Aera was tapping the steering wheel in time with the beat of the music playing through her car’s speakers as she waited in the JFK airport pick up lane. She picked up her phone for the twelfth time in the last five minutes, hoping that a text message from Jongdae would greet her saying that he had grabbed his stuff and was on his way to meet her outside the airport. She had told him where she was once he had texted saying that he had landed, but since then, nothing. Unfortunately, like the previous eleven times, there were no new notifications on her phone, just a few messages from Mina that she was ignoring because it was just Mina teasing her about Jongdae. She sighed and rested her forehead on the steering wheel. 

Her last semester at Columbia started in a week and half and move-in day was today, so Jongdae had decided that he would rather just go straight to his dorm rather than hanging out in a hotel for a few days. Aera had offered to pick him up and drive him to campus, and after arguing over the fact that she didn’t have to do that, she argued saying that it was the least she could do for him after everything.

She wanted to say that it was the least she could do for a friend, but she wasn’t sure if they were just friends or if they were maybe more. It hadn’t been long since she’d seen him — just over two weeks because she had flown back home the day after New Year’s to go back to work at her internship, but their kiss was the last time she’d seen him. After their day at the markets and at the club, they hadn’t been able to meet up because of family obligations for both of them, but they had kept talking over text and phone calls whenever they got a chance.

They hadn’t talked about their relationship status at all, and at first Aera spent the first two days after their kiss at the club freaking out at Mina, and at first Mina had tried to convince Aera to talk to Jongdae about it, but, in Aera’s opinion, that was just stupid.

What if Jongdae had just been caught up in the moment? What if he had been drinking more than she realized, and he was just drunk? What if he realized that she was an awful kisser? 

Aera groaned as her thoughts were threatening to consume her when she heard a knock on her window, scaring her so bad that she nearly knocked over the water bottle in the cup holder. She straightened up quickly with her heart frantically beating in her chest.

She turned to look out the window, only to find herself looking at Jongdae’s smug face. Aera was imagining that she would get really excited to finally see Jongdae in person again, but all she could do in the moment was scowl, annoyed that he had scared her so badly.

Aera unlocked the car doors and the trunk so Jongdae could put his luggage in the trunk, and she pointed her thumb towards the back of the car to tell him to go put his stuff away. He got the message because he nodded and disappeared from her view, and she heard him opening the trunk fully before dropping his luggage in. The car shook briefly from the added weight of his luggage, and she wondered just how much stuff he had brought back that the car was moving so much. After a few minutes, he opened the car door and settled in, buckling up before looking at Aera with a smile.

“You’re an ,” she said as a way of greeting.

“Hello to you too, Aera. Happy new year,” he responded with a smirk. Aera just rolled her eyes and started the car back up, checking if there was a car coming up behind from the side-view mirror before moving out of the pickup lane, and getting onto the nearest highway to make the drive to New York City.

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks for scaring the crap out of me, Jongdae.”

“At your service, princess.” Aera scoffed, but she knew that Jongdae knew that she wasn’t really mad. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jongdae turn to look out the window, watching the snow-lined trees as they passed by. 

“Can we get some food on our way back?” he asked after a few minutes of silence between the two, the radio preventing it from being utterly quiet inside the car. 

“Hmm,” Aera mused, trying to visualize the roads as they made their way back to Columbia, trying to figure out if there was any place they could stop and eat that wasn’t a fast food joint. Looking at the dashboard clock, she realized that it was only 12PM, so they could go get brunch at a diner.  “I think there might be a Denny’s once we’re back in the city. I skipped breakfast so I could use the food.”

“Sounds great,” he responded, and Aera briefly turned to look at him, only to find him looking at her with a bright smile. She couldn’t help herself, and she returned the smile with a small laugh, amused at how excited he was to get food at a diner. 

They filled the rest of the traffic-filled car ride with talks about their upcoming semester’s schedules. The highway roads around the airport were fairly packed as people were getting back from winter break vacations, and the traffic was even worse around the entrance to New York from New Jersey. 

At least it wasn’t snowing.

Jongdae had even spent ten minutes complaining that his roommate had gotten himself a girlfriend over winter break, so now he would have to see them together all the time at their on-campus apartment.

“Hey, you might end up becoming friends with her,” Aera pointed out with a laugh. “That’s what happened when my roommate got a girlfriend.”

“Yeah but at least your apartment has thick walls,” he whined. “The walls in the apartment at Columbia are like two inches thick. You can hear stuff, Aera.”

Aera barked out a laugh at his complaints. “Oh my god, Jongdae. Just tell him to text you when they’re going to be getting 'busy,'” she said, taking one hand off the steering wheel to make air quotes, “and you can come over to my place. It’s only a 15 minute walk from campus.”

“Yeah but what if she stays over?”

“Noise cancelling headphones. Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t invest in them earlier considering all things that happen in a dorm,” she mused, looking at him when the car rolled to a stop at a red light.

“I never needed them,” he replied, sounding extremely dejected. She felt a tiny bit bad for laughing, but she laughed anyway. She watched as he sent her a withering look, and she just shrugged. Aera had to admit that he sounded absolutely adorable, and all she wanted to do was wrap him up into a hug.

“Well, now you do, so maybe buy them. But seriously, if you need a place to hide out, I’m fine with that. I’m sure my roommate will be as well.”

“Will she mind?”

“No, we’re both fairly chill about having others over, especially because Amara’s girlfriend stays over like three or four times a week.”

“That name doesn’t sound American,” he pointed out.

“She’s Indian.”

“Interesting.”

“And you’re great at picking up names that don’t sound American,” she teasing, referencing the moment in the airplane when he’d said the same thing to her. 

“Shut up,” he laughed. “I might just take you up on that offer.”

“Sounds great.”

The next time they spoke was when she asked Jongdae to look up the directions to the Denny’s that she knew was sort of close by, and after taking a wrong turn and almost getting into an accident because New York drivers are insane, Aera finally pulled into the parking lot at the diner.

“We made it,” Jongdae sighed, sounding extremely relieved. Aera huffed a laugh.

“It’s not New York city if you don’t nearly die at least once a week because you almost get into an accident.”

They made their way into the diner and ordered a large assortment of food — pancakes, mashed browns, and iced tea for Aera while Jongdae ordered coffee with waffles and chicken. 

While waiting for their food to arrive, they idly chatted about the first Pirates of the Carribean movie because Jongdae had watched it for the first time just a week ago. Aera couldn’t believe that he had never seen the movies before, and she promised that there would be at least one movie night in the near future where Jongdae would be coming over to watch the movies. She made it her personal mission to make sure that he would be educated movie-wise, and they kept talking about movies that they had seen (and have to see) as they doused their food in maple syrup and enjoyed their brunch.

~~~

“Do you want to meet up at the cafe down the block?” Aera asked Jongdae as soon as he picked up her call. 

“I might be a few minutes late. I have to talk to my professor,” he huffed, the wind muddling his voice slightly. They were about a month into the semester, with March just around the corner, and yet, the winter weather had yet to leave New York. Aera and Jongdae had somehow ended up maintaining a weekly lunch that turned into a lunch meeting whenever their lunch schedules matched up. Despite being at work, Aera found herself leaving to meet up with Jongdae when he didn’t have class during her lunch break. 

Aera shivered when a particularly cold gust of wind blew past her, making her hair fly in the wind. She tried to straighten her hair out, but she quickly gave up when she felt it get caught in the hood of her jacket. 

“I hate winter,” she responded instead, ignoring his response about his professor.

“Super random, but I know. You’ve only ever mentioned it like 20 times in the past two days.”

“Thanks for counting.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’ll order for you, so that it’ll be ready by the time you get there.”

“Cool.”

“Same thing?”