Paris

 

[Hermes store, George V]

 

 

Phonecall:

 

“Hermes Paris, good morning.”

 

“Good morning. I would like to inquire about a white Birkin bag. Is it available at your store?”

 

“I’m sorry, we are sold out already. Would you like to have in another color? We have blue and orange in stock.”

 

“No thank you miss.”

 

“I could check for another store or at other branches at other cities, if they still have them. We can have them delivered to us by tomorrow”

 

“I’m afraid that would be a problem since I’m quite in a hurry now. My flight will be at noon.”

 

“Hold on please, I could check in stores around Paris for you.” The salesgirl typed some codes and inserted the postcode on the computer and a list came out.

 

“Good news. We still have one available at Charles de Gaulle Hermes store. That would be at the airport.”

 

“Ok, can you have them reserved? I will get them later.”

 

“Sure. I’ll contact them immediately. I need your name please.”

 

“JiYong Kwon”

 

 

 

__

 

 

 

 

Dara was already at the airport. She sighed remembering her experience at the Hermes store before. Just as she thought, those bags were sure hot items and were sold out in every single store she went. Guess her gift from Chaerin is out of sight already. She remembered how she would decline the gift but when Chae insisted to get her one, she couldn’t help but feel excited herself.

 

Dara was walking aimlessly around the airport to kill time.

 

‘Still an hour before her flight’ as she looked at her watch.

 

She beamed at the sight of a small Hermes store in the airport and saw the bag she wanted at the display shelf. She quickly went in the store and asked the salesgirl for that bag.

 

“I’m very sorry miss, it’s the last piece we have and we already had a customer reserving that.” Her hopes were crushed for the second time.

 

“OK. I understand. Thank you and have a nice day” She exited the store and headed to the Starbucks coffee store opposite and settled there before her flight.

 

As she sipped her coffee, she could see that the previous salesgirl was packing the bag into the box and handed them to a guy. He signed the bills and got his credit card back.

 

She only saw the back view of the guy as he exited the store with the newly purchased bag. which could be hers if she called earlier. She had no one to blame but herself. Dara sighed as she looked at him, his girlfriend sure is damn lucky.

 

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Ji Yong settled at his seat in Business class. He immediately closed his eyes trying to get some rest. Last night he couldn’t sleep at all. He had many thoughts about returning home, doubting if he could move on after what happened. He fastened his seatbelt and quickly shut his eyes.

 

Dara entered the flight and found her seat next to the window. The seat next to her was still not occupied. She glanced as at her surrounding as other passengers made their way into the flight, looking for their respective seats. She saw a man in the same row 2 seats away from her already dozing off.

 

 

“8D, 8E.. 8D, 8E.. oh look here are our seats honey”

 

“We’ll not be sitting together” as the man placed his bags on the overhead compartment. Him and his wife were sitting in the same row but separated by the aisle.

 

“It’s ok.” The woman said as she sat next to Dara, and her husband next to Ji Yong.

 

Dara turned to the person next to her and recognized her from the night before. It was the couple that she took pictures of. She greeted her excitedly.

 

“Honey. It’s the person we met last night. What a small world.  Who knew we will be sitting on the same flight.” The woman excitedly said to the guy beside her.

 

“I’m Hye sun and my husband is Min Ho “

“I’m Dara Park.”

 

The three of them continued chatting and were laughing. Ji Yong was irritated hearing the ruckus when he’s about to fall asleep. He grumpily took a glance of the person next to him.

 

‘Aish, the crazy tourist from last night. Don’t they know how to be quite.’ He slumped back to his seat, facing away from him.

 

‘Great just great. Stuck with this annoying and loud guy’

 *Actually he was not that loud but the tired Jiyong was just being grumpy at everyone.*

 

 

“Hey, do you want to switch places with me? I don’t really mind. You two could sit together instead” Dara offered her seat to Min Ho.

 

“You don’t mind? That’s very thoughtful of you”

 

“Don’t mention it”

 

She exchanged seats with Min Ho and Hye Sun thanked her for her kindness once again.

 

Dara buckled her seatbelt and was sitting next to the sleeping Ji Yong. She glanced at Hye Sun and her husband who had their eyes closed too.

 

‘What a sweet couple’ she thought to herself.

 

Then she took out her notebook from her bag and began narrating her experience during her stay. Better finish them while they were still fresh in her mind. She also included the story of the sweet loving couple next to her who were on their honeymoon and no doubt that Paris is the city of love. She finished in no time and massaged her stiff neck. She closed her book and turned to the inflight entertainment in front of her.

 

 

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Dara was fully concentrated at the movie. She never gets bored of them. It reminded her of her childhood memories as Mrs. Park would let the kids watch movies from DVD every Saturday night. The younger ones prefer cartoons so older kids like Dara and  CL had no choice but to watch those too. CL would sleep half way through but Dara was very absorbed in movies and would even cry sometimes at happy endings.

 

Dara had her eyes fixed on the screen in front of her and was giggling at the funny scene.  It wasn’t some hysterical, laugh-out-loud kind of laugh, but it was audible enough to wake the person seated or more precisely, sleeping next to her.

 

He woke up due to much annoyance, thinking it was the couple before. He turned to ask the person to turn it down but surprised to see another person beside him, totally absorbed in the show, while giggling still, she had a beautiful smile to fit her beautiful face. He was sure this is the girl he saw at the fashion show and later at Eiffel tower. Now he had had an up close view of her beautiful face.

 

 

He didn’t realize he was staring at her until the flight shook bit because of turbulence. Dara grabbed his hands and he was shocked at the sudden contact. She had her eyes firmly closed and he could sense she was scared as she tightened her grip on his arms. Ji Yong let her hold on to him until it was fine again.

 

Dara slowly opened her eyes, surprised to see the arms of a stranger in her grip. She let his hands go and gave and embarrassing laughs to the next seat guy. Ji Yong was amused but didn’t show it, he just pulled his arms away and slowly massaged them.

*Facepalm* Aigooo Dara. you just made a fool out of yourself.. Where’s Bom and Chaerin when you needed them’

 

 

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The air stewardess handed them their meal and Ji Yong was eating quietly. Dara took few glances of the guy next to her. She felt bad that she woke him up and not to mention she even grabbed his arms before.

 

“I’m sorry about earlier” She apologized.

 

“Mm.” He looked at her and nodded, accepting her apology.

 

“I have fear of flights but my sisters were always flying with me before and they would always be there to make me feel better.” She explained.

 

“Don’t worry, it’s just some air pockets, nothing to be scared of actually. Just imagine them like potholes on roads that made car rides bumpy.” He said to her to lessen her worries.

 

She thanked him. In fact those were exactly what Taeyang told her too. But she couldn’t help to feel scared every time. To make it worse, they still have 6 hours of journey before arriving Korea.

 

Ji Yong is now wide awake. He’s in a joyful mood now knowing this girl is sitting beside him. He was actually blaming himself for being cold towards her. He wanted talk to her but now she’s back watching the movie with her headphones on.

 

Ji Yong reached to take the in-flight magazine in front of him. He flipped through the pages and was reading and scanning them intently. Dara saw from the corner of her eyes what Ji Yong was doing. She looked at him, examining his facial features from afar. Indeed he’s a well-dressed rich guy, the ones that you could see jet setting around the world, driving luxurious sports car, grabbing attention of ladies wherever they go.

 

She knew those kinds of guys as Chaerin and Bom always telling her about them. Bom had many admirers but she’s loyal to her boyfriend of 5 year. Many rich businessmen, from young and old, good-looking ones and not so ‘gorgeous’ ones tried to court her but failed.

 

CL however was cool hanging out and partying with them but she never crossed the line or had anything serious with any of them because she knew those guys were just planning to get under her skirt.

 

 

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“Hey, you’ve been staring at that page for 10 minutes,” Dara waved her hands between Ji Yong and his magazine, which was held inches apart of him.

 

“Oh, I didn’t realize it” He placed the magazine down and turned  towards Dara. He was glad she started the conversation, he tried to find something normal to reply to her. He didn’t want to appear like a stalker to Dara.

 

“What are you thinking? I was scared you might burn holes into the magazine with your piercing stare.” She tried to cheer up the mood.

 

He laughed, a genuine laugh.

 

“I was just scrutinizing this article” He pointed to the page he was reading.

 

“It’s a good article but I still find something amiss here. I’ve been to Mauritius before and from the way it’s written is actually quite different from what I experienced.” Ji Yong continued pointing out few minor flaws and didn’t realize he was responding in the manner like he always did towards his employees.

 

 He went on with his critics and Dara lowered her head listening to everything he said.

 

He’s right. That article about Mauritius was narrated by someone whom never actually been there. The fancy words and beautiful pictures could help make up to it but it takes an observant reader to spot the difference. Dara herself finds it not appealing.

 

“I read better articles from this magazine and this column is actually my favourite,” Ji Yong said.

 

He admitted that every time he travelled on Sun Airways, he would secretly ‘smuggle’ a copy of their magazine, since you can’t purchase them anyway. He had a collection of their monthly issues in his bags.

 

“I can see you are a detail reader by the way you respond” she said.

 

“Yes I am. This article made Mauritius sound too good to be true, as if promoting the place like they always do in those crappy travel brochures. I find it quite disappointing that I couldn’t capture the writer’s feeling here and I doubt he’s actually been there in the first place” He continued.

 

“Or maybe I was thinking too much.” He chuckled.

 

“This is just not suited for an in-flight magazine. It should be more of a personal experience and vivid memories of the visited places- the kind of feeling that you have while sitting in the flight heading home and remembering the great vacation you just had. And that kind of read would give passengers a pleasant mood as they travel back.”

 

Dara nodded her head. She is amazed at Ji Yong’s honest opinions.

 

They continued chatting about their travel experiences and Dara was surprised that he travelled to so many places for almost two years. He must’ve had many great memories and have seen a lot.

 

Dara yawned and looked at her watch. She adjusted the time to local time in Korea. No wonder she her eyes were heavy, it’s almost 4 a.m. now and she’s feeling sleepy. Ji Yong saw her tired eyes and stopped. He wasn’t sleepy at all since his body is adjusted to the time in France. It’s would be only 11 p.m. there.

 

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2 more hours before landing.

 

 

 

Jiyong glanced at his now sleeping neighbor. It was dark because the lights were dimmed. He leaned closer to have a better view of her face. He glanced and saw her notebook that fell from her lap. He picked it up and had the urge to flip through them. He was curious to know what she writes in them. He had them in his hands but decided not to open them. That would be an invasion of privacy, but his curiosity was greater.

 

He flipped to the first page and something caught his eyes. It was her namecard. Jiyong gave the widest smile and closed it. He didn’t bother looking further and tucked her notebook back into her arms.

 

‘Duh Ji Yong why didn’t you realize this earlier’ he thought to himself.

 

‘That explains why we could relate so well, as we are in the same working field.’

 

‘What other reason she has for being at the Fashion week other than she’s a writer for not just any small name, but VOGUE.’

 

 

 

updates coming soon. I'm halfway through the next chap.

Lots of love <3 Greentee

 

D.O.Y.O.U.L.O.V.E.M.E too?? kekeke