Airport

A young man with a beanie on his head just got out from the plane that just landed in Korea that day and was sitting alone while waiting for his family to settle their luggage and stuff. He slung his bag pack on his shoulder and inhaled the air of the place he left.

A smile lit up on his face and he looked up at the sky, a part of him thanking God for being able to give him a chance to return. He missed this place and the memories he created here. However, the smile faded slowly as he reminisced each memory one by one. A sad expression was shown on his face instead. The young man sighed and rubbed his pale face using his hands. A hand landed on his shoulder afterwards and he startled. He looked up and saw his mother, smiling sadly towards him.

“Are you okay?” His mother asked and he nodded while forcing himself to smile. The mother sat down beside him and asked again, worriedly. “How are you feeling? You don’t look good.” The young man turned to his mother and squeezed her hand. “I’m okay. Don’t worry. I promised that I would tell you if there is something wrong, right. I’m fine. But ... can you do me a little favor?”

The young man told his mother what he wanted her to help him with and the mother only nodded and quickly took out her phone. She dialed a very familiar number and waited for the number to be picked up by the receiver. The young man, on the other hand, was worried if the number was no longer available as it had been so long since the last he dialed it but lucky for him, the receiver answered the call after a few rings.

“Hello?” The receiver asked.

The mother’s face lit up and quickly said, “Is this ChunJi?”

“Yes. This is ChunJi. Who is this?”

“ChunJi ah, this is Mrs. Lee.” The mother said and suddenly it was very quiet on the other line. The mother grew worried and asked again, wondering whether the receiver was still there, “ChunJi? ChunJi, are you there?” She turned to her son next to her who already had a worried look on his face. ‘What’s going on?’ he mouthed but his mother only shrugged.

She was about to ask again when the receiver suddenly spoke, “Is this really Mrs. Lee?” The said person, Mrs. Lee, sighed in relief as the person she called was still on line. “Yes. This is Mrs. Lee. ChunJi, I need you to come to the airport now.”

“Airport? Why? Where have you been all this while, Mrs. Lee? Where is L.Joe? Why can’t we contact him at all?” ChunJi shot her questions and Mrs. Lee only sighed. She knew this would happen. “Just come to the airport now and bring the others if possible. You will know everything you need to know later.”

“Okay, Mrs. Lee. We’re coming.” ChunJi said and cut off the call. Mrs. Lee kept her phone back inside her bag and looked at her curious son. “Are they coming?” He asked. Mrs. Lee nodded with a smile and his head that was covered with a beanie. “They’re coming. And be prepared with your answers, L.Joe because they have a lot of questions to ask.”

L.Joe smiled a little and said, “I know. It’s my fault for keeping all of this from them.”

Mrs. Lee softened and squeezed his hand, “You did what you think is right, love. But there is only one thing I’m asking of you. No matter what you do, make sure it won’t hurt any of you.”

He was sitting there all alone at the cafe in the airport as his parents finally went home after he begged and assured them that he will be fine. It took him a good 30 minutes to convince his parents that he will be fine on his own. After a little persuasion and convincing, his parents finally agreed of letting him wait for his friends at the cafe alone but with a condition that he must give them a call right away if he felt something was wrong.

L.Joe didn’t want to make his parents wait for him there as they suggested at first because he wanted to assure his parents that he would be fine alone. L.Joe cupped the warm mug with his hands and savored the heat. The weather was still chilly there as winter was still around even though the season was already over.

His heart couldn’t help but to pound when he thought of his friends who were on their way that moment. He missed them since they didn’t get to spend time with each other as much when he last returned. Even so, there were many memories they created with each other even though the time was so short. He inhaled and exhaled repeatedly while preparing himself with the questions that they will ask him later.

L.Joe looked around and saw a group of five boys was walking towards his table. He stood up and was about to wave at them when they suddenly ran to him before crashing him into a big group hug. L.Joe chuckled and hugged them back as far as his arms can stretch. As expected, the whining and scolding can be heard from all over the place.

“Where have you been?!”

“Why can’t we contact you?!”

“Why are you getting thinner?!”

“Is it just I or you’re actually shorter ...”

“Hey that beanie looks good on you.”

“Hyung how is my hair?”

L.Joe smiled and chuckled looking at his friends who were asking him so many things at the same time that he couldn’t catch what they were trying to ask him. His eyes then suddenly saw Ricky’s blue hair and couldn’t help but to ruffle his head. “Ayo smurf! Are you trying to be one of Papa Smurf’s son?” He joked and the rest of them cackled. Ricky puckered and fixed his hair back while saying he looked cooler having his hair dyed blue.

Cap who was standing by while crossing his arms butted in and spoke in a stern voice, “Where have you been, young man?” The laughter subsided as they suddenly remembered that L.Joe had a lot of explaining to do. They all looked at L.Joe sharply and the lad only sighed. He raised both of his hands in defeat and sat back on his chair that he was sitting on just now. “I will tell you everything but all of you sit down first and listen properly. I’m not going to repeat.” Hearing him, all of Teen Top scrambled to their feet and quickly grabbed the chairs to sit and leaned forward to him.

L.Joe took a deep breath and started his story and none of them interrupted. As curious as they were, they didn’t in at all. Their expressions changed and darkened as L.Joe explained deeper. Worried looks were on their faces.

“Hyung, is it that bad?” ChangJo asked as L.Joe had finished talking. L.Joe looked at the younger and shrugged with a smile. “For now  ... yes. But we’re working on it.” All of their faces fell and went blank as they tried to process what L.Joe had told them. L.Joe knew that this was a lot for them to take in so he just kept quiet for a while. “You guys had better not cry.” He reminded and laughed a little. Ricky who was sitting beside him lightly hit his arm and scolded, “Hyung ! Do you think this is funny? This is serious!”

L.Joe laughed while looking at Ricky’s worried and serious face and patted the lad’s head. He turned to his other friends and noticed that they were wearing the same expression too. His heart softened after seeing how much his friends cared for him. He stood up straighter and smiled widely before saying, “You guys  ... don’t worry so much. I’ll be fine. That is the reason why I didn’t call or come back as I promised you. I also didn’t want to worry you.”

Niel who had been keeping quiet, suddenly asked, “Then, is it okay for you to be here? Shouldn’t you be there instead? You know, so they could monitor you?” L.Joe shook his head and still with a smile on his face. “I decided to come home and they couldn’t say no to that as I was progressing well. Besides, I still have an unfinished business here.” He mumbled but the rest heard him well. ChunJi nodded in understanding and carefully asked, “Aren’t you going to ask us about her? We won’t tell you anything if you never ask.” L.Joe’s face lit up and scoffed a little. “Of course I’m going to. Is she going to the same place as you? What major is she taking?”

ChangJo smirked a little and said, “Hyung, you didn’t even ask us about our courses. How can you ask someone else’s first? You wound me, hyung.” Ricky rolled his eyes and lightly kicked ChangJo’s leg. “Of course he would be asking about her first! She is not here right now, is she? Not to mention the fact that L.Joe hyung won’t be telling her anything that he told us just now.” He whispered the last part not me