Last Flight Home

011: Cape Town

Daehyun awoke as usual at half seven on the dot.

A tiny ray of light entered his eyes.

"What time is it..." he heard Alex groan. The latter reached over for the alarm clock on the bedside table, his eyes barely opening a squint. The clock read half past seven. "What the hell, how is it only half seven? I've never woken up this early inn my life."

"That's new. You've never gotten up the same time as me before," Daehyun remarked.

"You know what? You're right. Because it's stupid to wake up so early when you can sleep some more," Alex mumbled. He used the pillow to block out the sun and Daehyun's vision went black once again.

"You're already awake, just wake up already."

"No."

By the time Alex finally dragged himself out of bed it was half ten and Daehyun had already planned his personal schedule for half the year. Daehyun was getting used to this routine—waking up at half seven and then having to wait another three hours in the dark before Alex finally bothered to get his lazy ass out of bed.

"What's the plan for today?" he asked.

"Don't know. Maybe go find Eunri for breakfast?"

"It's half ten, she'll already have had breakfast."

"Good point. Maybe go find Eunri for brunch?"

Daehyun sighed. Alex's life revolved around Eunri. He could understand why Alex wanted to see her 24/7, but to be honest he didn't really want to. The more time he spent with her, the more confused he was getting. He had almost reached a point where he unsure about whether it was his own emotions he was feeling or whether it was Alex's. After much careful and meticulous thought, he concluded that it was probably Alex's feelings that he was experiencing. Sharing the same mind also carried over to sharing the same feelings from time to time.

#

Alex was still whistling a happy tune as he made his way over to Eunri's hotel room to see if she wanted to go out for brunch. After David's party, the two of them (or three of them, actually) had spent the next seven days soaking up the Monte Carlo sun, touring the place and even blowing a few dollars at the casino. All in all, Alex thought he was making good progress with his mission. He was pretty convinced that the waltz they did at David's party had moved him one step closer towards reminding Eunri of how much he truly meant to her.

He knocked on Eunri's door.

There was no reply.

"Eunri?" he called out, plastering his ear to the door to see if he could hear any movements from her. There was nothing but the humming of a vacuum cleaner.

The door suddenly swung open without warning and he headfirst into the room, collapsing onto the floor in an embarrassing heap.

"Yes sir? Are you looking for someone?" A plump cleaning lady stared at him, bewildered.

From his awkward position on the ground, legs splayed in opposite directions, Alex looked up and asked, "Has the guest who stays in this room gone out?"

The lady shook her head. "No sir, the guest has already checked out this morning."

"What!"

After picking himself up, Alex quickly punched in a text message to Eunri, asking her where she had gone. Her room was completely empty, with no sign of her luggage whatsoever. It was like déjà vu from Shanghai when he had found nothing but an empty room with a single note on the table. This time there wasn't even a note!