What brought them together was a single similarity.

-

The air was tensed between the six men in a neighbourhood café. Wandering eyes and fidgety posture made even the waitress attending to them a bit nervous.

“Well…” One spoke up. “We’re all here because we like planes, right?”

“Yeah.” Another agreed and gave a smile.

The one who broke the ice returned a grateful smile and addressed the other five with greater confidence now. “I’m Kim Donghyun, also the creator of the GLIDER group.”

“Oh, so you’re E.black-”

“Kwangmin, it’s rude to use online IDs in real life!” His lookalike piped up and nudged him.

“Oops.” Kwangmin flattened slightly, but smiled brightly almost immediately. “I’m Jo Kwangmin.”

“And I’m Jo Youngmin.” Youngmin smiled gently. “…the older twin.”

“You know, you really didn’t have to add that.” Kwangmin pouted and glared his twin.

The one who smiled earlier at Donghyun picked up on the atmosphere to continue with his own introduction. “I’m Lee Jeongmin.”

“And I’m Shim Hyunseong.”

The five heads then turned to the last member of their online group.

“H-Hello.” The baby-faced man stuttered a bit and cleared his throat. “I’m No Minwoo.”

“Well, now that we have our introductions done, let’s get down to business.”

-

“Woah, Donghyun-hyung is totally rich!” Jeongmin clapped gleefully, skipping into the wide space.

“I’m not.” The leader of the group, also coincidentally the oldest of the six laughed, slightly abashed. “Besides, all of you chipped in. All I did was to ask an old friend to rent us a space and he gave me a good offer.”

“I love the hangar!” Kwangmin chirped. “Totally adds to the mood even though we’re just creating model airplanes to sell online.”

“Not just model airplanes, Kwangmin.” Youngmin scrunched his face up, always paying more attention to details. “Vintage model airplanes.”

“How about our workspace?” Hyunseong looked curiously around the space, always the more serious one of the group.

“It’s linked by the side door at the end of this hangar.” Donghyun gestured. “Let’s go check it out.”

Hums of agreement were heard as they moved towards the said area, until Donghyun suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Is there something wrong, hyung?” Jeongmin blinked wide-eyed, stopping in time before he could bump into the older man.

They turned around to see what Donghyun was looking at, smiling softly amongst themselves.

The quiet youngest member staring into the empty space, eyes seeing what the other five could imagine.

-

The twins were in charge of teaching the other two on the basics of modelling a plane seeing as the other were all rookies. Donghyun and Jeongmin had plain interest, Hyunseong was an aerospace engineering major while Minwoo – well, he never really said much.

Being architecture majors in their university days, they taught the ropes as best as they could while Donghyun and Jeongmin were assigned to source for model materials. Kwangmin dreamt of making their models fly so Hyunseong was tasked to figure out if he could make a model engine fit their conceptualised models.

“And this streamline helps keep the airplane reduce the drag force experience.” Youngmin supplied helpfully while Minwoo nodded attentively.

“You don’t know much, do you?” Kwangmin rubbed his chin thoughtfully and got a rough nudge from his twin. “I didn’t mean to be rude!”

“Sorry.” Minwoo apologised guiltily while Kwangmin gained a glare from his twin.

“You really don’t have to-“

Minwoo smiled quickly and shook his head as if to say it was okay. He looked at the design and the lines, sighing softly.

“…all this while, I only learnt how to operate a plane.”

-

Kwangmin spread the news to the other members and Donghyun looked especially thoughtful after the new knowledge.

“Is that so?” He asked, eyes falling onto the youngest member who stared at his notes in concentration.

“Too bad we’re making models, yeah?” Kwangmin shrugged, marching off to Hyunseong to ask about his progress on the mini engine he talked about the other day.

“….models.”

-

”Hey Minwoo, there’s a room that belonged to the previous owner of this old hangar. I want you to check it out.”

Minwoo looked curiously at the insides of the room that didn’t look as old as he thought it would. There were even Youngmin’s recently made model plane hanging from the air.

Maybe they decorated this up without him knowing.

Exploring a bit more, he saw an old locker that was used as a bookshelf. Letting his curiosity take over, he reached for the first book and flipped through it without much thought.

The pages stopped and revealed an old photo.

This must be the previous owner.

He blinked.

But this…

-

Minwoo shifted his weight from his left to his right leg continuously, the other five waiting for him patiently.

“I want to…fly a plane.”

-

Donghyun got an old plane that could no longer function at a good price while the other members stared in awe and wondered what this man couldn’t do.

“We’ll need the hangar cleaned, the engine of the plane to function and some parts replacement.”

Jeongmin volunteered to clean up the place since there wasn’t much he could do with a real-life plane, while the twins were in charge of checking for any faulty parts. Hyunseong oversaw the mechanics of the plane and Donghyun was told to take it easy since he’s pretty much their bank.

“We really don’t want to piss off our god of wealth.” Jeongmin laughed. “Didn’t you bring your pet dogs here the other day? Just play with them or something.”

Donghyun laughed at the absurd idea but the rest made extra efforts to ensure he didn’t work.

Curiously, Minwoo tried to offer help in return for everyone’s help in his selfish request and was rejected as well.

“You just concentrate on how to fly a plane.” Kwangmin grinned, carrying the replacement parts in and passing them on to his twin to inspect.

Youngmin agreed. “You’re the only one who can carry our dreams up into the air.”

“They are right.” Donghyun smiled, hooking his arm around the shorter man’s neck. “We are all doing what we can do best. Hyunseong, Jeongmin, Youngmin and Kwangmin. So you just concentrate on what you can do best.”

“But this is my selfish request-”

“No.” Donghyun cut the younger off. “This is our selfish request.”

The other four smiled as Donghyun pressed both hands down on Minwoo’s shoulders, eyes staring straight at their pilot.

“Fly.”

-

Their god of wealth brought in an experienced pilot to inspect their fixed plane and to guide Minwoo in his first flight.

Minwoo only knew the theories up till then, but never had a chance to fly an actual plane. He matched his knowledge to what was taught, and tried to breathe when he was told that take off would happen in ten minutes.

He watched his five members stand at the end of the runway cheering him up with a thumbs-up, and thought back to the old photo he found.

”Minwoo, do you like the sky?”

“Yes!” A young child at age 4 squealed, jumping into the arms of an old man.

“Long, long ago, when your grandpa was in his younger days…” The old man recounted nostalgically. “I flew one too.”

“Grandpa did?” Little Minwoo looked up with wide-eyes. “I want to fly too!”

“Right? As expected, Minwoo resembles me!” The grandfather laughed heartily. “Your father dislikes height and I was so disappointed no one could share my dream that I sold my old hangar. Perhaps I should have saved it for you.”

Minwoo held onto the joystick with strengthened resolve, staring at the five members who made this possible.

The airplane gained speed on the runway and Minwoo pulled the joystick back with a signal from his mentor, then feeling the inclination with his entire body.

A scenery like never before engulfed him.

I flew.

-

; towards that wide sky.

-

tbh I wrote this 'cause I saw comments of how it didn't have plot but it felt like it had to me so...........