[BL] Rocket Science Love

Chapter 1

The morning fog still hadn't cleared. The limousine bus to Incheon Airport arrived at the bus stop about five minutes later than the scheduled time. The driver greeted me as I boarded the bus.

"Hello."

It was still too early for a good morning greeting.

"Hello." I replied in the same way.

It was pretty early, but the seats were full of passengers heading to the airport due to the holiday season. Since I had offered my seat to the cabin crew member waiting for the bus with me at the bus stop, I had no choice but to sit in the empty seat next to her.

Wearing the same company uniform, she checked the printed flight schedule and roster on a piece of paper. It wasn't something I intended to see, but due to my professional curiosity, I unintentionally read the flight details of the flight she was taking.

[CR721-A350 (ICN - SIN)]

She was one of the crew members flying to Singapore with me today. There were hundreds of operating crews within the company alone. Even though we were from the same company, the chances of flying with a familiar colleague were rare. Moreover, I didn't expect to know anyone since today was my first day on the job.

Seeing me hesitating, she glanced at me and then checked the name on my cabin bag. However, my unfamiliar foreign name seemed to make her hesitant to greet me openly.

The limousine bus, which had entered the airport expressway, started picking up speed. It occurred to me that Incheon International Airport had a connection to my life. This place was where I was born the year it was completed, only to be abandoned shortly after. It was also where I held the hands of my adoptive parents when I was eight years old, about to embark on a flight to Germany, and boarded an airplane for the first time in my life.

I can still remember the pilot's uniform as he pinched my frozen cheek and showed me inside the cockpit. He constantly spoke to me in an unfamiliar language, and I made two resolutions at that moment.

I need to learn German quickly. And I have to become a pilot.

That was a story from 22 years ago.

While lost in these thoughts, the bus continued to run relentlessly on the expressway. Before I knew it, the sun had fully risen, and it was morning.

"Usually, it's a B737, right?"

I decided to strike up a conversation with the cabin crew member sitting next to me, who was diligently practicing her announcements.

"Yes?" She looked at me with surprise at the sudden question.

"I heard that you usually operate the B737 to Singapore."

"Oh... yes... this is my first time going on an Airbus."

I wanted to say something more, but the right words didn't come to mind. She continued to look at me, blinking her long eyelashes while elegantly turning her head. I could see a perplexed expression on her face as I spoke, but she didn't follow up with the next sentence. Well, I was never really good with words.

"Because it's my first day on the job."

"Ah..." She seemed to check my tag once again.

[Maximilian Schmitz]

Maximilian Schmitz. I did have a separate Korean name, but my adoptive parents gave me a German name to avoid discrimination. My older brother's name was Christian, and luckily, they were cultured people who didn't make any distinction between their biological and adoptive children.

In truth, I had worried about how to introduce myself when I came to Korea. It would have been convenient to have a Korean name, but legally, it didn't exist. Being neither fully Korean nor mixed race, having such a name seemed to represent the complexity of my birth, so I hesitated.