Sehee woke up to the sound of her alarm ringing and vibrating on her wooden carcass of Mahogany. She had meant to throw out the antique wood her grandmother gifted her for her college graduation but it seems that even the most elite and manic antique collector out there would not benefit from the lifeless wood. She groggily got up, almost falling off of her bed as she reached for her phone and turned off the repetitive, annoying and high-pitched tweets of an unknown amazon bird. She only had a two-hour sleep to run for the whole day, thanks to the sudden high school reunion drink out last night. Although she knew she was completely sober when she got home at 4 in the morning, she wondered why her head was continuously throbbing in pain each time she lets out a breath. Must be the mix of alcohol and dirty smoke, she thought. And maybe it was because of that. Sehee was never the type to use vices as an excuse to have nonchalant fun to begin with so drinking out with colleagues wasn’t exactly her thing. Exposure to such things she was never used to was an insult to her body’s immunity.

“Good morning, tofu,” Sehee mumbled as she felt her four-month old teacup Pomeranian creeping up to her chest to give her a good ol’ morning on her face. “Mom promised to get you by 10 this morning, so be a good girl while I’m gone, okay?”

If there’s one thing she’s thankful for this day, it was that she had finished packing before going out to meet hell last night. All she’d be worrying right now is the morning rush traffic to the airport and her idiopathic migraine.

“You sure you don’t want me to drive you to the airport?”

“My solo trip starts the moment I step out of this apartment until I get my feet back here again after a week. So no, I don’t want you to drive me there.”

Hwang Minhyun was on loudspeaker as Sehee fumbles around her room, having last minute organizing to make sure she doesn’t leave anything out, as she was already 5 minutes behind schedule.

“My head pillow’s missing, where could I have possibly left it?” Sehee whined.

“You might’ve left it again in the dryer,” Minhyun sighed. “And please don’t forget to deactivate your data roaming. The last time you went on an overseas vacation, you forgot to deactivate it and they charged you an amount worthy of a three-month salary.”

“Yes, yes, I won’t apply for a loan from your bank again,” she said mockingly as she opened her dryer and found her pink head pillow all dried up and warm.

“I’m almost at the office, call me when you get to the airport, okay?”

“I’ll make sure, I won’t. See you in a week, Minhyun-ah!”

Hwang Minhyun, 34, a top real estate broker and Sehee’s best friend. While it’s typical to describe him as an almost perfect human being with his demigod-like and husband material physique and mentality, two things keep him grounded on mortal soil: One, being the worst possible case of OCD and two, being the most oblivious to women’s feelings—aka, Sehee’s. It’s not that it’s Minhyun’s fault, Sehee was never open to her feelings for Minhyun ever since she realized she was totally whipped for her best friend. She was not the affectionate type either, there was only a scanty amount of episodes where she tried getting her feelings across but every attempt was regrettably a faux pas.

It seems as though this day was brewed perfectly if it weren’t for her incessant head throbbing. It just took her 30 minutes to get herself to the airport even though it usually takes around an hour or so. She even had her usual coffee fix at her most favorite coffee shop to load herself with caffeine to be able to last the day. With the good amount of luck she’s having so far, Sehee can’t help but think that this trip would be her greatest feat in her thirty four years in existence. She jokingly patted herself on her back, repeatedly saying ‘good job’ in her head.

Sehee had booked herself an eleven-hour flight from Seoul to Auckland. She’d spend her time mostly in Auckland and most of the activities she planned involved an active use of her energy and stamina. She would normally just go after a more relaxing trip but this time around, she had pledged to take on a different, refreshing route as a birthday gift for herself. Wine refinery, cheese, museums, skydiving and a tour to the famous Waitomo caves and Lord of the Rings’ Hobbiton movie set are just some of the things she had planned to focus on. She was not a fan of the Lord of the Rings franchise, but she liked the idea of visiting something that is of value. Maybe she could brag about it to Minhyun—if he was a fan, that is.

---

“Uhm, excuse me.”

Sehee squirmed at the sudden feeling of soft pokes on her right shoulder. The airport seats were uncomfortable, but for some reason, she had managed to sleep on them in peace before her supposed boarding time. Minhyun has been calling her non-stop ever since she messaged him she was already at the airport, nagging and grating continuously like a strict mom, so she granted herself peace and independence by turning her phone off. I’m pretty sure the staff would wake me up, so let me take a nap, she thought.

“Excuse me.” A low voice continued to call. “I think you just missed your flight.”

It was as if an abrupt flow of electric current flooded Sehee’s nerves upon hearing ‘missed flight’, causing her to finally disrupt the streak of her long hours of deep slumber and get up from lying supine on the dusty seats.

“Don’t worry, I missed my flight too.”

Beside Sehee was a man who was in his early 30’s. Strong build, olive skin, ebony hair, deer-like eyes, his face was basically an insult to any mythological god.

Park Jihoon. A known professional swimmer for 7 years who was on a month break after competing and placing 5th in the recently concluded Winter Olympics. It was a better rank than what he had expected, because unlike most of the more renowned swimmers in his category, he wasn’t born a swimming prodigy, he was an ordinary athlete who had hopes of making a name for himself in the vast ocean of insanely talented people. Although it wasn’t much of an achievement, he considers being qualified for the Olympics a great honor already, but like any other athlete, it was still such a shame for having gone so far only to achieve something that wasn’t as half as remarkable as winning a gold medal.

“Oh my god, oh my god!” Sehee panicked as soon as she had realized the gravity of her irresponsible decision of turning her phone off. At the back of her head she could only hear Minhyun endlessly nagging and condemning her stupidity.

“Hey, hey, don’t worry. We can make arrangements with the airline and let us board the next flight,” Jihoon said in the calmest possible tone although he, himself wasn’t sure if that situation applies to all airlines, causing him to panic a bit.

“W-We…?”

“Yeah, I missed my flight too. You’re heading to Auckland, right?”

Sehee nodded, still flabbergasted.

“Tell you what, I’d head to their main office and have things sorted out for us, okay? You stay here.”

Sehee was nowhere near stable. Missing her flight was a first for it was unimaginable for an overly strict person like herself to experience it. She had organized everything, even the tiniest of detail wasn’t left sorted out, but because she had too much confidence in herself that she wouldn’t do something as stupid as missing her flight when she was already at the boarding gate two hours prior to her scheduled flight, fate thought it would be fun to add spice in her very organized life by starting off with a mess in her plans.

“We’ll take the next flight, thankfully, the manager knew me and let us off the hook in exchange for a picture,” he smirked as he felt his ego being fed a bountiful amount the more he recalled, but it seems as though the supply was only viable inside the airline’s office because sitting beside a stranger who was uninterested to even look at his face put a stop to his ego’s further growth. “Uhm, here, we take the next flight in three hours. If you want to sleep, I could wake you up.”

Sehee reached for her new ticket, still in disbelief of what had happened. And while she really did think of doing something for the stranger who helped her, being bad at talking and expressing herself held her back.

“No thank you?” He said in a playful tone as he whisked the ticket away when Sehee’s fingertips touched the edges of her ticket.

“T-t-thank you,” she stuttered as she slowly raised her head up to face the stranger who was nothing but helpful on what she thought was a hopeless situation. “I-uh, I’m really bad at stuff that’s—“

“Not within your plans?” he interjected, finally handing her out her new plane ticket.

Sehee bashfully nodded.

“Yeah, you do look like the type,” he whispered to himself and chuckled after he scanned the stranger from head to toe. “I’ll head over to get some breakfast, care to join me?”

“Uhm, I’m good, thank you,” she smiled, slightly bowing her head as she refused his offer. Not that she didn’t want to—she was starving, in fact, but she just can’t simply bring herself to dine with someone who had witnessed her stupidity. She has an indestructible pride, you see.

“Sure, but, uh, if you change your mind, I’m just right over there at that small diner,” he said as he pointed out a lifeless diner serving 24/7 breakfast burritos, pancakes, waffles and brewed coffee they claimed was made from Arabica beans.

As Sehee was about to politely turn down the stranger’s kind offer again, the thought of starting anew and deviating from her life’s usual norm as she had originally planned for her trip made her think twice.

“Uhm, excuse me.”

“Hm?” Jihoon turned his head back.

“I-if you don’t mi–“

“I don’t. Banana waffles?” He smiled.

---

It was 11:23 and Minhyun was out in the cruel summer heat of Seoul, walking and drinking his cup of iced Americano. He just sealed a deal by selling one of the most expensive apartments in Seoul to an old, unmarried lady who was apparently a part of a huge conglomerate of nightclub owners in Itaewon. As one of the treasured brokers in the industry, being able to immediately sell an expensive property in a day was not uncommon to Hwang Minhyun, but committing to relationships was.

“I’m running out.” Ong Seongwu, an infamous ladies' man, Minhyun’s age and a somehow reliable accountant, sighed in frustration before putting his phone down on the café’s table. “I can’t believe none of my treasured butterflies piqued your interest.”

“I told you, I’m not currently interested in dating to begin with,” Minhyun crossed his legs and took a sip from his hibiscus tea. “And by the way, the last girl you sent was definitely a fly, I’m quite disappointed in your taste.”

Seongwu pinched the bridge of his nose as he once again sighed in frustration. “Look, I can’t have my friend here be single all his life. People at work are talking, they’re all grieving in disappointment of how, Ong Seongwu’s best man here, is still single. Ong Seongwu’s best man. Ong. Seongwu. I have a reputation to uphold here man, even G-Dragon wants to hang out with me.”

“So let your butterflies go to the dragon,” Minhyun raised his eyebrow.

“No, oh my god, you don’t get me,” Seongwu slid his hands down his face as distress and annoyance painted every inch of his being. “You’re already 34, Minhyun, and you have a job and life that is an envy to many, all I’m saying is loosen up, at this point in your life and career, you’re practically unstoppable, you’re not aging backwards you know.”

And while Minhyun hated to admit that Ong Seongwu made a debatable point, he had nothing else to counter other than saying dating isn’t top most priority in his life at the moment. It’s not that he’s completely uninterested, but rather, he’s just really afraid of relationship commitments—being tied down scared him.

---

Sehee sat on the seat across Jihoon. She had ordered a tower of banana pancakes and an extra order of mashed potatoes just in case she grew tired of too much sweet food. Jihoon was busy watching a swimming match on his phone, completely focused and drawn, enjoying and at the same time learning from others’ matches. If only his extra hard work would be credited every time he competed, he might have grabbed a medal at least once, but it wasn’t. Pity.

 “You're braver than I expected, travelling to other countries alone.” Jihoon was now on his second waffle, pouring a bountiful amount of maple syrup on top of the perfectly golden waffle. Contrary to the diner’s interior and lack of customers, they actually serve a decent breakfast, Jihoon thought, or maybe he really was just not a picky eater.

“As long as everything’s organized, I think I’d be able to enjoy the trip well,” Sehee smiled. Dining with a complete stranger was a first for Sehee and while she’s still a little bit uncomfortable and doubtful of the whole idea, just thinking about how she’s changing her usual ways little by little actually made her a bit happy.

“You’re really a complete opposite of me,” he pointed at her with his fork. “As for me, although I follow some routines on a daily basis, I don’t like having my entire day planned. I would always have that craving for something unexpected.”

“Craving for…something unexpected?”

“Yeah, I hate it when everything’s predictable, another way to put it I guess?” he chuckled before putting a poorly sliced waffle covered in a lot of butter and maple syrup in his mouth.

“But, don’t you like it when every thing goes the way you had planned it?”

“I do, but, if you look at it in another perspective, wouldn’t it be too boring if everything always works out for you? I mean, making mistakes and having bad days are essential parts of being alive, don't you think so?"

“A-Ah, I see.” Sehee was still weirded out, but the stranger made a point. She had long wanted to abandon her very organized life, but it was not because she hated the idea of having things always working out according to plan, she just wanted to test new waters, but hearing a great advice from a complete stranger affixed another sense to her reasoning. Maybe missing her flight and getting to meet a stranger with a completely different personality from her wasn’t so bad after all.

 

“Passengers for flight 48N bound for Auckland, you may now begin boarding.”

 

“I guess that’s our cue?” Jihoon stood up, got his backpack off of the seat next to him and put it on him soon after. He then straightened his shirt, casually wiping off invisible dirt before leaving the table.

Sehee followed him shortly, tailing behind him like a baby chick following its mother. “Why do you have such a big bag for a hand-carry? Don’t you have a luggage?”

Jihoon didn’t answer immediately, he instead just laughed in amusement. “You know what? I hope I bump into you in Auckland too.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Let’s hurry up, I don’t think my charms won’t work the second time around if we miss this flight again.”