I liked travelling. I liked going to other countries, walking around, admiring the scenery, trying local delicacies.

But, I did not like flying. Well I guess I did not like taking off, and landing, and turbulence specifically. Let’s just say I had a bad experience with turbulence in a domestic flight. And being a very cautious person, I never really wanted to experience pressure in my ears. Which is why I always had a pack a sweets to on during take-off and landing.

And yet, here I was on a domestic flight to fly to home after visiting my parents. To help my fear of taking off, landing and the flight in general, I plugged my earphones and listened to songs I knew that were going to help calm me down. Despite my efforts, my hands could not help but generate sweat from nervousness when the plane was taking off. Putting on a brave front, I closed my eyes and gripped both armrests.

Only it was not the armrest.

Well I did grip an armrest on one side as I was seated next to the window. But I knew my other hand did not grab onto the armrest but onto another hand instead. I let out a little squeak and pulled my hand away. I continued murmuring prayers and phrases to assure myself that I would not die on this flight. Due to my efforts to take my mind of the plane taking off, I failed to notice the passenger next to me calling for my attention. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to my right. The passenger next to me did a hand motion, one I was trying to figure out. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and the passenger held onto the wire of my right earphone while nodding. I nodded back, unsure.

The passenger next to me gently took my right earphone out of my ear and scooted closer for me to hear him.

“If you want to, you can hold my hand.” The passenger offered his free hand to me and I looked at it, sceptical. I did a quick once over the passenger. He did not look that much older than me and he had a kind smile, encouraging me to hold onto his hand. I hesitantly placed my smaller hand into his and slowly my fingers started gripping on his hand in fear. He smoothly inserted my right earphone in my right ear and relaxed into his seat.

Once I felt like we were safely in the air, I took away the pressure from gripping the armrest and the stranger’s hand. Realising I might have hurt him, I turned to the stranger to apologise. He was already looking at me with the same kind smile on his face.

“I’m sorry. I must have almost cut off your circulation,” I eyed his hand for any damage I might have done.

“No, it’s okay. You looked like you needed it,” his smile grew into a grin which made me smile back in return. I was really thankful he offered his hand though. It was only my second time taking a domestic flight and I was full of nerves and fear. I sheepishly smiled at him.

“Thank you… Thank you!” he did a little chuckle when I realised I had no idea what his name was.

“Sehun. And it’s all good, don’t worry.” I smiled at him again, hoping it conveyed how thankful I was. He asked for my name and I told him in a small voice. He was not able to catch it and leaned closer. I repeated my name syllable by syllable in a slightly louder voice as people would always struggle with pronouncing my name correctly. He echoed my name with ease. “What are you listening to?” My playlist was currently on shuffle and The Cab’s ‘Her Love Is My Religion’ was on pause.

“Um… I’m listening to The Cab’s Sy