Kyulkyung pants heavily, dragging her small suitcase behind her as she runs towards the boarding terminal. There's only five minutes left before her flight takes off.

"Here." She immediately handed over her boarding pass to the gate attendant who is obviously trying to hide her dismay towards the passenger's behavior. Kyulkyung pursed her lips and chewed on it, looking apologetic for her tardiness.

"I got unlucky today. I'm sorry," was her unsolicited explanation for the situation.

The gate attendant smiled (but Kyulkyung can tell it was a practiced one) and let her in. Kyulkyung picks a quicker pace while walking through the small hallway before finally entering the plane.

"Ma'am?" A flight attendant called her attention, looking at the boarding pass in her hand. "Your seat, please?"

Kyulkyung absent-mindedly handed her boarding pass to the young lady and patiently waited to be assisted. She can hear the plane whirring, already preparing to take off.

Kyulkyung sighs as she recalls all the misfortunes she had just before she reached the airport. First, Kyulkyung's alarm clock run out of battery while she was asleep and she woke up an hour late than intended. She was sure that she also set her phone's alarm only to find out in the morning that she was actually too sleepy to turn it on. Second, she may have accidentally almost set her apartment on fire while making her breakfast but she needs to keep that information a secret from her landlady. Lastly, just when she was about to alight the taxi she have waited for so long to arrive, she realized she forgot her passport and boarding pass by the coffee table. She can almost swear the universe wanted her to miss this flight but the joke is on the universe for she is so not going to miss this flight as she is definitely set to have a taste of home sweet home finally after more than a year.

Or maybe she should have just read the signs correctly and missed this flight. The thought arises upon seeing the seat next to her already occupied by none other than her ex-girlfriend who goes by the name of Im Nayoung. She was outraged.

"Didn't you say you're not going?" Kyulkyung has her eyes trained at the older girl while she placed her suitcase in the overhead bin. The older girl looked startled by her presence just as well. Kyulkyung continued to scrutinize her ex with her eyebrow raised, arms crossed and eyes definitely judging.

"Well, you also said the same thing yet here you are," was Nayoung’s passive reply, shrugging as she points the younger girl’s presence.

Okay. So maybe Nayoung does have a point but she's the Chinese one in here. She is more entitled to a flight back home over the pathetic piece of an- okay, Kyulkyung doesn't know how to badmouth someone (or maybe just Nayoung, but whatever). The point is she is Chinese! She deserves this flight back home more than the tourist Korean girl in front of her. She heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes.

"Shoo," Kyulkyung waved her hand over Nayoung, signaling for her to move out of her seat.

Nayoung grimaced. "Okay. I know you're pissed but I paid for this flight, too. This is my-"

“That's my seat," Kyulkyung cut her off and showed off her boarding pass. “See?”

Knowing she won the argument, Kyulkyung kept her arms crossed, eyeing the girl to move to the next seat. "So, shoo."

Nayoung didn't say anything after that, only rolled her eyes and begrudgingly moved, letting Kyulkyung have the seat by window.

Kyulkyung smiled victoriously as she plopped down her seat. She took out her phone, put it on airplane mode, and took a picture of the plane taking off from her seat. She smiled, satisfied to have an instagram-worthy shot. She could always pretend to be seated next to an unruly strange young adult anyway. It shouldn’t be that hard.

“Geez. Did you run a marathon before getting here?” Nayoung commented upon noticing Kyulkyung’s disheveled hair, sweaty face and arms, and ragged breaths.

Kyulkyung inhaled, gathering all her patience before she faked a smile to the girl next to her as she pretends to be completely unbothered. “Yes. And what about it?”

Nayoung nodded, however still unconvinced, kept the pamphlet close to her chest, and scanned the Chinese girl’s figure from head to toe. “Nothing much, really. That is if you looking like a complete mess doesn’t count.” She shrugged, shook her head, and continued to read the airlines’ pamphlet.

Kyulkyung pretended like she doesn’t care about the girls comment but fixed herself as discreetly as possible. Why the hell is Nayoung suddenly being talkative anyway? She is aware of how unkempt she looks right now and hates how her first encounter with Nayoung after their break-up just have to be in this flight back home with her looking like an utter chaos. She was supposed to look as dashing as ever and watch Nayoung’s jaw drop by the sight of her goddess self! She definitely shouldn’t have taken this flight, she mentally slaps herself.

Kyulkyung cannot take Nayoung’s judging gaze for another minute that she just have to make her way to the comfort room to properly fix herself.

Reaching the room, she immediately washed her face and stared at her reflection in the mirror. “I don’t even look that bad.” Kyulkyung shot a glare to Nayoung’s direction however completely futile that action was. “You, on the other hand, look like you haven’t eaten for years,” Kyulkyung huffed before fixing her hair.

She really doesn’t look that bad! Sure, she’s sweating but Nayoung said she looks the hottest after her morning jog! Sure, she did not put any makeup on because she was in a hurry but Nayoung said she looks the prettiest in the morning when she definitely do not have any make-up on! Were all the things she said lies? Kyulkyung shook her head and resolved to not involve herself in any form of self-pity anymore. So what if Nayoung thinks she looks like a complete mess? It’s not like Nayoung looks good today. Kyulkyung frowned. Nayoung still looks hot but she did not just admit that to herself.

--

The flight will be short so Kyulkyung’s confident that after that whole scene they made when they first saw each other, she can manage to not talk to Nayoung anymore although she does have a few questions that of course will have to stay in her chest. She trained her eyes by the window which shows nothing but endless clouds of blue and white—nothing she hasn’t seen before.

It was quiet, the flight. It’s nothing Kyulkyung’s not used to anyway. Back then, when she was still dating the girl next to her, Nayoung would barely speak but makes sure Kyulkyung’s aware of her presence either by holding her hand or her hair or kissing her forehead or cuddling her to sleep or—oh the list could go on and on. Kyulkyung sighed. Why are the memories slowly becoming so distant? Kyulkyung forced her eyes to stay open, afraid that a tear would run down if she ever closes them. She is definitely not going to cry in front of Nayoung. Not now. Not ever (maybe). However, her reverie was broken when she felt a sudden weight on her shoulder.

Kyulkyung saw Nayoung’s sleepy little head resting comfortably on her shoulders. Kyulkyung bit her lips, trying her best to stop herself from caressing the face of her former lover. She shouldn’t feel this soft for Nayoung. She shouldn’t. No matter how serene the view before her is. No matter how much she misses the girl. No matter how many nights she wishes she could be next to her and watch her sleep. No matter how much it pains her that this beautiful face resting oh so solemnly on her shoulders is no longer hers to admire and hold. But there’s only too much a heart could hold so Kyulkyung decided to not deny herself a dash of happiness that is Nayoung. She breathed in and let the girl sleep as comfortably as she does now. It won’t be that long anyway.

--

The crew announced that the plane would be landing but Nayoung is still asleep. Kyulkyung doesn’t know if she should wake the girl up because that option would involve her talking to Nayoung and she is not sure she can handle seeing Nayoung treat her indifferently as though she wasn't once the object of her affection.

The plane has finally landed and the passengers started leaving their seats. The hustle and bustle of it all may have stir Nayoung which caused Kyulkyung to suddenly bolt up from her seat, definitely waking Nayoung up. Kyulkyung felt her head throbbing, probably a head rush from standing up too fast, but she just held on the seats in front of her and made her way to retrieve her suitcase, purposely avoiding Nayoung’s gaze.

Kyulkyung glanced at Nayoung who was stretching her neck, probably trying to wake herself up. After retrieving her suitcase, Kyulkyung faced towards the exit but felt the need to at least ask Nayoung this question.

“How’d you intend to go around?” Kyulkyung was concerned, she won’t deny it. When they were planning this trip, much of the problems were already covered by Kyulkyung.

“I researched,” was Nayoung’s quick but short reply.

“Ah. I see.” Kyulkyung was hesitant to leave Nayoung but this is Nayoung. She is old enough, mature enough, to handle a trip by herself. “See you around.” Kyulkyung cleared immediately after realizing the implications of what she just said. “Or maybe not. Whatever.” Kyulkyung closed her eyes and clenched her teeth as she scold herself on her way out of the plane.

--

a/n: i marked it as one shot even though it is not because it should have been one. i just don't have enough time to finish this all at once and i'm apparently too excited to see how y'all would react to this (i hope you like it :() and i might lose inspiration to even finish this (school starts next week!) so i decided to post it already so you can bother me. hehe. there would be two or three more chapters after this. please let me know if you like it! haha. thank you for reading~ :)