9 hours before the crash

Smiling at the passengers, Juliet was standing at the entrance of the plane, directing people toward their seat and occasionally helping them with their luggage. On the other end of the plane, her friend Jay was doing the same. Kang Hyunjae was her full name, and she preferred being at the back because although she loved to help, it seemed people were less annoying at the back. At the front, Juliet was beginning to think that maybe it was true. Just how many bags did a woman think she was allowed to bring into this part of the plane? In how many languages did she have to tell people that the seat beside them was to be occupy and not for their own use… And to say this was not even supposed to be her job.

Eyeing a stewardess that was passing by, Juliet hooked her arm and swiftly put her at the spot she was occupying, seconds ago. Blinking, the surprised stewardess didn’t have the time to say anything because Juliet managed to put on her best professional front and pretended she was needed at the cockpit.

Successfully fleeing from her duty to the flight deck, she took her seat next to Yixing, who was operating a quick revision of all the plane’s function. Both of them weren’t used to fly American planes like this one, a Boeing 767. Well, technically, this plane was also used in Japan airlines like ANA. Juliet stared at the glass-cockpit incredulously. She had been trained to work with those but always found them quite awesome.

“You know, Xing-Xing,” Juliet started, cheekily calling him the way his girlfriend did and looking to see how he would react, “I was thinking about it, and I think it’s time you let me do the speech. You always forget tons of things anyway.”

Zhang Yixing raised a brow and chuckled softly, admitting his own flaw. “Sure, talk about it with Jay.”

Slightly jumpy from the good new, Juliet stood up and went to find her best friend. The plane was about to take off anyway.

Kris put on his sunglasses and tugged at his Hawaiian shirt so that it covered properly all trace of skin. Min said he was so white he could pass for a ghost. She was also the one who had chosen his clothes. Never in his life would have he ever thought of wearing that but then again, he wasn’t known for his great fashion sense. And he trusted his coworker. Glancing down at the bright orange of his shirt he began considering that maybe he shouldn’t have.

“Hello and welcome to the flight 521 from New York to Seoul. If you are going to Seoul, you are in the right place and if you are not going to Seoul, now would be a good time to leave. It only means there is going to be more dessert for us.”

Enrui laughed at the woman’s declaration, lifting her head to see if anyone was going to leave. Seeing as no one stood up, she settled back in her seat, nudging her brother to take off his earphones and listen to the speech. Looking up from his laptop, Jinki stared at his sister with questioning eyes. Enrui assured him it was interesting and he curiously lifted his eyes up, looking at the front, to the woman who was talking. However, he dropped his headphones on the ground, barely catching his sliding laptop, as his thighs weren’t the flattest zones. Biting his lower lip, he reached to the floor with his free hand, groping everything he could in the process of trying to find the metallic circle. Enrui gave him a bewildered look and shook her head desperately. Jinki had a very bad condition of clumsiness.

“I am your co-pilot Juliet Park and here is my colleague and flight attendant Kang Hyunjae. You can call her Jay and if you are having any problem during this trip, she is the one to call. Let’s start by examining the safety features on this aircraft.”

Juliet then proceeded to explain, in her very colorful way, how the emergency exits were working.

Sitting at his seat, Joon eyed both women at the front deciding that they might be younger, but totally not out of reach. He smiled, thinking how cliché it would be for him to flirt with the flight attendant. Digging for his phone in his back pocket, he noticed another message from his parents. He replied with a very taciturn “On my way” before shutting it off. At least he could take a break during the 12 hours of flight. Going back to observing his surroundings, he noticed a few women he wouldn’t mind getting close with.

“If the cabin pressure suddenly decrease, these little masks will fall from the ceiling. You place them on your face the way Jay is doing now. I don’t promise you’ll all look as cool as she does with that mask on, but you’ll be able to breathe. That’s generally a good thing. If you are sitting next to a child, you should help him adjust his mask before putting yours. If you are unfortunately sitting next to more then one child, now would be the time to decide which one to save first. It can be for a selfish reason such as you liking him more or it can be because you think the other is more independent and can do it himself. Now if you are sitting next to a person who is acting like a child, do us all a favor a place your mask on first.”

 Cho Hyunmi gazed at her daughter wondering how someone could ever love one child more than the other if they felt for them the unconditional love she felt for Mia. her daughter’s arm slowly, she began rocking her hoping she would sleep through the takeoff. She didn’t want to put her through this experience. At her age, is sure could be frightening.

“Now take a moment to make sure your seatbelts are fastened correctly. You are in an airplane and not in a car, which means it’s slightly different. Please look at it now.”

Sooyeon looked at the buckle and made sure everything was in its place. Then, she glanced at her husband’s, making sure he was okay too. She lovingly reached for his hand and dropped her head on his shoulder, loving the way he was always so comfortable. With a smile, Jonghyun tucked a stray hair out of Sooyeon’s face, observing her. Closed eyelids, feeling in total confidence in her husband’s embrace, she looked like an angel. He adjusted his arm around her shoulder and went back to listening to the co-pilot’s speech.

“One does not smoke in this airplane. If we see smoke coming from the lavatories or anywhere in the plane, we will assume you are on fire and put you out. We will also make sure you can no longer fly in any commercial airline. Yes, we have that power. Please look at the fire extinguisher now and wonder if it’s really worth it. That safety measure also applies to flight attendant. If you see Jay smoking, please report it to me because she said she would stop and we bet one hundred dollars on the fact that she wasn’t able to do it. If you report it, I will gladly share my prize money with you.”

Hwang Soohyun shook her head wondering how it could be that people on this planet were still smoking. There were all the researches that had proven how bad it was for one’s health and his entourage… Soohyun couldn’t understand how people could think cancer would not touch them. Did they not know how to read solid hard facts? From her scientist point of view, Soohyun would rather not ingest unknown chemicals daily. If only people knew how the body reacted to that…

“We will be taking off in a few minutes so we suggest turning off your phones now. If you don’t, your phones’ waves will mingle with the planes and we will lose all contact with the towers and other planes. That could result in a crash. I’m sure you don’t want that…”

Kimi put aside her phone after making sure her father knew she was coming back and preparing a car for her arrival. Because she couldn’t just take a cab… She would have kept the conversation alive to make sure everything was going to be okay and to make some damage control but the co-pilot was acting all dramatic about phones.

“In a moment, the lights will go off. If you are scared of the dark, there is nothing to be ashamed of, or if you want to continue your current activities that include light,” Juliet gave an exaggerated wink, “you can push the grey button that will turn on your reading light. The button next to it, it looks orange-reddish, that’s not something you want to touch. It’s your seat ejection button. You might be thinking that it’s crazy talk because the ceiling doesn’t seem to open, but it’s an ejection by the floor. So don’t ouch it unless you suddenly feel like surfing.”

Taemin smiled and looked around for his fellow soldiers only to remember that they were all coming home catching different planes because they were all going to different places. So he was alone again… With his index finger, he traced the outline of the supposed ejection button. Of course it didn’t look like that. Having seen real ejection buttons and having used them, he knew for sure one wouldn’t just carelessly lie there.

“Now, you are wondering: where is the call-for-a-stewardess button? Dear passengers, there is no such thing. If you need help with something, just shout her name. It’s Jay. J-A-Y.”

Gayuri gave a snort. As if she would ever shout. In fact, if she ever heard someone shout, she would feel like murdering someone. She had already noticed a few kids in the plane and thanked god they were sat far away from her. She played with her phone a little, making sure it was set on the right mode (plane mode) and selected her favorite playlist. Blasting the music through her headphones, she lay in her seat and started relaxing.

“Dear passengers, we are very glad you chose to fly with us. And I’m pretty sure you won’t regret it either. Aren’t we off to a great start already?” And Juliet put back the mike at its place and gave a small bow.

Kai consulted his notebook, full with ink scribbling only he knew the meaning of. Nobody could understand how important that was to him. With a smile, he put it back in his duffle bag and reached for a book. Pushing a button, his eyes had to adjust themselves as the light reflected on the white pages of his manual. English... To make money in this world, he needed to learn English.

“Quite a performance you put up there,” Yixing said when Juliet came back to the cockpit. “I’m not sure Jay is going to appreciate it, but it was very entertaining.”

“Thank you, Captain!” Juliet smiled while sitting down.

“Up for the flight?” he asked her.

“Sure, I have enough energy to last all twelve hours.”

4 hours before the crash

“Enough energy to last all the trip?” Hyunjae friend, seeing her yawn discreetly. “Isn’t it time we go to sleep anyway? We do have to make the landing…”

Juliet rose on her feet and walked to the airline’s cabin. She realized that almost everyone was asleep, a small number of people playing with their computer or reading, and decided maybe it was time for them to go to sleep too. She called in the night team and they took their place. The day team quickly went to sleep after Hyunjae made sure to sprinkle air freshener on all the beds.

1 hour before the crash

Jay was woken up by another flight attendant. Opening her eyes lazily, she watched as the woman attempted to do the same with Yixing and Juliet.

“What is happening?” the latter asked in a tired voice.

“Captain Yixing,” the woman said with a heavy American accent, “It looks like there is some problems in the cockpit.”

“What?” yelled a completely awaken Yixing.

And he rushed to the cockpit. Looking at each other, Juliet and Jay quickly followed after him.

“Just how bad is the situation?” he asked the night team pilot.

“We lost an engine due to the bad weather,” the night team pilot answered in a hurry trying to make sense of the glass-cockpit system. “And since we are flying against very strong currents, our reserve of fuel is going down faster than it should.”

“How bad?” Juliet asked, slipping in her seat and putting on her headset.

“Engine one is failing and we have barely enough gas to make it to Seoul,” Yixing admitted. “Why haven’t you waken me up sooner?”

“Are we going to be okay?” Hyunjae started to worry.

She was usually calm about these kinds of situations, but if everyone around started panicking, then she couldn’t help but panic as well.

“I don’t know,” conceded her boyfriend.

“Hello? Control tower?” called Juliet. But the weather was way too bad and they were way too far.

“Captain, engine two has failed too,” said another officer.

“Yixing took a look at the fuel gage and then at his crew and gravely announced: “We will have to make an emergency landing. Jay, announce it to the passengers.”

“Attention, all passengers. Attention all passengers. Due to the bad flying conditions, our plane is going to try an emergency landing. Don’t worry, this is a safe procedure and you are in good hands.”

Cho Hyunmi’s eyes widened as the masks dropped down from the ceiling. Helping out her daughter, she tried her best to soothe her back to sleep, but it was hard with all the talking around them. Passengers were starting to worry…

Gayuri adjusted her mask, glaring at everyone. How could they be so loud? Have they never been in a life or death situation before? She sighed, settling back in her seat, crossed arms.

“Everyone calm down!” said a powerful voice. Soohyun sneak a peak at the man who had talked taking in his golden hair and tall stature. She frowned, disliking being ordered around but knowing that being calm was all they could do. She had heard of mass hysteria before.

“Put on you mask and stay at your seat,” Kris continued calmly but with strong conviction.

Around him, frightened people began listening to him.

“Everything is going to be okay as long as you remain calm,” he assured before putting his own mask and sitting down.

Sooyeon grabbed on to her husband’s arm, scared and looking for his reassuring presence. However, behind his strong and confident front, she could see he was afraid too but trying not to show it. She closed her eyes and buried her head in Jonghyun’s chest.

No matter what Kris had said, panic started to grow again as the plane began it’s descend.

The light flashed before turning off definitely.

There were agonizing minutes of silence where everyone held their breath, unsure of what was going to happen.

Panic gained everyone as the cabin was filled with a strong scream, composed of dozens of terrified voices.

In the dark, with no way of knowing where they were going, Yixing managed to crash the plane on a small island.