I'm kind of in a hurry now since I have school tomorrow and I have to go to sleep early, I apologize in advance if this seems a little rushed! >.<

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December 21, 2012 (Right Before Takeoff)

I haven’t told him about Sohyun have I? I widened my eyes at him, wondering how in Hell he knew. “You’re not very good at hiding your conversations or phone calls. You should change her name in your phone since it reads “Sohyunie”,” Aron chuckled making me feel red and warm in the face. I rolled my eyes.

“You should’ve told me you knew already,” I pushed his shoulder and he held up his hands, stuffing his ear buds in a pocket.

“I was waiting for you to tell me, if you don’t want the guys to know then I’m cool with that. Just make sure you don’t get caught,” he chuckled and sat down. Sohyun and I sat behind him while Junhyung and Hara sat in front.

“Thanks Hyung, I owe you one,” I told him as I stuffed our luggage into the compartments. He tossed his hand down.

“Naw, unless I need it I don’t want anything,” he shrugged and I sat next to Sohyun. “I shoulda brought a girl, I feel all lonely now," he mumbled sadly. I chuckled.

“We both know you can’t tie yourself down,” I laughed and he rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, well, I’m glad I finally met you Sohyun. Don’t worry, your guys’ secret’s safe with me,” he promised, making Sohyun breathe easier. I knew Aron was the right choice; maybe someone else can be like that. I wrapped my arm around Sohyun’s neck, her head cradling into my neck.

“I like Aron, he’s nice,” she mumbled.

“Not as nice as me,” I scoffed and she smiled a little. I liked that little half smile she gave off when she was sleepy.

“Right, I need to sleep now. The trip’s like twelve hours isn’t it?” she mumbled.

“Ne, we should arrive in Washington at 2pm today,” I sighed and Sohyun lifted her head, looking at me confused. “Seoul is 16 hours ahead of Seattle so the time difference is kind of complicating,” I explained. “And don’t sleep yet, eat first!” I reminded her and pulled out the airplane’s menu.

“I don’t know what people are thinking airplane food isn’t that bad,” Aron said in front of me making me smirk at him.

After eating dinner, I lounged in my seat and sighed deeply. The plane was in the air, minimal turbulence, and we were allowed to get out of our seats. Junhyung and Hara were sleeping soundly; Sohyun was as well so it was just Aron and I. I continuously looked towards Sohyun to make sure she was comfortable and slipped my hand under hers. “So 78 days?” Aron wondered and I nodded. “Nice hiding,” he chuckled.

“I try, besides, the gang would kick me in the if they knew,” I sighed.

“They would, hey, if I really got a girlfriend would you cover for me?” he wondered and I looked at him.

“Of course I would! You’re a if you think I wouldn’t!” I told him and he raised his hands up defensively.

“Just wondering,” he said and folded his arms under his chin. We shared a moment of silence once more, that’s the thing about Aron. We can think to ourselves and the other wouldn’t care what we’re thinking about. “Wanna learn something else in English?” he asked suddenly. I shrugged.

“Sure,” I nodded.

“Repeat after me," he grinned. “I love you,” he said clearly.

“I love you,” I repeated and wrinkled my eyebrows. “What does that mean?” I wondered and he chuckled mischievously again. It was kind of creeping me out.

“Saranghae~” he cooed and I pushed his head into his seat. The dork! He only laughed and straightened out his hair. “You’ll say it someday, I guarantee,” he told me and slid back into his chair and listened to his music. I looked to Sohyun, sleeping angelic Sohyun, and a new question was only beginning to haunt my thoughts. Really, if I am gonna say it, how will I know when?

I stared up at the little panel with buttons above me, wondering about love. It had just stupidly occurred to me, and now I can’t stop thinking about it. Love is when you have a deep and passionate affection for someone right? When you can’t see your future without them? I was never given love as a child; I was in the seventh grade when that word had to be taught to me! Really, that’s just sad.  And I realized that I do not only have love issues I have trust issues as well. I love Junhyung and I trust Junhyung, I trust Hara but to be honest I do not love her, I love my gang but I cannot trust them. It works one way, the other, or none. Junhyung has been my only exception throughout the years. Being in love and having the ability to trust someone is difficult for me and a lot of times it can be a predicament so I keep shut about those topics. Whenever asked about trusting someone I simply say “I have trust issues”, no one has asked me if I loved someone before and simply the thought hasn’t appeared until now if I love and trust Sohyun. I feel like I should because I would be a bad boyfriend if I didn’t but I don’t know because 50% of relationships end up failing and committing to something so soon might end up disastrously. I know, you’re probably thinking that if I laid my gang and my life on the line for Sohyun I must love her right? But, even within myself I cannot trust my own actions. I always doubt something and when there’s no one or nothing to doubt about I doubt myself.

All of a sudden my hand under Sohyun’s felt wrong. I felt guilty and awkward now, I moved it slightly but her hand clasped around mine a bit tighter. What in Hell am I doing? I like holding hands with Sohyun; I shouldn’t be trying to get out of it! I stopped fidgeting and sighed. Its times like these I want to be an adult. When I get older, all of these feelings will become certain and I won’t have to go through this teenage stage anymore. Nowadays adults look at teenagers and automatically think “they’re so stupid”, “all teens do these days is drink and smoke”, “back in my day, we didn’t go on the computer all the time”, or some other dumb . I will be the first adult to remember exactly how it felt to be a teenager during this time, I will understand them and I’ll listen to my kids (when I have some). I’ll be a good father, I’ll be an understanding adult, and maybe I’ll just be a great husband.

As my eyelids began to droop my vision got blurrier. It’s been a long day today, I went to school, slept a little at Sohyun’s place, packed for nearly four hours, pried off a Yoseob, and spent this time pondering my emotions. My arms and legs weighed like lead making it barely possible to move. My head drooped to the side so my neck was craned over but I didn’t care. I took a breath and shut my eyes so I could amble into the darkness under my eyelids.

I felt a slight touch on my cheek, feeling badgered I only groaned. “Food! Eat!” Sohyun told me and I opened my eyes. I rubbed the “sand” out of them and blinked before my eyes adjusted to the brightness. Everyone was up and lights were flicked on, a medium sized cup with a parfait in it was already resting on my pull-out tray. Sohyun’s hair was messed up in the back, she had probably been rolling her head, and she looked somewhat tired but still seemed cute to me.

“Oh, good I’m hungry,” I sighed and picked up my spoon. “How was your sleep?” I asked Sohyun and scooped out the fruit and cream from the top. The fruit was sweet and a little tart leaving my mouth watery but the whipped cream helped.

“Good, I didn’t realize how smooth airplane rides were,” she smiled and spooned a little of my parfait. We’ve done that before so I wasn’t affected.

“I know, Hyungs! Noona! How was the sleep for you?” I asked them up front.

“Your brother kept snoring!” Hara complained with an added groan.

“I did not! That was your snores!” my brother objected. I rolled my eyes, both of them snore!

“Well I was fine, I had a whole two seats to myself,” Aron smirked and lay across both of his seats with the arms of the seats lifted. Psh, whatever.

“But you’re lonely on the inside, I can feel it!” I said and pushed his head down when he tried to sit back up. I glanced at my watch which was still set to Korean time. “We still have an hour left; we should be crossing through the States by now!” I wanted to look through the window and see the land beneath us but then I would’ve trampled over my girlfriend. I’ve never been overseas, let alone the U.S. It was a new experience that I was just shaking to encounter with! I grinned like a doofus and rocked back and forth in my chair.

“Calm down! You won’t even understand a lot of the things in America!” Aron reminded me.

“But it’s new! I can practice some more English here, and I’ve never been outside of Korea. It feels so good!” I exclaimed earning some annoyed hisses in my direction.

“Yeah shut up!” Sohyun grumbled, punching me in the arm as I saw she was trying to sneak in some more sleep.

“Well, you’re nice when your tired aren’t you?” I teased as she patted my cheek without looking at me. I smiled. “Noona, Hyung, did you feel this way when you went to Japan?” I wondered and sat on the edge of my seat. Yeah, I still know about the fact Junhyung met our father and hasn’t told me about it. I’m trying to get them to come clean about it, so I can express my anger about him more publically.

“Uh, not as intense but pretty much,” Junhyung usually doesn’t say “uh”. He doesn’t stutter or pause suddenly in the middle of his speech. He’s always been like that, as if he rehearses every word spoken. This was an odd moment where he knew I would notice. “Sorry, sore throat,” he hummed with his mouth closed. Good cover up.

“What did you guys do there?” I asked again. Another pause. “You guys never told me anything so…” I dragged on the last word.

“Ilhoon, what if it’s personal?” Sohyun asked me. Well yeah it’s personal but it involves me in it! They’ll tell me one day…

“Right, sorry,” I sighed and fell back in my seat, giving up for now.

Since Junhyung and Hara revisited the topic of my father they didn’t talk much again so I started chatting with Aron. “You’ll love it there! The cabin’s really nice and it’s warm so that’s good too,” he was telling me about the different things to experience up there. “There’s a ton of stuff to do! You can go skiing, snowboarding, white-water rafting-“

“What’s that?” white-water rafting? What the heck is that?! He widened his eyes but then grinned.

“You’ll definitely love it! And the cabin’s private so we can have our own space and everything! Mom and Dad put a Jacuzzi on the balcony so if you want to take a view and stay warm you can go there.” I was hesitant to bring swim trunks but now I’m glad I did! Hopefully the others did too. “Oh God there’s so much stuff to do! How long do you wanna stay?” Aron asked and I thought for a moment.

“Maybe two weeks at the most, I want time to look around but too much time in Washington might be too much for me,” I shrugged.

“Yeah, I’m new to Washington too. I heard its cold up there!” he shivered making me smile a little. I honestly don’t have that much knowledge on the different states but I did know that the chilliness of Washington State is pretty well known! They’re far up north so they get the cold arctic air and stuff… Before I could continue our chat a little bell rung.

“We are now landing in Seattle, Washington. Please return to your seats.” YES! We’re here! 

A/N: To clarify once more: they're heading to Washington State/Mt. Baker! (look it up!)