I grabbed my black bobby pin and neatly secured my outgrown front bangs to the side. Not having enough time to properly brush through my hair, I tried my best to fix it by out the kinks in certain places.

“I guess that’ll have to do.” I mumbled, while examining my lengthy hair.

Quickly making my way over to the shoe rack, I put on a pair of winter boots.

“Eunhee-ah, hurry up! We’re going to be late!”

It was Mum, and she was already at the door. I guess that means Dad and Seohyun are already in the car. I mentally cursed my alarm clock for deciding to stop working out of nowhere.

 “Just a second!” I replied back, and had almost tripped over in the rush.

Before leaving, I made sure to grab my phone and coat. Once I was outside, Mum then closed the door and locked it, while I hopped onto the awaiting car where Dad and Seohyun were. Just as usual, they were both teasing me at how I would always take too long to get ready.

“It’s not my fault that the alarm clock decided to not work,” I complained, while putting on my seat belt.

“Whatever, fatty~” chimed Seohyun.

I rolled my eyes at her comment. Most people would probably be slapping or kicking their younger sibling at a remark like this, but since we are always like this to one another, it wasn’t that much of a concern. Being three years younger than me, as much as she annoys the heck out of me, we’re quite close and make the weirdest inside jokes.

Now that everyone was in the car, our parents did another check up to make sure that they had their keys and such. It was safer to check now, than to realize that we have forgotten something as vital as that while already half way, and having to drive all the way back for it. Not only does it save time, but it saves me from having to hear them scream and get angry all over the place.

We then began to make our way towards the airport, where my Grandma and Aunty from America would be expecting us.

———————————————

During the trip, a few light conversations were made with the four of us. Mum had asked Seohyun if she was able to recall any memory on the family members that we were going to see. Of course, she shook her head and replied with a slow ‘no’. Like what our father had pointed out, she was indeed quite young when she met them, so it would have been a little hard to be able to remember.

I was also rather young when I met them as well, but old enough to still be able to have some form of thought on my two relatives, if that makes sense. It’s not much, but I remembered the time when my Grandmother refused to give me an orange, because she thought that my one of my cousins deserved it more. The memory has been with me ever since, and I find it somewhat funny yet depressing, at how it’s been able to stay in my head for so long. I don’t have any specific memories about my Aunty, except for the fact that she was really nice to me.

Mum was impressed at my memory when I told her that I was able to still remember, just before entering another conversation with Dad. It’s been about roughly ten years since I’ve seen my Grandma and Aunty from my mother’s side, since I am now eighteen. Mum is really excited that they are finally visiting us, after a really long time, and seeing her so happy about something is really nice.

By now, it was just my parents that were talking amongst themselves. I looked over to Seohyun to see why she was so quiet, but then noticed a pair of white earphones sitting inside her ears.

“Ah, no wonder.” I thought, as I redirected my attention towards the surroundings passing by.

Considering the long car trip that’s currently taking place, it would have been nice to have something to listen to as well; not that I didn’t mind the occasional chatter here and there or anything. But I guess looking out the window while thinking about the things that I was going to do, and how everything was going to be since it was finally the beginning of my break, was just as good.

——————————————

After we managed to find a parking spot, we then made our way towards the entrance of the airport. Even though the sun was out and shining brightly, it was still cold enough to see the little fog that would escape from a person’s lips whenever they spoke, as they eagerly created some friction with their hands.

The inside, as expected, was much warmer. But of course, it was obviously a lot more crowded and busy compared to the outside. People were either moving from place to place, or just stood around and waited; some more patiently than another. This was also accompanied by the noises of people talking, trolleys being pushed, and suitcases being dragged and such.

“So what gate will we be waiting at?” questioned Seohyun, as she neatly wrapped away her earphones.

“It should be gate four…or perhaps it was gate three?” answered Mum, now sounding quite confused.

She mumbled the last part a bit, and I could see that my mother’s uncertainty was worrying Dad. We then decided to split up at the last minute, and who ever saw our other family members first would contact each other. As me and Seohyun made our way to gate four, our parents made their way towards gate three.

———————————————

Fifteen minutes had passed, but it had felt more like hours. Maybe it was because I was feeling a little impatient, but not a single sign of two familiar faces had shown up yet, even though the flight had landed about an hour ago.

“I’m going to go use the toilet.” I casually said.

Seohyun whipped her head away from her phone, “Why?” she whined, “Why do you have to pee now, out of all the times that you could pee?!”

I flattened my eyes, unfazed by her pouty face, “Because I had to rush everything, I forgot to pee.”

The younger girl’s eyebrows creased together even more, while I slowly started to move away. My steps began to get faster once she had noticed me moving further away, so because of that, she started to make up absurd excuses, as an attempt to keep me behind. She started to bring up crazy scenarios, and even throwing in things such as the possibility of being able to see a famous person.

“Nice try, but I highly doubt Yunho will just pop out of nowhere!” I said, just loud enough for her to hear from the distance.

Once away, one shop led to another, and I ended up doing a little exploring. Taking a look at the stores around, and browsing through some of the things there was much more interesting than standing around. Even if it was to wait for family members that were from overseas, I’m sure they wouldn’t be out so quick, right?

Those thoughts were soon pushed to the back of my mind again, when a few sales assistants had tried to convince me to buy their perfumes. I declined them politely, while trying my best to get away. A little while later, I had finally found the way to the restroom after all that roaming around.

Finishing my business, I was now outside, with a better bladder. I took out my phone to check the time, being curious as to how long I’ve been gone for.

“…An hour?!” I cried, when I saw the numbers.

The feeling of panic slowly began to creep over me, as I remembered back to where I should be. Without thinking, I burst into a sprint and ran as fast as my legs could go, praying that my family wasn’t going to do something as drastic as to call the guards to hunt me down and such. I was so deep in the thought of just having to reach my destination that I wasn’t paying any attention to my surroundings, and where I was going.

The next thing I knew, my body had roughly come into contact with another person’s.

My phone had slipped out of my hands as I gave a tiny yelp from the sudden unexpected rough contact. I had also heard an ‘ooft’ come from the person, as something had also slipped out of the other their hands, since I had heard more than one clatter.

Steadying my balance, I apologized on pure instant, “Sorry!”

I quickly picked up the two devices from the floor, and then checked if the person was alright. It was hard to get a proper look at them due to the sunglasses that was hiding their eyes. The black hoodie covering their head didn’t help either, but from their height and built, I knew that this individual was obviously a male.

“Whoa, are you alright? I’m very sorry about that,” he said, sounding a little surprised.

I quickly waved my hands in defense, “Ah, I’m fine. But it was my fault; I should have watched where I was going…heh. Oh, here!”

Hastily giving back his phone, I apologized once more before running off.

“Uh, wait—“

“I’m sorry; I really have to be somewhere right now!” I called back, before turning away.

Not looking back, I kept my thoughts on running back to gate four.