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"This is the last call for passengers boarding the two forty five flight to Hawaii via Sydney. Please make your way to gate –"
"I'm so sorry! Excuse me! Sorry!"
I stumble over to the gate, hastily shoving my ticket toward the staff. In doing so, my phone falls out of my pocket, as well as my Ryan keychain. How embarrassing.
"Sorry!" I say for the thousandth time, picking everything up and proceeding to the plane when someone stops me.
"Sir!"
I turn.
"Your shoelaces are untied."
I look down, then chuckle sheepishly, flushing at the pretty staff member. "Thanks."
I drop to the ground, my fingers fumbling over the two strings as I curse myself for wearing these shoes. I wanted to be comfortable, but my intentions are never directly fulfilled.
"Last call for –"
"I'm coming!" I widen my eyes at the shout. Did that come from me? I guess it did.
I find my seat with no difficulty whatsoever, other than almost knocking an old lady over because she was walking too slow and then having to squeeze past people to my beloved window seat. Yep, no difficulty at all.
"Ah, finally," I sink into the seat with a sigh of relief, pulling out my phone. A single text lights up the screen.
Don't forget to relax, Namjoon.
I chuckle. Classic Yoongi.
He knows me so well.
🌻
Well, it's time to go.
"Have a safe flight," says the woman who checks my ticket for me.
"You too," I nod with a polite smile, before realizing.
Oh my God why are you like this, Hwarin.
My solo travels are already off to a great start, as always.
I board the plane, scanning the numbers until I get to mine. F15.
A window seat.
Just what I wanted, so I can watch Sydney fade away beneath the clouds, a city that raised me for most of my life.
I remember moving when I was...ten? Dad got transferred to an Australian branch of Samsung Electronics, since his English was good enough and the market was expanding its borders. Thus, he brought the three of us along – me, Jaehwa and mum – to a whole new country.
I was only ten years old, but it was still difficult to pick up the language. It took me three years to become fully fluent and confident, and by then I entered high school.
No, Hwarin, don't think about high school right now.It'll just make you sad.
I untangle my earphones and scroll through my music. I made a playlist specifically for airplanes. In fact, I have a playlist for everything, because you can never have too many playlists, and every occasion demands one. I close my eyes as the lucid symphony of an Owl City song fills my ears and the plane begins to finally take off.
Hawaii, here I come.
🌻
"Come on, are you serious?" I huff underneath my breath at the line for the bathroom. I just woke up from a brief nap after eating an in-flight meal which tasted worse than hospital food and it's currently trying to escape my body. Unfortunately, it's rush hour for the toilet.
Normally, I am a calm, level-headed human being who does not get provoked easy but –
"What are they doing in there, solving a Rubik's cube?" I chuckle at my own question, shaking my head. As soon as the laughter leaves my lips, the door opens and a woman slips out, dark hair obscuring her face. She brushes past me in the narrow aisle, and I catch a whiff of her perfume. Sweet, light yet unforgettable.
"Did you solve it?" I mutter, but she doesn't hear, nor turn back, so I shrug, tapping my foot as I wait for the next person to take a million years in there.
Once again, I am a calm, level-headed human being –
"Excuse me! Gotta go!" I push past the guy once he emerges. Finally!
🌻
"Finally! We're here!" I grin out the window at the puffy white clouds that hover around the mountains, the sky a pale blue as it is still early in the morning.
"I can't wait to get my hula on!" Doris, the old woman beside me with hair as white as the clouds outside, says, and I laugh.
"You go get your hula on!" I raise my fist, cheering her on, and she beams at me.
"And you have fun studying marine biology, Erin. You are truly living a dream."
"Thank you, Doris. I feel lucky to be here," I smile.
"You really are," she winks, unbuckling her seatbelt. "Oh, and one more thing, Erin, dear," she beckons me closer, and I widen my eyes as I focus on the flecks of gold in her blue eyes.
"Enjoy yourself. It's Hawaii, for Pete's sake! You may be here to study, but don't let that stop you from going out there and – getting your hula on!" she nudges me with a shimmy, and I laugh once again, glad to have found myself seated beside this eccentric adventurous old soul.
"Of course, Doris, thank you."
I collect my bags, standing on my tiptoes because I'm tiny, and I almost knock myself out with my own luggage if it weren't for the large hand that stops it from falling. I bid my thanks while carefully bringing the heavy backpack to the ground, whipping my head around to catch sight of who it was that helped me.
But all I see is a tall figure in a snapback, faded blue shirt and black cargo pants ending in sneakers with untied shoelaces, growing further away as he walks down the aisle.
