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1.
It’s only her first time at an airport, but Sooyoung is already in love.
She’s never been the kind to fall too easily, but there’s something about the grandiose marble pillars, rows of rows of lined countertops, and the buzz of people rushing to and fro that really gets her.
Energy shoots through her veins, and it’s like her entire body is thrumming with pregnant possibilities, adventures waiting for her at each listed destination.
She doesn’t even realise that she stops right in the middle of the giant artery that channels flyers from one end of the airport to the other till someone slams into her, sending them both toppling to the ground.
“Shit, shit, sorry!”
Sooyoung blinks, dazzled by the criss-crossing metal beams hanging high above. There’s a weight on her stomach somewhere, the back of her head hurts, and she doesn’t quite know how to react when the offender lifts herself up only to reveal a very pretty blonde staring at her.
“Hey… Hey, are you okay?”
The marble floor feels cold. The blonde dusts herself off and peers at Sooyoung.
“Hello?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Sooyoung groans and sits up. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, you mostly cushioned my fall.”
Ah, which explains the sore ribs.
To her credit, the girl looks sheepish, and she’s apologetic enough to pull Sooyoung to her feet and help her pick up her fallen suitcases on the floor.
“Sorry,” she says again. “I was just trying to get away from someone, and I didn’t see where I was going.”
Someone? But Sooyoung doesn’t have to ask. A boy skids to a halt in front of them, a bouquet of sunflowers drooping a little in his hands.
“Oh my god, babe, are you okay?”
The girl sighs. “Yes, Doah. Will you go home now?”
“Not until you forgive me.”
And then - in the middle of the crowded walkway - with annoyed businessmen glaring at them for holding up traffic, the boy kneels down on the ground and proffers his bouquet to the girl.
“Please. I’m really sorry. It was just an honest mistake - I mean, the both of you are blonde…”
Neither of them are paying attention to Sooyoung anymore, and so she takes the chance to quickly slip away. She isn’t about to get in the middle of some relationship drama with some strangers.
Instead, she hurries off to the queue forming at the check-in counter for Korean Air, hoping that the crush of people is enough to hide her from the argument she’s sure is about to break out.
2.
Hong Kong International Airport is barely distinguishable from Incheon Airport. They both share that utilitarian steel beam and marbled floor decor, their signs in blue and yellow, with tall frosted glass ramparts separating the travellers in the departure area from the locals hanging around outside.
The only differennce is - the Incheon staff are the same kind of young and beautiful, while the staff at HKIA comes in all ages and shapes. But also more grumpy.
She pens down these thoughts in her journal as she waits. Jiwoo has gone somewhere else, which leaves the seat beside her empty.
Sooyoung doesn’t notice that they’ve been hogging the seat with their bag till someone stands next to her and asks, in Korean: “Can I sit here?”
Sooyoung looks up - and does a double take.
It’s the blonde girl from a year ago. And Sooyoung knows because the faces of the boy and girl have been indelibly etched into her head, although she can’t for the life for her remember their names.
Sooyoung quickly takes Jiwoo’s handbag away.
“Thanks.” The girl sits, and immediately pulls out a sketchpad and begins to draw. Sooyoung doesn’t realise she’s been staring till the girl looks over and says: “I’m not like an artist or anything.”
“Oh, um, I didn’t think you were.”
The girl smiles. “I get nervous at airports,” she says. “It’s so chaotic, and there’s always something to keep an eye or ear out for. It gets really overwhelming at times.”
Sooyoung doesn’t quite know how to react. She isn’t used to Asian strangers being so friendly and conversational that it throws her completely off balance.
“Sorry,” says the girl, sensing her hesitance. “It’s just been a very long time since I’ve spoken Korean that I got really excited at seeing another Korean person here.”
“What were you doing in Hong Kong?” asks Sooyoung, more out of politeness than anything.
“I was taking a gap year. I really wanted to do photography, so I came out here to help my cousin take pictures of her models. And I’m going back to Korea to finish my degree at Yonsei.”
Sooyoung pauses. “Hey, I go to Yonsei too.”
“Really? That’s cool!” The girl grins, and there’s just something so mischievous about her smile that it makes Sooyoung smile too. “Maybe we’ll see each other around campus. What do you study?”
“English Literature.”
“Cool, I do Marine Biology.”
That’s… actually really impressive. Sooyoung doesn’t know what she expected, but it certainly isn’t a budding scientist. In fact, she’s actually surprised the girl isn’t a rich airhead, with the flippancy she uses when discussing her gap year.
“So… what were you doing in Hong Kong?”
“Oh, I was on my exchange year - um…” Sooyoung gets distracted by a pair of arms wrapping around her neck.
“Hey babe!” Jiwoo sounds excited. “You’ll never guess who I met - oh, hi, sorry!” She notices the blonde girl and quickly untangles herself. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your conversation.”
“No, of course not.” The blonde girl stands. “I’m probably in your seat. I’ll leave you to it.” She smiles and waves at Sooyoung. “See you around.”
“Yeah, see you around,” Sooyoung echoes.
“Someone you know?” Jiwoo asks, settling into blondie’s vacated seat.
Sooyoung shakes her head. “Just a strange coincidence.” She takes Jiwoo’s hand in hers and interlaces them. “It’s not important.”
3.
It’s four in the morning and Sooyoung feels almost swallowed up by the sheer size of Dubai’s airport. Outside, the world is dark; inside, it feels timeless.
Even at this late hour, the airport glows white, and shops everywhere never seem to close. There’s always people - families, even - walking around, and palm fronds line the moving walkways like an exaggerated show of wealth.
Sooyoung slouches against the large windows opening out into the cityscape. It’s dark now, with shadows cloaking the exterior, but she suspects there’s nothing much to see except sand and glass anyway. She’s only one of many business travellers passing through, barely a blip on anyone’s radar.
Her hand is still tight around her phone. There’s a message there waiting for her, a message she doesn’t want to read but will have to deal with soon enough.
She knows she looks terrible. Her day old make-up is smudged, and her business suit is worn and rumpled from the eight hour flight from London. As the youngest global marketing manager - and the only unmarried one - she’s forced to take many these flights weekly, even every two or three days.
She’s probably spent more time on planes and airports than her own home.
But even this dejected, no one pays any attention to her. She doesn’t matter. She’s not sure if that’s comforting.
“Hey.”
Sooyoung’s head snaps up so fast that her neck almost cracks. And - it can’t be true - but it’s that blonde girl again.
“Don’t I know you?”
When Sooyoung doesn’t respond, the girl takes a seat beside her on the floor. “We met that time, in the Hong Kong airport.”
“I’m surprised you remember.”
“Well, I looked out for you whenever I passed by the Humanities building in Yonsei, but I never saw you.”
“That seems like a huge waste of time.”
“Was it? Funny that I never saw you though.”
“I spent more time writing poetry than going to classes, so that’s probably why.”
“Poetry?”
“Yeah, like those stupid Shakespearean sonnets. I used to write them for my girlfr - ” She swallows the last word in her throat.
Thankfully, Blondie doesn’t push the topic. Instead, Sooyoung sees her glancing at the passport in her hand, the boarding pass clamped in its pages.
“Singapore?” Blondie’s face brightens. “I’ve been there several times. The aiport is insane - it’s like a giant playground or something. It even has carpeted floors!”
Blondie waves her hands around as she talks. It’s charming.
“I’ve never been.”
“Really? It’s actually the best place ever. There’s literally an underground mall at one of their terminals and so much food. It’s just so cosy. I feel like I could stay there forever.”
Blondie has an odd way of speaking, Sooyoung suddenly realises. Like halfway between a drawl and a slur, an unhurried way of speaking that seems to make Sooyoung’s spiralling world slow to match her pace.
“I’ll actually be there for a conference,” says Sooyoung. “Everyone who matters is supposed to be there.”
Everyone who matters. The phrase feels mocking more than anything. The only people who actually mattered have left now, driven away by her extreme schedule and relentless ambition.
“Sounds like they don’t matter very much to you.”
“No, they really don’t,” Sooyoung surprises herself by saying. “They’re just people my father thinks is important.”
Blondie hums. “I was in London photographing fashion models - up and coming people who are going to be the newest faces of Burberry’s latest campaign. I didn’t realise I was so sick of them till I woke up one day and couldn’t bring myself to go to work.”
So her photography career did take off then.
“So you quit?”
“I quit. I think I ruined my fashion photography career after that, but I had to.”
“I hope Korea will be kinder to you then.”
Blondie chuckles. “We’ll see. Maybe I’ll actually pursue something in marine biology now. My friend says there’s an open position for research assistants.”
The announcement comes on then, a flat female voice calling for passengers on the next flight to Korea. Blondie stands.
“That’s me.”
Sooyoung waves her away.
Blondie opens and closes her mouth. She looks like she’s about to say something, her hand tapping at the phone in her hand.
“It’s good to see you,” says Blondie finally. “Maybe we’ll meet again.”
Sooyoung chuckles. “I’m sure. Have a safe flight, you.”
There’s a moment where it feels like it’s just the both of them - two people serendipitously connecting over a thousand miles from home.
Then Blondie disappears as she leaves, eaten up by the growing crowd.
4.
Sooyoung hates LAX with a passion. It’s messy, chaotic, and she must have gotten lost three or four times while trying to find her way to the baggage area. Not to mention the queues .
And she really needs to pee.
She joins a snaking queue just outside the flight arrival area, grimacing at the numbers of harried-looking travellers waiting impatiently for their turn to use what must be a dirty, smelly toilet.
Checking her phone for messages from Haseul, Sooyoung doesn’t realise the queue has moved forward till someone taps her on the shoulder. She looks up to find an angry middle-aged white woman glaring at her.
“Sorry,” she mumbles, and scurries forward.
Then she sees her. Blondie.
This time, she’s with someone. Someone who might very well be a girlfriend, from the way she wraps her arm around her shoulder. For some inexplicable reason, Sooyoung feels disappointed.
They’re so wrapped up in each other that they don’t notice anyone else around them. Although Sooyoung briefly considers going up to them, she casts that idea out of her head immediately: after all, she still has to rush off to meet Haseul, who has been waiting for an hour outside already.
But still. It’s been three years. Sooyoung would be lying if she said she hadn’t been keeping an eye out. But as the years passed, and still no sight of Blondie, she was starting to think that this was where their connection ended. What were the chances anyway?
So to see her here like this, in the flesh, sends Sooyoung’s system into a bit of a shock.
She ducks her head when Blondie passes with her girlfriend. It’s been such a long time - and maybe Blondie doesn’t even remember her anymore. Perhaps it’s better to just pretend nothing ever happened.
5.
This time, Sooyoung makes sure to approach her first.
She sees Blondie from far away at Narita Airport, sipping leisurely from a Starbucks cup at her seat in the waiting area.
Sooyoung can’t help but laugh. Five times? That’s got to be a record. And because she’s in a good mood from having recently opened her own dance academy, she’s buoyed from renewed confidence.
“Hey,” she says, sliding into the seat next to Blondie. “I’m surprised, but not surprised somehow.”
Blondie smiles like she had been waiting for her all along. “And I was wondering when you’d show up. Four years huh? So where are you off to this time?”
“Busan,” says Sooyoung. “I had a business trip out in Japan. What about you?”
“Seoul, actually. My girlfriend broke up with me, so I thought I’d go home and see my parents for a bit.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t be. She was an asshole anyway.” Blondie turns to take in Sooyoung properly. “You look a lot better since I last saw you in Dubai. I’m guessing you quit that job?”
“Yeah. I have my own dance company now.”
Blondie looks impressed. “I guess things did work out for you then.”
They sit in silence, shoulders almost touching, looking out into the sea of people swirling around the waiting area. There’s a pair of old ladies just sitting in front of them, only their heads visible from the seat, but they look happy to just be with each other, smiles wide and faces only inches apart.
“Strange how we seem to keep bumping into each other everywhere.” Sooyoung says. She’s never really believed in fate, but she thinks she could make an exception.
Blondie laughs. “I wonder how long we’re going to continue meeting like this.”
“For the rest of our lives, maybe.”
“Ugh.” Blondie rolls her eyes.
Sooyoung laughs but then she sees her flight flash on the screen. “Listen,” says Sooyoung, standing. “It was great seeing you again. I really have to go catch my flight, but… I thought we could exchange numbers.”
“Oh.” Blondie smiles at her, a little sadly. “I don’t think I’m in a good place for that right now. Maybe if we meet again.”
Disappointed, but not surprised. After all, weren’t connections like this meant to be ephemeral? Maybe it was like the icing on top of the cake - that fleeting acquaintance that sometimes pops up in your life from time to time that made the solid base of your deep relationships all that much better.
“Maybe next time,” Sooyoung agrees.
+1
Jiwoo’s housewarming party is large and noisy. Somehow, in her 28 years of living, she’s managed to amass a small army of close friends, all of whom are currently packed in this small apartment, almost shoulder-to-shoulder. Jiwoo’s girlfriend, Jungeun, is here with her friends too, since it’s now their house instead of just Jungeun’s house.
Half an hour in, Sooyoung’s feeling a little overwhelmed.
There’s an open seat at the sofa, thankfully, and so Sooyoung drops into the space with her bottle of beer and looks around the house. It’s a nice house. Cosy. She sees Jiwoo on the other side of the apartment, speaking to guests and laughing.
“Hey.” Jungeun takes a seat right next to her. “You look bored.”
“Just overwhelmed. You have a lot of people at your party.”
“You’re not moping are you? I know you and Vivi just broke up, but - ”
“Jungeun.”
“Sorry.”
They lean back on the faux leather sofa and sigh in unison. Jungeun is only a recent addition to her friend circle after she began dating Jiwoo, but sometimes Sooyoung feels like she’s known Jungeun forever.
“I know it’s only been three months,” tries Jungeun again. “But I have a friend who I really want you to meet. She’s just like you - adventurous, loves travelling, weird in a good way. And she’s really cute too.”
“Cute like pretty, or cute like adorable?”
“Both. She’s also single and very bi.”
“Jungeun, you know I’m not looking right now.”
“Yeah okay, but you guys can still be friends. Just talk to her. She’s cool, and arriving at any minute.”
As if on cue, the doorbell rings.
Jungeun jumps up and ditches Sooyoung to run towards the front door. Behind the crush of people, Sooyoung can’t see much except Jungeun’s mom jeans, but she can tell that it’s a very animated greeting. Very strange coming from Jungeun. There’s a bit of back-and-forth before the legs move, pushing their way back towards where Sooyoung is sitting.
The crowd parts, Sooyoung stands, Jungeun and her friend come into view and Sooyoung’s breath catches in her throat.
“Sooyoung, meet Jinsol. We’ve been best friends since college, but she’s only just stopped globe-trotting to come back and settle down in Seoul.”
Jinsol. Sooyoung rolls the name over in her mouth. It’s a little fierce, but it suits her somehow.
“Sooyoung, huh?” Jinsol grins. “It’s nice to officially meet you.”
“You guys know each other?”
“Kind of,” says Sooyoung, unable to tear her eyes away from Jinsol.
She looks good. Better. Happier. And Sooyoung herself is happier too.
“Huh? I guess I’ll leave you guys to it,” says Jungeun, but neither of them pay her any heed.
“You do know this is a set-up, right?” asks Sooyoung.
“Isn’t this a housewarming?”
It’s so delightfully innocent that Sooyoung laughs at loud. Jinsol laughs along with her, and they take a seat at the sofa, shoulders bumping.
It didn’t matter if Jinsol didn't know that this was supposed to be a set-up. It didn’t matter if Jinsol wasn’t ready to start a new relationship. It didn’t matter if Sooyoung still didn’t really know this person she’s known for almost a decade.
They had all the time in the world to figure it out.