❝ chapter twenty-seven

e r i c ’ s

[blue text = spoken in english]

There are a few gasps here and there, a few and that’s it. We’re both glad because the least we would want now is another headline, Eric Nam and Solar are going on a trip together because technically, it has been 8 months into 9 months and it’s about the time whatever we do together from going to eat till going on trip shouldn’t be that necessary to be in a headline. The world deserves a lot more useful things to be the talk of the town, like the Global Warming or the natural disaster that caused the lives of many innocent people or maybe the stupid things Trump’s trying to do instead of setting a strict law regarding the usage of guns. I’m pretty sure no one is that interested in our dating lives, aren't they? 

    “Excited?” I asked once we checked in our stuffs and sat on the bench in the waiting area. “You looked a little bit flushed.” 

    She touches her own cheeks. “Do I? Do I speak to your parents in Korean or English?” 

    I laugh and turn to face her. “Yongsun, relax. Just speak normally like you do, they use Korean on daily basis. My brothers and I are the only one who talk in English. You might need to use a little bit of English with my brothers. They’re worst than me in Korean.” 

    “Come on, Eddie is pretty much conversational and Brian doesn’t sound that bad, he sounds cute.” 

    “He’s always cute to you. You never tell me that.” 

She laughs and mumbles something along the line of stop asking for the obvious. For someone who dated only once before, she sure does knows how to work a man. After a few minutes, our flight is open for boarding. 

    “I think Hyejin already left before us.” Yongsun said. “I hope they’re having fun.” 

It’s their short break after two months of promoting and each of them goes on a trip to different places. I’m not sure about the other two but Hyejin was with us a while ago because she has to leave for Mongolia with her family too. We separated when we had to go to our own gate’s waiting room. 

    “Home for the next 14 hours and 45 minutes.” Yongsun sighs and plops down on her seat next to the window. 

Actually, it is mine but she loves the window seat, probably because she loves watching clouds move and how the sky slowly fills with them as the plane moves forward and probably because it puts her mind at ease too so I let her sit there, I don’t really care that much about the seat. She once told me she actually wanted to jump into those clouds but I’m not sure if she really means it but knowing how much of a yeba this one can be, I doubt it’s just a joke.  

    “Are you going to pass out again?” I asked and she laughed. “Are you going to pass out and skip your meal like the last time again?” 

    “That was because I had champagne.” 

    “Oh, really? Let’s see if no champagne would works the trick or not.” 

    She slaps my arm and complains. “Stop teasing me.” 

    I hand her her neck pillow, “I’m joking. Get some sleep, you look a little exhausted.” 

The next time I woke up, the clock said 7:50pm and her head was on my shoulder and her hair is pulled into a bun, her cheeks puff out like they always do and she was sleeping peacefully. Look like we might skip our meals again. I smiled and kissed the top of her head then decided to went back for another sleep. Seriously, airplane is the only way I could sleep to my content. 

8:30pm, the menu is seafood pasta and we’re actually eating instead of sleeping. We agree to watch a movie together right after that and this time, Yongsun lets me choose the movie because she runs out of movies she wanted to watch. We're watching Coco and I'm trying to figure out if Yongsun is crying from how spicy the seafood pasta is or because of the movie but I'll just believe it's the seafood pasta for now.

Then, the next thing I knew was we both woke up to an announcement of landing in 10 minutes. God, I guess we really slept our entire flight. It felt nice to be home again but arriving to a familiar land with someone else I really treasure really made the presence of everything different. I wonder how would they reacted, but I guess they’d react well given that mom couldn’t stop asking me about Yongsun every times we talked on the phone up until before we boarded our flight.

9:10am, we’re grabbing our luggages and Eddie is waiting for us right next to the baggage claim area. He dresses casually in a black shirt and a pair of jean. He looks into our direction and waves then pulls me into a hug. 

    “Good to see you again, bro.” He smiles then turns to Yongsun, hesitates whether to gives her a hug too or not. “It’s good to finally see you again, sis in law.” 

    Yongsun giggles at how he addresses her. “Good to see you again too.”

    “Brian’s flight is landing in 10 minutes, should we grab a drinks there first?” 

I told Yongsun about Brian’s flight and she nodded her head. She asked Eddie when did he arrived, and it took him quicker than I expected to answer her back in Korean then smiled proudly to himself. The café is right next to the baggage claim areas, and it’s our favorite café in the airport. They had great coffee, that’s all we cared about. 

Yongsun got a lemonade for herself, Eddie and I went for our usual Americano and Yongsun gave me a disapproval look. I had 4 cups of black coffee on the plane a few hours ago and she was not having me taking in another cup of caffeine again. 

    “I can’t keep my eyes open.” I said and she shook her head at me. 

    “You already had 4 cups of it today.”  

I tell her I’ll be fine, and I’m going to have just 2 more cups today. Although, I might actually sneak downstairs to have some while she’s sleeping. Yongsun gives me a frown but she gives up on the topic right after because she knows it's useless to pursuade me to not drink coffee too much. 

Eddie and I met quite recently too so we didn’t have much to catch up and we tried to conversed in Korean as much as possible so Yongsun wouldn’t feel left out. 20 minutes later, Brian finally walked out with his backpack and he didn’t see us because he was too focused on finding his baggage, he had always been the unluckiest in our family when it came to baggages. They only lost his and there was this one time they accidentally sent his to Osaka when we were actually going to Bali. Thankfully, it seemed to be fine this time because he walked toward the cafe with his luggage. 

    “Hey, bro!” He gave Eddie a hug then gave me one too before he stopped in front of Yongsun and hesitated whether it was fine to give her a hug too or not but in the end, he settled on an awkward hug. 

    “Hi, sis in law.” He grins. “Nice to see you again.” 

Suddenly, he says he has something to give her and pulls a gift box out from his backpack that is decorated simply with a big brown ribbon. I recognize the leaves design on the corner of the box immediately, it’s chocolates from Fine & Raw. They’re one of the most amazing chocolate shops in New York. 

    “Eric hyung said you love chocolate.” He said, strangely quite well in Korean. I bet he’s been practicing the same line over and over again. “And, I had to get something for mom too so I got you one too.” 

    “Thank you, I’ll eat it well.” Yongsun giggles in embarrassment. 

    “Wow, dude.” Eddie slaps him on his shoulders. “Who said he hasn’t got games?” 

    I shrugged. “You said he hasn’t got games.” 

    “Come on, guys.” Brian whines. “I don’t come home this often like you guys. And, it’s not everyday I get to see sis in law.” In a low whisper, he said, “And, she’s my bias in Mamamoo too.” 

    “Dude, what does that make me now?” Eddie said. “I came from LA yesterday and didn’t buy anything at all. Did you, Eric?” 

    I nodded. “Yeah, for mom and dad.” 

    “Wow, you guys.” He gasped.