A Year to Change Your Lives

Chapter 38

The flight from America back to Seoul was one of the longest they would do without a stop. For fifteen hours, the first-class cabin was their home as they flew across the night.

Most of the packing had been done by the teams before Namjoon, Reader and the others had arrived back after their appearance across town and so Reader was on the plane with only her small carry-on bag. She had such a longing to be alone with Jungkook as never before, but it seemed the plane wouldn't go any faster just because she willed it to, in fact if anything it seemed to be going slower.

As it was, they made do with lounging side by side, their partition between their two opposite facing chairs.

"Will you stay at mine tonight?" He asked, taking the ear bud out of her ear and putting it, with his, back in the charging case.

"Yes please." She answered twisting her neck this way and that. They'd both woken about an hour ago, but he'd turned on their shared playlist to listen to while they dozed and woke properly. With only a few moments truly alone since they'd left the studio and their tiredness now feeling like a physical weight, they'd both fallen asleep without examining too closely what Reader had done back in the US.

"I have to go to mine to drop everything off though." She told him.

This trip more than most, she'd picked up some loot. Seeing herself more and more on camera had made her think about what she was wearing, even just to pass through an airport and she decided she'd like to try to find a style of her own imagining, lest the studio try to give her one. And she'd bought presents while she was away. Laura's birthday was in a few days and on the horizon was Jungkook's so she'd availed herself of New York shopping on the hours that she and Hobi had slipped away from their dancing schedule. All of this was to say she had a couple more bags to drop off than usual.

"I can come with you instead." He suggested. He raised himself up to look sleepily around the cabin. The lights weren't on yet but the night was disappearing from the sky so they could see their sleeping friends dotted about.

"I'll be fine."

"I know, but I want to see where you live, and then we be alone. I can run over separately if you like?"

"No, it's not that." She told him with a smile. "Come over whenever you like. There's not much there though."

"We can order food, it's fine." He told her, not conceiving of any provision that wasn't meal based.

As they tucked into their breakfasts, Reader had a visit from a wandering Laura who was seated with the rest of the crew in the cabin behind them. This was often the case, and she didn't mind. For appearances sake, she was simply part of the wider staff covering the BTS tour, although mostly they all now knew this wasn't the case.

"Hi! Want some of this?" Asked Reader gesturing to her unfinished tray. Laura took her untouched juice and sipped it happily.

"Just coming to say hi. Did you sleep?" She asked Reader who nodded, then smiled over at Jungkook who had drifted back off after polishing off as much of the tray as he could eat.

"We've still got a way to go. I think I'm going to watch the superhero thing."

"They've got a BTS concert under the music section." Laura told her chucking, "So you can do some revision! Although maybe a break from work would be nice!"

"Speaking of which, do you know what you'd like to do for your birthday?" Asked Reader, remembering that they needed to make some plans soon. If it involved the boys, they'd need a bit of logistical help.

"I actually have to work on my birthday. Now that you're a bit more independent, they're assigning me to other meetings. It's only for a bit but I'll be free in the evening. And I would love to go out!" She told Reader, highlighting the love in her last sentence.