A couple of minutes after the "squirting incident", Kim Hanbin and Hope Hwang finally calmed down. They enjoyed a comfortable silence as Hanbin fixed himself up and Hope put away her backpack. Hope reclines her seat and Hanbin follows so that he could be at level with her. 

Hanbin clears his throat and turns to Hope. "So, Miss Hope Hwang, what brings you to Seoul?" 

"Ooooh, is this the getting to know you part of the day?" She teases.  

He couldn't help but feel the surge of red on his cheeks. "I mean... If you don't want to answer, it's okay." He starts looking intently at his shoes. 

"Ya! I was serious about the getting know part! But, to answer your question, I am here for work. My uncle asked me to create a menu for his new restaurant in Itaewon." Hope tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Hopefully I will impress him with my skills." 

Clap. "No wonder those cookies were good! That explains those bomb- cookies."

Hope shushes the boy leader by moving closer and pressing her left pointer finger to his lips. "Never use the B word inside any airplane or airport, ok?" 

Thump. Thump. Thump. Hanbin's heart fluttered being a few small inches away from her. For some reason he can hear Ju-ne, Junhwan and Donghyuk's voices singing "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid. He pushes this thought aside and just nodded as she pulled away. 

"What about you? What do you do?" 

Wait, she doesn't know? How can she not know?! WHY DOESN'T SHE KNOW?! Hanbin felt his heart dropped to the floor. "Uhm... I'm..." Think pabo! "I'm just a choreographer. I work for this really big Media/Entertainment company. I deal with boybands, mostly." 

"Aaah... So that's why you said that you do that" she recreates the movement he did from the leg cramp incident, "pushy push leg thing!" 

He snorts. "Pushy push leg thing? You're so weird." 

"What do you call that move then?" Her left eyebrow raised. 

Hanbin pauses for a second and blanks out. Since he forgot what it's called, he decided to pacify the situation instead. He purses his lips and with a sigh says, "pushy push leg thing." 

She tries to stifle her giggles. "Dork." 

"Whatever you say, weirdo. You better make a batch of those cookies when we get to Seoul," he blurts. 

Hope felt her left eyebrow lift itself. "You think we'll see each other after this?" 

Cautiously, he replies. "I don't see a reason why we shouldn't. I did save you from minutes of unbearable pain." He pretends to cough. "That's like at least 2 dozen cookies, in my opinion." 

She couldn't help but smile at the dork. "Let's put a pin on that for now. We still have like 6 hours before we land. We might not even want to talk to each other after this flight." 

Hanbin shakes his in disapproval. "I highly doubt that, but your call." 

"Good! Before we continue, I shall visit the ladies room. Excuse me." Hope grabs her backpack and heads to the bathroom 

==================================== 

Hope locks the bathdoor behind her and was appalled by her reflection on the mirror. She examined herself and was not happy by what she saw. Her eyebags and dark circles scream stress and her hair needs a lot of work. She started sniffing her pits (still good) and shirt (also good) for any traces of bad odor (none). Quickly, she rummages thru her bag for some oil-blotting sheets, a hairbrush and her favorite peach lip balm.  

After 5 minutes of grooming, she was satisfied with the result. She lets out a shaky puff of air. Why am I so nervous?! He's just a guy. I'm just a girl. We're just talking. It's all good clean fun.  Nothing to be afraid of. Waaaaah! What if he doesn't like me? Does that mean I get seatzoned? 6 hours of awkward silence? Noooo!!! Breathe Hope. Breathe. You can do this. Fighting!!!! 

==================================== 

Hanbin slyly checks if she's inside the bathroom and quickly opens the browser of his phone. Good thing he had already asked for the wifi password earlier. He types "Hope Hwang chef los angeles" and sees her catering company called "The Catering Hope" on top of the search results. He sees a few pictures of her in her chef's uniform with her clients. Cute, but not necessarily what he was looking for. He checks the door of the bathroom again and sees no sign of her leaving yet. 

He opens his IG and types her name and came up with 2 other people with same name, one from Germany and the other was from Jeju. He tries a combination of tags using her catering company's name but to zero avail. He was about to open his FB app when he felt an eerie presence behind him. "Hey Hope." 

"Whatcha doin', Mr.Kim?" Hope goes back to her seat. 

With a quick shuffle, he pockets his mobile phone. "Was just check my SNS. Hhhow was the bathroom?" 

"It was nice and clean." A devilish grin spreads on her pink lips. "It's @ImperfectHope by the way. No spaces." 

Confused, Hanbin scrunches his face. "Huh?" 

"Nothing." There's that grin on her face again. "Wanna watch a movie? I think I have the Godfather trilogy on my tablet." 

Hm. Imperfect hope? I wonder what that was.. "That sounds good. Queue it up, chef!" 

======================================== 

Midway through Godfather 2,  Hanbin found himself watching the movie alone when he heard Hope snoring ever so softly. She must be really tired.  He paused the film and puts the tablet back into her backpack. He just sat there, looking at her. He was just studying the way she looked as she slept. He was memorizing her features and could not help thank his lucky stars that they brought them together.  
 
He started thinking of ways or lines he can use to get her number once she wakes when he felt a quick tap on his shoulder.  He turns around and sees Seung-Hoon hyung motioning him to come with him to the gallery. He stood up gently, careful not to wake the girl sleeping beside him. 

"We have a situation, B.I.." 

Hanbin studied the worried look on his face. "What's wrong hyung?" 

"I just read an email from Admin, they moved the LG photoshoot for tomorrow so we have to be in Jeju by tonight. The rest of guys are already there. I've spoken to the flight staff, they are allowing us to disembark the plane first so we can catch the 9:30 flight to Jeju." 

Hanbin pinches the space between his eyebrows and just nodded. Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity... 

"By the way, who's the girl?" 

"Just my seatmate!" Hanbin forcefully turns his hyung's back away from the business class cabin and into coach. "Just rest. We still have a long way to go. Later!" 

Hanbin makes sure that his manager-hyung is seated before he heads back to the business class cabin. So much for my lucky stars. Sigh. We're only 2 hours away from Seoul. I want to talk some more but.. I just... I can't wake her up.  

========================================= 

2 hours later... 

"Miss Hwang? Please wake up, we are now in Seoul." 

Hope open her eyes and saw Miss Winky face handing her coat to her. The rest of the passengers were leaving the plane. She looked around and it took her a second to register that 1) They have already landed in Seoul. 2) Mr. Kim is nowhere to be found. 3) He left without saying goodbye.  "Have you seen Mr. Kim? I think he has my tablet." 

"He and his companion had already left 15 minutes ago. They were catching a flight to Jeju so we allowed them to leave. " Miss Winky said poitely. 

"Oh, is that so... " Dammit! I should have stayed awake! Hope opens her back and there was her tablet with a post-it attached to it. 

 

It was nice to meet you, Imperfect Hope. Until we meet again. :)

                                     - Mr. Kim