He Was a Friend

/35/ She's back. /

Art looked at the flight status in the screen at the arrival part of the airport. Louise's flight has been marked with "LANDED" since 30 minutes ago, so he can see her any moment now in half an hour at most.

He fixed his cap anxiously. Unlike before, he's in all gear now – wearing a navy blue cap, black eyeglasses with thick frames and a gray hoodie with thick hood, laying on his shoulders. He also kept his head down all the time, except for periodically looking at the area where people who just arrived from their flights come out.

If this disguise still doesn't work – I'm gonna have to wear Diggs' afro wig next time, he winced, involuntarily imagining how it would look like on him.

Fixing his eyeglasses next, he caught a glimpse of the neon yellow jacket Louise was wearing when she took off three days ago. She was wearing rugged pants with shears, and a white sneakers. She is so down-to-earth that nobody would assume she owns a popular middle-class cafe in the middle of the capital.

There you go, he smiled contentedly, as he watched her looking around, most probably to find him.

His smile faded away almost immediately after his eyes darted off to her right, where a man was closely walking, holding both his and her luggage.

Eric.

He flinched when her waving hands caught his attention. He chuckled as she waved her hand for him to recognize her.

I could never miss you from the crowd when you're wearing that shocking yellow jacket, Lou.

"Ar— Hey!" she called out. She seemed to have realized last minute, that it wasn't a good thing to shout his name, given the last incident. He chuckled again as she nervously looked around her, checking to see if someone else heard.

He stepped forward as soon as she reached a distance that he could reach.

"It felt like it was a while, but good to see you again, Ar—"

She wasn't able to finish what she was saying, because he hugged her in one arm in the waist, in a blitz, and placed his chin on her left shoulders. He was attentive enough to still notice Eric flinching when he did.

"It was a while. I've had a hard time recharging not seeing you," he smiled softly, as he released her. Her cheeks were flushed due to his sudden action.

Well, I can't help it.

"Err. Okay. Uhm, I'm gonna go for a quick toilet break. I actually wanted to go since we went out the plane but we were afraid of being late because there were two flights that arrived just after us – so the line in the immigration's really long by now," she bid herself goodbye as she went away with a brisk walk, still blushing.