Landing in Your Inbox

27 - arrival

November 19, 2020 2:53 PM
Incheon Airport Terminal 2 Arrival Hall

Airport. Always the airport.

Much as Seo Dan appreciated Alberto and Seri's twin efforts in making her forget, the airport will always bring him back with a vengeance. If she could only skip that part and somehow find herself home. There was at least one time where he waited for her at the arrival hall, not some stranger hired to take her things and drive her home. Him in the flesh and not even in his uniform, waiting among those who had placards and printed out banners for arrivals. How excited she was to see him back then ...

One of their last dates (or she supposed it was just lunch to him) was also at the airport.

Alberto waved at someone, "Ms Seo Dan, our ride is here."

"Go ahead Dani," Seri held a phone to her ear, "I'll contact you in Seoul." The other hand that still held her passport gave a wave before turning away with her bags.

Seo Dan was slow-paced in her departure, looking around as though she was expecting someone else. Alberto had to backtrack a few steps just to fetch her where she was stranded, "Are you all right?"

Alberto's look of concern only hardened her Dan nodded resolutely then, slipping on her sunglasses and walking off without a glance behind.

***

Was his signal not working or did he really not receive a single message since yesterday?

But he received work emails and group chat texts. He uninstalled and reinstalled the forum app but not a single message came through. Not even after he sent her a congratulatory message.

"You're heading back home?" Kwang-beom asked as the sliding doors of their office closed behind them. Another flight completed. "Weren't you trying to avoid that?"

"There's something I need to find." Jeong-hyeok said while bowing lightly to a group of stewardesses who waved all smiles from the opposite direction, "Shouldn't take me long."

"Your ex-mother-in-law could be camping outside the gate."

"She isn't my ex-mother-in-law." Jeong-hyeok insisted as the two entered the busy arrival hall. "Don't think of her that way."

"Lee Jeong-hyeok?"

Jeong-hyeok whirled to see who called his name.

Kwang-beom would think the woman was quite familiar. Was it from a movie? A drama? But he could not quite pin it down. But the way she dressed in the plaid woolen coat, sunglasses and leather bag hooked to her elbow, she seemed to be.

"Oh, it is you!" Seri waved with both hands. She asked the assistant behind the information counter to wait for her as she went over to meet him.

Jeong-hyeok could not believe it. The very same woman who he drove all the way to Incheon for on an off-duty day was standing in front of him. "Hi, Seri."

"I finally bumped into you! Wooow so this is how you look like in uniform." She remarked as she looked him up from his necktie to the epaulettes on his shoulders. "Cool."

"Are you alone?" Jeong-hyeok managed to ask amidst his reddened face from that unexpected inspection.

"I am now, my companion has left me and my ride is nowhere near..." Then she spotted Kwang-beom hovering behind him, "Oh hello!"

"Ah this is Kwang-beom." Jeong-hyeok whirled to his companion, "This is Yoon Seri."

"Yoon..." Kwang-beom finally made the connection, "Seri's Choice??

"But don't actually announce it." Seri cautioned with a grin that made her eyes disappear, "Are you leaving, Jeong-hyeok?" She saw the bags they held in hand, "Do you want to get coffee?"

Jeong-hyeok's eyes widened.

The question she uttered so casually had an innate sacredness that she could not know of. 

She had the appearance of someone nigh unreachable, her salon-straight hair, the face from how many magazines, her coat that was probably worth his month's salary - not counting the jewelry, her handbag and her shoes. But right then she had pleaded with almost puppy eyes.

For Kwang-beom it would be the first time he had seen Jeong-hyeok in a stupor and it had to be in front of a woman. It was the very definition of an engine failure.

"How about...if we get ice cream instead?" He proposed with a thumb to his back.

"Ice cream?" There was a moment of doubt that crossed Seri, but then she nodded, "Ok then, wait right there let me make a call." She went back to the information counter.

Kwang-beom turned to him, "It's the flighty heiress right??"

"Kwang-beom listen." Now Jeong-hyeok was back in full form like he was leading the cockpit again in an emergency, "Can you wait for me in the car? This shouldn't be too long."

Kwang-beom stared at him as though he did not know him, "You're really meeting up with her?"

"Wait for me in the car." Jeong-hyeok repeated. "Please just do it." He clapped his friend on his back, hurrying him on.

Seri returned, "All right, let's go then!" She looked around, "Where did your handsome friend go?"

Handsome friend?

 "He had to do something." Jeong-hyeok said dismissively as he searched for the escalator, "This way." He reached out to take Seri's luggage.