#and before that was 3 hours in the airport because I like to have plenty of time for international flights

[choke-me-joey]

Just spotted your hoe-vember event. I'm wondering if I could request prompt 4 with Joe please. Also, love your work! ❤

Ahhhh omg thank you so much 🥹 I hope I've done your request justice!!!

4. You're so tight, fuck!

Joseph Quinn x reader

Content warning: 18+ content minors DNI, rpf (don't like don't read), first time sex (but neither are virgins), oral (f receiving), protected sex, nothing too crazy tbh

Hoe-vember/Dick-cember masterlist

"Have you had a good time tonight, love?" Joe asks, you smile and lean your head on his shoulder as the Underground train starts to move.

"Mm, dinner was lovely, and the film was good, yeah." You link your arm through his, looking up at him. "Thank you."

"Don't have to thank me, Y/N, I wanted to take you out." Joe pecks the top of your head and you continue your journey in a comfortable silence. Once the train reaches your stop, you and Joe walk hand in hand back to his flat.

You'd been on several dates over the last 3 months after meeting through mutual friends and hitting it off right away. You were both smitten, that was obvious to see, but Joe's hectic work schedule meant that things had not....progressed as quickly as it normally would have by now.

Meaning, you hadn't had sex yet.

In fact, because of said hectic schedule, the most you'd had time for was a handjob on your sofa, or a quick ride of his thigh in his kitchen that one time, nothing more.

But tonight, a night where Joe didn't have to get up and leave for the airport at 3am the next morning, it was happening. He'd asked if you wanted to stay over at his place as you'd had too many late nights not wanting to be apart. You'd said yes without hesitation.

That was 2 weeks ago, so you had plenty of time to lingerie shop and panic.

You'd settled on a very racy black lingerie set, which provided a stark contrast to how simple your date outfit for tonight was - a burgundy roll neck jumper, black skinny jeans, heeled ankle boots and your leather jacket. Casual but not too casual, just like Joe with his jeans and endless collection of pinstriped shirts.

As you get inside the building and up the stairs to his flat, your heart starts beating faster. Your grip on his hand must have tightened as he stops, looking at you with a concerned frown.

"Alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just...nervous, I guess." Nervous. You sounded like a bloody teenager before their very first time. You winced at how pathetic you sounded. Joe smiles softly at you, squeezing your hand.

"It's just me, Y/N. We don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with. I didn't ask you to stay tonight expecting anything, you know. I just wanted to spend more than a few hours with you before I have to leave next week." Putting his keys in the door, he turns to give you a little reassuring hug. You hug him back, feeling yourself calm down a little. He kisses your head again before opening the door and letting you inside.

You take off your shoes and get settled on the sofa, Joe heading to the kitchen to open a bottle of wine. He returns a few moments later with two glasses of white and joins you on the sofa. He pats his lap and you pop your legs there, and he rests his hand on your thigh.

"You okay?" He asks softly and you nod, smiling at him over the rim of your glass. You both sit and sip your wine, chatting about anything and everything. It was so easy with Joe, that was one of the things you really liked about him. When your glasses were both empty, Joe gestured for you to cuddle up against him, which you did, your head resting on his chest as he absent mindedly played with your fingers. "You know, you have really nice hands."

"Do I?" You giggle, looking up at him with a smile.

"Yeah, you do. And really pretty eyes, too."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to flirt with me."

Joe grins. "Is it working?"

"Oh yeah, definitely." You return his grin and pull him into a kiss, the wine helping to fuel your confidence a little bit. You and Joe had kissed plenty before, with countless makeout sessions under your belts, but this time it was different; this was leading to something more and you both knew it.

You moan softly as Joe's tongue finds yours, and he lets you pull him on top of you as you sink into the sofa, wrapping your legs around his waist. Your fingers skate over his back, feeling the muscles under his shirt tensing as he holds himself over you. You shift your hips, brushing against hips and he groans against your mouth as you move over the bulge in his trousers. He presses his crotch to yours, making you gasp into his mouth.

"Bedroom?" He whispers and you nod eagerly. "Sure?"

"You're sweet, but if you don't take me into that bedroom and fuck me, your shower head is going to be my date for the evening." You quip, with a cheeky smirk. Joe chuckles, pulling you up off the sofa and leading you into his bedroom.

Once he shuts the door behind him, Joe's mouth is on yours again, this time more desperate and fiery. Your fingers find the buttons on his shirt and miraculously you manage to undo them whilst your lips are still attached to his. Once it's undone, you break away for a second to push it off his shoulders and gently rake your nails down his chest and stomach, teasingly stopping where the trail of hair disappears into his trousers. He shivers slightly before finding your mouth again, his hands coming to the bottom of your jumper.

"Can I?" He asks softly, and you nod, smiling. He pecks your lips reassuringly before pulling the jumper up and over your head. "Fucking hell." Joe groans, his eyes going straight to your tits in the black lace. His eyes then flick up to yours. "Trying to finish me off?"

"Depends, there might be matching underwear too." You laugh as Joe closes his eyes, resting his forehead on your shoulder and groaning loudly. "Wanna find out?"

"Fucking...yes, yes I bloody do. Lie down for me?"

You obey, lying on the end of his bed with your legs hanging off so he can unbutton your jeans and slide them down. Once they're off and flung somewhere, Joe stares down at you. At first you feel a little self conscious, but once you see the look in his eyes, the flush of arousal over him and the bulge in his trousers threatening to burst out, you relax. "Jesus, you're fucking perfect Y/N."

"I wouldn't go that far," you blush, sitting up and pulling him towards you by the belt loops of his trousers, which you quickly unbutton and unzip, purposefully ghosting your hand over his cock. "Oops." You smile coyly, glancing up at him.

"Tease. Scooch up, love." Joe steps out of his trousers and removes his socks as you move up the bed, resting your head on his pillows. You're surrounded by the scent of him and it just adds to the dampness in your underwear. You watch him as he crawls up the bed, hovering over you and you open your legs allowing his body to slot in between them. You glance down, biting your lip at the sizeable tent in his boxers. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, just...been a while." You admit, and Joe tucks some of your hair behind your ear.

"We can go slow, baby."

Baby. That was new. And it made your pussy clench. You really wanted this man to rail your brains out here and now. You decide to be bold, and reach between you, squeezing his cock through his boxers.

"I don't want to go slow." You say, eyes meeting his. "Want you to fuck me, Joe."

"Shit, don't....don't say that whilst you're touching my dick," Joe huffs out a laugh, his head dropping down. "Trying to bring my A-game tonight, if you make me cum in my pants that's going to be pretty embarrassing."

"Yeah, a little." You tease, making him laugh and kiss you again, his body pressed against yours, and you're able to feel every little kick and twitch of his cock through his boxers and through your barely there lace thong.

"Can I...Can I taste you?" Joe asks, trailing kisses down your neck and nipping at your collarbone making you gasp and your back arch slightly. You nod.

"Do I get to taste you?"

Joe swallows, hard.

"Fuck love, as much as I want that, as soon as that pretty mouth of yours gets near me it's going to be game over. Let me take care of you tonight, yeah?"

You nod again, making a mental note to wake him up with a blowie tomorrow morning.

Joe leans down once more, kissing you slow and deep, his hand resting tentatively on your stomach. You take it and place it on your boob, and he grunts, gently squeezing, teasing your nipple through the lace. You shudder. "You can take it off."

Joe nods, reaching behind you and expertly undoing the clasp. "Would like to see this again though." He shoots you a cheeky smile as he throws it across the room. He glances down at your bare tits, moving so he's sat on his knees and can cup your breasts in his hands, thumbs giving your nipples an experimental brush. You whine as they stiffen, a bolt of pleasure shooting through you. "Oh, sensitive, are we?"

"Joe..." You whine again. "Don't tease me, please..."

"Alright, baby, I got you." Joe says softly, then dips his head to your chest, taking one of your nipples into his mouth, alternating between sucking and licking, whilst he rolls your other nipple between his fingers. You let out a loud moan, immediately trying to silence yourself. Joe pulls off your nipple with a soft 'pop'. "Hey, don't keep those noises to yourself, baby, you're so sexy. Plus, it's a massive ego boost for me."

"Shut up," you giggle, playfully swatting at him. Joe laughs again, gently biting your nipple playfully. He then kisses down your stomach and across your hip bones, before plucking at the string of your underwear. You get the message and raise your hips up so he can remove the lace garment, throwing it to join the matching bra somewhere. You instinctively close your legs, but Joe shakes his head at your slowly prying them open and gazing down at your glistening pussy.

"Fucking hell. Do you have any idea how beautiful you are? Shit, you're incredible." Joe settles invetween your thighs, swiping a finger through your lips and gathering some of your arousal. You breathe in sharply, the pulsing of your clit and pussy almost becoming unbearable now. "You're so wet, babe."

Babe. Again, him experimenting with new pet names had you shivering.

Joe dips a finger into your awaiting hole, making you grip the duvet in tight fists.

"So fucking pretty." Joe coos, before removing his finger and licking from your hole to your clit. Your mouth drops open and your hand flies to his hair, tugging on it slightly. This makes him groan against your puss, both at the taste of you and from you pulling his hair. You quickly release your grip on his hair and he pulls away from your cunt, making you whimper at the loss.

"M'sorry," you tremble with the need for contact, flushing at your boldness of assuming he'd like his hair being pulled as he was eating you out.

"You can fucking pull my hair all you want baby, you taste so good, feels so good." Joe practically growls, his voice deep with arousal. "Wanna make you cum on my face, okay?"

"Y-yeah, god, yes please." You whine, hips bucking as Joe attaches his mouth to your clit, sucking and licking, much like he did on your nipple. You should have taken that as an indication for how good this was going to feel, but honestly nothing could have prepared you for it. "Shit, oh my god, Joe, fuck yes!"

Joe moans in response, pushing his finger back into your pussy, quickly adding a second one. He curls his fingers upwards and quickly finds your gspot. "Oh my fucking god, there, there!" You cry out, and Joe responds by repeatedly curling his fingers over it whilst his tongue works your clit. It's not long before you feel the familiar coil in your stomach tightening. "Joe, Joe, I'm gonna cum, please, I'm so fucking close-"

Joa groans again, grinding his crotch into the mattress below him for some relief on his aching cock, and his free hand presses down on your lower stomach. You fall over the edge with a sharp wail, pussy fluttering around Joe's fingers. You cum so hard it knocks the wind out of you; the man is a pussy eating god.

"Fuck, that was a big one, huh?" Joe can't hide his smugness as he crawls up next to toy, lying beside you on the bed. You grab him and kiss him fiercely, tasting yourself on his tongue. He grins when you break apart. "That good?"

"That good. But I really want you inside me now." You answer, boldly reaching over and pulling down the front of his boxers, stroking his cock. You weren't ever going to get over how perfect his dick was. A decent length, thick and slightly curved. You knew the stretch alone would be euphoric.

"Fuck, yes, yeah, hang on-" Joe lifts his hips and together you remove his boxers. Now you're both fully naked, you take a moment to get close, skin on skin, and share a slow, deep kiss as you continue to stroke his cock slowly. "Lemme get a condom."

He reaches over into his bedside drawer, pulling out the small foil packet, which he rips open with his teeth and together you roll the condom down his length. Joe repositions himself on top of you. "Still okay?"

You let out a little chuckle. "Joe, I'm fine."

He positions his cock at your entrance, leaning down to kiss you as he pushes in, the stretch and slight burn making you dig your nails into his back.

"Relax, baby, I've got you" Joe says softly, his own body trembling. He continues to push in, agonisingly slow, until he's fully inside you.

"Fuck, Joe," you gasp; you're so full, so deliciously full, you swear you can feel him in the back of your goddamn throat.

"You're so tight, fuck!" Joe hisses, slowly pulling out and pushing back in. "Gonna make me cum way too quick."

"I don't care, you feel so good, fuck me, harder, please, I need it." You whine, wrapping your legs around his waist and pulling him in even deeper if that was possible.

"God, yeah, okay-" he starts moving faster, his arms either side of your head shaking with the effort of holding himself up. His cock hits your cervix on every thrust, sending a bolt of pleasure through you with each movement. His pubic bone drags over your swollen clit, and you start to feel your orgasm building again. "Shit, baby, so fucking good."

You moan out loud at his words of praise, cunt clenching around his cock. "Y/N, god, you have no fucking idea how perfect you are-"

"Not as perfect as you," you whisper, and Joe takes your hands in his, his body pressing more against yours. The kiss you share is more panting into each others mouths and heavy breathing than a kiss, but it's so fucking hot you don't care. "I'm gonna cum again, don't stop."

"Yeah? Do it, baby, wanna feel you cum on my cock." Joe grunts, licking his thumb and then reaching between you to rub circles into your swollen clit.

It only takes a few circles before you're coming, calling out Joe's name as your pussy grips his cock like a vice. He curses, thrusting once, twice and very shakey third time before he unloads into the condom, his mouth finding yours as he pants and groans. His body relaxes on top of yours and you lie there for a few minutes, kissing and touching each other, until he rests his forehead against yours.

"Consider your A game brought, Quinn." You giggle, and he chuckles, his cheeks flushing. "That was..."

"Fucking amazing." Sighing contentedly, Joe rolls off of you, removing the condom and throwing it into the bin. He pulls you into his chest and you wrap your arms around his naked torso, pressing your face into his chest. "Is this a good time to make this...official?" Joe's voice rumbles through his chest. You grin and lift your head up.

"Wanna be normal and just ask me to be your girlfriend?" You laugh and he feigns an offended face, frowning at you.

"Oi, cheeky." He kisses your head. "Fine, would you, Y/N Y/L/N, do me the honour of becoming my girlfriend?"

You laugh at his over the top delivery, even bollock naked he was such a fucking goof.

"Yeah, go on then."

[rainintheevening]

🍁🍁Comfy-vember🍁🍁

Day 2: Holding hands | Day 3: Forehead kiss

Grant Ward & Phil Coulson, Agents of SHIELD, AU

-------

The call came at 10pm, as he walked to the car waiting at the curb; ring of his personal cell phone catching him up short.

Hospital. Grant injured. Concussion. Broken leg. Broken ribs. Cuts and scrapes. A car crash. Others more severely wounded. Grant just going in to surgery for the leg.

"He told me not to call, but he doesn’t have anyone else listed, and he's in so much pain, I just thought..." The woman's voice trailed off uncertainly.

"Thank you," Phil said quietly, waving the agent at the wheel of the SHIELD issue car over, as other travelers coming and going from the airport swarmed around him. "I’ll be there as soon as I can. Five to seven hours. I'm in DC."

"Oh, I didn't realize–"

"I want to know," Phil interrupted, needing to wind this conversation up and find the first flight back to Klamath Falls. "Thank you for calling me. Tell him I'm coming."

"Of course. Travel safely, Mister Coulson."

He was speaking before he'd hung up the call. "Agent–"

"Coughey, sir."

"Agent Coughey, I have to go back to Oregon. Family emergency. Tell Agent Garrett he can call me tomorrow. Good luck."

The young man's startled look might have made Phil laugh, if he wasn't in such a hurry, and he'd already turned away, scooping up his bag to hurry back into the airport.

Garrett would be furious, but he could find someone else for this mission. Maybe Agent May. Grant came first; Phil had felt that for some time now, but this was the first real test of his determination. Just because Grant was 18 now, didn't mean Phil's responsibility was over. The nurse had said he was in pain—rarely did Grant show physical weakness like that, and for him to do so in front of strangers meant it had to be bad. That was his kid, dammit, and Grant needed him. Thank goodness the call had come before he left the airport.

There was a flight back to Portland in two hours. He sat and watched the people move, wondering who Grant had been with, which parents were sitting at the hospital watching over their sons.

Time could move so slow.

It was 3:26am Pacific Time when a nurse finally showed him into a room, curtain half drawn around one bed, the other empty.

"He's been asleep for awhile. The surgery went well, and his leg should be fine. The concussion and ribs will more of the challenge over the next few days."

Phil only half heard the young man talking as he moved to lean over Grant, assessing his injuries and trying to settle his own quick-beating heart. Small bandage on one side of his head above the right ear. Face cut and scraped. Stitches on the inside of his left forearm; maybe 10? Left leg in a cast. No doubt the ribs were taped, under the rumpled hospital gown.

He slept heavy, face turned toward the door, but he did not stir at their entrance, not even when something began to beep, loud and insistent.

"Sorry." The young nurse hit a button, and the beeping stopped, both of them pretending Phil hadn't jerked like he'd been shot. "Morphine's out. I'll go grab some more real quick. If he wakes up before I get back, try to keep him calm."

Right.

Phil took a deep breath, collected a chair from the corner by the window, sat careful by the bed, turned to face Grant. He'd seen plenty of badly injured, even dead, friends. Why then did his hands tremble, and his heart ache like a knife sat against the inside of his ribs, and tears sit in his eyes?

"Grant."

His voice sounded too loud in the dim room, too loud to still hear the kid's breathing.

"Grant," he whispered. "Sorry it took me so long. Got a buddy to fly me from Portland. I came as quickly as I could."

No extra movement, and he couldn't think of anything else to say. He wanted to take the boy's hand, but he couldn't remember having actually held it before. Only in handshakes or pulling Grant up after a break on the basketball court. Not as a form of comfort.

He listened to the boy breathe, for a while.

When he stirred, Phil caught his breath, sniffed, swiped a hand hastily across his cheeks. "Grant?"

Moaning, soft at first, then louder, mixed with gasps and grunts as he tried to move, found only pain. Dark eyes squinted, squeezed shut again, as fists clenched in the sheets.

"Dad? Dad?"

"I'm here." Phil had to clear his throat. "Grant, I'm here. I'm here, son."

Grant's unfocused gaze drifted toward his voice, but he was breathing faster now, making the pain worse.

"Dad? Dad!" It was sharp, almost a cry, and Phil felt his heart break. He grabbed Grant's closest hand, tried not to flinch as frantic fingers tangled awkward and sharp with his.

"Hey. Hey, listen to me, son. I'm here. I'm right here. I came. Of course I came."

He'd never seen Grant so lost, so vulnerable, so wild. Even Lady's death hadn't left him this unaware. And of course his physical reaction to the pain was just making the pain worse.

A few sharp swears, before Grant squeezed out, "Dad?" Quieter, even a little hopeful.

"I'm here."

Grant didn't call him that very often; only when emotion let it slip, or he thought an occasion called for it's deliberate use. This was different though, raw, instinctive, even primal. As if Phil was the only thing he thought could help him, and the first thing he connected with Phil was Dad.

The grip on Phil's hand did not ease, but the moans faded to whimpers.

"It's the ribs. You have to calm down, breathe slower. Don't try to move so much. A busted rib is like the fires of Hell. Trust me, I know. Broke my first rib when I was 21, fresh out of the Academy."

"Head," came the hoarse whisper.

"Yeah, that'll hurt too. Hit it pretty hard, they told me." He kept his voice down, not wanting to increase that pain either. Where was that nurse?! "Hang on, Grant. They're getting you more of the good stuff."

A long moment of laboured breathing and small sounds of agony that tore at Phil's heart.

"You. Left."

"But I came right back."

"Can't. 'member."

"It's okay, that's the concussion. And the pain. You might remember tomorrow."

He knew Grant had taken the worst of it; the impact of an unseen stop sign and a misplaced tree. The other two boys were nursing bumps, bruises, and whiplash.

"I'm here," he said again, found the wide dark eyes. "Right here."

A rush of scrubs and a different nurse, all apologies and concern as she hooked up the new bag of morphine. Grant went silent and almost still, only his grimace and hitched breathing indicating his discomfort. His grip on Phil's hand still did not slacken; there'd be bruises there tomorrow.

"So sorry, loves. Rory got called off. You'll have to give it a couple minutes, but it should be quick. Promise, honey." A smile and a pat on Grant's shoulder.

He flinched, and Phil could have sworn he heard the kid's teeth creak.

"I'll be back in a few to check. Sorry, loves. Busy night." She whisked out again.

An awful noise escaped Grant, mixed with a gust of the breath he'd been holding.

When he could speak again: "Tramp? Missy?"

Phil nodded. "Mrs. Beetson's got them." The big mutt and his feline companion loved the neighbour couple almost as much as they loved Grant and Phil. "They'll be alright for the night. I'll check on them tomorrow."

Trust Grant to worry about his pets.

And already Grant was going quiet, his breathing settling into a healthier rhythm, his fingers starting to relax.

"You should sleep now," Phil said softly, gingerly rubbing his tingling thumb over the back of the Grant's hand. "It'll help you heal. And I'll stay here. I'll be here the whole time, okay?"

"Okay." A soft whisper, more child than man.

Worn from the pain, he quickly succumbed to the sweet relief, eyes drifting shut as Phil talked softly of his flights, the people he'd seen, and the weather they'd had.

"Out like a light, poor thing." The older woman nurse was back, quietly checking screens on machines, and smoothing his twisted sheets. "Doesn't matter how big they get—when they're hurting they need their daddy or mommy." Now she patted Phil's shoulder on the way out. "I'll get you a cloth; you can wipe some of that sweat off, poor love."

The touch of damp cloth on hot forehead brought a further sense of relaxation from Grant, and Phil found himself reminded of his own mother, her gentle hands when he'd been ill as a child. He tried to clean his own son's face with the same tenderness, careful of the scrape along one cheek. Stroked back damp black hair, wincing at the thought of Grant discovering the shaved (and bandaged) spot.

"Shouldn't be vain about your hair," he said aloud. "Whatever you do with it, you'll have to chop it off when you get into the Academy."

Not if, when. Because he had no doubts his kid could do it.

"I'm glad you're alive," he whispered, leaned down to kiss warm skin over temple.

Suddenly self-conscious, even in the near-dark, he moved to drape the cloth over the bar at the foot of the bed. He sat again in the chair, slid his hand gently under Grant's, gave it a little squeeze.

"I'll be right here."

---

Grant woke slowly to soft light through the window, and the sight of Coulson slumped over on the side of his hospital bed, head pillowed in his arms, one hand wrapped warm around Grant's fingers, holding onto him even in his sleep.

Like a dad should be.

His dad.

My dad.

[daydreamingyuta]

Hellooooo! ☺️

Could I request for a bf! jaehyun x gf! reader where his gf wanted to surprise him when he’s back from a work trip but she gets surprised seeing him come with another girl co-worker and she misunderstands the whole situation? I know you only do fluff so fluffy ending hehe 🫶🏼

Surprising Jaehyun after a Work Trip

Genre: Romance, Fluff

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1k

A/N:  Hi!! Thank you for this request! I apologize that this took me a couple of days to write, I was finishing up my summer classes but I hope you like it! <3

Your body naturally woke up about an hour before your alarm went off. Usually you would go back to sleep, but today your boyfriend, Jaehyun, was coming back from a work trip and your excitement wouldn’t allow you to sleep any longer. It’s not uncommon for Jaehyun to go on business trips, but this one was especially long and you couldn’t wait to see him again. 

What typically happened when he got back from his work trips, was that his driver would pick him up at the airport and take him straight to your place. He always liked to see you first and spend the rest of the day with you to relax. But this time you thought that it would be nice to have his driver take you to the airport so that you could be in the car when he gets picked up. 

You had done this once before and he even asked you to do it again but waking up at four in the morning proved be to quite difficult when you have a bad habit of hitting snooze at least five times. Luckily his plane was arriving more around mid-day this time and you woke up early so you had plenty of time to get ready and leave for the airport. 

You had gotten dressed and made sure to wear a perfume that you knew he loved. His driver arrived at your place a full two hours before Jaehyun’s plane lands because it takes a while to get to the airport. Throughout the car ride Jaehyun was texting you updates every now and then about his whereabouts. He had the habit of giving you updates throughout his day and you always appreciated them because it feels like you are spending the day with him even when you can’t. 

⸻

It took a little while but you finally arrived at the airport. His driver pulled up right in front of the doors so that Jaehyun would have no trouble finding the car. You decided to get out the car as well so that he can see you right away. 

When you finally catch a glimpse of him, you can feel yourself getting a little giddy. It had been a long week without him and all you wanted to do was hear his sweet voice in person and melt into his embrace. But your excitement was very soon replaced by a drop in your stomach when you saw that one of his coworkers was with him. 

It’s not the fact that he is with her exactly, it’s the fact that she has her arm looped in his and they are laughing about something. You feel jealousy bubbling up inside of you at the sight, but before you can do anything, he makes eye contact with you. 

Jaehyun immediately drops her arm and comes rushing to you and wraps you a hug. “Y/n, I’ve missed you so much you have no idea.” He says, his voice slightly muffled from speaking into your hair. The warmth from being in his arms doesn’t make you forget about his co-worker though. You break away from the hug and stand there with your arms crossed. You didn’t want to make a scene but you also couldn’t deny your emotions. 

Jaehyun looked at you, confused for a second, but then proceeded to turn around and wave goodbye to his co-worker. You didn’t want to hold up all of the cars waiting at the airport and you didn’t want to have this kind of conversation right now so you helped Jaehyun put his bags in the trunk and got into the car. 

The ride back home was much faster as there was much less traffic. Jaehyun had gotten a call from his boss to give a debriefing of what happened on his trip so you didn’t get much time to talk to him. He did hold you hand the entire time though which melted your heart slightly but you still weren’t feeling one hundred percent happy. 

He had gotten off the phone right after you two entered your place and he immediately went to you. “You came to surprise me at the airport baby!” He says as he wraps you in his arms and kisses you. “Sorry my boss called me, he couldn’t make it so he had a bunch of questions I needed to answer.”

He can tell by your expression that something had made you upset. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? You were practically making out with another woman right in front of me.” 

You watched as his face went from confusion to realization to laughter. 

“You’re laughing at me?”

“No, I’m sorry I’m not laughing at you, you’re just a tad bit dramatic baby.”

“She was all over you.”

“Ok, your right she was very close to me but in my defense she put her arm there and I really didn’t think anything of it. You know I would never do anything to hurt you, and I’m sorry that I did that but really it was nothing. I promise you she is happily married with kids, she wants nothing to do with me and I want nothing to do with her.”

“Really?” You say with a little bit of attitude because your still not totally over it. 

“How could I? Look at who I have right here in front of me. You are the only girl for me. There is nobody else. You’re my girl.” He says with his hands cupping your face. He stays like that for a moment while he kisses the tip of your nose and then your forehead and then your lips. 

You knew he was telling the truth. You knew he loved you and only you. With him being gone so often it’s easy to forget that. But whenever he’s with you it’s an impossible truth to deny, Jaehyun is so completely head over heels in love with you. 

“It won’t happen again.” He says right before he places a million little kisses all over your face. “I love you.”

[dari-ede]

In the Middle of the Night: Ch 29

Chapter 29: "Fragmentos de mi alma en pedazos"

Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30

MASTERLIST

Summary: As Bangtan prepares for a new chapter in their lives, they head to their private property in the forest for a songwriting workshop. As a songwriter and producer they have worked with for years, I’m asked to tag along. I was ready for the heavy workload and small amount of sleep during the workshop week. However, I wasn’t ready for the storm that came that changed my friendship with Namjoon forever.

Notes: Maya makes a decision....

Pairing: Idol!RM/Namjoon x OFC

Genre: Friends to Lovers, Fluff and Smut

Rating: M (sexual scenes/sexual assault in prior chapters)

Status: Complete

Notes: Namjoon, Yoongi POV

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AN: Finished a lot earlier than I thought. "Smoke Sprite" definitely helped ignite the fuel I needed to finish this story.

NOTES: Mostly Namjoon’s POV/some Yoongi POV

***************************************

- December 2021 -

The Night of the Breakup

Namjoon needed to get out of the room. Needed distance from Maya. He was too angry and hurt to look at her. After months of being together, countless times of voicing how he felt, and he kept getting dismissed. He thought he knew her. He thought she knew him.

Sometimes he thought he saw it in her eyes—he thought he felt it. If he was being completely honest, believing she felt deeply for him had been the reason why he had given her so many passes these last few weeks. His emotions for her had evolved a while back ago. He had noticed it, but kept those emotions at bay, not wanting to rush things. Not wanting to pressure her. He thought all she needed was a little bit of time to come to terms with her own feelings for him. Because he was sure she felt similar.

But he had been wrong. If she felt for him the way he did for her, she wouldn’t have treated him like this. She wouldn’t have dismissed his words. Wouldn’t have lied.

It was painful to feel the way he did and it not be reciprocated. There were so many things he wanted to say to her but couldn’t. It was like he had to censor himself more and more when he was around her. He had never needed to be mindful of his words around Maya—he told his best friend everything. However, since becoming a couple, things had gotten worse with them.

Namjoon bathed in his anger and disappointment as he walked through the hotel. The staff didn’t follow him, clearly seeing he needed space. Needed time with his emotions.

After a couple of hours, he felt calm enough to head back to his room. It was a good thing he had calmed down because he felt a fan had spotted him. He didn’t want to chance it.

When he entered his room, her aroma was in every corner. Their carnal act lingered in the air. He went to the sliding doors that lead to the balcony. He opened them wide, wanting her scent gone. He might be calmer but was still angry at her.

Not wanting to be near the bed, he took a sheet from the closet and laid on the couch.

The remaining hours of the night were spent tossing and turning, getting little sleep. He kept replaying everything about the night. Replaying Maya’s refusal to let him in.

After years of friendship, how could she still keep him at a distance? And why lie to him? Had he not shown he was worthy of being let into her heart—her world?

His self-loathing that he managed to keep buried crawled to the surface. It had made its way up and was making him doubt everything about her. He questioned if Maya ever cared for him. Questioned if she ever saw him as more than just a sex toy.

Namjoon was awake when the alarm went off. He had two hours before he had to leave for the airport to meet his friends for their trip. He had set up the alarm yesterday. It was to go off with plenty of time for him to spend with Maya. He had planned on wrapping his arms around her as she slept on. She was a heavy sleeper. The only way she woke was with an alarm or her name being called.

As someone who was a light sleeper, Namjoon would think he would be jealous of how easy it was for her to stay asleep. But he genuinely was happy to see her rest so peacefully. He liked knowing she woke to him calling for her.

Today marked their 100 days together. He had planned to gently wake her and present her with a gift. Even though he was set to fly out today, he had planned out the few hours they would have together. Maya wasn’t one to be sentimental, not being much of a fan of materials, but he was certain of the jewelry he had bought her. He, too, wasn’t one to lavish on gifts, but he liked the idea of splurging on her.

He could play the scenario in his head: after giving her the gift, she would have given him that smile that always melted him. She would have attacked him with kisses. Maybe they would have time for cuddles and breakfast in bed before he took off.

It was all a lie, the self-loathing voice whispered in the darkness.

But Namjoon managed to recognize the demon and shut him down. After years of practice, he learned to push down the side of himself that he was not proud of. He needed to find his voice of confidence. The one who was logical and reasonable.

Maya might have lied to you last night about talking to her mother, but her feelings for you are genuine—his reasonable voice said loudly.

With the demon locked down, Namjoon began to think clearly.

Suddenly, he replayed all last night with a different filter. One that was more observant and not so engulfed with anger.

God, what the fuck had happened? Things had seemed to be good between them. But then she had lied—again. She kept blocking him off for some reason he couldn’t understand. Why wouldn’t she let him in?

Racking his brain, he tried to search for the answer.

And as he did, his thoughts eventually came to a memory from a couple of years ago….

Seollal 2021 – Kim Household

“Thank you for doing the dishes, Maya. You really didn’t have to,” Eomuni said to Maya as Maya finished cleaning the last dish.

Maya smiled at Eomuni. “It’s the least I could do. Thank you so much for the meal,” she said for maybe the 10th time that night.

Maya’s constant gratitude made Namjoon smile. He found her so cute like this, so polite.

He’d gotten used to the foul-mouth, free-spirited side of Maya in the last year. Around older people and in the public eye, she had perfect manners. It was nice to see different sides of her.

The Kim family made their way to the living room where they spent it playing games for the next few hours. Maya fit well with Appa, who was very much like her and got competitive. She managed to keep things light and fun, mixing well with Namjoon’s parents and sister.

After a couple of hours playing, his parents seemed to have gotten tired and got ready to call it a day. Before heading to bed, though, Eomuni and Appa went on their nightly walk with Rapmon, Namjoon’s dog.

Namjoon, Maya, and Sissy continued playing their game and having light conversations.

Sissy excused herself to the bathroom, leaving Namjoon alone with Maya.

“Thanks for inviting me, Namjoon. I really appreciate it,” Maya said with a smile.

He smiled back. “No one should spend Seollal alone. Plus, my mom always has extra food.”

“Gotta thank Sissy for letting me room with her. I hate she has to share it with me.”

“She doesn’t mind. She really likes your company,” Namjoon said honestly.

His entire family enjoyed Maya’s company. His mother had talked non-stop with her and his father had laughed all evening. His sister clung to Maya’s every word, much like a little sister would admire an older sister. Even his dog, Rapmon, had constantly been at Maya’s side.

Namjoon was happy the entire household had welcomed her so well. He felt bad she spent the holidays alone. While she wasn’t Korean and the holidays didn’t mean anything to her, he didn’t like the idea of her not being around loved ones. She must be missing her parents.

It had been the second holiday Namjoon had invited her to spend with his family. Last time she had insisted on leaving after dinner; this time, his mother convinced Maya to stay the night.

He was glad for his mother; he truly disliked the thought of Maya driving this late at night.

Just as Sissy came back from the bathroom, Namjoon’s parents and Rapmon walked into the home. Rampon ran immediately to Maya, who welcomed him with plenty of love and petting.

“Well, we’re gonna call it a night, everyone,” Eomuni said with a smile. She waved to pair as she and Appa started to climb the stairs.

“Don’t stay up too late,” Appa said as he too climbed the stairs.

“Daughter, come on,” Eomuni called out to Sissy.

Sissy had just sat down next to Maya. She looked devasted. “I’m not sleepy, though.”

“You’re waking up early with me to make breakfast, come on,” Eomuni insisted.

Maya sat up. “I can help with breakfast, too.”

Eomuni waved her hand at Maya. “You’ll do no such thing as a guest. Come, daughter.”

Sissy was obedient but she still left with a pout. Despite his sister being in her mid-20s, Namjoon still saw a baby in her and smiled fondly at her. He watched her stomp off.

After his parents were gone, Namjoon found himself and Maya talking deep into the night.

He wasn’t sure how the conversation led to him telling her a story of a family trip when he was younger. It was one from his childhood, before joining Bangtan. Throughout the trip, the four family members had been inseparable. It had been full of fun, laughter, and love.

While Maya had a sweet smile on her face as he told the story, Namjoon took notice there was some sadness in her eyes as well. Could it be because the story was bringing a memory of her own childhood with her family?

“What were your family trips like?” Namjoon asked, curiously.

Much of Maya’s childhood was a secret. He knew she had a complicated relationship with her mother and she never mentioned her father. But that always couldn’t have been the case, right? She grew up wealthy—surely, she must have traveled to some pretty amazing places.

“We only ever went to Mexico. Mostly, we were sent there to visit my grandparents during the holidays. I don’t remember many holidays with my parents,” she said as a matter of fact, but Namjoon was quick to notice how she tugged at her long sleeves, pulling them over her hands.

He didn’t think she was cold. She had taken off her sweater a few minutes ago. He wondered if the action was caused for another reason. “You never traveled with your parents?”

Maya nodded. “My parents mostly spent their money on our extracurricular activities. Anything to get us out of the house.” She muttered the last part, throwing Namjoon off. “I only started to travel when I was in my girl group. I took a trip to Busan when I was a teenager, but that was because of my Tia Jia. My mother thought it was a waste but didn’t forbid me since it was my Tia Jia’s graduation present for me.”

“No travel?” Namjoon asked again, still not believing it.

“Just a ton of lessons from the top teachers money could afford.”

“How many activities were you in?” he asked her, shocked.

She thought for a moment. “Ballet, gymnastics, horseback riding, violin, piano, vocal training, guitar, soccer, volleyball. I eventually gave up ballet and gymnastics and took different dancing classes. I hated putting my horse Selena in competitions, so I only did it for like three years. And then I grew tired of the music lessons. My mom didn’t like me at home, though, so I had to pick other activities. That’s when I decided on asking my tia Jia to teach me Korean.”

“Why didn’t your mom want you home?” he asked, not bothering to think if it was appropriate to ask or not.

“So my mom and dad could continue their fights in peace,” she muttered.

Namjoon’s heart sank at hearing this. The hints had been there about Maya’s parents being abusive. But she was now verbally confirming the suspicions. A part of him didn’t want to know the question that came out of him next, but a more significant part of him needed to know. “How bad were the arguments?”

She tugged at her sleeves again, pulling them down past her fingers now. Namjoon now believed she did this to self-soothe. She was feeling vulnerable. “Someone called the cops once. I think it must have been Seb.” She stopped speaking and quickly looked away.

But Namjoon had noticed. Tears.

He didn’t want to press it, not wanting to push her too much. Instead, he went to her and sat close, rubbing her shoulder in a comforting way.

She didn’t turn back to him, but he heard the sniffles. After a long while, she took a deep breath. “Thank you, Namjoonie. Goes to show how compassionate you are. Not the same can be said about everyone.”

Namjoon frowned at this. “Who else did you tell?”

“My exes. One tried to normalize my childhood and another ex thought my crying was funny.” She finally turned to Namjoon, a sad smile on her face. “I always picked the best guys.”

Namjoon didn’t know what to say. He didn’t get it. How could a great and beautiful person like Maya ever date such scum? He witnessed how protective Maya was towards her loved ones and how she did not hesitate to defend a complete stranger. How did she not do that for herself with all her shitty exes? She deserved a great guy. Someone who would protect her as much as she protected others. Jerry had seemed to be a good guy—why hadn’t it worked with him?

And why in the fuck were her parents so crappy? He didn’t like passing judgment on complete strangers, especially those who were older than him. He couldn’t help himself, though. They had treated Maya so poorly when she had just been a kid.

Namjoon wanted to tell Maya this. Tell her she—like every person in the world—deserved to have good parents. But he held back, feeling it wasn’t his place. He didn’t want to openly criticize her parents. He didn’t know their background. He really shouldn’t judge.

Instead, he pulled her into a hug, allowing her to cry into his chest for as long as she wanted.

Thinking about this story made his brain work. Suddenly, everything about last night and the last month started to make sense.

Maya had mentioned how shitty her exes were. She wasn’t one to easily open up, so the story she had shared during Seollal had been a big deal. That had been the night she had opened up the most about her past to him. Probably the night that she started to consider him a best friend.

Maya had opened up to Namjoon before because they were friends. But Namjoon was no longer a “friend” in Maya’s eyes. He was now put into the “boyfriend” category.

Her past relationships had all been toxic—except the one with Jerry.

She might be fighting her and Namjoon’s progress due to a subconscious instinct. Maybe she thought if she were to open up to him, he would treat her the same as her past boyfriends.

Namjoon then remembered Maya’s story about what led to her and Jerry’s breakup.

They were in the backhouse in the Soop. Days before their relationship evolved.

Maya explained how Jerry proposed. “We got back to the hotel that night and he proposed. Big, diamond ring and everything.”

“You hate diamonds,” Namjoon had said quickly, confused.

Maya nodded slowly, a sad smile on her face—the same one she had had when she told Namjoon about her exes. “I think he forgot.”

Jerry had become another boyfriend who had dismissed her emotions. Another boyfriend who didn’t know her. Another boyfriend who had failed.

Things started to make sense to Namjoon. Her lies made sense—she was protecting herself.

And then, panic took over.

What the fuck had he done?

Everything about last night replayed in his head but he was viewing it in Maya’s perspective.

As he replayed last night, his eyes scanned the room. Something caught his attention. Her bra, panties, and shoes were on the floor. The sudden image of Maya walking down the hotel hall in nothing but a tank top, short skirt, and barefoot came into his head. The staff would have seen. Her smeared makeup. Her unruly hair.

Namjoon could practically feel her embarrassment. Her hurt. That he had caused.

Acting on impulse, he went to his phone, opening Kakao app. He wanted to call her, badly. But his brain told him she wouldn’t pick up anyway. It would be best to send her a voice memo.

He recorded himself, hoping she would hear it soon and answer back. It had been hours since she left, but maybe she would listen to it later today and get back to him.

“Hey, b—” he suppressed his automatic want and need to call her ‘babe’. This wasn’t the time for pet names. He didn’t want her to think he was sweet-talking her, playing her. “I’m sorry for how things went last night. I…can you call me as soon as you can? I’m flying out soon, but I really don’t want to leave things like this. Please. I didn’t handle it well.”

He wanted to tell her more. Tell her he didn’t want to break up. Tell her he regretted the words he used. Regretted letting her leave. Felt like shit for walking out on her. Fuck! He had left her! Walked out on her—how many times must she have experienced that in her past?! Her parents hadn’t been there for her. And now he hadn’t been. SHIT! He had majorly fucked up.

He needed to talk to her—hear her voice. “Call me. Please,” he pleaded and hit ‘send’.

At that moment, a staff knocked at his door, announcing his transportation was ready.

Namjoon gave instructions to his staff on what to take. Then quickly headed over to see Yoongi. He was the only other member left in the hotel. He was planning on staying at Maya’s.

Yoongi looked dead tired when he swung open his door.

“What happened?” Yoongi’s tired look suddenly vanished as he observed Namjoon’s face.

“When are you going over Maya’s?” Namjoon asked, not answering Yoongi’s question.

“Tomorrow around noon—after checkout. Why?”

“After you talk to her, call me as soon as possible. I want to make sure she’s alright.”

“Namjoon, what happened?” Yoongi’s face was stern now.

Namjoon shook his head, unable to answer. He felt tears come down as his throat tightened.

“Shit,” Yoongi let out. “Did you guys break up?”

Namjoon could only nod.

Yoongi shook his head in disappointment. “What happened?”

From the corner of his eye, Namjoon noticed the staff waiting for him. One of them was checking their watches, clearly noticing how late they were running.

“I’ll call you after I land. Just, please, hyung. Call me right after?” he sounded so desperate.

Yoongi gave a small nod. “Ok.”

“Look after her?” Namjoon pleaded.

“Of course.”

He left, praying to whatever fake elemental god or fairy or angel would listen to him.

*******

Weeks later…

He was back in Seoul and under quarantine. Normally, he would have hated the idea of needing to stay indoors for this long, but the trip had exhausted him.

He had enjoyed the experience, and had fun with his friends on the trip. But during the down times when he had nothing to do, nothing to think about, she was constantly on his mind. Every so often, he would look at his phone to look at his notifications. Nothing.

By now, Namjoon had sent her dozens of messages. Countless voice notes. Every morning, every night; he never went more than 12 hours without writing or sending her something. Sometimes they were paragraphs of words. Sometimes it was simple lines. A “good morning”. An “I miss you”.

Unread.

He hid his pain well from his friends throughout the trip. They noticed there was something off but he insisted it was “work stuff” at first. However, right before coming back to Seoul, the ache became too unbearable. He got drunk. Spilled some truths. He had bawled his eyes out.

Hakun and Yongrae were surprised to know he had kept the relationship a secret for so long. They were sympathetic to what was happening and gave words of comfort. Insisted she would call back. She needed time.

His other friend, however, didn’t have the same empathetic response as Hakun and Yongrae.

“There’s something she’s hiding,” his friend, Gaeul, said as Namjoon took another sip of beer. “Might be another guy, man.”

“Maya wouldn’t do that,” Yongrae immediately shot down.

“Well, what else could it be? Why want a secret relationship so badly?” Gaeul asked back.

“Privacy, maybe. She knows how bad a scandal can get if this relationship gets out,” Hakun said. “Maya might be liked by the public, but that can change if they find out she’s dating one of the seven most treasured people of the country.”

Gaeul waved his hand, dismissing this. “Whatever her excuse is, she certainly doesn’t respect him.”

“You can’t say that for a mistake she made,” Hakun said. “She cares about Namjoon.”

“She has a shitty way of showing it,” Gaeul muttered.

“We don’t know her side of the story,” Yongrae said.

“Maybe if she actually responded back to him, he could know. But it’s been weeks and she hasn’t given him at least the decency in responding back with a simple ‘I need time’. She’s just ghosting him at this time. Does a person who cares about someone else act that way?” Gaeul looked more upset than Namjoon did.

Namjoon just sat there and listened. He didn’t agree or disagree with any of his friends, but he certainly soaked in all the words.

Namjoon looked through his phone, checking his notifications.

Nothing.

He tried to distract himself and went onto his socials, wondering what was treading. Several rumors about a possible girlfriend he had. Instinctively, he dug a little deeper into that rumor. Thankfully, it wasn’t. Just some girl craving attention. Nothing to give any energy to.

Not more than five minutes later, a Kakao notification came up.

New Message.

Namjoon didn’t think he had ever opened a message so fast. However, when the feed came up, disappointment flooded through him.

It was Gaeul

 G: Yo, have you seen that girl going all over social media claiming to be your gf? Wtf

Welcoming any distractions, Namjoon responded back.

NJ: Well, she’s technically hinting at being my gf. She’s not explicitly saying it.

G: Everyone knows where she’s getting at, man.

NJ: 🤷🏻

G: Gonna respond back?

NJ: Nah. Not worth the energy. If I were to respond to every claim on social media about a possible romance, I would need to retire from music.

G: Probably best. You seen the paparazzi photos of Maya spreading around. That girl don’t look at all upset. She keeps getting pictured all dolled up.

Namjoon had seen Maya’s paparazzi photos. He hated to admit that he had gone so low as to actually search for them. He hadn’t seen her in weeks, he just wanted a glimpse of her at least.

Of course, she looked goddamn gorgeous in all the photos, but she wasn’t exactly “dolled up” as Gaeul described it. Maya was naturally photogenic. She could put on a garbage bag and still look like a goddamn runway model. Most of the time, he found it hard to believe that someone with her goddess features would find him attractive.

Namjoon was a realist. He knew he attracted plenty of people, but he mostly believed it was due to his fame. He had lived almost two decades of his life constantly being told he didn’t fit the standard of beauty. Maya, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. The media had always been enchanted with her looks. As far as looks went, Namjoon and Maya didn’t make any sense. However, since the first time he had kissed her, Namjoon believed they made sense together in everything else—in everything that mattered.

Namjoon’s phone buzzed again, pulling his thoughts back to the present.

G: Maybe Maya will see the crazy chick’s posts and get all jealous and shit. kkkk

With Gaeul saying it, the thought now crossed Namjoon’s mind. A scene played out in his head with Maya being in her bed and stumbling upon the story of him being with someone else. A twisted sort of satisfaction went through him at visioning her in tears—hurting just as much as he was hurting.

The feeling didn’t last long, though. He suddenly felt sick at allowing his head to get there.

NJ: Gotta go. ttyl

Namjoon put down his phone, promising himself not to touch it for a few hours.

*******

~ YOONGI ~

January; Bangtan Dorms, Seoul

“How is she?”

Yoongi and Namjoon were both finally out of quarantine and able to meet face-to-face. Both had caught the virus and they stayed in longer than planned. They had talked a little on the phone about Maya. Namjoon always asked about her. Yoongi never gave Namjoon too many specifics. During quarantine, Yoongi had the power of just hitting a button to stop Namjoon’s questions. Now that Namjoon was physically next to him, it would be harder to get rid of his tall leader.

Yoongi was quick to notice how strained and tired Namjoon looked. “She’s getting better.”

Yoongi had hinted to Namjoon the breakup had left Maya in a bad state. He didn’t want to give her business to Namjoon, but he also didn’t want Namjoon to think she wasn’t hurting either. Namjoon should know at least that.

“You still talk to her regularly?” he asked, his tone sounding bitter and angry.

The older of the two let out a sigh. He was bracing himself for the ugly side of Namjoon that rarely came out. It had been a while since they last fought, but Yoongi could always tell when one was about to happen. Usually, it was when one of them was under a copious amount of stress. And right now, Namjoon had a lot of shit going on. “Yeah, we talk.”

“Through Kakao?” Namjoon pressed.

Yoongi knew what the leader meant by this. “Another app. Or it’s through an international call.”

“Why?” Namjoon asked, confused.

“I don’t think she’s ready to open up that app,” Yoongi said. It was the truth. He hadn’t asked Maya why she was contacting him through another message app or international call, but he was certain of the answer. If she opened Kakao, she would see all the notifications.

“Why?” Namjoon was starting to sound angrier.

“When you talk to her, you can ask her.” Yoongi wasn’t about to open up that gate because he was certain it would lead to an argument pretty quickly.

“It’s been a month and she hasn’t called. There’s no way for me to reach her. I might as well be a fucking one-night stand to her,” Namjoon snapped.

Yoongi kept his calm. He knew Maya’s issues were the main reason why she and Namjoon had broken up, but it wasn’t the only reason. Namjoon took participation in why the relationship failed. What he had told Maya that night and the way he walked out had done damage. Maya was recoiling this intensely due to Namjoon’s response. And Yoongi wasn’t about to let Namjoon believe he was fully innocent. “Is that why you had to publicly announce you weren’t in a relationship on social media a few days ago? You’re hoping she sees it?”

There had been someone on social media claiming to be Namjoon’s girlfriend. It had been circulating for a while and get to the point where the company had asked Namjoon how he wanted to handle the situation. Yoongi thought Namjoon would have simply ignored it, or at most declared he didn’t know the girl. However, after Namjoon wrote his statement saying he did “not know the person at all”, the company wanted to release its own statement. It was “not true that he [RM] is in a relationship,” were the words used by the company that Namjoon had ok’d. Yoongi was certain Namjoon was being vindictive in ok’ing the last part.

Namjoon’s eyes shot daggers at Yoongi. “Someone was claiming to be in a relationship with me on social media. I wanted to squash those rumors and set the record straight.”

“All you had to do was claim you didn’t know her. The added bit of you not being in a relationship was personal,” Yoongi stated. “You tend to do that when you reach a certain point of anger. You wanted her to see it. You were wanting to hurt her.”

“Did she read it?” Namjoon asked immediately. The look in his eyes contained hope and regret. He was losing it.

“She only uses her phone to communicate with a few people. She’s stayed away from all social media and the news. She hasn’t seen it, sorry to disappoint,” Yoongi said, annoyed.

For a long moment, the pair didn’t speak. Yoongi waited for his younger brother to come down from his anger.

After time had passed for too long, Yoongi sensed a change in the air. He felt Namjoon crying before hearing the sniffles. The hyung’s heart tugged for his younger brother. He reached out and rubbed Namjoon’s shoulder.

He let Namjoon cry, feeling tears sting his own eyes. “You don’t open easily yourself,” Yoongi said. “Took years for your walls to come down. Same with me.”

Namjoon didn’t say anything, just listened.

“She’s like us. She’s cautious on who she lets in. And even after letting people in, she has her moments of hiding. You and I have our reasons why we are detached like this. She has hers.”

“I just…” Namjoon tried to control his sobs to let out what he was feeling. “I’ve let her in. I’ve trusted her. Why can’t she trust me?” He stared at his hyung with eyes full of hurt.

Yoongi tried to keep himself together. “That’s not the way it works. Just because you allow someone in does not mean you are entitled to be let in with her. But I’m positive she wants to let you in. She has her reasons as to why she hasn’t or can’t. And she’ll want to tell you once she’s ready. But know sometimes it takes a good while for people to be ready.”

Namjoon went back to crying, looking more than defeated. “God, I just want to talk to her. I fucking miss her. It’s been a month. I can’t remember the last time I went more than a day without talking to her.”

Another long period went without words being said.

Yoongi finally spoke, saying something he really wanted to let out. “She hasn’t told me anything.” He continued to look forward, not making eye contact.

“Huh?” Namjoon asked, not understanding Yoongi’s words.

“I don’t know what happened with her. The seven of us suspect something happened to her before she came to Seoul—maybe sexually assaulted.” Yoongi’s heart weighted down even more at saying this, but he needed to. “None of us think it was Jerry. We all agree he’s too much of a good guy. But someone did something to her. Jimin shared with us the incident that occurred backstage during the awards show in 2019. Months later, she was helping us with a song and while on video chat with her, we noticed she was quieter and had circles under her eyes. Her leaving America suddenly and not going back was concerning.” It broke Yoongi’s heart to think something so horrible had happened to a dear friend of his.

Namjoon’s hands clenched into fists. Yoongi could only imagine what Namjoon was feeling. Namjoon cared for her more than Yoongi ever could.

Despite being incredibly close to Maya, Yoongi had never been able to break through with Maya but Yoongi suspected Namjoon questioned whether Yoongi was honest. Namjoon would give Yoongi looks whenever the topic came up: did Yoongi know about Maya’s secret? Yoongi’s answer was always ‘no’. Namjoon never looked convinced.

Yoongi had hoped she would have opened up to Namjoon. Sadly, she hadn’t. He needed Namjoon to know that Maya had that wall up for him as well. “It must be bad if she hasn’t told any of us,” Yoongi said out loud.

Longer moments of quiet.

Yoongi thought Namjoon was about to take it upon himself and leave, but there was something that still needed to be said. Another hidden truth that needed to be shed into the light.

“You love her,” Yoongi let into the air.

Namjoon didn’t respond, but there was a slight look of shock on his face.

“You think we don’t notice,” Yoongi said with a laugh. “The way you touch her; how you gravitate towards her whenever she’s in the same room; how your eyes scan to find her. You always manage to get right next to her. Only a few of us have caught it. You’re not much into physical affection, but with her, there’s always a part of you that’s on her. I’ve caught you plenty of times pressing your shoe against hers.”

Namjoon turned away, looking somewhat embarrassed.

“And she loves you.” Another truth.

Namjoon shook his head slightly, seeming bothered.

Yoongi misread him, thinking Namjoon didn’t believe this to be true. “She does,” Yoongi insisted. “You’re witty and funny, but the way she laughs at your jokes, you’d think you were a combination of Einstein and Junha. She never looks more amazed or more entertained than when she’s around you.” He pressed on Namjoon’s arm, making the younger one turn to him. Once their eyes met, Yoongi repeated the words. “She loves you.”

Tears came back. “Being with her makes me happy; makes me feel like I’m not losing my mind. I get so in my head sometimes and I feel she brings me back to the real world. But…not having her—not talking to her—is making me question whether that’s a good thing. I’ve noticed myself go deeper these few weeks and I’m seeing that ugly side of myself again. I was able to have control over him before. Now, it seems as if she’s in control.”

“You’re still the one in control, Namjoonah,” Yoongi encouraged. “It’s just a new phase you’re transitioning into. You’re in a team of two instead of one. It’s learning how to balance it all again. And you’ll get there.”

“That’s only if she’ll have me,” Namjoon said sadly.

Yoongi was about to continue with his pep talk, but his phone buzzed. He looked down, ready to send whoever it was to voicemail. However, once he saw he was, he changed his mind.

It was Jimin. Yoongi picked up and without thinking, put him on speaker. “Yeah?”

“Hyung,” Jimin said on the other end. “Can you do me a favor?”

“What?”

“I’m out of food at my place. Can you get some basic groceries and take them to my house? Everyone at the company is still out on holiday.”

“Why’s it gotta be me? Namjoonie lives in the same complex. Ask him.” Yoongi whined.

“It can’t be Namjoon,” Jimin said, sounding stressed.

Suddenly, things felt awkward. The seven rarely kept secrets from each other, which was why Yoongi immediately answered and put his younger member on speaker without thinking. Anything Jimin would say to him, he was certain Jimin would be fine in Namjoon overhearing. However, it was now apparent that Jimin was wanting to keep this from their leader.

Yoongi was stuck. He didn’t know how to react. He couldn’t hang up, Namjoon would be hurt in knowing the two were keeping something from him. But he couldn’t announce to Jimin that Namjoon was present either and overhearing everything.

Namjoon frowned a bit and waited for Yoongi’s decision, not knowing what to do either.

But it was too late for Yoongi to react. Jimin kept talking. “Don’t tell Namjoon—I already told Maya I would keep it between me and her.”

Yeah, there was no way Yoongi would be able to keep Jimin from talking if Maya was involved.

Namjoon took the phone from Yoongi and hit the mute button, ensuring Yoongi didn’t disrupt Jimin from talking.

Yoongi stayed frozen, though.

Jimin sounded a bit stressed and began to ramble and talk fast. “Maya decided to come back to Seoul earlier than planned. Her place isn’t ready obviously, so she asked if she could stay at my place, knowing my house is empty since I’m in Busan with my family. I don’t have much food at home and she’s been having issues with her accounts. I told her I would get it for her, but I forgot I had a few drinks last night, and…well, I lost my wallet—I had to freeze my accounts to be on the safe side. I’ve been trying to get ahold of her for a few hours and she’s not responding and everyone at the company isn’t answering either. Can you get the stuff that she’ll need and maybe check on her? She has a few days left of her quarantine.”

Yoongi was surprised by the last bit of information. How long had Maya been back?

Namjoon looked just as shocked, taking the phone off mute. “Maya’s been here for days?”

Jimin went silent for a moment. “Ssibal. Hyung, why didn’t you say he was there?!”

******

~NAMJOON~

There was zero hesitation. He reacted. He got his keys, called a car, and exited the dorms.

Because he often visited Jimin, he knew Jimin’s passcode to his home. He put in the code without a second guess, not bothering to knock. He didn’t want to give her the choice. She had had a choice for over a month and she had chosen to avoid him. The ball was in his court now. Plus, he was positive Jimin had called her to give her a heads-up.

As he made his way through the entrance hall, he heard the chimes announcing his arrival.

He walked into the living room, looking towards the bedrooms, and wondered what bedroom she was in. However, he spotted something on the couch. He made his way over and saw the blankets folded neatly, along with a pillow. He’d crashed on Jimin’s couch enough to recognize she was making camp there.

He looked around the living room and noticed a few knickknacks that were definitely hers. A bottle of melatonin on the table. Her favorite lotion. Hair ties. Her phone. With the slightest movement, her phone turned on. Missed calls. The phone didn’t recognize his face and it was set to private, so he couldn’t see whose calls were missed. However, he could make a guess.

His eyes continued to skim the room. He saw it. On top of the armchair. A sweater of his.

His eyes stayed on that sweater, remembering the last time he had worn it. Two nights before they broke up. He had forgotten it at her house.

The sound of a door opening pulled his attention away. He turned right on time.

She walked out of the bedroom, a stunned look on her face at seeing him there. She wore baggy pants that hung loosely on her hips, had an old shirt he knew to be a favorite of hers despite its multiple holes, fuzzy socks on her feet because he was sure she was freezing, her hair soaking wet, and her face was a bit puffy from having clearly taken a hot bath. God, he had forgotten how incredibly beautiful she was.

Like some stunning, majestic goddess who was blessing him with her presence.

He forced himself not to be caught in her mist. He was supposed to be angry at her, dammit. “What are you doing here?” Namjoon demanded.

-----------------------------------------

NOTE: I hope the last chapter is up next week, but there might be a 2-week wait.

I'm really excited to give this story's last chapter next week.

Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30

MASTERLIST

[aetherspoon]

A not-so-simple relocation, day 7/8/9/10

Last Time:

Trips to the aquarium, to my partner's home, to ikea, and to a gaming table to play Dorf Romantik. If you're still with me this far, that's impressive! Have a boat. I think it is a Ketch, but this is definitely not a boat I had seen in Sid Meier's Pirates!, so forgive my lack of boat knowledge.

Day 7 - The day everyone leaves.

Sunday was departure day.

Our friends flights were scheduled to depart at 13:10 local time. This time, everyone were on the correct flights, everyone arrived with plenty of time to spare, everything should be fine!

... yeah, not a single flight for their trips back went to plan. Folks, you might wonder why I grouped four days together on this post. That's because the last of my friends finally got home at 3:55a (my time) on day 10. Which is seven hours ago, as of the typing of this Tumblr post.

Backing up a bit, when I originally booked these flights, I asked my friends what they wanted me to book. I wouldn't be on the flight back, so from my perspective all I was doing was paying for them. The flights back consisted of two sane routes - one gave a 55m layover in Copenhagen, one gave an 8.5h layover in Copenhagen. I warned them that a 55m layover was quite short but, assuming the flights were on time, absolutely doable since you aren't going through airport security. The 8+h one would probably mean they'd get a chance to explore Copenhagen before heading back. They chose the short layover.

They chose... poorly.

The flight out of Bergen was an hour or so late in arriving, meaning their 55m layover turned into a -7m layover. Why was it so late? Because the flight was late in arriving in Bergen. Where did the flight come from? Oslo.

That's right! Oslo needs to get their shit together on Sundays! I told you it'd come back. :)

As they were in the air from Bergen to Copenhagen, I received three notifications about rebooked flights. I looked at the rebookings and realized that my friends were about to have an awful day. You see, when they rebooked their flights, they didn't put them on the later flight, no... they flew them to Stockholm, then from Stockholm to Chicago, then Chicago to Milwaukee.

Wrong direction, sure, but why was I so adamant about their bad day? Because the layover in Stockholm was eighteen hours long. They had an overnight layover. Then another five hour layover in Chicago. Then they had a 7+ hour drive back, then another one of the friends had an additional 13 hours to drive back to his home on top of that first drive. Can you see how it took him four days to get home yet? All because Oslo didn't have their shit together on a Sunday.

I, on the other hand? Didn't do all that much. I finally set up my portable desktop computer, started typing these out, and made an order for cat food and other cat supplies. I would have loved to done some grocery shopping or purchasing of other needed supplies, but I couldn't.

That's because Day 7 is a national holiday here in Norway, as is Day 8. Absolutely nothing was open outside of a couple of small kiosks downtown (and, as I later found out, a couple of restaurants for delivery).

Day 8 - Holiday doldrums.

Norway has an interesting set of national holidays. There aren't a huge number - only one more than the US, in fact - but they're all clumped up around Easter. A full half of their national holidays are latched onto Easter, likely owing to their state religion. Unfortunately, the next national holiday is Christmas Day. This is the year I get short-changed on paid holidays due to my timing of the move from US-based to Norway-based work.

Day 8 is Whit Monday, a part of the Ascension holiday. The last of the bracketed-around-Easter holidays. I'm not Christian (although I was raised in a Christian society, so I have a lot of cultural osmosis there), so the day itself is meaningless to me. Incidentally, same day as the US Memorial Day this year, but that's a complete coincidence.

I basically just cleaned up a bit around the house and attempted to make some online orders... only to fail. Everywhere.

International Banking, part 2

The other thing I said would come back at some point!

When someone from outside of a country tries to order something online inside of the country, one of four things tend to happen:

The order lets you put in an international address for billing, everything works file.

The order requires a domestic billing address, but everything still works fine because your credit card company just nods along.

The order requires a domestic billing address and adamantly fails to run on a non-domestic account.

You can't even sign up to get an order because you don't have domestic contact information.

Most times, multi-national organizations hit option 1. The place I ordered the cat supplies from, for instance, did not care one bit about the fact that my billing information was US-based. The company itself is based out of Germany, so they're used to international business anyway.

Online food ordering around here seems to hit point two. I used a credit card to pay for my food delivery for my friends while they were here; I put in my address here for my home address and away it went.

The other two though? I'm out of luck. My partner has to order things for me, which is utterly ridiculous given that I already owe them nearly 10k USD for house-related expenses anyway. It also makes me feel infantilized, given that I'm apparently not allowed to do anything. I can't repair my own desktop computer without parts, and I can't get those parts without my partner ordering them for me (as that online retailer hits #4 - you literally can't order from them without a Norwegian phone number). They won't do that right now, as they're probably freaking out over just how much money this whole thing has cost. I can't buy a chair that will let my back hurt less (as I'm using a dining room chair right now, which isn't even ours), since that's a site that hits problem number three.

Norwegian telephone numbers

And that brings us to rage target number two. Norway basically has two cell providers - Telia and Telenor. Everyone else is basically using one of those two networks, kind of like how the US basically has four providers and everyone uses one of those four. Similar to the US, there are both prepaid and postpaid options.

Unlike the US, however, Norway uses cell phones for a lot more than just calls and data. Their entire banking system relies on a cell phone number for mobile banking, for instance, and mobile banking is default.

Postpaid options, however, require you to have a two year long credit history. I do not exist according to Norwegian banks. I literally cannot get a postpaid cell phone for the next two years because of this. As far as I can tell, I can't even be added to my partner's postpaid contract as a family member (although I can't be sure on that), giving me fewer rights than a twelve year old here.

So, why not go with prepaid? Let's look at Telenor's site. This is via Google Translate, for reference, so forgive the weird grammar.

So, let's see if I get this straight. Postpaid I can't get because Noob. Prepaid I can get but can't use for BankID (which is the primary authentication method in Norway and the mobile part is used for MFA - kind of needed) or for sending any non-data communication outside of Norway (which is kind of needed to even communicate with my own company / HR departments).

Day 9/10ish - I miss the US.

I mean, given the frustrations above, this is hardly surprising. But damn is it rough right now. I feel like I'm basically trapped here and have made All The Mistakes. Again, I knew this would happen, I just didn't how what would trigger it and how.

Apparently, it is entirely based on the fact that I can't easily leave the house or feed my cats.

Leaving the house

I talked about the hill of doom before. It is 50-someodd meters of a walk uphill, rather steep for someone who grew up within a meter of sea level. I'm not out of breath so much as my legs are screaming at me with high amounts of pain. We're talking comparable-to-kidney-stones levels of pain not counting my gout. There also isn't really a way around it; my apartment is at the end of the road and almost the entire hill is on the same road. There isn't anywhere I could go that I wouldn't need to go up that same hill, even if I just wanted to stretch my legs.

This makes me feel trapped in this apartment. If I had known how steep that hill walk would be, I would have actually rejected this apartment.

My plan for this day was to go up that stupid hill again to go shopping (mall non-grocery), come back, then go up a second time with Kriatyrr to further go shopping (grocery). I've been a bit lazy in the mornings for me, but I'm still up hours earlier than Kriatyrr due to the way my brain works with times. As I was feeding my cats, I realized how low on food we were.

Cat food

We're low. Very low. Kriatyrr had bought a 1.5kg bag of cat food for me before my arrival. My cats eat a prescription food called Hill's T/D - it is for dental health and my cats have been on it for around a decade now. Weighing it right now, I have 469g of food left. Based on when I arrived, that should give me enough food for another eight days... except that my numbers are off. Remember a while back when I said Zoan wasn't eating? He certainly is now, but he didn't start eating until day five. So that information is kind of bunk, but I do have some telemetry data coming from their feeders.

Looking at their feeding history, Issun eats around 1560g per month, Zoan eats around 1450g/month, or around 100g/day combined. So I have four days of food left.

Kriatyrr informed me that the site I ordered my cat food from takes over a week to arrive. I did not realize this. I have made a terrible mistake.

Does that look like the face of a cat that will be happy when I'm out of food? No. That's the look of a creature that will eat ME if I do not feed.

So on Day 9, we went to the grocery store and also added in some supplemental wet food. We picked out a variety Kriatyrr's cats enjoy, as then any leftovers can go to them. We mixed some wet food in with their T/D and fed them last night.

This was the even-worse mistake.

After feeding time, the profuse vomiting began. Zoan threw up seven times in 40 minutes. Issun threw up four or five times in that same span. This continued on until this morning. I've since fed them T/D... only to have Issun throw it all up again, this time on top of multiple objects that aren't easy to clean.

Oh right, cleaning. Did I mention that we still don't have a washing machine? Or freezer?

What did arrive is a letter from the Norwegian Government, addressed to me. I can see it in the mailbox. The locked mailbox, the same locked mailbox we don't have a key for because the landlord never finished giving us things for the apartment.

I'm really fed up with having to rely on everyone to get anything done.

Previous post:

[elaine-abroad]

Volume 1: The Arrival

The Flight

If you’re reading this, you probably already know me and my situation. I’m Elaine and I’m studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea for the next four weeks. It’s strange to think that a whole study abroad trip can even fit into one month, but regardless I’m excited to see what Seoul has for me.

This past week before takeoff felt too short as I continuously told my mom that I wanted more time to mentally prepare for the journey. I also procrastinated on packing a little bit in favor of one last hoorah with my closest friends. I know that I’m acting like I’ll be gone a long time, but a month in a country I’ve never been to IS a long time to me.

I was full of nerves the morning of – I woke up earlier than I had to and didn’t speak on the car ride to the airport. I’ve been on plane trips many times before, but I always get anxious and have to run through the steps. This time was a little more stressful because it was my first time flying internationally alone. I made it on with plenty of time to spare so that was good. There was one thing that dampened my spirits a bit throughout the day though. There was a girl from my school’s program that was supposed to land at the same time as me. We were going to explore the airport and split a hotel room together. It was just my luck when she told me she missed her flight, booked another flight that was due to land the next morning, missed the second flight to Incheon after a connecting flight was delayed or something, and was due to land around 5 pm the next day. It made me nervous thinking about finding things on my own, but I had to move on.

The plane’s “amenities” if you will were nothing like I’ve seen before. They had given us each a cheap pillow and blanket as they do on any international flight, but we also received cheap headphones, a full-sized water bottle (not those mini baby ones other planes have – a full one), and foldable hotel slippers to wear. Each chair had a screen to watch movies on and there was even a remote control for the screen. One push of a button and the whole thing came out. They had an area to plug in a charger and they even had a little knob to hang clothes on. It was crazy.

Interesting chair set up + views from the window shortly after take-off

The part I was most excited for was the meals. I’ve seen and heard from social media that planes to Korea had ACTUAL food that also looked good. My past experiences with United Airlines’ food weren’t even up for comparison. My mom would gobble that stuff up every time (I don’t know how), but my brother and I would rather starve than touch it. Anyways, let me just tell you I was not disappointed. When it was time for the first meal, I was elated that bibimbap was even an option. Of course, I had to get that over some ordinary teriyaki chicken. I was pleasantly surprised with the presentation of it all too. I was expecting some hastily thrown together bowl with nothing else, but I also haven’t had plane food in a good couple of years, so I forgot the meals usually came with sides. It even came with Korean Airline branded gochujang tubes and sesame oil packets which was insane. I ate it all.

Meal 1: bibimbap, miso soup, “spicy” pickles, oranges, Sprite

The next meal came in the middle of “sleep time” where all the lights were off for a few hours.

For the first two meals I kept thinking to myself, “How do they know exactly when I’m hungry?” Because both times I’ve been hungry, and they've almost answered my call. However, as the third time came around, I felt a lot fuller than I wanted to be. I still tried to eat it, albeit a little forcefully, but I knew I would have regretted it later if I didn’t. Plus, I wanted to get through the main dish to eat the carrot cake. Unfortunately, by the time I reached the cake, I was no longer in the mood with my tummy full and all. It was a sad moment because if you know me, you know that I have a sweet tooth.

Meal 3: beef with rice + veg, bread roll, caprese salad, carrot cake. Meal 2 not pictured but consisted of a ham and cheese hot pocket and a mini ham, cheese, lettuce sandwich

As for the plane ride itself, it was not that bad and was more tolerable than my usual five-hour flights to Michigan. Maybe it was because we got food and I slept better with the window seat (I usually sit in the aisle). I did kind of feel bad for the people who sat next to me as I unfortunately had to get up three times. My Korean friend told me not to sleep on the flight because of the time difference when I land or whatever, but I didn’t know what else to do on a 12 hour flight.

Views from window shortly before landing

The airport was a lot more straightforward than I imagined. I was worried I would get lost, but now I realize English signs and directions are a must since it’s literally an airport with tons of foreigners. At this point, everything kind of caught up to me and I just wanted to crash at my hotel. Everything was fine and dandy except there was no toilet in my actual room which meant I had to share with everyone else and my shower wouldn’t work. Maybe it did work and I just didn’t know how to use it because it took me a while to orient myself in the shared bathroom where there was no light switch and I had to press buttons to open the door. I ended up hitting the hay around 9 pm and woke every few hours until I left shortly before 8 am.

Views from above baggage claim and an inside look at my room at the Darakhyu capsule hotel in Incheon airport.

I booked a bus ride for the morning and luckily another girl from STAMPS was able to join me after taking a shuttle from her hotel. She brought two of her friends who were also going to be participating in a program at Yonsei University, the school right across the street from us. The guy who took our tickets was kind of scary as he yelled at us in Korean, asking where we were going. One thing I noticed since the plane ride was that the people here just assume I can speak Korean. It’s probably because I’m clearly Asian, but the flight attendants, customs people, hotel front desk, and café cashiers so far have approached me with Korean. It was kind of funny because the flight attendants would speak perfect English to the obvious white people and then ask me stuff in Korean. Anyways, the bus layout was pretty cool and different – super spacious. M Bus could never.

Bus interior. Fun fact: these two girls got off the same stop as us and were also attending Ewha for the summer

It was quite the journey to get settled (imagine carrying 2 backpacks and 3 suitcases up/down hill-y streets and stairs while battling the raging hot sun). We managed though. My room was nice too and I had it all to myself. I raised my brow at the showerhead, sink, and toilet all being in the same room, but it actually wasn’t too hard after taking one. Each room has a mini fridge and AC which definitely beats life at Bursley (dorm at UM that has no AC and all sorts of problems) last summer.

Extra pillow, pillowcase, sheet, and blanket not pictured. Each room has a balcony

The girl I arrived with, Alyssa, has a roommate (I didn’t hear her name that clearly, but it sounded like ‘Zeda’ so I’m just going to refer to her as that until it’s further clarified), and the roommate’s friend Deborah from their school in Massachusetts when out for lunch and a walk through the nearby streets. I was not expecting Zeda to whip out full on Korean when we struggled to order. Apparently, she took 4 semesters of Korean, and she could speak and read it decently. Deborah also knew quite a few words and could read it as well. Anyways the food was really good and pretty cheap – as well as a lot of things here. I literally bought 12 rolls of toilet paper for 5000 won which converts to less than 4 USD. So good news: I can buy gifts for people without too much caution because everything is so much cheaper here.

Soup dumplings, jajangmyeon, and these spicy seafood noodles

Long story short: the food was good, and we were all happy. We did some more walking and went shopping for dorm essentials at Daiso. Since arriving, I have seen an insane number of Daiso stores in Seoul which is kind of mind-boggling. There’s even one in the subway station near the school I’m staying at.

Despite the temperature being a whopping 93 degrees, we decided to take a little tour around the school. I quite like the simplicity of the campus – the buildings all look pretty much the same and it feels like a little town. The buildings remind me of the Ross (business school) buildings at UM. They’re all a light gray with stones/bricks, and the lush, green vegetation really makes the scene pop. It’s so fresh looking unlike in California where we have droughts and “brown is the new green”.

Views from the frontish part of the school

We didn’t make it far because of how physically taxing the walk was. Between the heat, humidity, and the fact that the school is built on hills of uneven roads, we were beat. We ended the journey with the very first building built at Ewha.

First building ever built at Ewha

To cool off, we visited our first café. I’ve decided to start a collection of those cup sleeves because they’re cute here.

Peach iced tea!

We all went back to our rooms to reset, but a few hours later, Alyssa and I were ready to roam the streets again. We ate at a fast-food place called Lotteria. Think of any place that sells typical burgers and fries, but times twenty. The food took a little longer than expected to come out, but we were joking how that’s how you knew they actually cook their food. Anyways, we were so surprised with the menu because of all the different options that American fast-food places never offered.

I got this mozzarella bacon burger which was absolutely insane because they literally fried like a puck of mozzarella and shoved it inside. Definitely not healthy, but really good.

The mozzarella puck is bigger than the patty. Also, the ice cream was super good too

To end the first night, we went into several cute shops with all sorts of accessories and items. I didn’t get anything, but I’ll definitely be back before the end of the program

ARTBOX interior

The First Day…Kind Of

The next morning, Alyssa, Zeda, and I went for a brisk walk to find breakfast of some sort before the Welcoming Ceremony. They were going to provide lunch, so we didn’t end up getting anything.

Quick street view

At the main gate, there’s this building structure called the ECC. In comparison to UM, think Pierpont/The Union. There are two sides made up of multiple floors. Within the building, there are food stores, a convenience store, a bank, coffee shops/cafes, a gift shop (Ewha’s version of MDen), classrooms, the office for international students, and areas for study. The path is dug out so that the greenery lays on ground level. It’s kind of hard to explain and imagine because you can access different parts of the building because it’s all built on uneven land.

Front and back of ECC

There were a lot of students at the welcoming ceremony – so many that they didn’t have enough chairs for them at first. We were given folders of information and even got a free pen and T-shirt (for field trip wear).

Welcoming Ceremony

The free lunch given was a free coupon for the cafeteria. I was pleasantly surprised with how good the food was and helped myself.

Purple rice, green onion hot spicy meat stew, cubed radish kimchi, meatballs with onions, cucumbers, apple + pineapple fruit salad, yogurt drink, seaweed, and a lemon tea drink

I ended up making my first purchase at the school’s convenience store for dinner where I got some munchies.

Kimbap and banana milk

There were a lot of options, and I was eyeing the bagged drink section. I have seen too many TikToks showing people in Korean convenience stores grabbing a pre-filled cup of ice and then a drink of their choice, and basically creating their own concoction.

Drinks galore

This is the end of the first volume. Stay tuned for my first full week in Seoul.

Spoiler: there were a lot of ups and downs.

-Elaine

[umichenginabroad]

Post 1 (Week 0): Managing The Flight

Intro

Bonjour! This is Andrew, a rising sophomore here at the UofM. As you’ve probably already guessed, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to come to Paris for a one-and-a-half month study abroad experience, and I’m here to tell you all about it! Quick note, I wrote a lottttt of stuff in this post, and it can get really boring, so feel free to just pick a section to read and skip along. Also feel free to just read this paragraph, it’s chill and all up to you!

This will be my first blog of the trip, and I will be beginning with the process of managing your flight. As an international student, flying has already been something I have done countless times; when some people simply hop into their cars and drive themselves home, I have to spend a LUDICROUS amount of money to pay for a HORRENDOUS 13 + 5 hour flight back to Taiwan just to see my dog. Ranting aside, what I really want to say here that I think will prove useful to those of you who are interested in pursuing a study abroad experience of your own is that there are many things that have to be taken into consideration when arranging your trip, especially your flight there. In this post, I’d like to focus on how you can (and should) prepare your transportation to whichever country you wish to visit, using myself as a terrible example for you to NOT follow~  (All photos used were taken by me so no credentials provided)

#1: Booking The Flight

Assuming that your destination is somewhere other than America, it is probably a very good idea to book your international flight at least 3~4 months before your projected departure date. I recommend using google flights to track ticket prices and book at the best time possible. Me personally, despite knowing this, booked my tickets a bit late, at around 2.5 months before my program start date. You might be thinking, “Well that’s still ok right?” It kind of is, but I forgot something really important. The Olympics are this year, and yes, they’re in Paris. Which means? Airlines become scammers and quadruple their prices. (Exaggerated, but still you get my point.) So I think the bigggg takeaway is that you should note any significant event, natural disaster, or things like political conflicts that may influence the prices of your plane tickets. Start doing this as soon as you decide to do a study abroad program, and you’ll be saving yourself some big cash, all while ensuring your own safety.

#2: Packing For The Trip

Traveling is very different from living at home. You can’t really bring everything with you, and you’re gonna have to choose which teddy bear comes with you and which stays in your room. My recommendation when it comes to determining what to bring is to look up checklists for packing. Yes, I know, so unoriginal, but hear me out. The people who make these lists don’t know who you are, what you do, or where you’re going. That’s why their lists only include things that are absolutely essential to ANY travel experience. An example of this can be seen here. Following these guides will ensure that you don’t get stranded in an airport, get sent back to America, or get yourself in messy situations abroad. After you’ve gotten all the essentials packed, you should still have plenty of space for other items. Now you can start throwing in your extra shoes, frisbees, idk, whatever you think you’re going to use during your trip. Checking things such as the weather, geography, and local culture could be very helpful when packing these non-essentials. Don’t be like me, bringing half my furniture and two thirds of my clothes just to have them sit in the suitcase the entire time. I kinda didn’t have a choice because I didn’t want to spend money on storage back at Ann Arbor, but still, try not to let yourself tow 80lb worth of junk around.

#3: The Actual Flight

Like I said, I’ve flown quite a few times. I still get panic attacks at the airport. “Where’s my passport? Where’s my gate? Did I pack a kitchen knife by accident (Don’t)? Where did I put my batteries???” So regardless of whether you’ve flown 100 times or never once flown, it’s normal to feel pressure at the airport. What’s not normal or okay is feeling like flying is just like a normal walk in the park, unless you’re fine with losing a passport or two when taking a stroll (you’re not). Some things that I recommend paying attention to when flying are as follows. First, have your passport(s) on you at all times. Whatever you lose, never lose your passport. Actually no, just try not to lose anything lol. I have a passport case that I always keep in my hoodie pocket, always in reach and felt. If you lose it or them, it’s kinda gg for you. Second, if you’re transferring flights, book them with at least 2~3 hours of layover time. I booked mine with 50 minutes of layover. Don’t do that. I repeat, DON’T do that. Whichever teacher who’s checking this post, I know what you’re thinking. “Wha-how-nahhhh, 100 bucks he didn’t make it.” I made it, but I’m thanking the airport god every day for this miracle. A quick note is that if you’re transferring from a domestic flight to an international flight and you booked your two flights together from the same airline, you “might” be able to just head straight over to the next terminal and hop onto your next plane. If you’re making an international flight before a domestic flight though, there will likely be a re-check-in and/or additional security check as you enter the new country, which will take up more time. Plan for the worst, which is the latter. I learned this the hard way, as I missed my second flight back to Michigan last year after a slight delay in my first. Almost missed the CFB Finals, wouldn’t have forgiven them if that happened. Finally, ask questions. Different airports have different layouts and security procedures, different airlines have different regulations and offers. It’s never a bad idea to make sure you’re doing the right thing, especially when something like a 1 lb overweight checked bag will set you back $200 for United Airlines(Really United?). That’s a lot of stuff, and I sound like a teacher, I know. But I hope these little unnecessary mistakes that I made won’t be a problem for any of you during your trips!

#4: Arriving At The Destination

Yay! I’ve finally arrived in Paris. I’m so excited to start my journey at my studio that’s a 35 minute drive away from the airport! More likely than not, you won’t be having or even be allowed to have a car when studying abroad, so transportation can be a big issue. First one you’ll need to take care of is your drive to where you’ll be living. In my case, CEA CAPA, the study abroad program, was very helpful and arranged transportation services for students who arrived within a certain time frame (I believe roughly between 8:00 and 18:00 on 05/13), but that may be different for other people. Make sure you won’t be stranded at the local airport after finally making your way there because trust me, you won’t have the energy to worry about too much after your long travel session. After my flight to Paris, I struggled to find the CEA CAPA driver, and therefore had to call the emergency contact line, which successfully helped me resolve the issue. This is all thanks to a pre-bought e-sim from orange travel that allowed me to use my French number as soon as we set foot on Parisian soil. Finally, after all that work, and of course after making sure my luggage was with me, I was able to safely make it to my studio. Now, the fun starts! 

Hsien-Cheng Chou (Andrew Chou)

Mechanical Engineering

Engineering in Paris

[missspringthyme]

January 12th, 2024

Travel day! My dad said goodbye to me before work and gave me a really long hug. My sister helped me carry my things to T's car (and then she got locked out lol, I told her where the spare key was but then she used it in the wrong lock and ended up having to call my dad).

T drove me to the smaller airport in my town, which is the airport my dad encourages me to fly in and out of if I can. I don't like to because this often means that I have to take a useless, 20-minute flight to get to the bigger airport in my state before taking my actual flight, which is exactly what happened today, but whatever. The US needs more trains.

T dropped me off, but I forgot to give him his forward kiss I always do when I say goodbye (before we started dating this time (we dated in high school and then reconnected as adults) we went hammocking and ended up talking until very early in the morning. I was exhausted, so he offered to let me spend the night (just friends right!) so I wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel. When I got up to leave he looked so peaceful and it had been such a good night that I was overcome by the urge to kiss him on the forehead. I quickly stopped myself though, because that was an incredibly weird thing to do to your high school ex. So, in my infinite wisdom, I decided that the appropriate compromise was to kiss the tips of my fingers and press them to his forehead. He's insisted I do it when I say goodbye to him now ever since). I'll have to find a way to make up for it eventually.

My bag was 2 pounds overweight so I had to stuff some jeans in my backpack. There is nothing more humiliating than being crouched on the floor of an airport with an unzipped suitcase. All was well in the end, and I got to my gate with plenty of time to spare for my useless flight.

I've been listening to a podcast where this guy reads Percy Jackson for the first time, as my (not ever really) dormant obsession with Percy Jackson has been reinvigorated by the still-releasing TV show.

At the big airport, I grabbed lunch during my 45-minute layover (bagel sandwich and sparkling water) which I managed to finish eating seconds before my group began to board.

The flight was awful, awful, awful. Behind me were 3 unsupervised, unoccupied, very young children. Which, let me preface by saying that I am not one of those people that thinks that children should not be allowed on airplanes (???) and in general I do not operate under the belief that children should be expected to not behave like children to exist in public spaces. HOWEVER, at least one adult should be present on a 12 hour flight.

Additionally, next to me was sat a massive man who had no qualms about placing his legs far past the imaginary boundaries of our seats. He seemed to be in his early to late 30s, and I know with the way I was dressed I look younger than I am. This made it all the more concerning when he began blatantly hitting on me and asking me increasingly specific questions about where I lived. He asked me if Germany was my final destination, which I took as my chance to pretend I didn't speak much English and then let him get off the plane well ahead of me. Absolute nightmare.

I also could not get comfortable so I slept very poorly if at all. When I was a kid, we flew all the time (I'm pretty sure my first international flight was before I was 6 months old), and I loved it. Airports are still a bit of a happy place for me, but I've developed a bit of a fear of flying. Every time I step on a plane my thoughts are filled with death and the cold acceptance of my fate, although I've found not sitting in the window seat helps.

I sat in the window seat on this flight.

[dsandrvk]

Monday, September 4 - Boston

We docked in Boston at the cruise port, far from downtown Boston, but had a shuttle to Quincy Market. We are sharing the port with another larger ship, but figure Boston is plenty big for all of us. We got on the first bus with only two other people and had a good chance to talk to our driver, who gave us a great description of the areas we passed through. I haven't been to Boston since the early 1990's, so it was a surprise to see the double decker I-93 highway gone and replaced by a tunnel, now covered with a park. Quite an improvement.

We had planned to walk the "Freedom Trail", which visits 16 places of historical importance in about 3-1/2 miles, and is easy to follow with a red brick stripe running down sidewalks, streets and through parks that points the way. First we had to get to Boston Commons, though, and were surprised at how quiet the streets were on the holiday, especially early in the morning. It wasn't that quiet by the time we reached the Commons and bought a guide map to all the sites along the trail. There were lots of tour groups - some of the guides were dressed in period costume - and for the next hour or so we kept running into the same groups. Because of the holiday (we think), many of the places like graveyards were closed, but we were able to visit Faneuil Hall, which was in the middle of the walk. Here there is a big statue of Samuel Adams, as well as a taproom for Samuel Adams brewing. Product placement is everything.

By now it was getting fairly warm, so we tried to find a shady route and keep the red line of bricks within sight, if not directly underfoot. We went into the North End, where there was Paul Revere's house, the old North Church and a statue of Paul on horseback. There were also these wonderful older buildings with semi-circular rooms on the fronts, and many Italian restaurants, part of the heritage of the North End.

The path eventually led us across the Charles River on a temporary bridge to the Charlestown neighborhood, which was once a separate town. Here we found Breed's Hill (more commonly known as Bunker Hill). We took a little respite from the heat in the visitor center there, since the monument itself was covered in scaffolding. From there we moved on to the last site - the USS Constitution, which was the highlight of the day.

She is the oldest commissioned warship still floating, has been lovingly restored, and is still manned by the US Navy. She was first launched in 1797, and saw service in the Barbary Wars, the War of 1812, and other duties before the Civil War, later becoming a training and barracks ship. She has been restored several times, the latest being between 1992 and 1996, and refit with sails, sailed under her own power again in 1997. The National Park Service is in charge of the visitor center, and it's free to wander about the ship, including below decks. It certainly gives me a new perspective on the books I've read set on sailing ships of this period, as they have fit out the captain's quarters, wardroom, officers' quarters, and other parts of the ship with period details.

By now, we were ready to head back, and after walking through some beautiful parts of Charlestown and then crossing back across the bridge, we opted to walk along more of the waterfront back to the Quincy Market area, and take the next to last shuttle. We had dinner out on the back deck of our ship as we backed out of the docking area, and were directly under the flight path into Logan Airport. By then it was dark, and we watched the city lights recede as we headed for tomorrow's destination - Newport, RI. It's supposed to be even hotter tomorrow (it was close to 90 and humid today), so we will see if we come close to hiking the eight miles we did today.

A couple of notes on pictures - Boston is in the middle of an art cow exhibition, with some wonderful entries, and some fairly lame ones. This Greek cow was quite well done, and had a partial seascape on the other flank. The little free library was the most elaborate we have seen. When we first went by it was all closed up from the night, but unfolds origami style during the day. The crane statue is on top of a fountain in the new city park in Charlestown, created after the big dig which moved the highway underground. While doing archaeology, they found the location and foundation stones of the historic Three Cranes Tavern, and included the stones in the base of the fountain.

[mariolandavid]

Leaving Bangkok

There were signs that it wasn't to be a smooth day from the outset as we left Bangkok. The Staybridge suites, calm, placid and peaceful room heard the first gentle tap of raindrops on the window.

Rain fell, and fell, and fell. Puddles, became pools, became streams and finally floodplains. Streets began to resemble the nearby Mekong; whole areas became submerged. A Typhoon whipping the streets of Thailand's Capital with a force not seen in 10 years. Nature's scary.

Fearing the worst, we called a taxi 4 hours before needing to. As we sat in the lobby, drenched figures started shambling into view. We crept to the door and dared to poke a heads out. Motorbikes were turnig back in the face of the new river, cars caused crashing waves that swept the pavements as they sped past, their lights glinting on the waters surface like gemstones. The particularly brave abandoned their shoes and tryed to wade through with shopping bags (and shoes) in hand. My idea of walking a bit down the road to "a less wet bit" was quickly shot down, so instead we waited and attempted summoning taxis (an ordeal taking at least 20 minutes and a lot of cancellations).

Soon a car pulled up. We piled in and the poor guy began his descent into Waterworld. Attempting 3 different routes to get out of the city, each one blocked by a larger body of water than the last. Being ferried (literally) through the cityscape, staring out the window at this flooded metropolis, we watched the outside world captivated at this rising water.

People were huddled in doorsteps and cafes; losing any sense of 'i gotta be somewhere' or 'better get home'. A guy sat at a table drinking another beer, because fuck it right? Friends ordered one more round of clams in the streets, watched the rain and laughed. You'd think it was the most normal thing in the world for people to see their home sink beneath them. If I can't go somewhere, why wouldn't I have another satay? Norms and deadlines go out the window as the weather held time, space and your day to day routine in a headlock while it did it's thing. When it rains it rains here, and everything else gets a break.

Jealous of the pockets of people living in this new time vortex, we sadly had somewhere to be as international airports don't subscribe to my romantic notions of time stopping. Our taxi driver heroically got us onto the highway and sped us onto Suvarnabhumi Airport - arriving in plenty of time still we settled down at one of the airport restaurants enjoying a massaman curry (not terrible actually) and calmly waited for our plane.

The calm we felt was short lived. The South Korean government decided that this had all been too relaxing a trip to the airport and pulled out its own clusterfuck curveball at us to rival biblical floods. Their box of tricks consisting of an unannounced mandatory visa for all Non Koreans entering the country.

The K-ETA, a wonderful new piece of bureaucracy imposed 6 days before our travel date, was briefed to us by the airline via the following routes. Emails - 0. Airport announcements - 0. Airport Staff informants - 0. A fucking post-it note somewhere saying BEWARE OF VISA REQUIREMENTS - 0. Yep. No information. Nothing. I was more aware of Russian espionage activity in Ukraine than my own visa requirements at this point. Cue a line of flustered & panicked non S Koreans (yes, all of them) in a huddle at the front of the check in desk, desperately filling in visa applications online.

Of course Air Asia, could have told people in the queue, to do this in the queue to check in, or in email the week before. The K-ETA website could accept photos larger than 30kb (the data footprint of a Nokia ringtone) They could accept non-S Korean debit cards (S Korea really hates these for some reason). Nope, we like to see you sweat. Keep trying.

As we helped 2 poor german girls use our credit card, our visas were granted. With 2 minutes until check in slammed shut we gratefully sprinted to the plane, losing Mariola's water bottle en route but avoiding having to pay £800 for new flights or losing 3.5 days of our trip to waiting for the the rescheduled flight offered. Lucky us.

I could go on, but I will summarise as "Go Fuck yourself Air Asia" and stop there as we were on the plane.

[lindsaystravelblogs1]

Days 2 and 3 - Arrival in Ushuaia

Day 2, Saturday, 17 December

I took a sleeping pill last night and slept like a baby. Heather also took one and rocked and rolled all night, or what was left of it, after 3 am! She suffers jet lag much worse than I do but I am struggling a bit this trip too.

We were both awake before 7 am and did a couple of puzzles before going down to breakfast. There was a good selection and plenty of it: not quite as extensive or appetising as our last trip but completely adequate for us.

Alas, my toothbrush has gone missing. It may still turn up but I suspect it fell out of my bag on one of the many times I had to unpack and repack it along the way. Not a big deal because we have others stowed in our big cases that we won’t open until we are on board our ship. It reminded me of a recent incident at home when I mislaid two items on the same morning. I eventually found one in the car, but I was completely mystified about some really thick socks that I reserve for my work boots. I had them in my hand ready to put on but got distracted and we searched high and low without success. It became a standing joke until we were packing for this trip and I found them - in my sock drawer of all the crazy places!

During the morning, Heather had a long much-needed nap while I sent a couple of emails, wrote some of this blog and did more puzzles. I also started my Argentinian bird list with 3 species easily identified. And the list now comprises 6 species with those seen later in the day.

We ate a meagre but adequate lunch, including a couple of snacks from home and some fruit and pastries stolen at breakfast time, and then went out for a walk. We just walked 3 or 4 kilometres around the neighbourhood, checking out potential places for dinner and making a couple of small purchases, including a comb that I seem to have omitted to pack. There are lots of restaurants and nightclub venues in the area. It is called Palermo Hollywood and it is very ‘neighbourhood’ with shops, houses, apartments and so on, all interspersed with lots of quite upmarket venues.

We returned to our room for an hour or two before having pizza at a place next door to the hotel. It was a very odd Pizzaria and Swimming Pool. It was a good-sized sports bar with a tiny pool at the back. I just stuck my nose in to have a look and saw two young women sunning themselves. They were both barefoot and wearing nothing but thongs - one each.

We read and wrote in the room for a while and I researched my six birds until we collapsed into bed. We were asleep in minutes but wide awake again within the hour. We tossed and turned for an hour and eventually sat up and read (and I helped the Aussies win the Test Match on my iPad) for about 3 hours. We still lay awake for ages but I think we got a couple of hours sleep before getting up at 7 am, showering and going down for breakfast.

Day 3, Sunday, 18 December – on to Ushuaia

It had been a very noisy night with a few Pre-Cup rowdies patrolling the street below our window and then extremely loud music and singing nearby (possibly an outdoor venue). That ran from about 11 pm to a bit after 2 am and it was followed by slightly quieter thumping music until about 6:30 - just in time for us to get up.

Heather changed the pickup time for the shuttle to the airport. The big World Cup final is on at noon and the Argentinians are already going crazy. We are only going to the nearby domestic airport, but traffic is expected to be clogged and it was hard to even find a company with a driver willing to take us rather than being glued to one of the big screens. We are now going out at 11 am rather than 1 pm in the hope that we can get there in time for the shuttle driver to still watch the game.

Our cab arrived a bit early so we were on our way by just after 10.30 and at the airport by 11 am.  We still don’t know how much it cost because we couldn’t understand the driver (he had no English and our combined Spanish vocabulary runs to about 4 words).  Heather tried to pay electronically but he said only cash. The same happened when we made our purchases yesterday and we were almost right out of pesos.  He agreed to American dollars and worked out on his calculator that it was $15.  Heather gave him a $20 and he did some more sums and gave her 2000 pesos change. That is something like $20 Australian so it seems like our trip cost us between $5 and $10 Australian.  

We sat among the crowd outside the terminal and ate our leftover pizza and drank our Coke before braving the hordes inside.  The queue for our flight was about 300 metres long and after an hour or so standing in the very slow-moving crocodile, Heather noticed that we were in Premium Economy.  We simply missed that in all the hurly-burly so we exited the final 250 metres of the queue and strolled up to the counter with not a soul ahead of us and we were off to Security within a couple of minutes - again a pretty painless exercise. 

All this time, the World Cup final was playing on many screens around the airport and Argentina scored twice while we were in the queue.  You should have heard the noise - shouting, screaming, whistling, clapping, dancing and hugging - it was deafening and went on through the replays.  A very excited mob. Almost everyone was glued to their phones for the whole match and the atmosphere was quite electric. It reminded me a little a flight we had from Boston to San Diego in 2018 when the Boston Red Sox were in the baseball final of the World Series and the Red Sox were not expected to win against the L A Dodgers - but did.  The pilot was quite excited and was relaying the action blow by blow to the whole cabin and the excitement was palpable - and very loud.  Nearly all the passengers were from Boston and flying straight into enemy territory with an unexpected win to wave under people’s noses when they alighted.  Very exciting stuff!

After we reached the department lounge, there was no information about what gate we needed to go to. We had been told that it would be either 12 or 14 so we sat on 13 until we finally heard that it was 11. Go figure. In the meantime, Argentina was winning the World Cup and tens of thousands of passionate locals were cheering them on very raucously. There were quite a few screens set up and the noise was staggering whenever their favoruites did something good - but pretty quiet when the French were on the attack. In the end, Argentina won and the place erupted. Even the staff were hugging and kissing each other and everyone was waving blue and white flags to match their shirts and facial makeup.

Boarding was a breeze with our priority tickets and we sat in luxury just inside the cabin door. We drove from the terminal to our plane in a bus and we passed lots of workers and other vehicles with everyone waving their blue and white flags and shouting and tooting furiously. The win is obviously a massive cause for celebration for the whole country.

It was wonderful to enjoy so much extra space during the nearly four-hour flight. In the terminal, the signage announced that we were flying to Ushuaia via Trellew, but it was non-stop for all that. Perhaps a few cattle class passengers parachuted out as we flew over, but we never saw them. What we did see as we flew into Ushuaia was the most spectacular scenery imaginable. Jagged mountains streaked and mottled with patches of snow. The winter snowcaps were largely melted, but the contrasting white snow against the dark grey-black of the rock above the tree-line was most impressive. The mountains climbed directly out of narrow fiords, black in the shadows, but occasionally glinting in the setting sun. We didn’t see any glaciers but the valleys they carved over the millennia were quite beautiful, some with narrow rivers running through them, and all with their lower slopes covered in the green canopies of trees. It was really great to see and quite different from what we have seen elsewhere in our travels.

Ushuaia is a small city (I think I read that it has a resident population of 75,000 but swells to well over twice that during the tourist season. I believe it: there are about ten cruise ships of varying sizes in the harbour at present. From the air, it looks quite spread out west to east with no tall buildings at all. Perhaps a bit down at heel but maybe to be expected as the town known as the ‘end of the world’ and the southernmost city on Earth.

We were met at the airport by Aurora representatives and taken to our hotel by bus. Once checked in, we off-loaded some of our warm top clothes and went down for an excellent meal in their swanky restaurant. I had a wonderful rabbit stew (I love rabbit) and Heather had sea bass - we quite indulged ourselves!

Back in our room, our cases had been delivered so after some minor luggage rearrangements, we crashed into bed for some well-earned chemically assisted sleep.

[3monthsineurope]

August 5 and 6, 2022

Ingvar and I were going to London! We were so excited! We were heading to visit his good friend, Zach, who was going to film school and living in London.

I spent Friday morning and afternoon packing and getting everything organized for our trip. I had helped Ingvar pack the night before, because he was actually in the office that day! He was able to get off work early, so he was home by 3:30. Grandma Sue and Grandpa Bill were actually taking us to the airport, because we were flying out of Vancouver, BC! We had found a cheaper flight from there, compared to Seattle, so we thought why not! I had never flown through Vancouver before.

Sue and Bill picked us up, and we all headed for the Peach Arch border in Blaine. We had budgeted a few hours of time for traffic and the border wait, but for the first time in my life, we didn’t have to wait at the border! It was crazy, we just drove right up to a customs agent. Sue and I had each filled out an ArriveCAN application for each couple, so the agent pulled that up, asked us a few questions, and we were on our way! I’m really glad we didn’t have a border wait, because there actually was a lot of traffic heading into Vancouver. But, Bill did a good job navigating us to the airport, where they dropped Ingvar and I off, to begin our adventure!

We had plenty of time to go through security. They made me rearrange all my liquids/toiletries, which was a little frustrating, but then we were all clear. We made sure we knew where the gate was, then heading to a lounge, which I had access to from my credit card. Our flight was at 8pm, so we hung out and had a few drinks and some dinner in the lounge. I had some really yummy noodles! Our flight was actually delayed about 45 minutes, but that’s not too bad.

The flight from Vancouver to London was about 9 hours. We had to wear masks, which we kind of forgot about, since the US had lifted that requirement. Ingvar and I each had travel pillows, but we were on a larger plane, with two aisles, so we didn’t have a window to lean on, we had a middle seat and aisle. I was pretty uncomfortable most of the flight. Ingvar did get to sleep a little, though. Air Canada fed us some dinner a few hours into the flight, of pasta and salad. We spent the flight listening to music, trying to sleep, and I blogged a bit from some of my previous trips.

Because of the time change, we landed in London’s Heathrow airport around 2pm, on August 6. We were pooped! But, we had a plan. We went through customs, then found our way to the Underground (subway). I had found my Oyster card (their transportation system) from 2014, when I was in London with Haley! So, we put some money on that, and got Ingvar his own. I had coordinated with Zach about where we would meet, so we took the route that he recommended, to an area of London called Ealing, where he lived. We arrived at the Ealing Broadway station, made our way to the street level, and Zach was waiting for us! Perfect timing!

It was around 4pm, and we were pretty tired, but decided to stay up and have an early night, instead of taking a nap. Zach helped us with our things and got us on a bus, which we took for about 10 minutes, to his apartment. He lived in an area called Pitzhanger. He lived on the third level of a row apartment, with two other guys. One of those guys was out of town, and was nice enough to let Ingvar and I stay in his room. Zach’s other roommate had a friend staying with them too, so there were five of us in the apartment. It was definitely a college boy’s apartment—the bathroom was pretty gross and they didn’t have many towels, but it was free! So thanks, Zach!

Ingvar and I dropped off our stuff in our room, changed, and then Zach took us to a neighborhood cafe that he likes, called Oscar’s. We both had some really yummy iced mochas and then decided to walk around the area, it was a really beautiful day.

We spent a while catching up while walking around Ealing. Zach and Ingvar had been friends since elementary school! The boys got some falafel at a stand, we saw the Gordon Ramsey restaurant we would be eating at on Monday, and some nice churches and buildings. We ended our Ealing tour at a local Irish pub, the Shanakee. We had a few beers there and hung out with some soccer on the TVs (excuse me, football, hahah). Each beer in England comes in its own glass, which is cool but sounds like a pain for the bartender.

Around 9, we took the bus back to Zach’s apartment. We decided we needed some dinner, so we all shared some fish and chips from a shop near Zach’s. We brought it up to Zach’s and laid it out on the table, with lots of napkins and ate our fill. The meal was yummy, but pretty greasy. I was really tired so I washed my face and brushed my teeth, then called it a night. Ingvar and Zach stayed up for a bit chatting, but I was out like a light. We were both so happy to be in London! :]

[iconocon]

coffee stains | leclerc

summary: a beautiful stranger spills coffee on you

warnings: mostly fluff, cursing

type: oneshot | wordcount 1.7k | ✧ fluff

anybody that has ever been to the airport and has come out of it saying it was a relaxing experience had to be the biggest liar in the world or maybe had to be just plain lucky because everything that could’ve gone wrong for you this morning had. from not being able to find your passport to not being able to find your car keys, to even the worst of all being now, standing in the security line as your bag sets off every censor possible. to be fair you probably would’ve been more put together if it was a trip you had even wanted to go on and not a trip to go meet your brother's new “love of his life”. the quotes surrounding that were very necessary as It was almost clockwork for him to marry some random gold digger then have some big wedding and even divorce a year or two later because he wanted kids while they just wanted him for his money. each year you wish to be the last but instead the visit got sadder and sadder especially when you would try to talk him out of it and ask him to just come back to america with you to settle down instead of making you fly to monaco just to see him. 

“ma’am you can’t keep this.” snapping out of your daze you're brought back to the security guy holding up a random bottle of perfume you didn’t even realize was in there, to begin with yet somehow the fact it took them 20 minutes to dig through your bag to find it made the anger in you grow. 

“that’s all?” you didn’t wanna be rude because after all he was just doing his job but come on man, shaking your head you grab your bag back shoving maybe a little too aggressively all of the stuff that was ripped out of it back in before haphazardly zipping it back closed to finally make your way to your gate. the big LED screen above your head that had colored arrows and jumbles of letters/numbers showed the time brightly in the center of it all. 

6:55am 

boarding didn’t start till at least 7:30 so in the grand scheme of things you had plenty of time to maybe get coffee or even if you were lucky enough maybe even something to eat before sitting on the absurd 11-hour flight that with each step you seemed to be dreading more and more. following the same signs as earlier the smell of coffee hit you in the face before even getting the chance to see the barista at the counter in their bright green apron.

“hi, what can i get for you?”

“can i get a vanilla cold brew cold foam please?”

“size?”

“medium.”

after paying and a couple minutes later collecting what would be the only thing to keep you sane for a few hours you found the closest set of tables you could which also happened to be the furthest ones by other people needing the couple minutes of alone time to reset. hanging your backpack on the back of the chair and searching for your airpods in your hoodie pocket you are able to start to relax with both the music and coffee kicking in giving you some release. sip after sip the time passed as you people watched even playing a game of trying to guess where people were going based on what they were wearing for example the stressed-out guy in the oddly bright hawaiian shirt matched with an ugly bucket hat could only be going to hawaii, right? or the guy in the (uncomfortable looking) 3 piece suit that has done nothing but talk through the little black earpiece connected to ear like a lifeline only could be spending his time in new york. like everything else today that relief only lasted so long because the next thing you knew you heard the loud screeching sound of shoes rubbing against the tile along with a string of colorful curse words followed by freezing cold liquid hitting you square in the chest. 

“what the FUCK?”

“oh my god no no no i'm so sorry”

completely frozen in your seat you didn’t even look up at the culprit only able to concentrate on the huge foamy mess that covered you from your neck down to your thighs as it continued to drip down spreading quickly. next thing you knew the 'coffee guy' was grabbing wads full of paper towels and trying to clean up the mess but instead of actually helping it ended up feeling like he was doing a better job of feeling you up than he was doing anything else. the scene did nothing but draw loads of attention to you both which didnt help make you feel any less embarrassed for something that wasn't even your fault. 

“stop please- just stop”

grabbing the stranger's wrist you end up yanking the napkins out of his hand doing it yourself for a second before realizing it was no use and just taking the hoodie off altogether leaving you in nothing but a random white t-shirt that you found in a random corner of your closet this morning with an ugly pink font that said 'hottie'. great just great. finally getting a chance to look up at the guy you almost felt bad for yelling at him as he was way prettier than you even realized, the light coating of blush got even darker as you just stare at him with what you only could assume as a resting bitch face. 

“i really didn’t mean to drop it on you just your backpack was in the way an-“

“wait you’re blaming me?”

“yes- well no- i just-“

“are you serious?”

“i-“

he was pretty but he definitely wasn’t pretty enough to drop coffee on you THEN blame you when he was the clumsy idiot who did it. grabbing all your things in a rush but also at the same time making time to grab the wet used napkins which you then shove into his own chest walking as fast as possible hoping to find the nearest bathroom. 

“WAIT”

drowning out the pleas to stop you just kept continuing to walk away weaving in and out of the passing bodies coming at you until you reached the bathroom sinks to finally get an overview of the damage. fuck, you looked like a hot mess. there was coffee in your hair, on your jeans, and worst of all your hoodie was definitely ruined beyond saving, at this point you were better off throwing it out than waiting for it to dry on the plane. 

LAST CALL FOR FLIGHT 1622 TO MONACO ONCE AGAIN THIS IS A LAST CALL

and that's when you started running as fast as your feet could carry you back to your gate just in time to make it before the flight attendant officially closed her line which speaking of she was in the middle of doing and you could tell from the look on her face she was not at all happy about. you wanted her to say something so bad just so you could get even the tiniest bit of emotions out from the already long morning you had yet luckily for her and you, she just scanned your ticket and let you go on your way.

22B

22B

22B

with one final sigh you could finally see your seat as you went through first class and then through the rows of economy seats towards the middle of the plane. in approaching the row you realize that the aisle seat was already occupied by a man with his black hood already up and around his ears so the only way to get by was to tap him on his shoulder.

"excuse m- no fucking way" none other than 'coffee guy' was staring you back in the face with his pretty blue eyes and a surprised look on his face as he just sat there looking like an idiot. "are you gonna- uh- move?"

"right right"

finally getting the memo he undoes his seatbelt and turns his body sideways trying to scoot out from between the packed seats to allow you to get in between him to sit. huffing you already knew it was gonna be a long awkward flight having to deal with him beside you for 11 hours.

"I'm charles by the way- and I'm sorry for the um" redoing your own seatbelt you watch as he sits down staring at the coffee stains that cover your jean-clad legs leaving brown splotches as far as you could see from this angle. "how can i make it up to you?"

you didn't want to be mean or be angry over it anymore you just wanted this to be over with and go back home as soon as possible where you could live your boring life until you had to do this trip again the following year. "really it's fine i promise i won't hold it against you for the whole 11 hours just maybe 10 of them”

trying to be at least a little sincere when you say it you actually give him a smile while cracking the joke which he does chuckle at which is a huge win in your book. from then on you and charles didn't stop talking for what felt like the whole plane ride even a few times getting whisper screamed at from nearby passengers as you talk through the night about any and everything. even at one point, you started falling asleep, and being the gentleman he was he offered you his shoulder as it "was the least he could do for ruining your day" to which you responded by telling him he also made it for you so all forgiven.

when the plane eventually touched down in monaco the stewardess came over and gave you both light taps reminding you to be ready for landing but in coming back from sleep land you both realize how you looked with his head resting on your own as you snuggled into his shoulder wrapped around his arm basically holding it hostage in your sleep.

"oh god im sorry"

"hey thats my line"

and we that it was time to deplane which ended with you both promising you wouldn't be strangers, especially in a small principality like monaco which in turn he offered to buy you another coffee this time in hopes of not spilling it all over you giving you his number and telling you to call whenever you're free this weekend.

maybe the coffee stains weren't so bad after all and maybe monaco could be somewhere you want to remember this time.

[shepherds-of-haven]

I feel like this may have been asked before, but if not could you please tell us how things would go if the shepherds all had to take a plane together?

Blade: he's stressing. he wants to go to the airport 4 hours early and have total control over the situation, and he can't. he is experiencing sensory and security overload. too much is going on at once. he's jittery from five black coffees and every time a baby screams on the plane a vein in his eyelid twitches. he spends the entire flight dead silent, just a ball of tension and stress

Trouble: he's pretty chill and relaxed, he's the type of guy who shows up at the airport an hour before the flight and somehow just breezes through to the gate without an issue. like "don't worry, we have plenty of time," launching Blade into a kind of apoplexy. he even dawdled in the convenience store browsing snacks, got on the plane at the last possible second, and he brought one of those little lap dvd players from the early 2000s and a stack of dvds in a little carrying case; want to share one of his earbuds and watch while munching on pretzels together? he's always like 'what in god's name were you freaking out about??' when they all get there safely and is just like totally oblivious to the stress of the situation lol

Tallys: she basically just wants to be left alone; she's the passenger who shows up in leggings and a really big hoodie, puts up her hoodie, puts in her airpods, curls up in her seat, and basically just ignores everyone's existence until the end of the flight, at which point she is perfectly unruffled and pleasant (because she didn't have to deal with anyone being annoying for the whole trip LOL)

Shery: she shows up at the airport all shiny-faced and chipper in comfortable travel clothes, sees everyone gathered in the ticketing area arguing loudly about whether Lavinet should throw away her expensive shampoos or attempt to squirrel them into Briony's already over-stuffed suitcase while Chase suggests portioning them out into several travel-sized bottles and Halek is like "...I think I forgot my charger...", makes a ._. face, and does her best to help organize the chaos, lol. She is extremely well-organized, has the best-packed, neatest little suitcase, and comes prepared with motion sickness medication (in case someone else needs it), a neck pillow, cleaning solution for her glasses, and basically anything anyone could ask for, and is happy to share! She's not particularly bothered by flights but finds going through security with everyone yelling very stressful, even though she follows all of their rules perfectly and has her shoes off like 3 minutes before she actually reaches the belt!

Riel: it's every man for themselves. he left their asses and got to the airport in his private car by himself. if he can't fly on a private plane and has to fly with them, he definitely booked the most expensive ticket in first-class, has pre-TSA/global entry so he doesn't have to do the whole song-and-dance through security, and is already seated and ignoring them while he reads through a magazine by the time they start boarding the plane with the rest of the plebs. He spends the entire flight doing work and barely even glances up when the flight attendants refill his fancy drinks!

Chase: he finagled his way into first-class because of some connection (i.e. he probably slept with) someone at the airline, and lo and behold, he gets to sit directly across from Riel! He spends the first half of the flight devising ways to deeply annoy Riel, but then gets bored with how quiet and pristine first-class is, starts wandering around because he's restless, and eventually trades seats with someone so he can sit by the others and talk to them 😂 He's not disruptive, he just likes playing games like they're all students on the bus for a long field-trip!

Red: he's a little bit dorky about air travel and probably has, like, a fanny pack strapped diagonally across his chest or a messenger bag or something like that. He has all of the relevant paperwork (tickets, itineraries, backup confirmation emails) in a manila folder/sheet protector and, while generally not very anxious or stressed, is very well-prepared and low-key stressed by Trouble's slapdash way of going 'oops haha I almost forgot to leave my pocket knife at home 🤪' Once all of the hullabaloo is over, though, he's happy to just chill with a cup of coffee while listening to music and reading a book!

Ayla: a frequent traveler, I can see her going on a plane as a completely rote, routine thing with absolutely 0 stress involved; she has the same duffel bag with the same sets of clothes and toiletries packed and ready to go in under ten minutes and knows to the minute exactly how much time each step takes, meaning she has very little urgency and is comfortable with showing up only 48 minutes early, etc.! She's surprisingly calm throughout the flight and will probably play cards or something with Briony, Trouble, and Chase!

Briony: she's a little frazzled and breathless and all over the place and scattered, but very excited and is kind of the group cheerleader, like *clap clap* okay everybody, remember to get some food before we get on the plane, it's going to be 4 hours and I looked it up, they're not serving an in-flight meal!! She's kind of like the type of tourist where she's like THEY HAVE A CINNABON???? I HAVE TO TRY IT when they land at the other airport, and it's like "Briony, you live like five minutes from a Cinnabon at home..." "I know, but this is a Cinnabon in Italy" and is just having a grand old time! She intended to watch an in-flight movie during the plane ride, but once Chase switched seats and started pulling on her ponytail because he was bored, she caves and spends the whole time talking to her friends and playing games!

Lavinet: she shows up to the airport IMMACULATE, wearing a power suit and high heels. You won't catch her looking like a schlub at the airport!!! She's an international jetsetter so none of the airport stress really fazes her 💅🏼 Just put a Starbucks in her hand, watch her charm her way through security, and she's gazing out of the airplane window while you take a picture for her Instagram before you even realize it!

Halek: he's a mess. He's the type of guy who oversleeps the day of the flight, shows up as the last person in the group, disheveled and unshaven, and if you peek into his suitcase, it's just an unholy mess of random things he stuffed in there, and it's only when you get to your destination that you find out that he forgot to pack like 11 vital things and either has to buy or borrow new ones throughout the trip glfdgdfg. Absolutely no one should count on him to remember to bring his camera or anything like that, and no one does! As soon as he gets on the plane, he completely passes out into a dead sleep and doesn't wake again until they land!

[car-lozsigns]

A few minutes more (pt5)

Synopsis: You and Carlos had crossed paths more than you thought was possible over a short weekend but time was not on your side. A love story that’s about the slow burn and companionship built connection, and how sometimes right place wrong time is the best of the available options

Author Note: I wanted a fluff story to read so decided to write one for myself. So this story will be split between POV and time jumps as they are my favourite to read. The plan is for this to be very slow paced, so if you’re reading this, considered yourself warned that this will not have a quick conclusion.

Length:~2.7k

Warning: Still slow, filler chapter? Planes?

Link to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 6, Part 7

Part 5 

The flight to Singapore felt quick, maybe it was because you knew that you were almost half way home with the next flight much shorter only about 5 or so hours; maybe it was from your layover in Amsterdam and talking to someone who you had connected so well with on that night in October. You weren’t going to admit to yourself which one it was, at least not so blatantly to yourself just yet, but lets just say but you usually were not this energised after being squished in between two snoring people in a metal box hovering in the air for half a day. Over the PA system the announcement that you were descending into Singapore was made, signalling that you only had an hr left to go before your connecting flight. The screens lit up with a loop of transfer flights showing on the screens, you looking to see which gate your connection was scheduled to depart at, which you started to make your way to as your disembarked, following by a few other disgruntled looking passengers obviously on the same one. Unlike your previous stop, you arrived at the gate with plenty of time, well at least 30 mins before you could board which you took the opportunity to switch back on your phone.

Connecting your headphones, you switched back on your music, before typing out a message to your sister who was going to pick you up when you landed. With the airport wifi finally connected, your phone slowly came back to life, notifications trickling through after your time spent in the air. Majority of these were work emails, and you realised because you ended up spending most of your time with Carlos you hadn’t turned on your out of office before getting on your flight. Clearing out those outlook notifications, should have given you a notification free phone, but there were a few from WhatsApp and a few from Instagram. It appears that while you were in the air that Carlos had killed the rest of his time before going to Mexico doing a deep dive of your account.

First up were the insta likes, nothing too unexpected considering your most recent photo posted was from the event that you had met him at. He had liked that picture as well as the song recommendation that you had posted before it. Once again, nothing strange there as music is the best way to connect to others if you don’t have the right words to express your emotions. The surprising one however were the string of likes from photos that were a few years old. One of them from when you had moved overseas, a couple from when you were on holidays with your friends and some dating right back to the beginning of your profile when you were still at uni.

Well, you thought, at least you don’t need to be worried about scrolling and accidentally liking his posts, he seems to have done that to you and intentionally. It was refreshing to see that he wasn’t bothered by the stigma that is attached to old posts, you’ve never been bothered by it, as wasn’t that the point of posting on a social media platform. In your opinion if there is a picture on your profile, giving your permission for it to be viewed, it can be liked, regardless of if it was when it was posted for 5 years ago, it’s still there for viewing. The photos that he had liked didn’t seem to be random. They were from the stories you had shared with him which he evidently did remember and wanted to make it clear he was listening as you had told them. The final instagram notification was a message from him where he had shared back to you a picture of you and one of your friends. It was her 21st birthday which you had captioned at the time “21 years your bestie”. Carlos had worked out this was the friend you had your falling out and had sent this pic to you with a heart followed by, “and she helped you become the person you are today”. You hadn’t thought it was obvious, but scrolling quickly through your page you saw that she was the only one your pictures that weren’t your family or a group of friends. Damn, Carlos had a keen eye. 

Before addressing Carlos’ other messages you clicked on his profile, having enough time to look through the collection of pictures this time instead of running to board your flight. Despite his profile not having a picture or a description, his page seemed to reflect a similar lifestyle to yours. Much of his time spent with friends and family, with every photo practically located either on a beach, on the open water or with the sun visibly shining in the corner of the frame. Carlos had talked about being Spanish, and he did speak with a small lilt, however you didn’t think much of it when you were with him. Most of your time was focusing on his stories and not the accent they were told in. You realised though going through his page that every caption was in Spanish as well as comments, not a single word in English.

Damn, there goes that idea of trying to find more out from what his friends had said. You only spoke English, a by-product of the Australian schooling system, you could barely speak your own language let alone fathom another. You made a note to mention it to Carlos to go through where each of his holidays and who was who in the pictures. You shared a like on his most recent pic in the Netherlands, as well as one from his family trip to Mexico at this time last year. You looked up from your phone and saw that people are started to mill around the boarding gate. You turned down the volume of your music and heard over the speaker system that they were starting boarding with priority and a range of seat numbers first. Your row was not in that list so you remained seated, telling yourself that once you open the messages you’ll get ready to board, knowing that this flight wasn’t too full based on those around you waiting with a smattering of empty seats between them all.

6 messages were sitting unopened. The first few were in response to what you had sent while in Europe but not received until you had landed. The first was audio asking you to let him know when you had landed.  The next 5 were from him about his own flight. He had taken your request literally, sending you a photo log of each leg of his journey and not just when he arrived. He had sent you pictures of the queue while boarding, the empty seat next to him, a picture of the open ocean with an edge of a beach in sight as his flight was descending and finally another low angle selfie  showing him outside in some blaring sun with a thumbs up and sunglasses on. The last one he had followed up and captioned it “made it in one piece”. You couldn’t help but smile stupidly at your phone at the selfie. You returned the favour and shot a selfie of you seated at the gate; headphones on, travel pillow buckled around your neck snuggly against shoulders, eyes crinkled to accompany your toothy grin. Before you could dwell on how tired you looked you hit send, keeping in line with his selfie, even if you think he pulled off a long haul flight looking a lot less worse for wear than you had.

The queue had dropped back to only a few people with most people already boarded the plane. You gathered your backpack and boarding pass and made your way to your row, well and truly ready to start the last flight home. You settled yourself down, phone already on aeroplane mode and eye mask in hand ready to snooze upright if you needed to. This time more luck was on your side with no one sharing the row giving you all the space to lie across the four seats instead of trying to sleep vertical.

You didn’t look to check what time it was in Mexico, but you weren’t expecting a response as quickly as you had received one. Carlos’ phone lit up while he was laying by the pool in the villa his family was had rented for the trip. Seeing the screen illuminate, Carlos practically jumped from his seat as if he had been shocked, physically standing up to pick the phone up, hoping that it was you who had messaged him.

He typed back a quick response, hit send and started to type out a longer one. He stopped mid-sentence, deleted his paragraph and decided to hit call instead. He knew you were at the airport so you should have time to talk, he had looked up the time it would be in Singapore, seeing it wasn’t too late he tried to call, it going unanswered twice. Carlos’s hopes dropped a little, disappointed you had ignored him, putting it down to you not wanting to talk before your flight. Carlos however had jumped to the wrong conclusion, you very much would have answered the phone, however after your boarding pass was scanned in, you had already turned your phone off, as you didn’t think there was any chance of Carlos replying soon, let alone instantaneously which he had tried.

He realised that the missed calls didn’t connect through as delivered, meaning you were back in the air. He put his phone down dejectedly and went back to staring out at the pool. He picked up his phone once more to check what the flight time would be and upon seeing it was 5 hrs, Carlos knew he had to distract himself, even though it was his first day of his family trip, he knew that unless was physically doing something with others or a task that would be difficult with his phone in hand, he’d be sitting down all day just staring at it to light up with your name. Can’t wait for a text on a jet ski Carlos thought, so he walked back into the villa to find his dad and see if he would be up for going around the bay with him for the afternoon. His dad never passed up an opportunity to spend time with his son, considering how when he was younger Carlos Sr was away most of his son’s childhood doing his own racing.  Seeing his son travel across the world for F1 made him reflect on how much he had grown up, how much he had missed seeing as well as his own time in his twenties and how at Carlos’s age, he was already married and had their eldest child. Carlos Sr agreed to help his son start getting the jet-ski’s prepared while Carlos Jr found himself thinking if you had ever jet skied or not.

This leg of the trip you had managed to sleep better than the long haul. Spreading out across 4 seats had felt like a cheater’s version of business, telling yourself next time you go on a long flight to save up and see if you could swing a reclining seat, first class was out of the question but surely you could squeeze in business for one of the legs or maybe premium economy. Stretching and then moving to sit upright in your seat, you saw that the other passengers were waking up slowly too, the lights from the windows removing their automatic dim, letting in the early morning sunshine into the cabin. You had missed this. Sure the UK had summer, where the sun made an appearance every few weeks, but nothing tugged at your heartstrings like the biting Australian heat and sun. You were a summer person through and through, which definitely didn’t help you trying to beat you SADs this year. Seeing the morning sun and catching a glimpse of the ocean and rural coastline through one of the windows at the end of your row meant that you were close to landing, the pilot coming over the sound system confirming your expected landing time at your destination. Although the warmth of the cabin was welcome, you felt exceptionally sticky, irritable and groggy. The leggings and hoodie had been a great idea when leaving Europe but in Australia you were dressed for completely the wrong season. You realised as well that the shirt underneath Carlos’ jumper was also long-sleeved which would not help you feel any cooler once you had landed. You wondered if your sister would be ok with driving you home with you sitting in just your bra and leggings.

You flicked your phone back on, seeing if you had reception at this altitude, which you did not. Regardless, you typed out a message to your sister who would be picking you up , hitting send so that once closer to the airport it would deliver.

Once disembarked from the plane, you made your way through to customs, with your phone now again, coming to life. Your sister had got your message and would be waiting for you at arrivals. You also saw you had two missed calls and messages from Carlos, checking the time of them you thought it must have been just before your flight took off. Snapping back a pic of the queue at customs, you let Carlos know you had landed safe and that you planned on sleeping when you got home to get through the jet lag if your sister could hold off chatting for long enough. Phone back in pocket you progressed through customs, collected your bags and made your way through to the arrival hall. First person out of the archway was your sister, standing as close as she physically could without jumping the barricade to the arrivals.

“Y/N” she shouted, just in case you had missed her, which no-one arriving could of as she was waving her arms obnoxiously, letting everyone else know that she missed her loved one more than all of them combined. You jogged the small distance between you, as fast as the heavy suitcase rolling behind you would allow. You embraced her as tightly as you could her commenting in your ear ”Urgh you smell like plane, lucky I love you and have air freshener in the car” You laughed at her comment but the chuckle caught midway through you throat. You knew you had missed her this past 6 months, but you didn’t think it was enough to start crying in public which you had. You tried to stifle the happy sob in her shirt, but the thin white cotton did nothing to stop the sound escaping.

“I know you missed me but no need to get tears all over me! If I wanted a shower I’d have one at home, I don’t need your tears to do that!” she teased, but you heard the emotion in her voice. Sensing she had her own tears stuck in her throat, you made to pull away but she just pulled you in closer in order to mask her own emotions of having her best friend in her arms again. You finally managed to pull out from her grasp and with one of your hands wiped the last of your tears from your cheek but promptly wiping them on your sisters shirt loosely hanging off her broad shoulders. The loving smile finally dropping from her face before replaced with the threat of “Alright back on the plane you go, I forgot how annoying you are, I want to swap with someone else” . Empty threat be as it may, she grabbed your suitcase and you both made your way out of the airport finally on your way home.

Link to Part 6