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 Sometimes you climb up the mountain, thinking at the top of the peak was what you're looking for.

Sometimes you cross the ocean, with the thought of what's waiting on the other end.

Sometimes you walked through the desert, solely on the affirmation that what you want was a few steps away.

So the mountain was conquered, the ocean was crossed, the dessert was far behind.

What if it turned out there wasn't anything ?

What if it turned out you were a couple of rock shorts ? A few too slow ? A few steps behind ?

What if you missed it ?

What do you do when you're a few seconds too late ?

Hyerin could feel her legs giving out at the message displayed on the screen of her phone.

She read the text again and again, thinking maybe she had read it wrong. Wishing with every single fiber of her being that she had read it wrong.

Maybe if she stare at it for a little longer, the words would magically changed, but until her vision turned glassy, the words stayed the same.

Tried to wait for as long as I could but they just made an announcement for the final call. I'm so sorry. If it's anything urgent, tell me immediately. I'll come back first thing, okay ? Love you always.

She wanted to stop his flight.

She doesn't know how but at that moment, she was about to ask anyone to do it for her. Be it the director of the aviation company, the CEO of Incheon Airport or even the president of South Korea.

Hell, she might even asks a terrorist to hijack the plane just to get him to land back at that point.

She tried calling him but the number was unreachable since he probably had the flight mode.

She wanted to scream. Scream for him to come back because she lied. It was urgent and she was not okay and she needed him so much she started to shake.

Hyerin felt her knees buckled, threatening to give up on keeping her standing, like how her whole system failed to keep her together. She in a long, staggering breath, swallowing the lump in , the constriction of her heart, the lurching in her stomach. She forced herself to her car, every agonizing step was a struggle. Shoulders heavier than before.

Her Cayenne was parked at the drop-off area as she was rushing earlier, and a patrol officer was walking away from it. Startled, Hyerin quickly jogged to her car, and to her horror, it was clamped. She was sure she wasn't gone for that long but when she looked at her watch, it was almost an hour since she got here. She tried to talk to the officer but he only brushed her away. Defeated, she crouched down beside her car, heads down as the curtain of golden brown curls curtained her face.

Hyerin didn't try to get up from her slumped position nor did she had any intention to move away from that spot. She just looked down on the ground, concentrating on how painful her feet were and how much her legs hurt and her terrible condition started to take a toll on her. Her already high temperature felt like it has worsened and with it the pain in her lower back. She tried to close her eyes to the pain but denying it can only do so much.

Suddenly, leather clad shoes came into view, before an aviation rolling bag did. Raising her head, Hyerin was greeted with a grinning, surprised face of her best friend in all his uniform glory.

How funny.

She doesn't know why, or what in particular it was but maybe it's because she just had the most horrifying day ever. Maybe it's the cancer, or Mino, or the car. Maybe it's because the reality of the situation just slapped her raw as she realized she was too messed up that she forgot he got back today.  

Everything has changed since but he was still the same. His eating grin was still the same and all of a sudden, the weight of the whole day crushed her. The tears she had been holding back escaped.

She broke down at the airport's entrance.

Jaehwan's smile faltered as he saw Hyerin’s eye turned glassy before tears flowed down her face like a broken dam.

Hyerin don't cry.

He had known her for as long as he remembered, even before he knew himself. Even before he knew his own preferences, he had hers memorised. He knew Park Hyerin like the back of his hand and she doesn't cry. Not when she fell down her bike and scraped her knees. Not when someone picked on her in primary school. Not when she went missing in the woods alone at night during senior camp. Not even when that person left.

He could count with his fingers the few times that she did.

And it burned in the back of his head.

He crouched down in front of her until he could hear her quiet broken sobs. Her shoulders were shaking and she looked like a broken mess.

Jaehwan knew then, that this one's going to burn too.

He knew it was not because of the clamp that was locking her tyres. He was waiting for the airport limo when he saw a girl crouching down that looked awfully familiar next to a clamped car that he'd recognize anywhere. He was surprised, alright. She never come to the airport to pick him up anymore so she must not have come for him but who else would she send to the airport ? He decided to try to approach her to make fun of the clamp but seeing her cried like this, he knew something happened, and no clamp was responsible for her outburst.

There was so much more to this and Jaehwan wasn't sure if he was ready to hear it, whatever that was breaking her apart.

She slowly got up before wiping her tear stricken face but somehow, more tears flowed. He pulled her closer, knowing she needed it more than she would ever say. Patting her head, he whispered to her, “There, there. I'll chase the officer down. I'll make sure he gets fired, okay ? Stop crying, everyone's looking. We look like long lost lovers.”

Hyerin groaned, punching his chest. Jaehwan let out a low chuckle before cupping her face and shaking it, “Look at you ! Miss me too much is it ?”

He knew it wasn't that. He knew whatever the reason was probably not something he would joke about later on but that was when he's going to be serious, later on. Now he made jokes while he still could.

“Shut up !” Hyerin cried but a ghost of a smile was evident in the corner of her lips.

Jaehwan took her hand, “Now that you have no ride home, let's go. We'll pay for this and then we get you home.”

“Thank you.”

“You owe me one.” Jaehwan joked, opening the glass door of the airport's service office, holding it for her.

They just settled the fine, somehow reduced to almost more than half because apparently, as Jaehwan smugly said, everyone knows him here.

Not that he was totally wrong.

But it's not that Hyerin was complaining either. The whole process was done faster because he was practically buddies with the guy at the counter, as the airport was his second home.

No, that’s wrong. Jaehwan always said the airport’s not his home, not his workplace either. He said that airports, that only witness his departure and arrival, couldn’t possibly be his home. The airport that he had always rushed out off, either to be ready for his flight or to get home after one, couldn’t possibly be his second house.

So when Hyerin asked him, “Then what was ?” He replied, with his mischievous but dreamy eyes, that it was the sky. His second home is the white clouds and sunrise and sunset and dark nights.

He had always been too revoltingly poetical for his own good.

Hyerin rolled her eyes, “What do you want ?”

Jaehwan pondered for a while before a whiff of coffee and pastries smell hit his nose as they passed by a cafe. He pulled Hyerin in, “Here !”

Hyerin only shook her head but followed anyway since he already dragged her to queue at the counter. He ordered his americano and was about to ask for her cafe latte when she shook her head. Jaehwan only watched as her head turned to watch an airplane departed to the sky from the huge window. He thought about asking her if she wanted anything else, maybe juice or tea, but thought better of it. If Hyerin doesn’t want her coffee, she wouldn’t want anything else.

He remembered the first time Hyerin tasted coffee, back when they were nine years old. She accidently drank his sister’s iced coffee, thinking it was Jaehwan’s Coke. She had spit it back in the sink, complaining about why people would enjoy something so bitter on daily basis. Her face was the thing he remembered most, as she cursed him for not telling her it wasn’t his drink. He had a good laugh that day.

A few years down, she started drinking it to understand his obsession with it. She began to love coffee but never his americano. She had always said it’s too bitter for people, and that his coffee is what makes him bitter. So she started with tasting the light one and figured that caramel latte was her holy grail. But like everything else after the incident, her coffee preference changed too.

She started drinking her latte without caramel.

Jaehwan sighed, wondering if whatever that was happening right now might make her stop on her caffeine.

They waited for his order at one of the tables by the window. It overlooked the lines of planes at the huge departure pad down below. He watched as Hyerin’s eyes followed the trail of a moving plane, ready to take off, with hooded eyes. She looked so pale and her puffy eyes were still red from all her crying before and she didn't look fine at all.

“Did you send him off ?” He finally asked. There was no other valid reason why she was there. He was certain Minho did mention an important tender with someone in Japan the last time they met before Jaehwan went to New York.

Hyerin looked startled, a flicker of emotion he couldn't decipher passed through her eyes but quickly disappeared, “Sort of.”

“Sort of ?” Jaehwan asked, confused.

Hyerin just hummed, probably a yes. That did not clear his confusion but Jaehwan knew she doesn't want to talk about it, and he knew her enough to know not to push it.

His buzzer rang, coffee’s ready. Figuring Hyerin didn't want to stay here any longer, they headed out to her car. Hyerin unlocked the car before going into the passenger’s seat, not trusting herself behind the wheel. Jaehwan didn't say a word before starting the engine and drove off.

The drive was quiet, aside from Hyerin’s playlist on his phone that he played on the radio. She loves to do that. Making playlists on his phone ever since he got his first one back in middle school. At first, it was because she didn't have her own phone but years later, it's a habit, and it became a normal thing