to entertain yourself.”

“Window blind what?” Jonghyun asked confused.

“You’re not meant to have the window shade open the whole flight you know.”

“I’m not?” Jonghyun was horrified. It was his first flight and he’d already broken the rules. “Will they ban me from flying again? Will I be in trouble?”

Taemin only laughed at his friend’s plight and patted his head mockingly. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“But…”

As Jonghyun bickered with his friend, to the amusement of Minho and a blank look from Onew, he didn’t realise it but all worries he had had from the flight had faded away. Onew’s awkwardness, the residual nerves even though they had landed safely. Everything.

Taemin shot a smug look at the composer and linked arms with him, dragging him towards the rest of the group who had walked on ahead. “Welcome to Japan!” He said, as they stepped out of the arrival gate and into the airport proper to the sounds of multitudes of screaming fans waiting for the group’s arrival.

 

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CHAPTER NOTES: There are 3 chapters set in Japan and they are three of my absolute favourites from this fic. I hope you enjoy :3

For those who care, the cherry blossom festival was amazing. IT was so pretty. I'll post a blog about it eventually. I swear (I'm just oo busy/lazy at the moment >.<')