She watched as the vehicle halted into a stop in front of the huge building of the airport. As everyone else hopped out of the vehicle, she grabbed her bag and followed them, opening the car door beside her and stepping outside as the cool fall breeze welcomed her. She knew she was going to miss that and she sincerely hoped she could find a way to get back to the country soon.

As she stepped out and stood on the side, she watched as her luggage was being brought down from the taxi’s compartment and faced the man who was getting it for her after. “So, this is it.” he uttered after placing down her luggage in front of her.

She laughed. “You sounded like I’m about to die and not see you forever.”

“But you know it’d take forever again for us to see each other.” her friend uttered and she couldn’t really argue against that one knowing that it is indeed correct.

She sighed. “I’ll try to visit as soon as possible again, I promise.”

Kibum raised his brows at her. “You promise?”

She smiled and nodded her head. “But I don’t know when that is going to happen though.”

The frown that just disappeared from his face made a return and Taeyeon just laughed at him. “You know how busy I am with work back at home. But I promise, as soon as I get some free time or some sort, I’ll come visit!”

Kibum just sighed in return. “Call me when you already land at Incheon, okay?”

Taeyeon nodded her head and smiled. “Yes, sir. I got it.” she smiled and chuckled at him as she reached for her luggage.

“Now, I don’t want you to blame me in case you miss your flight so hurry and go inside now.” Kibum uttered and Taeyeon immediately walked towards him to give him a tight hug.

“Thank you for having me.” she muttered enough for her friend to hear.

She heard him sigh once more. “Anytime, noona. You know that.”

They both hugged each other tightly and pulled out minutes after. “God, I hate that I am actually going to miss you. Goodness.”

Kibum laughed at her and lightly hit her forehead after. “You better get inside or I won’t let you leave Osaka anymore.”

She laughed at his response and once again bid him goodbye before she walked through the entrance of the airport and turned around once more to wave goodbye to her friend for the last time. As soon as she saw him waving back at her, she gave him one last smile and turned around and walked further inside the airport to check her stuff in.

As soon as she got her boarding pass, she quickly proceeded to the immigration and once she was in, she suddenly found herself lost in the stores inside the airport. As she got some more time left before her actual time departure, she decided she’d make a quick stroll around the stores and also, maybe do a last minute shopping for whatever things that she might want to get and take back to Korea as presents or just souvenirs for this trip of hers knowing it would take her quite some time again to get back to the beautiful country which she greatly admired. And before she could even notice, she already had a few paper bags in her hands. I gotta stop or else I’ll spend all the cash in my wallet in this place alone.

Taking out her boarding pass that she secured inside her bag, she scanned the details written on the paper and later on searched for her gate number to spend the rest of the remaining time there before they board the aircraft. Her gate number was located at the south wing of the airport and she made her way through the pretty empty airport. She was kind of glad she picked this period to go on a short vacation, considering that it was out of the peak season. Though she would like to go on a trip during the holidays, she didn’t really specifically like it when there were a lot of people around for she couldn’t really enjoy her surroundings and the place itself.

Finally reaching her departure gate, she scanned the seats provided for the flight passenger of the same gate and tried to find a seat for herself. She walked through the seats and finally found a vacant one in the middle of the area and made her way towards there, sitting down beside an empty seat as well and letting herself be comfortable there as she waited for them to be called to finally board their aircraft. Taking her phone out of her bag, she looked at the time written on the screen and saw that she still has about an hour or so, just a little less than two hours to wait before their flight. Well, that doesn’t seem that much of a wait. She thought she had spent more boring hours at home so this shouldn’t be a challenge for her.

Left with nothing to do, she opened her phone and went to her email to check if there were any emails that were left unanswered—though she pretty much checks her emails everyday, she just wanted to make sure.

As she busily checked her emails on her seat, an announcement suddenly rang through the speakers in their area, immediately taking her focus out of what she was busily doing.

“Ladies and gentlemen, good day to each and everyone of you. We hope all of you are comfortable in your places as you all wait to board your respective aircrafts. We are here to announce that flights going Seoul, Beijing, and Taiwan that are bound to leave in less than two hours will be experiencing a delay. This is due to the delayed departure of the aircraft from their destinations which then affected our flights here in Kansai International Airport. We greatly apologize for this inconvenience that we have brought. May you have any inquiries and questions, kindly approach your respective attendants assigned on your gates to help you with your needs. Once again, we apologize for this inconvenience. Thank you and may you all have a pleasant day ahead.”

Her brows were furrowed together as the people around her in the area started to make incoherent noises of dismay and disappointment. “God, you’ve got to be kidding me with this.” She stood up on her seat, bringing her stuff with her and hurriedly taking her boarding pass and ticket out of her bag as she made her way towards the counter near the boarding gate that directly connects to the aircraft already.

“Um, excuse me?” she politely asked, and the lady behind the counter answered her with a smile on her face.

“About the announcement that just came in, um, is this flight included in those that will be delayed?” she asked, handing out both her boarding pass and her ticket to the attendant that right away looked and checked the papers in front of her.

After a few moments, the attendant straightened up behind the counter and looked at her with an apologetic look painted on her face. “I apologize ma’am, but yes, your flight is included in the delayed flights today.”

“Oh my goodness.” she muttered lowly, trying not to be rude to the kind and polite attendant but she couldn’t hold her dismay that well. “How long is the flight going to be delayed then?”

The attendant looked through her monitor for a while before she looked up back to her and responded. “About an hour or two, ma’am.”

“Oh god.” She muttered out. This is just great!

She uttered a short thanks to the attendant who in return gave her a smile and a courteous nod. She stayed in her spot for a moment until she noticed the attendant gazing up from her to somewhere behind her and figured out that there might be someone behind her waiting to also inquire on the desk. So she quickly turned around, finally ready to leave her spot as well and walk back to her seat—which she wasn’t sure if it was still empty at this moment after she just walked out earlier without leaving anything behind to save it for herself—and maybe do some work related things to really buy her some time with all of the hours left before she could actually get herself on the plane and fly back to Korea. But all of those things she already had in mind to do were washed away when she caught a glimpse of the man standing behind her and she felt her world suddenly stopping right there.

What the actual…

She had the same expression as him with her eyes almost popping out as she finally gained recognition of the man standing in front of her.

“Baekhyun,” she wasn’t sure how she was able to do that, but she managed to utter his name out. The name that she had been dreading to call for so long. And she honestly wanted to give herself a pat on her back for it.

She waited for his response but he remained still right there at his spot. His eyes were still round which gave off that he seemed to be as shocked as she was by seeing her. I mean, who wouldn’t be? Would one even think of accidentally bumping into your ex in a place like this? An airport for that matter?

As he took more minutes of remaining silent, she could feel herself getting more uneasy. God, why do I feel like he hated the fact that we saw each other? Oh god.

“Taeyeon,” as soon as she heard him speak and mentioning her name, she felt herself easing a bit up and a smile automatically formed on her lips, even if she tried her hardest to contain it. Not really wanting to obviously show how she felt happy just by simply hearing him call her name, she averted her eyes down on the paper that he was holding.

“Are you heading back to Seoul?” She figured out the question was a bit… stupid considering that he was at the airport, and amazingly crossed paths with her at the gate of her flight back to Korea, not to mention that he was also approaching the counter after the announcement rang off from the speakers. He couldn’t be going anywhere else between Taiwan, Beijing, and Korea. But who knows, he might be on a… business trip. I mean, he’s a busy man.

She was certain where her thoughts would be heading so she right away dismissed it and instead focused on what was currently happening at the moment.

She saw him glance down on the paper that was on his hand, nodding his head at her afterwards. “Ah, yeah. I’m actually here to ask if my flight is the one that is being delayed since an announcement came in just now.”

Great. My alternate ego was right, he’s also heading back to Korea.

But then, just by the thought of it, she suddenly realized something. She furrowed her brows and turned to look at him. “Do you mind if…” she trailed off, not really wanting to startle him by right away asking for the paper that he was holding, although her hand was already outstretched towards him. Well, at least, I’m asking for his permission, right?

She saw him glancing down to the paper in his hand before handing it out to her. “Oh yeah, sure. I mean, I don’t mind.”

She felt an urge to smile widely witnessing him stutter with his words, but she didn’t want to make him feel bad about it, so instead, she tried to contain her smile that was already playing on her lips before she took the paper from him. Glancing down at the paper, she looked at the flight details and was still a little surprised to learn that they actually and were really on the same flight, even though it was a little obvious already given the situation they are placed in; bumping into each other in the airport that happened to be in Osaka and not in Korea. Oh wow, the world and its wonders.

“I guess we are on the same flight.” She uttered as she handed the paper back to him, actually lost for any words to say.

“Is it the one being delayed?” He asked, quirking his brows at her and taking the paper back.

She nodded her head at him regretfully. “They said it’d be delayed for about an hour or so.”

“Oh…” he muttered. And she knew that this conversation of them was approaching its end already. “That… .”

“I know,” she stupidly muttered after, letting out a sigh after knowing very well that the conversation had already ended and they were probably going back to what they were doing earlier, out of each other’s business. Like how it should be.

And just like that, silence immediately and ironically fell into them despite the noise of their surroundings. As much as Taeyeon knew it was probably the end of their meeting, she found herself searching for words to say just to keep the conversation going. She wasn’t exactly sure why she wanted this, why she wanted for them to keep talking like everything was fine, but she just wanted it. Despite the countless reasons for her to just let things be and walk away from this situation, she wanted to stay.

As she attempted to quickly search for words to utter while she also tried her best to keep her eyes away from him, afraid that she might end up staring at him after years of not seeing it, Baekhyun immediately spoke which caused her surprise.

“So um,” she immediately snapped her head up to look at him as he started. “Do you want to, um, go take a seat?”

As if she wasn’t surprised enough that he actually spoke first before she could even think of anything else to say just to keep their conversation going, she was even more surprised to hear those words from him that all she could do for a moment was to remain silent and look at him in return while she tried her best to push away the thoughts in her head and think of a proper response.

Is this… really happening? She couldn’t help but dumbly ask herself. Maybe he’s just being nice, right? Yeah, right. He’s just being nice. There’s no way he would want to actually spend more time with me after everything that happened.

But whether or not he asked out of mere kindness to her, there was no way that she would decline it. She was about to respond back to him, accepting his offer when he suddenly beat her at it.

“But it’s fine, I mean that was so sudden for me to ask and you might be with someone and I know—”

Taeyeon found herself suddenly laughing seeing how Baekhyun blubbered his words out which was a habit of his when he’s panicking. She immediately felt bad letting her laughter out when he suddenly stopped speaking, but she couldn’t help it especially when she found him extremely cute being panicked after such a long time. He’s still the same as before. Well, at least when he’s panicking. That, I could say.

She thought that he probably was surprised at her suddenly laughing at him when he stood right there and just blinked at her after. And as he furrowed his brows later on, Taeyeon couldn’t help the smile painted on her face from growing wider that she had to immediately bite on her lip to stop herself from smiling any wider and look like a crazy woman right in front of him.

“Is there something on my face?” He suddenly asked, breaking the silence between them which immediately brought Taeyeon into another pit of laughter.

She shook her head at him and said, “No. You look fine. And truthfully, I am travelling on my own. I’d love to have some company while we wait for our flight.”

For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to look at him directly as she answered and kept her eyes away from him at all times. But despite of it, she actually uttered those words out with sincerity. Though she wouldn’t be admitting it to anyone else but herself alone, of course she wanted to take the opportunity right in front of her to spend some time with him. Especially after not seeing each other for so long. She knew she had all the reasons to walk away from the situation, to actually walk away from him. But her mind couldn’t even spare a second to consider any of those. Though she slightly felt worried over what Baekhyun could be thinking about this whole situation and about her at the moment, she tried her best to push those thoughts away and just do what she wanted to do. All she wanted was to take on the moment and make the most out of it in any way that she possibly could.

After her response, she watched him look around the waiting hall as if he was scanning the area for any vacant seats for them to sit on. She roamed her eyes over the hall and found no empty seats. Even the seat that she was sitting on earlier was already occupied.

“Do you want some coffee?” He asked moments after. “Maybe we could stay at a cafe and wait there instead. It’s getting stuffy in here,” he added.

She quickly scanned her eyes over the now crowded hall before she turned back to him to answer. “Sure. I was actually planning to go and have a drink.”

Of course, that was a complete lie. She honestly didn’t know why she uttered those but that was what came out of as a response. Well, he wouldn’t know that it was a lie anyway. Just ride on it and go along.

“Here, let me help you with your bags.” she heard him say. She had roamed around the airport for quite some time and her legs felt a bit tired from all the walking and it didn’t quite help that she had a lot of things to carry. Her legs and her arms now seemed to ache at the sudden offer. Very tempting.

“Oh, thank you. But it’s not that really heavy.” she protested, moving her arm away from him.

“Are you sure? That’s going to leave ugly marks on your beautiful skin.” Taeyeon, it’s a trap. Say no!

“Well if you insist...” was all she had to say when he took the bags from her wrist. Dammit, Byun! Why is it that you’re always one step ahead?

They were quiet when they walked to look for a cafe. They walked next to each other but there was quite a space between them. From her peripheral view, she could see him glancing at her from time to time. But she kept her eyes straight and faked interest at the shops that would come into view. She was starting to break into a cold sweat the moment the familiar smell of coffee reached her nose.

Taeyeon quickly pointed to the one that was most familiar for her. Well, it was also familiar for him too, since it was the same café that was located two blocks away from their home. She closed her eyes for a moment to take in the smell of fresh coffee. The place was packed as people’s flights were delayed. Besides, it was the nearest from the waiting hall they just walked out of. They found themselves in line, right behind an elderly couple. They both stood right in front of the display case where the cakes and donuts were presented for the customers to crave and buy. There were a few cookies as well. But her eyes were glued to the several cakes that was on the top rack. The display case was just similar to her height. On top of it was a huge basket filled with bread. But she wasn’t craving for any of that. She just wanted to look at the menu, but the basket wouldn’t allow her. Americano, cappuccino, espresso… she couldn’t read the rest so she tried to tiptoe.

Baekhyun distracted her from her thinking when he asked, “So uh, the usual?”

“Oh um, I’d like to have an Americano please.” It was too late for her to take it back now. She didn’t want to look silly in front of him.

He placed their orders for them, once they made it to the cashier. “One Americano, and one Latte please.” She saw him glance at the display of cakes and added an order of tiramisu and a donut.

She opened her bag in search of her purse. But he handed his card first to the cashier.

“Don’t worry. It’s on me.” He said.

But she still handed him the bill when he refused. “Oh no, I insist.”

“It’s alright. You can always pay the next time we bump into each other.” But then again, he never really let her pay whenever they were out for a fancy dinner or a simple drive through at a fast food chain.

She didn’t realize she was smiling as she recalled the memory, until she saw her reflection on the mirror behind him. It was a rectangular mirror on one side of the wall to make an illusion of a huge café.

Their orders were soon completed, so she scanned the area in hopes of finding a vacant table. Every table was occupied. But luckily, she saw a group of people. who were sitting at the butter-colored couches, stand up to offer their table to them. She could feel Baekhyun following behind her with the tray of their orders.

The table was too big with just the two of them being there. Taeyeon suddenly felt like she was sweating coldly as she scanned the couches. She honestly didn’t know why she was getting nervous about where to take a seat simply, but her head was running through things already. Quickly—but without making it seem obvious of course, she sat on the other end of the table. As she was taking her seat, she was surprised to see Baekhyun taking the seat next to hers. Not that she was going to complain in any possible way, it was not just what she was expecting, given as well that there were still seats in front of them. But she figured it would be best for them to be seated like that rather than them facing each other. She would probably look at everything around them except him.

“So… uh… Americano?” he suddenly began, startling Taeyeon from her seat. “Since when?”

She suddenly felt herself freezing at her seat because of the question. But she didn’t want to show her hesitation off so she quickly opened to respond.

“It has been quite some time now actually. I’ve been trying new things here and there.” She answered as she stirred her coffee before bringing it close to to take a sip.

She hated Americano. And she still does. And she was regretting getting Americano over her usual and all-time favorite which is Latte. She felt stupid the moment she uttered Americano when they were ordering a while ago but she didn’t either have the guts to take it back and order Latte, like the usual instead.

Not wanting any of the attention towards her any longer, she quietly cleared and thought of something to ask Baekhyun instead. “How have you been? Is work still taking its toll on you?” she asked. And she knew she could probably asked something else other than… his work but, well I guess I’m stupid.

“Oh, I’m not working anymore.” was all he responded before pulling the corners of his lips into a smile after.

Taeyeon quirked her brows at the answer. She thought she was hearing things wrong—and she probably was because that was the last thing the Baekhyun she knew would probably say above anything.

Confused, she slightly tilted her head to look over his direction and spoke. “Wait, I’m sorry. But…”

He let out a chuckle. “I quit my job.”

Now it felt more like she was absolutely hearing the wrong thing—but now, clearly. The confused look that was painted on her face was right away replaced with a surprised one instead. “You what?” she couldn’t help but ask him one more time.

To say that she was shocked would definitely be an understatement. How on earth did Byun Baekhyun leave his job? Just… how?

All she got from him in return was a laugh instead. And in a matter of seconds, she herself was also laughing together with him.

“Wait, so you’re saying that you left your job?” she asked, and she just needed to even though his answer was already as direct as it could get.

“I guess it’s really unbelievable for me to do it, huh?”

She didn’t hesitate and right away nodded her head at him as she chuckled saying, “To be honest, kinda.” which made the both of them laughed in unison right after.

“But are you happy with that? I mean, was it really what you wanted?” she asked before wrapping both of her hands on her cup to take a sip of her drink.

She was having all sorts of feelings with the news. She couldn't tell exactly if she was happy about it, or what else. She could feel herself worrying, feeling concerned, feeling confused. There were a lot of things going around her head at the moment. And it was somehow pulling her back to the old times, but she didn’t want to turn into that—at least not right now, at this moment—and face all of the possible thoughts and probably emotions that she could have.

“I guess so.” he started. “It was surely taking its toll on me already and everything just became too overwhelming for me to handle.” he took a pause for a moment, but she remained silent on her seat and waited for him to continue talking instead.

And he did.

“I was burnt out. And I realized how much my work was eating me and also taking everything away from me. How it was slowly taking my life away.” he paused. And that’s when it hit her.

I realized how much my work was eating me and also taking everything away from me. How it was slowly taking my life away.

Her thoughts were finally slowly dragging her back to before. And she knew once she slipped into it, everything that was happening at the moment could be ruined in a split second. With all of her courage, she fought against the possible and unpleasant thoughts—and emotions that could appear in a moment and turned her focus to Baekhyun, who thankfully went back into talking already.

“So, I left and I’m just enjoying what I have now without worrying about the millions of deadlines I used to have before.” she let out a chuckle in an attempt to brush all of her thoughts away, and of course, to make him feel at ease for opening up about it to her.

“That’s really good to hear then. I remember how you were always worn out because of how demanding your job was.”

She knew none of them were ready to dive deeper into this whole conversation with the thought of possibly opening up the underlying factors of this one topic, so she took it upon her as well to make the conversation light and enjoyable because it was what they needed right at that moment. It was what she needed. After all those years of being apart and away from each other, and now that they actually crossed paths in the oddest place they could even see each other, she had no plans of ruining the moment that they were having. Not now.

He chuckled at her and nodded his head. “And how demanding Choi was for that matter.”

She laughed at the mention of his former boss’ name. “Oh yeah, that guy! You cursed him crazily every single time you could get to do so.”

“You mean everyday?” they both laughed.

“Yeah, I mean everyday and every second of the day.” she uttered through her laugh while nodding her head at him.

She couldn’t help but recall those times that were mentioned. It felt bittersweet having those memories playing inside her head. But again, she didn’t want to dwell too much into the past and just want to make the most out of what was happening at the moment and what she actually had right then and there. I could lose this moment in a moment if I don’t make it last.

“I think that’s enough of me. How are you? Are you still trying to get into the billions of the bank until now?” It was a joke that Baekhyun made about her job and since then, they would use it to address and label her job to their friends and other people.

She felt her heart jumping out of happiness hearing him say that and refer to her job just like the old times and she couldn’t help but let out a laugh because of it.

“Actually, I’m after the trillions now.” they both laughed. “But I’m still working at the bank, but a different branch now, and I’m a bank manager already.”

She saw how Baekhyun’s eyes widened at her answer and how he had to stop himself from drinking his drink, placing it back down at the table. “Oh wow, that is huge! I am beyond happy for you!”

Taeyeon wasn’t sure if she was just seeing things herself or she was seeing the actual thing, but Baekhyun’s face was painted with pure happiness as he uttered his words out. And more so, she could feel the sincerity of his words through it. Maybe it was just her, but she couldn’t help but feel happy about it.

She pulled the ends of her lips into a wide smile at him and said, “Thank you, I really appreciate it.” She wished she could comment further to extend her gratitude at him but she didn’t exactly know how to, nor did she want to utter more words and say something wrong and ruin the situation at hand.

“So, is the work more difficult and demanding now or…” he trailed off, and Taeyeon felt more than willing to actually respond to his queries.

She placed her cup down on the table after taking a sip of her drink and spoke. “Well it sure is since I’m technically managing the whole branch of the bank but I’m carrying on.”

He nodded his head at her answer. “That’s great to hear then. And I am really happy for you, I know you truly deserve it.” And there he was again, making her heart jumped out of happiness without any effort. God dammit Byun Baekhyun!

She was feeling extremely and beyond happy at the moment. If her heart could burst out of happiness already, it probably would have already. She just wished she could actually let out and express how happy she was feeling at the moment, but that wouldn’t be appropriate to do in this situation. So all she could do was smile really widely and as sincere as she could get to at least show to him how grateful she was feeling.

“That’s really…” she was suddenly cut off when an announcement was heard playing across the halls of the airport.

They both looked around and listened to what the announcement had to say for none of them wanted to miss it if it would be regarding their flight.

“May we request the passengers of the flights departing for Taiwan to please proceed to gates twelve, thirteen, and fourteen as the aircrafts that you will be boarding are about to arrive in approximately fifteen minutes. Once again…”

“Oh, I thought that was about our flight for a second.” he uttered as he turned towards her after.

She chuckled and nodded her head at him. “I honestly thought so too, so I stopped talking and listened.”

And suddenly, their eyes locked. His eyes looked the same as she remembered. More so, it still felt like the same way looking at his eyes at this moment. Even after so long. Even after all of the things that happened. She didn’t know if it was right to feel that way, to still see and feel his gaze the way it used to be, so she looked away. She could feel her heart beating so fast against her chest, also felt dry as well. She wasn’t exactly sure why she was all of a sudden feeling that way, but she was certain that the longer she’d be keeping his gaze on hers, the closer she would be losing her sanity. That’s why she looked away.