The clock had just ticked past midnight when Junho boarded the last flight out of Seoul, the gentle hum of the aircraft engine blending with the whirl of his thoughts. Exhausted from a grueling day on set, his muscles ached and his mind was still tangled with the remnants of his lines. Yet, as he sank into the plush comfort of his seat and felt the plane lift off, a surge of exhilaration swept through him, washing away his fatigue. He was Tokyo-bound—not for a shoot or a promotional tour, but driven by a more personal and compelling reason: Yoona.

Yoona was currently in Tokyo for a film premiere, her days packed to the brim with commitments as relentless as his own. Just yesterday, they had managed to share a quick call, her voice light but tired over the line. “Wish you were here,” she had said, a half-joke that lodged itself firmly in Junho’s heart. It was this simple exchange, her laughter ringing through his ears long after the call ended, that had solidified his resolve.

Their careers, demanding and all-consuming, often whisked them to opposite corners of the world, making their moments together rare and all too fleeting. They both understood the relentless demands of their lives, an unspoken agreement of their shared reality. Yet tonight, the usual resignation to their separate existences felt suddenly unbearable to Junho. The discovery of a brief pause in his jam-packed schedule felt like a sign, a rare opportunity that he grasped with both hands, driven by an urgent need to see Yoona.

Navigating through the airport had been surprisingly smooth. Junho kept his cap pulled down and his mask firmly in place, blending in with the late-night travelers. A sigh of relief escaped him as he passed through the gates without the usual frenzy of fans noticing him. Tonight, anonymity was his ally, allowing him to travel the distance to Yoona without the usual fanfare.

As the plane cut through the night, spanning oceans and time zones, each mile reduced the distance between them, amplifying Junho’s anticipation. Their last meeting had been nothing more than a hurried dinner squeezed into their overlapping schedules—a brief interlude that only highlighted their need for more time together. Junho’s thoughts hovered around the image of Yoona's smile, the sound of her laughter, fueling his impatience. Their relationship, though often constrained by the public eye and their hectic schedules, thrived on these stolen moments where the world seemed to narrow down to just the two of them.

Every mile the plane covered, every city it passed over, brought him closer to Yoona, tightening the strings of anticipation that tugged at his heart. He remembered the last time they were together, the way she had looked at him across the table, a mixture of affection and melancholy in her eyes as they talked about everything and nothing. He imagined walking up to her now, seeing her expression shift from surprise to delight, and the way she would reach out to him, bridging the distance between them with a to