I made a huffy noise as I – unwillingly – woke up to a cold draft. I fumbled around in the sheets until I half-fell out. I stood up wobbly, steadying myself with my left hand on the bed, my right out stretched towards the window, where the evil coldness was coming in. Who the opened my goddamned window!? Aha, I have no patients when I wake up. I stumbled to the windows and pulled back my curtain, the light stung my eyes for a few seconds before I could actually see what was beyond the glass in front of me

I stood there, breathless; outside my window was a grey and white swirling mess. I looked down towards the street, and checked the clock on my bed side table, it was only about 1:00pm, but it was so dark outside! Even the street lights were on, or at least I think they were, I can only assume that the small yellow glowing dots bellow were street lights.

I looked back up to my eye level, and around, I could make out the outlines of buildings around me, but I was very high up, so I mostly saw snow covered roof tops. I’d only ever seen so much snow once, but even then, it wasn’t like this. It was really dark outside – for the time of day – but at the same time, it was painfully bright. I could see the snow blowing by my window, if I concentrated hard enough.

I suddenly remember where I was, why I was there, and who I was here with. I turned to the source of the chilling breeze, closed the small crack that was opened, and shut the curtain once again. I contemplated getting back into bed, but I decided to just go out into the living room.

I walk out to find a robe-wrapped Taemin pressed up against the balcony door’s glass.

“Hyung look at all the snow!” he said turning his head towards me, I then noticed his hair was wet, explained the robe. I walked over to where he was standing, and noticed why he was so fascinated.

The entire balcony was cover in at least two feet of snow, so much that we couldn’t even open the door – if we wanted to that is. It looked as if it was minus fifteen degrees. I walk over to the wall to the right of me, and looked at the thermostat, I read it out loud.

“Inside thirty degrees, outside… negative twenty-two?!” How are people still alive!? That’s insanity! I rushed back to the window, but I couldn’t see the street, so I ran back to me room and looked out my window again. I stared at the ground, and realized, that there weren’t any cars, except the ones parked on the sides. It’s like the street had been deserted.

“Taemin! Turn on the TV now!”I yelled turning my head to the door. I jogged back into the room, quickly scanning for Jinki but I couldn’t find him.

“Where’s Jinki?” I asked in a huff; looking at Taemin who was studying the remote. “Taemin, the red button,” I sighed.

“I know hyung, I was just looking.” He said looking at the TV as he hit ‘on’. “Jinki-hyung is in the bath room – I think.” Taemin said, looking back at me now.

“Okay, and try and find the news station, if you can even get any reception.” I said and walked out of the room towards one of the two bath rooms. It was open and there was no one inside, so I turned and looked in the room behind me, two beds were there, looking as if they’ve been slept in. But no Jinki.

I ran to the other side of the living room again, and through another hall, this time the bath room door was closed, I banged on it

“Jinki! Jinki get out of there now!” I yelled.

“Kibum, there is another bathroom, go use that one!” I heard water running from a tap, was he washing his hands, or taking a bath?

“I don’t need a bathroom, stupid! Come out here now!” I yelled back again, this time he obliged, poking his head out.

“What?”

“You saw the snow right, the storm?” I asked.

“Yeah, of course, it’s kind of hard to miss, is that what you wanted? To show the snow?” he replied.

“No, I’m sure Taemin already made you stand there for like fifteen minutes to look at it, I was just going to say… Don’t you find it hard to believe planes could fly in this weather, let alone land?” I looked at him pointedly, raising my eyebrows and laying on a think ‘isn’t it ing obvious’ tone.

He stood there for a second, just staring at me, until I saw it click in his head as recognition shined in his eyes. He opened the door fully and blew past me, to his room.

“What’s up hyung?” Taemin showed up beside me.

“Me and Jinki are just worried about Jjong and Minho is all.” I said looking at him, keeping my expression even, trying to hide my worry.

“Don’t worry! Minho texted me around six o’clock yesterday evening.” Taemin smiled at me.

“Six o’clock, yesterday?” I asked shock in my voice.

“Hyung, you slept for over a day, we got to bed at around 3:00am – Wednesday – and you slept the whole day, and night, and now it’s 2:35pm – Thursday – a day later.” Taemin said, as if I should’ve been counting my hours of sleep.

“Oh, I slept that long?” I asked, he just nodded his head in a quick bob.

“What did Minho say anyway?” I asked, looking out the far window again.

“That they were boarding the plane.” Taemin said without any hesitation. “And that he missed me…” he said, as I side glanced at him, noting a hint of a blush creeping onto his cheeks. But then, I re-ran what he said through my head.

“They were boarding the plane?!” I screeched. “Jinki! They’re already in the air! They’re probably getting really close!” His head shot out of the bed room, look of absolute worry and terror on his face, I’m sure mine matched his, but to a lesser extent. I ran towards him as he moved back into the room.

“How do you asked for a news channel in English?” he said looking at me, dialing for the front desk.

“Uhm... uhh… What is the… What is the station for the news channel! That’s it.” He looked at me and nodded, repeating what I had said to the person on the phone, then looking at me, and repeating numbers out loud, I quickly stored them in my brain and rushed out of the room as he thanked the person and hung up.

“Taemin channel 15 now!” I said nearly tripping on my own feet as I ran towards the TV. looked at him as he hit the numbers into the remote. I looked back at the TV to see only static.

“Channel 26.” I said again. Static.

“Channel 28.” I said, my voice cracking, I was staring so hard at the TV, watching as the numbers appeared at the bottom of the screen as he hit them. Suddenly I was face to face with some women talking about a ‘sudden snow storm causing black outs around neighboring cities’. I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.  I backed up slowly until my legs hit a couch; I let myself trip backwards onto it. I slumped forward, resting my head on my hands, my arms propped up on my knees. I was concentrating so hard on the TV, trying to translate everything she was saying exactly as she said it. She was talking about the effects the storm was having on power lines at the moment, and I knew that that was important as well, but I couldn’t be bothered to hear it at the moment.

“Jinki-hyung, what’s Kibum so worked up about?” I heard Taemin ask Jinki, I looked up at the two of them standing near the coffee table in front of me.

“If the snow storm gets too bad, Jonghyun and Minho won’t be able to land here, and they’ll end up somewhere else, or not even coming into the country at all.” Jinki said looking over at Taemin who had walked over to the window to the left of me again. Suddenly Taemin spun around.

“Hyung, what happened if the storm gets to bad… and they can’t see the runway, or the-th-they h-h-hit…” Taemin’s words were swallowed by a hiccup and he started to cry. I understood what he was saying; I knew it was possible, but I didn’t want to think of the possibility. What if they crashed?

I paid attention to the TV at that moment, only to hear that the airports had be half-shut down, as they were trying to de-ice the runways, they weren’t letting any planes in the air, but were going to let some land – if they made it that far – as they had just gotten word… of two plane crashes two, three cities over. I in a breath, I’m not sure how long I held it, but I held until my vision went black.