November 4, 2019
Bella waited for most of the passengers to disembark before she stood up. The plane had landed in Mactan Cebu International Airport five minutes ago. She was back home in Cebu.
She took her backpack and cloth bag out of the overhead compartment and wore them. She reached for Kookie and the bouquet of flowers. Still with Jake's sunglasses on her face, she made the walk out of the plane. Joyce and the rest of the flight crew greeted her as she left.
Walking into the tube and following the turns onto the arrivals section of the airport, she ignored all the looks she got from the people who stared, gawked, at Jeon Kookie and the huge bouquet of roses. In a short time, she was in line for the immigration counters. As she approached the head of the line, she removed the sunglasses with her left hand. When it was her turn for the electronic immigration, one of the immigration officers received Jeon Kookie and her bouquet as she stepped onto the marked section. She placed her fingers on the fingerprint scanner and looked into the camera. Once done, she removed the sticker from the designated area and stuck it onto her passport.
She placed Jake's sunglasses back on as the immigration official handed her Jeon Kookie and her bouquet of roses. "Kuya, pwede nako ipa check palihug if mapa.scan nato ang stuffed toy? Naa man pd sya passport." (Sir, could I please ask you to check if the stuffed toy can get scanned too? He has a passport as well.) She asked him.
"Unsa, mam?" (What, mam?) He asked her in disbelief.
Bella smiled sheepishly. "Ang stuffed toy, kuya. Naa pd sya passport. Mamarayg lang unta ko if pwede nato ipa.scan." (The stuffed toy, sir. He also has a passport. Maybe you could help me check if we can get it scanned?")
He nodded and looked extremely bewildered but complied. He led her to the immigration counter for the flight crew and asked for Jeon Kookie's passport. He entered the booth and asked his colleague, a young woman, to scan the Korean passport. She also seemed bewildered but gave in to the request.
"Mam? Palihug na lang ko sa imo fingerprints." (Mam, could I ask you to scan your fingerprints?) The lady immigration official asked her. Bella set the bouquet of roses on the ground and complied. She held Kookie up for the camera. Bella saw that Jeon Kookie's passport was then given the arrival stamp.
As she handed Bella Jeon Kookie's passport back, she leaned in. "Mam, kuyawa gd ani nga stuffed toy." (Mam, this stuffed toy is unbelievable.), she said referring to the fact that a stuffed toy had a Korean passport.
Bella laughed as she kept Kookie's passport, "Miss, ultimo ako naulaw ani akong gibuhat pero ako ra btaw gisuwayan." (Miss, I have to admit I'm ashamed about this but I thought I'd give it a try.) "Salamat kaayo ani ha. Pasensya na kaayo. Secreto na lang ni nato ha?" (Thank you so much for this. I'm really sorry about it. Can we keep this a secret?)
The lady immigration official winked. "Sige mam. Salamat." (Sure, mam. Thank you)
Picking up the bouquet, Bella left the arrivals area and walked towards the exit. She turned right and headed over to the taxi stand near the domestic arrivals. She fell in line and entered the taxi assigned to her. Closing the door, she informed the driver of her destination.
After about an hour, Bella opened her front door and entered her house. It was exactly the same as she had left it, with her indoor slippers waiting patiently beside the shoe rack. She removed her sandals and placed them on the shoe rack using her toes. Her hands were still full.
She went up the stairs and opened her bedroom door. She placed Kookie on her bed as well as the bouquet of roses. She removed Jake's sunglasses and placed them in her organizer. Removing her backpack and her cloth bag, she placed them on the top of a three-layer multipurpose organizer that she had in her room. This was the designated place for Bella's bags.
She opened the backpack and started placing the laundry into the laundry basket. She removed her passport, toiletries and other accessories and returned them to their own designated spots. She placed the pouch that held her Taipei memorabilia in it on her bed, beside Kookie.
Once the backpack was empty, Bella returned the backpack to its place in the bag organizer. She took out the small backpack she used for her daily routines and placed her wallet inside it. The mini umbrella was already in there. She placed the small daily backpack beside the cloth bag. Opening up the cloth bag, Bella removed the plastic that held her own Taipei souvenirs in it. She placed this beside Kookie as well. She removed another plastic that held the Bolognese from the lounge and placed it on top of her side table.
Bella reached under her bed and pulled out a long box. It once contained a bouquet of roses given to her by one of her admirers, which he had ordered all the way from Manila. This baffled Bella at the time as Cebu had their own flower shops that did online deliveries. She tried to understand the logic behind it. She also remembered thanking said admirer for the flowers but when he had seen that they arrived wilted, he ordered another bouquet of flowers from the same flower shop in Manila. It, too, arrived wilted. I mean, what did he expect? To this day, Bella was still baffled at his behavior.
Removing the wrappings and the ribbon from the bouquet, Bella gently placed the roses inside the box. She would let them dry out in there and eventually preserve a few of them.
She placed the remnants of the bouquet into a shoe box. She added her memorabilia from the pouch into it as well as her own souvenirs. She removed the nougat from the box and flattened the box, adding it to the shoe box. Bella was fond of saving keepsakes and this box would be her depository of her keepsakes for Taiwan.
The nougat found their way into Bella's food storage box, which she placed on top of a mini refrigerator that she had in her room. Bella took a minute and surveyed her room. She turned on her A/C and her WIFI.
Once she was satisfied that everything was in order, she went to take a shower. Taking her phone with her, she opened Spotify and went back to the BTS playlist that she had. She randomly chose one song. It was an upbeat one. Music started to play and someone started singing something about calling him Idol. Bella listened to this song on repeat. She tried to listen for Jake's voice. She thought she heard him singing, 'I love myself. I love my...' Then she couldn't make out what it was. She would have to ask him.
