A tornado of thoughts ran through Emil's head. Leon was a model? And a world-famous chef's son? His internet friend, Leon?
How the fuck had he not known?
"I- wha- uh-" Leon's face was filled with multiple emotions. "...Emil..?" he said, sounding unsure.
Emil was just as shocked and confused and... happy? Why was he meeting Leon in person for the first time now, in a situation like this?
Emil had always imagined seeing Leon as he walked through the airport. Their eyes would meet, and Emil would throw his baggage to the side, running towards Leon. They would hug each other tightly as they both smiled, a hug that would make them both fall to the ground. But they wouldn't care. They would laugh until they were out of breath, feeling such overwhelming happiness– But that was just a thought.
The reality was much stranger. A weirdly wonderful coincidence. Or wonderfully weird?
"Leon? What are you- why are you-"
Someone pushed Emil forward, and he almost tripped. In his thought-tornado he'd completely forgotten about the crowd filling up the room. Now that he was back in reality, all the noise and the people were overwhelming.
Leon looked at him for a moment before making a decision. Quickly, he jumped over the red line separating them. Someone, seemingly Chun-Yan (and Leon's) bodyguard, started quickly walking in the boys' direction.
However, she was at the other side of the room, so it'd take some time to get to them.
"Come on", Leon said, looking at Emil with a determined face. After a moment of processing everything that was happening, he followed Leon out the backdoor. The disappearance of Leon caused a bit of a chaos in the crowd, but it calmed down quickly enough.
The boys ran out into the street. It was crowded, but not as much as the room they were just in. They just kept running, not sure why. Somehow, they ended up in the Underground. Emil leant against a wall, trying to catch his breath.
"Leon, what," he took a short pause to breathe, "the fuck."
Leon looked at him, breathing just as quickly. "What?"
"You're in Europe?" Emil laughed in disbelief. "And a famous model?"
"Happy birthday", Leon replied. "I was gonna travel to Norway to visit you as a surprise for your birthday, after I was done here in London. And yeah, I'm a model."
"How the fuck did I not know that you were a model?"
"Because you're a huge nerd who spends all his time looking at memes or playing Legend of Zelda?" Leon pointed at Emil's Hyrule shirt.
The boys both started laughing. It bubbled up and made strangers stare at them, annoyed. But they couldn't care less. It felt so nice, and fun, and weird, meeting each other for the first time.
Emil had a feeling this was the start of something wonderful.
