At New York 

The earliest flight to New York was only departing at 12:15pm and Hyeri had no option left but to hurry to the airport. Under the pressing time, she was fortunate to work better under pressure and managed to pack everything essential. The faster, the better – time was precious and running out for her.

Unfortunately, due to some flight issues, departure was delayed and the plane only left Seoul around 1pm which caused Hyeri to be overly impatient and grumpy. She couldn’t stop fiddling in her seat and annoying her neighbor. A throbbing headache later pissed her off even more. There was a need in her to arrive at New York as soon as possible and look for Myungsoo.

Needing to clear her impatience and her clustered thoughts, she forced herself to sleep at the start of the journey, during takeoff. (Her neighbor was happy for once.) She awoke to everyone else in deep slumbers–including her cranky neighbor–and being the only passenger awake at 12am (she checked her watch) was kind of creepy. How in the world did she even sleep for 12 hours straight on air?

There was food placed on her table and she lamented in her mind for forgetting to bring snacks and finger food along. Airline food didn’t suit to her liking but she sighed in relief when she saw bread and butter, a cup of strawberry pudding, fruits and curry chicken – she neglected the curry chicken and munched on everything else. She didn’t know she was this hungry but it wasn’t that surprising – she hasn’t eaten anything since morning.

As she ate, she thought about the people back in Seoul. She had left a succinct note to Hoya, informing him that she has gone to New York and that he would be the first person she would contact upon reaching and also, she would kill him if he told Myungsoo about her sudden arrival. She knew ten suitable places to hide his body if he does so.

She had also called her parents to tell them that she was visiting Myungsoo in New York for a while – well, that was half of the truth, wasn’t it? She also added that it was a surprise visit so they couldn’t mention a word to him… if they somehow chanced upon talking to him.

Hayeon came into mind as well. Of course, Hyeri wouldn’t forget about her best friend. A visit to the latter’s house would be wonderful but Hyeri couldn’t afford to waste the time. Thus, she could only email her the details, also asking her to forward her pictures of Yeon Hee for recognition. Hayeon ought not breathe a word to anyone, well maybe to Eunji but only when they do arrived to the topic of Hyeri missing in action.

She had to make many phone calls out – to the school and her professors since she wasn’t on break yet and leaving on hiatus out of the blue was obviously going to be denoted as bad conduct. But, her studies weren’t her top priority. Myungsoo was, and if she needed to stall her classes for a while, then so be it.

Instead of going back to sleep, she stayed awake with thoughts of how she should approach Myungsoo. She didn’t inform Myungsoo about her sudden arrival and she wasn’t planning on telling him. How should I approach him? She wondered with a confused frown. She couldn’t just appear on his doorstep – he would probably get a heart attack.

And they quarreled, remember?

Things weren’t going to get any easier. Everything was so complicated and they were both tangled into a mess of crap.

An idea struck her and a smirk played on her lips – she was a plain genius.

❖ 

With her limited English, she made some arrangements to live in a motel near Myungsoo’s dorm. It wasn’t that much but she could live with it for sometime…. which reminded her because she hasn’t gotten an idea of howlong she was going to stay there. God, she should have done better planning beforehand.

What was her purpose here again?

Was it simply to find Myungsoo and ask him about Hyeri? Or talk to Myungsoo face to face?

She just misses him – simple enough.

By the time she arrived at her motel, it was already 4pm in the late afternoon and she was starving madly. However, she pushed her hunger aside because Myungsoo held more significance. She grabbed her purse–consisting of loose cash (just to be safe), sunglasses (just in case, as a disguise), keys, paper and pen, tissue (you never know), phone (a must)–and threw on a hoodie because it was a little chilly outside.  

She appeared at his campus, students and visitors were bustling around, chatting in a foreign language that was too perplexed for her to comprehend. She was grateful to have learnt Basic English albeit not knowing that it would come in handy in this state.

Luckily, she wasn’t that late. There were still crowds of students hanging out, chatting and studying at tables. She wondered why they were seated outside – the temperature had decreased drastically. People like Myungsoo and herself would hide indoors, in a warm petite café with two cups of warm coffee. But people have their own preferences so she should stop judging.

A blur of faces swept past her – there were so little Asians that she could spot, it would be easy to find Myungsoo then.

And Yeon Hee, that ing .

She had her face memorized already from the pictures that Hayeon had sent in.

She put on her prescribed glasses and scanned through the ocean of people to search for familiar faces but could find none. She was a lost sheep here with tall people enclosing around her. But she had to do this for herself, for Myungsoo and for their distant relationship.

A long distance relationship sure had their ups and downs – trust was important. Sadly, their trust faltered – she had to fix it.

∞

Tossing and turning under his warm covers, Myungsoo didn’t realize that he had cried himself to sleep. The dried tears on his pillow case reminded him that he was a jerk. He was drowning in guilt and agony – their relationship was deplorable. Broken fragments of astray trust stabbed him and his heart gnawed in pain, remembering how thwarted Hyeri looked during the webcam.

What should I do? He questioned to herself and hugged his bolster tighter, suffocating it with all his might. His phone vibrated and he reached for his phone immediately expecting a message from Hyeri. She didn’t reply to any of his messages but he knew that she had read them. Obviously, she was ignoring him on purpose? Why? Didn’t she know that her giving him the cold shoulder was what he despised the most? She liked giving people the cold treatment when she was angry with them… Guess, this time he wasn’t an exception as well.

To his disappointment, it was from Yeon Hee instead.

“Hey, wanna go out? The weather’s so cold and I love it! Let’s have dinner together with Minhyuk!”

How about a no? He didn’t feel like leaving his bed – need not say meeting Yeon Hee –a friend who liked hi