Away from the North

Chapter 17

"Where did I put my nice dress?" Lilac asks. I pull open a drawer and pull it out for her. She kisses me and then puts the dress into her suitcase. She zips it closed and sits down on the bed.
I packed my bags first, knowing it would take longer for her to do her's. I can hear Dali arguing with Jul about what makeup she should bring. He keeps telling her that she doesn't need all of them, which is true.
I laugh and get up from the bed. Lilac just lays there, exhausted from packing so I leave her to go help Jul convince Dali to only bring one makeup set.
I walk inside the room and see her standing above about thirty different makeup sets that are laid across their bed and I stare at her. I shake my head in disbelief and walk over to her.
"Close you eyes, spin around and point. That's the one you are taking," I say. She does as she's told and Jul picks up the makeup set, packing it into her suitcase.
She opens her eyes and then puts the rest of the makeup back into their bathroom. Jul looks over at me with pleading eyes and I nod. Dali comes back out of the bathroom and I help her pack the rest of her stuff, with a little help and persuasion from Jul of course.
I zip her suitcase closer and smile at her. We put our suitcases in the car and then walk back inside. I walk to the kitchen and I make some sandwiches while Jul gets out the chips.
He puts some onto each plate and I put a sandwich on them. We take them to the table and I sit down and start eating. I check the time and see that it's already five so we have to leave in about five hours to get to the airport.
We finish our food and I grab popsicles from the freezer. Ever since Lilac introduced them to me, they have been my favorite thing to eat. We all walk outside and onto the balcony.
We eat our popsicles and talk about our flight an what we think it's gonna be like. Jul bets ten dollars that it's not going to be packed and Dali thinks it is. They shake on it and I shake my head.
We get in the car and Lilac drives off to the airport. We get out and take out suitcases with us. We go through the security line pretty fast and put our suitcases on a conveyer belt with the flight number on it. Then we walk over to the waiting area for our plane. We talk for a while and me and Jul warn them about some of the things in North Korea that aren't taken lightly.
Like not taking pictures of certain things and other stuff. Dali makes the point that they're getting to change that and I stop and smile sheepishly. Lilac pats my shoulder and smiles at me.
Jul gets up and goes over to a cafe where he grabs me a cookie, Lilac a muffin, and Dali a bagel. He eats his own cookie while texting someone on his phone. I nod towards it and he shrugs.
"Work keeps asking me to come in but I'm on vacation," he explains. I nod and polish off my cookie. They announce that our plane is here and we walk over to the terminal.
We hand the last out tickets and walk through. I put the bags up in the compartments over the seats and we sit down. There's only two other people on the whole plane, so we mostly have it to ourselves.
Our of the corner of my eye I see Dali reluctantly handing over ten dollars to a smug looking Jul. Sometimes I don't know he they deal with each other.  Love I guess?
A flight attendant walks up and tells us some safety stuff before saying to have a good flight. She leaves and then the plane takes off. I look out the window and see the ground falling behind us.
It's absolutely breathtaking being way high up in the sky and soaring over different places that are all out up during the night. I look over and see Jul clutching his seat, looking utterly terrified.
I tap Lilac on the shoulder and point to Jul. She goggles softly but covers her mouth so Jul doesn't hear. A flight attendant walks by and offers us some snacks. We take them and pull down the tests to start eating them.
Jul works up at the thought of food and he seems to go get his fear of flying completely. He munches on a pretzel while we watch one of the movies that the airplane is showing.
After two movies end, we have a couple more snacks before the intercom tells us that we are landing and to strap on our seat belts. I strap line on and feel a rush as we land. We are told to get off and we get our stuff from the compartments and exit the plane.
We walk to the conveyer belt and grab our suitcases before walking outside to our rental car. We put our stuff in and I decide to drive because I'm the most awake out of all of us.
I drive to the hotel we are staying at and I'm surprised to see that it's pretty new. We walk inside and check in before the receptionist hands us all cards to our room. We walk to the elevator and I hit the button.
We go up and stop at the fifth floor. We get out and walk around, finally finding out room. I open the door and we walk inside, putting our suitcases in the bathroom.
I put the do not disturb sign on the door so the cleaning lady doesn't knock on our door in two hours. I walk back to our room and see that Jul and Dali are already asleep in bed.
I walk to the bathroom and change into pajamas and see that Lilac is in pajamas too, unlike the other two who fell asleep without caring. I walk over to our bed and lay down.
I wrap Lilac in my arms and fall asleep, tired from the extremely long day.