The flowerbed - Aespa's Giselle x Reader

The Tokyo lights (Part 1)

"Ningning, for the fifth time, your passport is-"

"I KNOW it's in my left pocket!" she interrupted, still frantically patting every pocket she had. "But what if it disappeared in the last two minutes? What if it fell out? What if-"

"What if," Winter drawled from behind her camera, "you actually checked the pocket instead of just panicking about it?"

A moment of silence, then the rustling of fabric, followed by Ningning's triumphant: "Found it!"

"In your left pocket?" Karina asked dryly, not looking up from her schedule review.

"...maybe."

Early morning at Incheon International felt surreal, the terminal's quiet buzz occasionally broken by Ningning's passport-related celebrations. I'd been through this routine countless times, but something about this trip felt different. Bigger somehow.

"Manager-nim!" Winter's voice pulled me from my thoughts. "Please help me explain to security that my cameras are essential work equipment."

"How many did you try to bring?" I asked suspiciously.

"A reasonable amount."

"She has six," Karina supplied helpfully. "Plus lenses."

"The light in Tokyo hits different-" Winter started.

"The light everywhere hits different according to you," Giselle interrupted, appearing beside me with coffee cups. She handed me one with a soft smile. "Extra shot. You'll need it with these three today."

Our fingers brushed during the handoff, a moment of warmth in the airport's artificial chill. These small touches had become natural somehow, especially since my return home.

"I saw that," Winter stage-whispered, her camera already capturing the moment.

"Saw what?" Ningning asked, somehow having lost her passport again in the thirty seconds since finding it.

"Nothing," Giselle said quickly, though I caught her slight blush.

"Left pocket," I reminded Ningning automatically, watching her face light up as she found it again.

"This is why we can't travel without him," Karina sighed fondly to the coordinators, who were trying not to laugh.

Security turned into its own adventure. Winter had indeed tried to smuggle in her entire camera collection ("For historical documentation!"), while Ningning somehow managed to lose and find her passport three more times before we even reached the checkpoint.

"How does she do that?" one of the coordinators whispered in awe.

"It's a special talent," Karina replied diplomatically.

The security officer examining Winter's camera bag looked increasingly bewildered as she explained the absolute necessity of each lens.

"You see, the golden hour in Tokyo requires at least three different focal lengths," she insisted seriously. "And the street lighting has this specific color temperature that only the 85mm can properly capture-"

"Winter-ah," I interrupted gently, "maybe we don't give the nice security officer an entire photography lecture?"

"But he seemed interested!" She gestured to the officer's glazed expression.

"That's his help-me face," Giselle whispered, making Karina stifle a laugh.

We finally made it through security with only minor casualties (Winter had to check two cameras, leading to a dramatic farewell scene that had several passengers filming discreetly).