The Time When Our Path Someday Cross Again

Final Chapter + Epilogue

The Incheon airport as busy as always. People was all over the place; travellers, flight attendants, pilots, ground staffs, foreigners,kids... Some people with their luggage walked in hasty steps, some even ran a little. Some other walked so leisurely, with occasional stops in front of the information screen. They talked, laughed, hugged, cried. In a corner, a couple shared a kiss. They waved a good bye to each other before the man came back just a few seconds later and kissed the woman once again, deeply, passionately.

Maybe those sayings is true, airports sees more sincere kisses than a wedding hall. And the wall of hospitals...

"... have heard more prayers than the wall of churches" Sunjae murmured silently, more to himself.

Sunjae waited patiently for his bag to pass from the X-Ray machine. The long-padded jacket was draped in his right arm, the short sleeve of his white t-shirt rolled up a bit in his upper arm. He didn't bother to fix it. When he saw his backpack approaching him, he adjusted his glasses, then prepared to lift up the bag.

It was a pretty long flight. Glad he made a last minutes decision to upgrade his flight to business, by the mileage he collected after a while. If not, he didn't know what would happen to his long legs, sitting 14 hours straight, crossing the Atlantic ocean.

Right after he put his black backpack on his shoulder, he felt the buzz in his pocket. He took his phone, quickly reading the message from the notification pop-up.

You didn't put your jacket in checked-in baggage, did you? Seoul is cold today.

Sunjae smiled, then he replied with an animated sticker, a dog raising a 'yes' banner. Then, he put his phone back, he walked towards the gate. But a few seconds, his phone was buzzing again. He quickly opened his phone again.

Where are you?

This kid, Baek Inhyuk, it seemed he hadn't give up with the idea of meeting him in the airport. Well, they were in the same fourteen hours flight all the way from Chicago to Seoul indeed. Baek Inhyuk just finished his US tours with Eclipse and his bandmates has returned to Seoul three days before. Sunjae accidentally met him at the airport lounge when he was about to depart. Though Inhyuk went incognito with his weird sunglasses, a beanie, and a knitted reggae muffler, Sunjae could recognized him right away, right after he entered the lounge. It's not difficult to catch him if he kept those antics-styling since they were younger. He bet his stylist and his manager were not around.

Sunjae then stopped, he typed something in his phone to reply.

No, I said I don't want to go out with you. The reporter...

Before Sunjae finished what he typed, there was a strong pat in his shoulder. When he turned his head, he found the familiar face of Baek Inhyuk, grinning from ear to ear.

"Gosh, have you always been this impatient?" Baek Inhyuk gave him an annoying sulky face "Ya, I said wait for me, I need to take care of my baby."

His new guitar is his baby. He said he bought it in an indie-music shop around Halsted street. He insisted to bring his guitar on the same flight with him, which then put him to a hassle with the ground staff of the airport because of its size. He should have had his manager to take care of it with the rest of instruments three days ago, but he didn't. How smart, Baek Inyuk.

"I don't want to be seen with you, the reporters are going youtube live nowadays, aren't they?"

"Yes, but no. Nobody knows that I will return today. Not even the company. Just Dongseok. The reporters won't be there," Inhyuk giggled, as if he just did something so genius. "They're not going to recognize me. See, the glasses, beanie, muffler, walking with an unknown commoner... relax, doctor Ryu."