The metal detector went off and Hyuk was asked to step over to the side. He absent mindedly followed the security guard out of the line. He spread his arms and legs as told to allow the hand metal detector scan his body. The detector went off once again as it passed over his back pocket.

                “Sir, what do you have in your pocket?” the airport security employee asked. Hyuk furrowed his brow, not remembering putting anything in his pocket.

                “Sir, what is in your pocket,” the employee repeated more forcefully. People standing nearby started watching with curiosity as a few more employees walked over to where he was.

                “It’s um…nothing should be… wait, hold on a second,” he stammered, flustered by the extra personnel who grabbed his arms while the first employee reached into his back pocket. She pulled out his cell phone battery and held it up to his face. He felt embarrassment wash over him. He completely forgot that he took out the battery so that he wouldn’t be too tempted to call Jaemi or read her texts. He wanted to kick himself for doing that because if he hadn’t then maybe he would have thought to call her to find out where she was instead of waiting aimlessly for hours and then getting stuck in this mess.

                The employees dragged him to a private room where they sat him in a metal chair and handcuffed him to the table. A middle aged man in a pristine suit came in with his backpack and dumped its contents onto the table in front of him. He cringed, not wanting to see his precious laptop being carelessly thrown onto the table.

                “This is all a big misunderstanding and if you’ll just let me explain then we can both be on our way,” Hyuk tried to reason while he lightly tugged on the steel ring clamped around his right wrist.

                “Unfortunately it’s not that simple, you see, because this morning we received an anonymous tip that there would be a bombing today, but of course, we receive many of these tips every day and they almost always end up being false alarms, but today seems different, doesn’t it?” the man asked condescendingly.

                Hyuk’s jaw dropped and he blinked rapidly in exasperation. “You can’t possibly be accusing me of being a bomber. That’s ridiculous! It’s just my cell phone battery! See for yourself! I only took it out of my phone because my girlfriend and I got in a fight and I didn’t want to hear her calls or anything so I just took it out. No big deal,” he explained. When he saw that the man was still looking at him skeptically, he added, “It’s true! You can check it! Call my girlfriend even! She’ll tell you we had a fight and that she was calling me nonstop after.”

                The man eyed him with a lot of doubt and eventually called for a second employee to place the phone and battery into a bag and bring over a phone. Hyuk slammed his forehead onto the table in frustration.

                As soon as the phone was brought in, he picked it up the receiver and dialed Jaemi’s number, but he stopped before he could press the send button. He had no idea what he was going to tell Jaemi. How was he supposed to explain that he was being held at the airport under suspicion of being a bomber?

                “Is there a problem?” the man asked, clearly impatient. Hyuk gave him a dirty look and pressed the last button before he could stop himself. The phone rang four times and Jaemi hadn’t picked up yet. He bit down on his lip and prayed that she would answer this unfamiliar number this one time. He could feel the heated stare of the man as the phone rang twice more. He telepathically willed her to answer the phone and lo and behold, she answered on the next ring.

                “Jaemi? Jaemi are you there? It’s me,” he said hurriedly.

                “H-Hyuk?” she replied confusedly. “What number is this? Where are you calling from? Actually that doesn’t matter to me. Hyuk, I’m sorry. You’re the last person I want to hide things from.”

                “No, I’m sorry Jaemi. I should’ve given you more time to think and I shouldn’t have said those things,” he apologized, completely forgetting the reason why he called until the stern man cleared his throat. “Oh, but um… Jaemi… I’m in some trouble and I need your help. Do you think you could come to the airport? Like right now?”

                “What?” she exclaimed. “What’s going on Hyuk? What happened? What kind of trouble did you get into? Hyuk?”

                “I—I’ll explain later. Can you please just come as fast as you can?” he pleaded. He could hear her take deep breath before hanging up on him.

                Jaemi arrived at the airport within half an hour and had to wait an additional 20 minutes before she was allowed to go and see Hyuk. She became speechless at the sight of Hyuk handcuffed to the table and being treated like a criminal.

                Hyuk lifted his head and smiled in relief when he saw her standing in the doorway. As mad as he was earlier, he felt greatly comforted by the sight of her standing anxiously by the door, looking as if she ran all the way there because he knew that he could always count on her to help him with anything no matter what and that was what made their relationship last. It wasn’t about knowing every last detail about each other, but caring about each other despite all the uncertainties and doubts.  

                Jaemi quickly confirmed Hyuk’s story and cleared any other misunderstandings. After doing a final sweep of his belongings, Hyuk was released from the security area. Jaemi politely bowed to the security personnel as they left while Hyuk looked around the airport as if nothing happened.

                “Well, I guess I’ll have to buy another plane ticket since I missed my flight,” he thought out loud.

                She stared at him with wide eyes and noticed how carefree he was. She nervously asked, “Do you…forgive…me?”

                Ken, Ravi, and Hongbin decided to stop by the convenience store by their dorm for some snacks and drinks. They picked out various junk foods and drinks for themselves and the older two members and brought over everything to the checkout counter.

                “Did you find everything ok?” she asked politely as she began to scan each item. She looked so familiar to Hongbin, but he couldn’t remember where he saw her. He tried to not stare at her, but he couldn’t seem to look away. She looked up at him and he quickly looked away. He felt a sense of déjà vu and suddenly remembered the beautiful girl from Jaemi’s group of friends who caught him staring. He suddenly blushed as he remembered that, hoping that she didn’t remember that incident.

                She neatly placed everything into a couple of plastic bags for them and handed them over to Hongbin, who nervously took them from her. She was mesmerized by his looks, but also felt a sense of familiarity when she looked at him.

                “Do I sign the receipt here?” Ken asked, bringing her back to reality. She smiled and nodded, barely taking her eyes off of Hongbin.

                “Hm, what do you want to eat?” Hyuk asked Jaemi as they walked around the airport, looking for a decent place to eat and pass time.

                “Anything is fine by me,” she replied. “I’m not very hungry, so pick—actually, that’s a lie. I’m starving, but I have to go back onto my diet now so I’m not going to eat anything anyway so just pick whatever you want to eat.” Hyuk raised his eyebrows at her, impressed by the effort she was making to be more honest with him now. It was sad knowing what the truth was, but he was glad that she was telling him the complete truth now. They kept walking until he found a sushi restaurant, knowing that she loved sushi.

                They slipped into the same side of a nice booth in the far corner of the restaurant, which was really nice and cozy. Hyuk ordered extra sushi since Jaemi adamantly refused to order anything for herself.

                “So I guess we both have some explaining to do, huh?” he said to lighten the atmosphere.

                Jaemi giggled and agreed. “Yeah, how did you even get detained? What exactly happened?”

                “Let’s just say… I learned my lesson. I’m never ignoring your calls ever again,” he declared, making her laugh.

                “Yeah, you better not. But that still doesn’t really explain anything,” she answered smartly.

                “Um, I believe it’s your turn to explain things,” he retorted. She wrapped her arm around his and rested her head on his shoulder. “It’s embarrassing,” she whined. Hyuk didn’t care about their fight at all anymore, but he couldn’t help himself from prodding her more, especially because she was being so cute.

                “I wanted to hide all the bad parts of myself from you so you would think I was perfect,” she finally admitted. Hyuk softened and gently squeezed her hand.

                “You didn’t have to hide any part of yourself from me. I already knew you weren’t perfect,” he joked, earning a smack on the shoulder from her. “I’m kidding! I love you no matter what. You don’t need to feel bad about yourself around me. Ok?”  

                She lifted her head and rested her chin on his shoulder so that her face was merely a few centimeters from his. She smiled at him and agreed with no further objections. She leaned in to close the gap, but Hyuk looked past her and excitedly pointed out the waiter returning with their order. Jaemi gave him a dirty look, and he smiled sheepishly in return. He waited for the waiter to leave before grabbing her face in his hands and giving her the big kiss she was waiting for.