THE QUESTIONS AND IT'S ANSWERS

Q: What is the best way to relieve earaches caused by changes in cabin pressure?

A: Chewing gum. Also, kissing.

Q: Which is the best seat: window, center, or aisle?

A: Window, definitely. The world is quite a sight from 32,000 feet above it. Note that a window means your traveling companion may then be stuck next to a spectacularly loquacious bore. Kissing (your companion, not the bore) is also effective in this situation.

Q: How many times per hour is cabin air refreshed?

A: Twenty.

Q: How many people can an airline blanket comfortably cover?

A: Two. Be sure to raise the seat arm between you and snuggle as close as possible for maximum coverage.

Q: How is it possible that humans invented something as amazing as an airplane and something as awful as a nuclear bomb?

A: Human beings are mysterious and paradoxical.

Q: Will I encounter turbulence?

A: Yes. Into all lives a little turbulence must fall.

THE CAROUSEL

The sun is rising up, and it's almost 7 a.m. as we drove off to the airport and queing up into the airplane.

“So Minari, I’ve decided baggage carousels are a perfect metaphor for life,” Chaeyoung says from atop the edge of a nonmoving one.

Neither of us has any checked luggage. All I’m carrying is a small backpack with essentials—toothbrush, clean underwear, Lonely Earth Maui guidebook, and The Little Prince. Of course I had to take it with me. I’m going to read it one more time to see how the meaning had changed.

“Chaeng, since when did you decide this?” I ask.

“I've decided it just now Mina.” She’s in a crackpot-theory mood, just waiting for me to ask her to elaborate.

“Yah Chaeng, wanna give it some more thought before you regale me?” I ask.

As we find our seat, Chaeyoung ask me to seat first. I know my baby cub is such a gentlewoman. She shakes her head and jumps down right in front of me.

“I’d like to begin the regaling now Chaeng. Please.”

I gesture magnanimously for her to continue. Pouting, waiting for her impatiently.

“Ah don't pout Minari, you make me weak. You know that you're so cute." Chaeyoung said with flirty smile.

"Yah Chaeng I'm serious!" I'm trying to hide my blush.

"Haha okay Minari, you know that you’re born for this world. You get thrown onto this crazy contraption called life that just goes around and around.”

“People are the luggage in this theory?”

“Yup Minari.”

“OK Chaeng, go on.” I said while looking right into her eyes.

“Sometimes you fall off prematurely. Sometimes you get so damaged by other pieces of luggage falling on your head that you don’t really function anymore. Sometimes you get lost or forgotten and go around forever and ever. Life is never being easy, it's just everything happens for a reason.”

“What about the ones that got picked up?” I ask, curiosity about outside world is killing me.

“They go on to lead unextraordinary lives in a closet somewhere.”

I open and close my mouth a few times, unsure where to begin.

She takes this as agreement. She lean in a bit, reaching for my hands and the dimple-smile that's never failed to melt me.

“See Minari? It’s flawless.” Her eyes are laughing at me. I don't know why, but that smiling eyes is so charming, I almost lost in that magnificient orbs.

“Flawless,” I say, meaning her and not the theory. I thread my fingers through her hands and look around.

The airplane had landed, so me and Chaeyoung going down from the flight. The sun hitting straight onto my face, and now I can see that I'm outside. Outside from my room, outside from the airplane and even more, outside of my right mind. It hundred percents feels like a dream.

“Chaeng, does it look like you remember?” Chaeyoung has been here once before, on a family vacation when she was ten.