Airports were always preludes to core memories: migration, Ivy League acceptance— you name it. Core memories which have certainties behind them. 

Indecisive Joohyun wasn’t sure where she fit in all that. Even as an immigration officer who put up a façade that she was decisive. In fact, the job came to her by chance, in the form of a flying brochure which landed on her face one time while she was jogging outside. 

After all, it was the impression that she was cold, distant, and disconnected that became the hook line and sinker to getting the job. Growing to 34 - with a loving husband and a 7 year old kid in tow - Joohyun could care less about first impressions moving forward in her life. The only person who thought otherwise packed her bags and left - and it was her fault, the product of her dilly-dallying - and is now back. 

She wonders, her mind flitting to that one afternoon  when Seungwan, then 7 years old, offered her hand.

“Come play with us!” She remembered Seungwan saying as she linked their arms and walked with the younger girl to their side of the playground, where she would later meet Seulgi, Yerim, and Sooyoung. 

All Joohyun did was to ward away a little boy who was pestering Seungwan when the 7 year old girl just wanted a little drink by the fountain. Puberty came, playdates became sleepovers, feelings were realized, and the rest was history, behind them a good set of friends they both treasured for life. 

When the said person, in the form of ex-lover and now humanitarian worker Son Seungwan, came to a place she didn’t expect, she felt her defenses starting to crumble.

Do I say hi? Ask her how she was? So many thoughts ran through Joohyun’s head in the three seconds Seungwan was striding forward to her cubicle. It’s been a decade, it should be easy right? No hard feelings? 

But the cold gaze Seungwan gave her the moment they met eyes was akin to the night she confessed her betrayal. 

Ten years of distance and heartbreak be damned, she didn’t need a glass barrier to see right through Seungwan and how pain bore through the younger girl’s face. She could’ve just taken it back and said it was a joke, but it came out so casually and everything moved so fast— like their relationship. 

Joohyun forgot why she was there in the first place. 

“Was I not enough? Were my plans for us not enough?” 

Seungwan already had a vision of what she wanted for them both; a move to Canada, a couple of kids, on a beach house where they will grow old together. She found herself in a frenzy at the time, and she couldn’t bring herself to explain that they were moving way too fast. So she had to decide— or in this case, let Seungwan decide for her out of circumstance. They were madly in love with each other. Two people who lived in front of each other, who met among a circle of five people, developed feelings for each other. But at the time, they’d only been going out for six months, and she wasn't sure whether living together would be a good decision. 

Joohyun was half relieved and half heartbroken over having to leave Seungwan that way. The plan was to eventually confess it as a lie, that she was just not ready to commit— but that all changed when the younger girl darted towards the ex