“Wah! I feel like we haven’t been home in forever.” Taemin complained as I plopped back down into my seat. Since I had the aisle, it was my job to put our bags in the over-head bins. I understood how he feels, in the past few weeks we’ve been to the UK, Japan for a night, to Europe, back to Japan, and now we were headed out to New York in the states. I’m not even sure why we’re going, because no one gave us a schedule, but I knew we would be there for awhile this time, an extended while, about two-three weeks I believe.

“On the upside Tae, since we’re landing so early in the morning, I don’t think there will be any fans waiting, which means we can get in and out easily, and you can get to the hotel to sleep faster…” I looked over to see him already falling asleep. “Want me to ask the flight attendant for a pillow?” I asked him. He nodded with an exhausted smile, poor thing; I don’t think he’s slept in about 24 hours. None of us had really.

I looked to my right to see Jinki in a comically blissful sleep. It’s amazing how he can be so grown up about something’s, but when it comes to sleep and food, he’s such a child. I turned my head back to Taemin to find him sound asleep, and decided it best not to bug him. But that left me alone with my thoughts – and I didn’t have too much to think about right now – sure I was tired and all, but I can never really sleep well on planes.

We weren’t set to take off any time soon, so I pulled out my phone and put my ear buds in. I hit play of whatever song I’d left off on, and looked to my right again, more so looking at the empty seat next to Jinki. Minho and Jjong weren’t here with us, Jjong had a schedule, and Minho said he would stay and wait with Jjong until the next flight they could catch, but if he woke up early enough, he’d just get on this one with us. I looked at the time on my phone; I don’t think he’s coming, so looks like it’s just us three for now.

I sighed; this was going to be a long flight, especially without Jjong to bug. And Taemin always like to sleep on Minho’s shoulder, he says it's comfier than the airplane pillows. Yeah sure.  I sighed again; I’m just going to try and sleep.

---

I woke up – at least I think I slept, either that or I was just in a heavy state of being awake – and there was only about an hour left until we landed. Great. I looked to my right quickly, and noted Minho was in fact not there, so he never did board. At least Jjong won’t have to ride his plane out alone, now that I think about it, it was nice of Minho to stay behind.

“Morning Kibum-hyung.” Taemin yawned from my left.

“Mm, morning.” I mumbled back, I don’t think I could manage a happier tone at the moment; I’m grumpy when I wake up. Practice makes perfect – except when it comes to waking up in the morning.

When the captain came on and said we’d be landing in about five minutes, I suddenly didn’t want to be anywhere else but on the ground. I just couldn’t wait to get off this damned plane. Maybe it was because I just wanted to be in a bed, even if it wasn’t my own, or maybe I just really wanted to go shopping in New York, aha I couldn’t tell. New York is one of my favorite cities, especially in the winter. Hmm, wow, I wonder why?