“I know, Captain Kim TaeYeon.”

TaeYeon freezes on her seat, forgetting about what she is supposed to be doing next. On the seat beside her, JongHyun goes through an almost identical reaction, except that he gathers his wits faster and practically smacks the pilot’s hand off one certain button on the panel, effectively cutting off their communication. His Nana would have chastised him for being rude but such grave situation requires an equally grave action to counter and it has nothing to do with this urge he has for acting dramatic. Nope. Not at all.

Since the pilot is still looking blankly at the panel, JongHyun takes the initiative to enter the Ground Control’s frequency. The man’s voice replacing her Rapunzel’s soothing one manages to pull TaeYeon out of her shock, but only as far as making her operate in autopilot mode. They park the plane without any more heart-stopping incident.

“Are you okay?”

“No.”

“Do you want to get out of this plane so we can talk about it?”

“No.”

JongHyun let out a sigh. “We kinda have to get out, though.” But TaeYeon does not react so he continues, “It has been ten minutes since the passengers left the plane.”

“Hmm.”

“YoonA had checked on us twice.”

This time, not even a hum answers JongHyun. Apparently, TaeYeon has opted to withdrawn back into herself and freaked out inside her mind, as usual. Her action is not something JongHyun has not predicted—he is very used to his captain having silent moments where he can hear her thoughts echo inside her thick skull—but this one seems worse. TaeYeon does not even flinch when he practically breathes on the side of her face and he knows how much the woman hates having her personal space intruded.

“That’s it!” JongHyun exclaims, throwing his arms into the air rather dramatically. “We’re going to the tower,” he states with finality as he undoes the belt around TaeYeon then tugs her back on her feet.

“What?! No!”

TaeYeon’s loud objection to the one-sided decision falls on deaf ears, although not for the unwanted spectators they gather along the way. The blonde is trashing and flailing her free arm about, like a small child refusing to go to school, while JongHyun holds her wrist hostage as he leads the way. A fleeting thought of going all caveman on the petite woman, slinging her across his shoulder, crosses his mind once before it gets turned down almost instantly. Even with her small figure, TaeYeon is packed with quite a kick. He has witnessed his partner kicking a drunk man right on the balls when he touched her inappropriately while they were drinking in a club back in Seoul. JongHyun does not wish for such treatment to befall upon himself, thus his smart decision in keeping his weakest spot—and practically all part of his body, except for an arm—away from the blonde. That does not manage to save him from getting his shoulder punched, though.

“Kim JongHyun, I demand you to release me. Now!” TaeYeon speaks with as much authority as she can muster. Panic rises as they are getting closer to the North Tower. “Kim JongHyun!”

JongHyun grimaces, offering awkward smiles to the people who have taken interest on them along the way. A female pilot spluttering what sounds like an angry alien language to her fellow Korean pilot is not everyday happening. The usual calm and collected TaeYeon is long gone. Thankfully, they are taking the employee pathway so the general public will not see their very unprofessional behavior. Although the dirty look a janitor sends to JongHyun as they march past is enough to make him duck his head in embarrassment.

“For the love of God, shut up and grow a ball,” JongHyun finally hisses when they take a turn into a deserted hallway.

By now, TaeYeon realizes they are on the wrong way. She truly does not mind not getting to meet her Rapunzel sooner; she knows she will only make a fool out of herself without proper preparation. But going through a roundabout course and therefore prolonging the torture are not doing any good for the blonde either. She will get aneurism if it is going to take any longer to get to the tower. The elevator’s loud ‘ding’ snaps TaeYeon out of her death wish and she looks around in bewilderment. They are in front of the control room of the tower, the South tower.

“What are we doing—“

“Every pilot has to report before departure and they check our identity all the time.” The tall man rolls his eyes. “It’s the best place to start if someone was searching for your information.”

JongHyun then jerks the door open and pushes TaeYeon inside before she can retort. She stumbles then turns around to glare at her co-pilot after she gathers her composure, face flushes in red. The man only points behind her, where some staffs are staring at them with raised brows. TaeYeon’s blush deepens as her self-consciousness shoots through the roof and she mindlessly smoothes her uniform, trying to look more presentable. She hates being the center of people’s attention. Fortunately for her, a short blonde woman shushes the rest of the staffs and comes bouncing to their aid.

“To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit, captain,” the woman looks at TaeYeon first before moving to JongHyun, “First officer?” She is perky, with dimples popping and sparkly blue eyes. She is everything TaeYeon is not. “It’s so rare for pilots to come up here to send the departure papers in person, so I guess it’s not that?” She deduces smartly.

“We’re looking for information.” JongHyun steps up to stand beside TaeYeon. Even he feels a little irked by the woman—Robbins, her name tag says so—and her happy-go-lucky attitude. “I hope you can help us, Miss Robbins.”

“Sure!” The blue-eyed woman bounces on her feet again, hands clasp in excitement. “What do you want to know?”

“Captain Kim here—“ JongHyun begins, but he gets interrupted by a squeal. Several squeals, actually.

“Wait! You’re Captain Kim? As in Captain Kim TaeYeon?” Robbins asks.

TaeYeon nods dumbly, lost of why these men and women suddenly stare at her like she is a piece of fresh meat and they are the salivating zombies. The spark on their eyes can be categorized as predatory. TaeYeon’s fight-or-flight instinct tells her to flee, but JongHyun has started holding her hand again. What the blonde pilot is not aware of is the fact that her partner does it because he is scared too.

Another staff joins them, a short man with sleek brown hair and doe eyes. “You’re so cute!” He claims, high-pitched. Then when TaeYeon replied his compliment with gruff voice and an expression between aloof and intrigued, he fans his heated face with one hand. “Oh my... That’s such a turn on.”

Eew... This time, both TaeYeon and JongHyun share the same thought. They want to get out of the tower, fast. TaeYeon grips her co-pilot’s hand as hard as she can and he catches her silent suggestion right away.

“I take that all of you have heard the exchanges between my captain here and the ATC on North Tower?” JongHyun asks and a chorused ‘yes’ answers him. Apparently the South Tower is less strict due to the considerably younger staffs running it, unlike the North Tower. “Uugh... We are wondering if anyone can share some information with us.” He chooses to ignore his own stalker-ish manner since they are too deep to pull out, so it is better to just get through it for once and all. “As you see, the ATC isn’t really thrilled with Captain Kim’s approach.” A collective nods respond him and TaeYeon can’t stop blushing in embarrassment, apparently everyone in LAX know about her and her silly wooing approach for the ATC. “But she knows her name while she doesn’t and it’s unfair. We hope anyone can help us to even out the ante...?”

“Actually...” This time another woman steps up. “We have something better.” She hands the folded note she has taken from her drawer to TaeYeon. “When she came here to ask about your data, she had predicted that you would pay a visit soon, so she left this for you.”

The blonde can’t hide her surprise as she receives the note, her jaw slacks and eyes wide. Again, TaeYeon gets beaten by her crush in the rivalry game they have unconsciously created together. The woman seems to defeat her on every chance she gets and moves several steps ahead before TaeYeon can even catch up. It is both annoying and challenging.

TaeYeon fights off the blush and the stupid grin that threatens to break on her face as she slowly unfolds the note. Her stomach is doing flips whilst her heart flutters with anticipation, but the neat Hangeul written inside makes her stomach drop. JongHyun, who peeks over TaeYeon’s shoulder, immediately squeezes her hand when he read the single sentence.

Please stop bothering me at work, Captain Kim.