Airplane//KTH

Chapter 36

6:10 PM Eastern Standard Time

11:10 PM South Korea Mean Time

In the same way that Hadley's claustrophobia often manages to shrink even the biggest spaces, something about the reception—the music or the dancing, or even just the champagne—makes the hours seem as if they're no more than a handful of minutes. It's like one of those montages in the movies where everything is sped up, scenes turned into snapshots, conversations into mere instants.

During dinner, Yoongi and Jisoo both make their toasts—his punctuated by laughter, hers by tears—and Hadley watches Ji Hoon and Dad as they listen, their eyes shining. Later, after the cake has been cut and Ji has managed to duck Dad's attempts to get even for the white frosting she smeared on his nose, there's more dancing. By the time coffee is served they're all slumped at the table together, their cheeks flushed and their feet sore. Dad sits wedged between Hadley and Ji, who—between sips of champagne and tiny bites of cake—keeps flashing him looks.

"Do I have something on my face?" he asks eventually.

"No, I'm just hoping everything's okay with you two," she admits. "After your discussion out on the dance floor."

"That looked like a discussion?" Dad says with a grin. "It was supposed to be a waltz. Did I get the steps wrong?"

Hadley rolls her eyes. "He stomped on my toes at least a dozen times," she tells Ji. "But other than that, we're fine."

Dad's mouth falls open in mock anger. "There's no way it was more than twice."

"Sorry, darling," Ji says. "I'll have to side with Hadley on this one. My poor bruised toes speak for themselves."

"Married only a few hours, and already you're disagreeing with me?"

Ji laughs. "I promise I'll be disagreeing with you till death us do part, my dear."

Across the table, Jisoo raises her glass and then taps it gently with her spoon, and amid the more frantic clinking that follows, Dad and Ji lean in for yet another kiss, separating only after realizing there's a waiter hovering just behind them, waiting to take their plates.

Once her own place setting is cleared, Hadley pushes back her chair and leans forward to pick up her purse. "I think I might go get some fresh air," she announces.

"Are you feeling all right?" Ji asks, and Yoongi winks at her from over the top of his champagne glass, as if to say he'd warned her not to drink too much.

"I'm fine," Hadley says quickly. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Dad leans back in his chair with a knowing smile. "Say hello to your mom for me."

"What?"

He nods at her purse. "Tell her I said hi."

Hadley grins sheepishly, surprised to have been figured out so easily.

"Yup, I've still got it," he says. "The parental sixth sense."

"You're not as smart as you think you are," Hadley teases him, then turns to Ji Hoon. "You'll be better at it. Trust me."

Dad slips an arm around his new wife's shoulders and smiles up at Hadley. "Yes," he says, kissing the side of Ji's head. "I'm sure she will."

As she walks away, Hadley can already hear Dad beginning to regale his tablemates with stories of her childhood, all the many times he came to the rescue, all the instances when he was a step ahead. She turns around once, and when he sees her he pauses—his hands raised in midair, as if demonstrating the size of a fish or the length of a field, or some other token fable from the past—and gives her a wink.