“I stayed the night.”

TaeYeon peers over the rim of her glass before she takes a deliberate sip of the cool water inside to hide her growing smirk. Across her, JongHyun is sitting on the very edge of his seat, completely enthralled by the story the blonde is sharing. It is Sunday night, their usual hangout time of the week. Normally, JongHyun will do everything in his might to drag TaeYeon into one of the nightclubs to fish for plausible date candidate or to get drunk, or both. Ever since they no longer work together and TaeYeon is somewhat dating, they agree on spending the time just sharing stories over dinner, thus the cozy family restaurant they are in at the moment.

“And?”

“The other bedroom is Elisa’s and she wouldn’t let me sleep on the couch.”

JongHyun rolls his eyes, as if saying of course.

“So we shared her bed.”

“Damn, man!” A playful punch lands on TaeYeon’s upper arm and she would have scowled at the brunet if she is not so invested in teasing him. JongHyun is not aware of the ulterior motive his friend has and asks, “then?” He drawls out with a knowing twinkle in his eyes and suggestive waggle of his brows.

“She lend me her pajama shorts and UCLA tee.”

JongHyun snickers from the image of TaeYeon wearing clothes that is obviously baggy for her petite frame. “And then? And then?”

The blonde pilot lets out a sigh. “I passed out.”

“What?!”

It is TaeYeon’s turn to laugh, earning her a well-placed glare from her ex-partner, before she ducks her head slightly to hide a sheepish smile. “I was nervous... When she left to change first, I chugged down the remainder wine and ended up feeling dizzy, planting face-first to her bed after I changed.”

The brunet’s expression is somewhere between amused and mortified by his friend’s antics. “A beautiful woman, who definitely likes you, invited you to her place. Cooked you decent meal. Went through the pain of preparing a candlelit dinner.” The list goes on, adding guilt on the blonde. “Opened up about her family. Kept up with your stubbornness to watch movie even after like eight continuous hours of work that made her fall asleep on you and finally offered you to stay the night, wear her clothes, and share her bed. And you passed out on her?!”

“You paint me as the bad guy.” TaeYeon huffs in irritation, even though each sentence JongHyun said has struck a cord in her heart. “You know I’ll probably turn her down if she tried to...”

“Have with you?”

TaeYeon nods, face heating up.

“You can’t even say it,” the older man teases.

“Shut up!”

“Believe me, TaeYeon... If that woman wants to pounce on you, she would have done so since the first date.”

“Then I would have turned her down plus never contacting her anymore.”

The blonde woman speaks with finality that JongHyun can’t help but agree with. He has known her long enough to understand her rather prude view on relationship. He himself has no problem with it, though.

“I think she is just like you.” At TaeYeon’s quirked brow, he continues, “First kiss after knowing each other for what? Two—three weeks? That’s slow. Like snail-pace slow.”

“She has a kid, JongHyun.” TaeYeon ignores the contradiction she creates; not willing to do more than kissing, yet not wanting to let her friend saying negative thing about Tiffany. “Jumping in bed with random people is not a good behavior example for a child.”

“Oh my God!” JongHyun exclaims rather dramatically. “You already sound like a mom!”

“I’m not!”

“Are too.” Before TaeYeon can form a retort, he cuts in, “At least do tell me you did make it up by making-out on top of the kitchen counter on the next morning?”

TaeYeon stays silent.

“You didn’t?”

“I kind of... overslept...” The blonde squirms under JongHyun’s scrutinizing gaze, her guilt piles up into a hill. “When I woke up, she had gone to work...”

“I can’t believe you,” the brunet man sighs in exasperation.

“Then you would hate me more because she left me pancakes and a fresh pot of coffee. And a new toothbrush.”

“I don’t know whether to congratulate or smack you.” JongHyun ends up doing the latter anyway. “But seriously, you need to do something in return for that woman. She is a keeper.”

“Yeah... I’m thinking about another date. I plan to ask her out when I return her key, but I still have no idea of what to do. It’s hard to top a romantic candlelit dinner and—“

“Stop, stop! Return her key? She gave you her key?”

“To lock down the apartment after I left.” Instinctively, TaeYeon pats her jeans pocket, where said metal is residing along with the rest of her keys. It has been weighting her somehow, but a good kind of weight that makes her smile like a fool.

JongHyun’s smirks like a maniac with evil intention. “U-hauling already?”

The blonde’s brows furrow together in confusion. Sometimes she forgets her ex-partner once spent his adolescent abroad, but when she does remember it is because strange phrase or term he says, just like now. Her confusion must be clear as the day because JongHyun simply returns her quizzical look with a wave of his hand, brushing it off as nothing even when he keeps grinning over some sort of inside joke only he understands of.

“She won’t want it back, trust me. Now onto your date dilemma... If this is high school, I’d say you impress her with the second-hand car your dad bought you for your seventeen’s birthday then make out on the backseat.”

It is yet again another weird idea. TaeYeon did not get second-hand car from her father. She does not even currently own a car because there is no need for one when she spends most of her time on air. Instead, she flies a Boeing 777 that costs about 320.2 millions dollar and it is not up for a spin or being left alone while she make-out with Tiffany somewhere among the three hundred seats at the back. However, back in her hometown, she does own a red Cessna 172 Skyhawk, which used to be her father’s favorite before he gave it to her as a present for getting her own pilot license.

TaeYeon’s eyes brighten as the idea begins forming inside her brain. “JongHyun! I can kiss you right now!” She beams at him, buzzing with excitement.

“Uugh... No, thanks.”

“I didn’t mean it literally.” The blonde goes on typing whatever it is she has in mind into her phone’s memo. “How are you holding up?” She asks after putting her phone back to her pocket.

“Took a while to adapt with Airbus, but my co-pilot is simply awesome. How about yours?”

Instinctively, TaeYeon scrunches her nose. “I swear to God, she must have planted a tracking application on my phone. One call and the next minute, she will show up, no matter wherever I am.”

JongHyun laughs. “But she is a good partner?”

The seemingly no big deal, offhanded question throws TaeYeon’s mind into a whirlwind. “She is, but not as good as you,” she quickly adds, not wanting JongHyun to feel he is easily replaced and SunMi really does need more training and especially learn to stop talking during turbulence.

“Do you think she is up to a date?”

“With you?” One brow up skeptically before the blonde narrows her eyes when her ex-partner nods at the question. “Oh no... You don’t...”

“Why not?” JongHyun shrugs; his grin almost splits his face into two while TaeYeon looks simply horrified. “You’re not the only one who needs to have a girl in their life,” and sticks out his tongue at her before the grin turns into a wicked one, “or in their bed.”

The rest of the night spent with playful banter between the two, but JongHyun ended up asking SunMi out regardless how hard TaeYeon had tried to convince him not to. He is also right about the ATC not wanting her key back. The important date itself takes about a month to eventually be carried on after the idea was formed that night. In the mean time, Tiffany and TaeYeon went through a handful of dates on weekends, which consist of more dinners—TaeYeon avoids going to Tiffany’s place when Elisa is around—and wandering around the airport after the ATC’s shift ends.

Their latest date is on a shooting range, where the ATC manages to awe TaeYeon with her nimble hands and sharp precision. While she is never a fan of guns, the blonde strangely finds it hot for a woman to know her way wielding such weaponry. Then afterwards, while they are taking their stuff out from the locker they are assigned for when they first got into the range, TaeYeon feels it is the right time to pop the question, so she does just that.

“Do you think you can take some days off from work?”

“I never took any day-off before.” Tiffany secures the last button on her jacket before she puts her whole attention to her date, who is staring at her hopefully. “I can...” She sighs in defeat. “What for?”

“I’m going to bring you back to my hometown.” Mistaking the baffled look as concern, TaeYeon adds, “You can bring Elisa along, if she wants to and if you get permission from her other parents.”

“She can’t go. Her fathers have her this week and they are in Boston, Stephan has a class to teach there.” Tiffany answers automatically, she can’t figure out the probable reason for TaeYeon to bring her all the way back to South Korea. Unless it is for meeting the parents, which is too farfetched, simply because they are still tethering between the fine line of friends and lovers, even after a lot of making-out sessions. If Tiffany were to be honest to herself, she is tired of waiting the pilot to finally ask her out and make it official. She would have asked, if TaeYeon had not made it clear that she wants friendship from her first. “What are we going to do there?”

Unaware of the taller woman’s inner musing, TaeYeon gives her a toothy grin. “I will teach you how to fly a plane.”