Chapter Text
THIS MOMENT
Six months. It had been six months since they had seen each other. Neither complained because they knew what they were getting into the moment they became more than friends. Her English teaching contract in Seoul was up and she had been working in the States as an elementary school teacher. His world tour was a success and he and his group had made it back home to Korea. Despite facetime and phone calls they shared over the past six months, they had both been left with soreness around their hearts, and the ache had only grown.
Now, their time apart had finally come to an end. Munich International Airport was crawling with travelers when Hyunwoo disembarked. He felt anonymous, just another traveler shuffling here and there, which is just how he liked it. His phone beeped and he swiped the message down to read it. Hyunwoo hadn’t felt his heart flip this way in so long and all of his rational thought abandoned him then and there. Without a word he took off from his gate, the call of his manager and coordinators getting lost in the noise behind him, and scanned for the baggage claim symbols on the signs.
Ten minutes of dodging annoyed travelers and he had finally made it to his destination. Men, women, kids, and even pets filled the wide space from wall to wall. Hyunwoo, panic rising in his chest, desperately scanned the crowd for her. He missed her, he needed her, he just wanted her. To clear his mind he pressed his palms against his eyes for a moment. When he looked up again the arrivals were there on the digital screen right in front of him, the stress of finding her had made him look right past it.
12 Arrival JFK unloading
Hyunwoo scanned the room and found carousel #12 at the far end, opposite of where he was standing. Butterflies fluttered in his chest and a fool's grin spread across his face. Jogging in that direction he couldn’t help but recall their last night together. Her beautiful smile and infectious laughter. He was so close now, to experiencing that again. Any moment now, he would spot her and… Hyunwoo stopped in his tracks, the air was knocked out of him as if he had run into a brick wall. Over the heads of the faceless people all around him, he could see her and he couldn’t move. He’d run through the entire airport to get to her and now he stood, dumbstruck, with his heart beating out of his chest.
She leaned over to haul a black suitcase from the carousel and apologetically scooted between the crowd of people still waiting for their own bags. Hyunwoo watched her as she lifted her phone to her ear, which made his start to buzz. Accepting the call, he lifted his phone as well. If his eyes had been playing tricks on him before, his ears were now in collusion because her warm voice tickled his heart over the line. She said hello twice, called his name, and he just stood there smiling. She looked around and met his eyes as if they were drawn to each other, and her ear to ear smile seemed to be the key that unlocked his legs.
Hyunwoo jogged over to her and pulled her into his arms. With each inhale, he could smell the sweetness of her soft cottony hair, the richness of her smooth brown skin. He cupped her face and stared for a moment, just so that he could recommit it all to memory. Her teary brown eyes, round dimpled cheeks, and her soft full lips were exactly as he remembered but better. Hyunwoo knew that as an idol he wasn’t supposed to fall in love. He knew that at this very second his manager was probably fuming at his running off so recklessly. Things like this had proven to be career enders. But, he pushed all of that to the back of his mind. They had all the time in the world to figure out how they would navigate the mess called his career together. For right now, this moment would be theirs and theirs alone.