Last Flight Home

016: Santorini

Alex had always known that Santorini was a stunning place from the images he had seen on the internet, but the actual thing was even more beautiful than words could describe. The quaint little buildings with whitewashed walls topped with blue domes for roofs, sitting in every possible angle on the Grecian slopes that met the crystal clear sea. Everything about the Santorini made him feel as though he had found heaven on earth.

Somehow standing on the balcony of their villa looking out at the open sea made Alex feel somewhat at peace with himself, more so than he had been ever since he found out the truth behind his current existence.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Daehyun mused.

The sun was rising in the horizon, signalling the start of a new day. Neither of them knew how many of such days they had left. The connection between Alex and Daehyun continued to get weaker and weaker. There were instances where Alex's voice would become so soft in Daehyun's mind that he could barely hear it, but then within a split second it was back to normal again. Vice versa, there would bbe instances where Alex couldn't hear Daehyun as well, and these periods of time were getting longer and longer as the days went by.

Time was running out.

"Yeah, it truly is. I guess this is why Eunri kept nagging me to take her here."

Alex wanted to laugh at the irony. Back in the days, he kept coming up with excuses not to take Eunri here because he simply didn't want to take time out of his music business. Now that he was finally willing to, he was here merely as a ghost in someone else's body, living on borrowed time.

"Daehyun, can I ask another favour of you?"

"What is it?"

"I just need one day. One day to be with Eunri, not as Lee Daehyun, but as Alex Yang. Could you help me with that"?

Daehyun sighed. "Alright. For today, you can be yourself. I'll go where you want me to go, do what you tell me to do, and say whatever you tell me to say. Just don't go overboard okay?"

"Thanks."

#

Eunri and Daehyun were standing on a yacht in the middle of the blue ocean, admiring the view of Santorini island from their vantage point.

"It's gorgeous!" Eunri exclaimed, turning to Daehyun in excitement. This was her first time on a yacht, at the holiday destination of her dreams.

Alex knew Eunri had always dreamed of visiting Santorini, ever since she saw the place in a drama she watched when she was eighteen. After years of bugging him to no avail, she had long given up hope of ever coming here. When Daehyun whipped out two tickets to Santorini and invited her to come along, she had said yes with little hesitation. He had graciously invited Miyeon as well, but the latter chose to head back to Seoul instead.

"It's not quite the same looking at it from the mainland and looking at it from the sea isn't it?"

Alex wasn't all that focused on looking at the scenery though, because his eyes were mainly fixed on her.

Eunri rushed over to the other end of the yacht, eager to take in all that her eyes could see.

"She's so beautiful, isn't she?"

"Yeah, she is."

"I guess I never told her often enough. When I'm gone, you make sure you tell her every day that she's the most beautiful girl in the world, got it?"

"Can you quit talking like you're going to disappear anytime soon? It's bad luck..."

"Daehyun, look! There are people riding on horses along the cliff!" Eunri pointed at a row of tiny horses in the far distance.