YoungJae sighed again. Everything was supposed to be smooth. Go to the airport, do that check-in thing, get into the plane, sleep some good hours, arrive in Seoul, take the bus, finally be home and enjoy the Chuseok with his family. But no, he was YoungJae and of course, being YoungJae, something just had to go wrong. He said again.

“Sorry, I can’t understand what you are saying. Could you repeat that, please?” Even though he had practiced that same sentence hundreds of times, his English sounded awful in his ears. But the attendant could understand him. The problem was he wasn’t understanding her.

She repeated what she said before, slower, with a polite smile. Flight, plane, and… that damned word. What the hell does that mean? Why couldn’t the whole word just speak Korean?

“She’s saying your flight was delayed because of a mechanic problem in the plane.” YoungJae got startled when a voice spoke in clear Korean with him. He turned around, facing a taller man. “They are providing another plane, but it’s going to take some hours. Your flight was rescheduled to 11 o’clock.”

“Oh, gosh! Thank you!” and turning to the nice attendant, YoungJae said one of his memorized English lines. “I’m sorry for bothering you.”

She smiled again and replied with a ‘no problem’ before starting her activities again.

“How did you know I was Korean?” YoungJae asked the blonde man in front of him.

“The Doosan Bears button, I’m a fan as well.” the guy pointed to the baseball button YoungJae had on his suitcase. “Since our flight is going to take a while, shouldn’t we sit?”

“Are you taking the same flight?” YoungJae asked when they sat down. The other man nodded. He checked his watch. “Hell, I could’ve slept for more three hours!”

The guy laughed.

“I’m JaeBum.” He said, offering his hand.

“Choi YoungJae.”

They stayed quiet for some minutes.

“So, are you here on vacation?” JaeBum asked.

“No, work.”

The JaeBum guy laughed out loud.

“What?” YoungJae inquired, offended.

“Sorry, but you just had a bit of a problem trying to communicate with that girl. How are you even working here?” He finished with an apologetic smile while running a hand through his blond hair.

“I work for a Korean company.” YoungJae shrugged.

“What about the other things? How do you talk to people?” He insisted.

“I don’t go out that much.” He shrugged again, not exactly proud of his lack of skills. The truth is everything he needed, he would 1) buy online or 2) use one of the sentences he had on his copy of ‘English for – Korean! – Dummies’. And that was it, pretty much. “You?”

“What about me?” JaeBum replied with a mischievous grin. YoungJae relaxed a bit.

“Do you live here?”

“Yes, family business.”

“Hm. You seem to speak English very well…”

“I’ve been living here for a year now.”

“That makes sense.” YoungJae said with a small smile and sensing the end of the conversation, he reached for his bag, looking for something inside of it.

When he finally pulled it out, JaeBum burst into laughter again.

“Why are you being like this?” YoungJae whined.

“You’re so cliché!”

YoungJae opened his crossword magazine without a second glace towards the boy. He didn’t have to be so mean. Besides, the crossword is a very good technique to learn new words.

They spent more 20 minutes sat next to each other, in silence as YoungJae complete his crosswords and JaeBum read something on his cellphone.

Then came the problem.

Just a last word and YoungJae would finish that page. He was kind of satisfied with his memory (come on, he just remembered ‘wanderlust’!), but he couldn't remember that last word, and it was driving him crazy.

“JaeBum?” YoungJae called quietly.

JaeBum hummed in response, his eyes leaving the screen to land on YoungJae.

“The fact of finding ​interesting or ​valuable things by ​chance.” YoungJae read, ashamed of his broken English.

The other boy gave it a thought for a second.

“How many letters?”

“Eleven.”

“Serendipity.” JaeBum answered right away.

YoungJae wrote it slowly, seeing all the letters fitting with the ones already written.

“I don’t understand it.” He said in English without realizing.

“It’s something in the lines of destiny. But good destiny. Something like that.” JaeBum explained with a gentle smile. “Are you starting another one? Let me help you.”

They sat a bit closer so JaeBum could see the pages better. The next couple of hours was spent with the boys discussing English and Korean, while JaeBum taught YoungJae new words and expressions. They got to the great number of 4 completed crosswords (which was a record to YoungJae), even with the pauses they did because JaeBum wanted to buy them coffee, food or sweets.

At 10h30, they closed the magazine and went to the boarding area. Their last exchange of words was JaeBum offering YoungJae a ride when they arrived in Korea, but YoungJae politely declined, since JaeBum would stay in Seoul, while he still had some hours to arrive in Mokpo.

They said goodbyes when JaeBum left for the first-class area, leaving YoungJae kind of regretting living in Mokpo.

“Gosh, I really love Chuseok!”

YoungJae said to himself when he crossed the main door of the airport. No much had changed in a year in that place. But YoungJae had changed a lot. He had dyed his hair, had a promotion at the company, moved to a better apartment and studied English so hard he could understand almost everything. He was happy, and he could barely wait to tell it to his family.

He started walking to the airline company booking area when he spotted a familiar face. He looked at the guy for a moment, letting his face flood in his mind.

Serendipity.

It was the first word he could say.

What was his name again?

“I guess I do have to believe in the concept of serendipity now!” He said as he stopped in front of the boy. His hair was now longer and black, and he was wearing glasses, but it was him, YoungJae was sure of it.

The boy looked up from his book, a shocked look on his strong features.

He has gotten more handsome.

“Will you be mad if I say I don’t remember your name?”

The dark-haired boy laughed.

“How can you remember serendipity and not remember my name? Guess you take your crosswords very seriously, YoungJae.”

It was YoungJae’s turn to be shocked.

“You remember my name!”

“Of course I do!” His grin was still the same. “Im JaeBum.”

“Yes, JaeBum!” YoungJae hit his head lightly. “And I told you, doing crosswords is a very nice way of learning new words!”

“Ok, ok, I accept it! Anyway, how have you been? Are you going to Mokpo again?” He closed his book, engaging a conversation with the younger.

“Yes, I am. Spending the Chuseok together is a really big tradition in my family.”

“That’s nice. I liked the hair, by the way.”

“Thanks.” YoungJae scratched the back of his neck, suddenly feeling very shy. “I liked yours too.”

“What are you doing right now? If I’m not mistaken, the next plane to Seoul is only at 2. We could grab some lunch, if you have time!” Refusing wasn’t an option. JaeBum was already getting up and taking his things – a backpack and a small suitcase. YoungJae just followed him. He didn’t want to refuse, anyway.

Minutes later, they were eating their food in a small restaurant, talking to each other like they were old friends. They didn’t even see the time passing by.

“I see you don’t have problems with English anymore.” JaeBum said after the waiter left their table.

“Yes, I practiced a lot. Now you don’t have reasons to mock me” YoungJae replied with a smile.

“I can mock you for copying my hair, though.” JaeBum smirk.

YoungJae felt his face getting flustered.

“Hey, I didn’t copy it! It’s just coincidence, alright?” He said louder than he expected.

“Ok, ok, no need to be angry! I just can’t believe I met you again!” JaeBum’s smirk transformed into a very natural smile. YoungJae smile together because he couldn’t not to follow that smile. “We should just try to see each other while w-”

JaeBum was interrupted by a voice announcing their flight. In their way to the boarding area, YoungJae remembered something he had always been curious about.

“What do people eat in the first class area?”

“Hm, nothing much. Best part is that we have wine and champagne.”

“Yah, this is very nice. I’ll save some money to travel with you in first class next time.” YoungJae said, then he realized how it could sound.

JaeBum smirked again.

“Already planning the next one?”

They said some last words and then YoungJae joked and asked JaeBum to send him a bottle of  wine from the first class.

“How?”

“You are smart, you ‘ll manage it!”

They parted ways after a too short hug. YoungJae was left regretting again, this time because he didn’t ask for the older’s number.

YoungJae was sleeping so (and because he sleeps like a rock) he couldn’t see the poor flight attendant’s efforts to give him a small bottle she’d brought hidden under her coat. She decided to put it inside the boy’s bag, being careful and hoping he would get it later.

Already at home, YoungJae was surprised to hear his mother talking about her son bringing wine from his trip. He ran to his room to find the bottle on her hands. She asked him why he had that in his bag, but he just looked at it for a while, not being able to say anything and smiling like an idiot.

YoungJae felt a tug on his heart as he sat on his economic class seat. He said he’d travel in the first class next time, but he was actually saving his money to bring his family to Chicago next year.

But he would lie if he said he wasn’t sad.

Not because of the wine but because of JaeBum.

YoungJae realized what they had was a routine, but even though he had arrived two hours earlier this year, he hadn’t seen JaeBum anywhere.

Sighing, he opened his book and started reading. Bit a bit, people were filling their seats as the departure time was getting closer. YoungJae was immersed on the story when he sensed someone sitting next to him. He didn’t have the time to actually look at the person when he heard that voice.

“Will you ever stop copying my hair?”

YoungJae faced JaeBum.

How can someone be so stunning?

YoungJae laughed because this time, it was true. YoungJae had let the blond hair behind, dyeing it pitch black sometime in the beginning of the year. JaeBum was different too: he had painted his hair in a shade of golden brown. A very alluring color, in YoungJae’s opinion.

“How was the wine?”

“Never drank it.” YoungJae felt the heat on his face. He had kept the bottle untouched for the year (but JaeBum didn’t need to know that).

“So I broke the rules for you and you didn’t drink it?” How YoungJae missed that smirk.

“What are you doing here?”

“First class is not very interesting.” JaeBum said, looking around.

“Hm.”

And unlike the last time they met, it felt like they had nothing to talk about.

The plane took off and they kept quiet for some time. YoungJae fidgeted on his seat, feeling restless. He flinched when JaeBum spoke.

“YoungJae, let’s stop it, ok?”

“W-What?” YoungJae cringed for stuttering in a single word sentence.

JaeBum took a deep breath, turning a bit so he could be face to face to the boy.

“Let’s meet each other when we come back, alright?”

YoungJae opened his mouth, but he couldn’t think of something to say. His heart was beating like crazy. But JaeBum didn’t let him speak.

“I was trying to convince myself we would cross paths in Chicago, I was walking around with my neck stretched out in hopes of meeting you, YoungJae. But , there are more than 2 million people in that city, how was I supposed to meet you there? See, I googled your name. Don’t you use Facebook? Instagram? How do you talk to people? , YoungJae, I ing looked everywhere!”

“Stop swearing!” was the single coherent thing YoungJae could say.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m a bit nervous here.” JaeBum ran a hand through his hair, out of habit. YoungJae decided he liked that habit. “Give me your cellphone.”

“What?” YoungJae looked from JaeBum’s hair to his eyes. “Why?”

“Sorry. Oh , let me do this right. I want to stop seeing you only once a year in a rushed meeting. Let’s go out for a coffee someday after Chuseok, is it ok with you?”

5 months later.

“You did what?” YoungJae let go of JaeBum’s hand, looking at the boy as if he had grown another head.

“Baby, wait, I wanted to tell you befo-”  JaeBum tried to intertwine their fingers again, but YoungJae got up.

“What about the serendipity thing? I thought we were destiny!” YoungJae whined. He knew he sounded childish, but he just loved how he and JaeBum met each other and fell in love by chance.

“Jae, we are destiny! It was just the most recent one. The first two years we met was totally by coincidence!” JaeBum got up as well, getting closer to his boyfriend, taking his face in his hands. “I was afraid of telling you because I feared you’d think I was a creep. But now… I don’t care how cheesy it sounds, but I know we are meant to be Jae, what I did doesn’t change a thing. We would meet each other again, no matter how.”

“I can’t believe you looked into my booking information.” YoungJae said, but he was smiling now because of his boyfriend words.

“How would I sit next to you if I didn’t know where your seat was? I just wanted to meet you again… I felt like we were wasting a lifetime chance.”

“We were.” YoungJae leaned forward to land a kiss on JaeBum’s lips. “Wait!” The boy backed away a bit enough to look at JaeBum’s face. “How did you get the information? It’s confidential, isn’t it?

“I thought you’d have connected the dots by now.” JaeBum’s face was flustered. “Remember when I told you my dad worked in the aeronautics sector?”

“, don’t tell me…”

“Yes, my dad owns that airline company.”

comments are always welcomed :)