ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 1: 캡틴 이안 (ᴋᴀᴇʙᴛɪɴ ɪᴀɴ)- ᴄᴀᴘᴛᴀɪɴ ʏɪ-ᴀʜɴ

Dreams and love tend

To be somewhat similar.

They both start out of the blue,

Brings out hidden desires,

And feed off of illusions.

Maybe that's why...

.

.

.

...You can unexpectedly

Fall in love with someone just by

Seeing them in your dreams.

---------------

Then you wait...

...Until that person

appears in your dreams

It was just another wonted day like always. The only daystar of our planet, The Sun rose as bright as a diamond, glowing up every inch of this iniquitous world with its selfless glimmer. 

Big or small, tall or short, rich or poor, WS or autistic,  irrespective of everyone's identity, social status, and credo it spreads love to all like a mother. 

Maybe, that's why Yi-Ahn always loved the sunny days. To her, April was the month of blessings. 

With the sunrise, another soundful day of her life just began. Breaking the dreadful silence of the nights, all the household turned alive in a span of seconds, with the touch of the beautiful mother's melody and the warm touch. 

The same goes for her too. As soon as she felt the warm touch of the sun emanated through the unveiled window at the rear of her bed against her bare skin, while a buoyant melody entered her cochlea, she couldn't resist her eyes from opening. 

Yawning and rubbing her eyes gently, she picked her phone with her right hand from the bedside table. 

"매일 밤 네게 날아가 (가)
꿈이란 것도 잊은 채
나 웃으며 너를 만나 (나)

Never-ending forever, baby

You (you), you are (you are) my universe
And I (I) just want (just want) to put you first

And you (you), you are (you are) my universe 

and you make my world light up inside"

And she turned off the alarm of her phone which was spreading the aria restlessly. 

"6:30 O'clock"

Perfect timing! 

Well, it got awkwardly silent for a while until she, trying to fix her messy heir, made her way towards the washroom. 

She took a warm yet short morning shower, that didn't take her more than 10 minutes. 

Covering her little charming soul with a blue bathrobe, she slowly walked to the dressing table, while the water dripped from her wet hair made her trace widely visible. 

Looking at the mirror, she was not just a smashing girl Lee Yi-Ahn, she was a bright, confident woman who just had achieved her dreams. It was the beginning of her successful career that she dreamt of ever since she was a kid. 

She picked the hairdryer from the vanity table and it was lucky enough to be able to dry her soft, silky, lustrous hair. 

Doing her hair, she placed the black hairdryer back on the table and walked to the closet which was just ten steps right of her. 

Opening the closet, for a second, she froze in her place. Then her emotionless face somehow started to turn into an impassioned face while her vision started getting blurry due to the tears gathered in her beautiful beady eyes making them look rheumy. Slowly, she calmed herself down taking control over the emotions flowing all through her soul, wiped the teardrops before they could ever fall, and looked ahead sighing inside. 

It was the symbol of her success, her uniform, the one that have four stripes on it, which she dreamt of wearing for years.

"Can you see Papa? Your Twinkle has done it!" She uttered looking at the sky. "I wonder what you'd tell me today? You are proud of me, aren't you? I miss you, Papa. I miss you so much! See, I didn't cry as I promised you. So, please come back. I want to hug you and tell you how I love and miss you." 

She blinked a few times trying to prevent the tears that were trying to flow down despite her hard reluctance. It was so hard to control them this time. 

She had to train herself for years to control her tears. While people at her age used to cry by a little injury, she had to hold it all inside, just for that damn promise. But, she with her entire soul believed that "Papa will be back soon if you don't cry." 

Even today, those otiose tears can't win against her determination. Getting a grip of herself, she gently placed her right hand on the hem of her uniform, caressed it a bit before taking it down from the closet with her left hand. 

"Finally, the day has arrived." She uttered with a sigh as she put on the uniform where the four stripes were defining herself as the qualified captain of a commercial air jet. 

Yi-Ahn then, walked to the kitchen to make her something before she leave for work. Considering her size, she didn't need more; just a cup of coffee and she was ready to go. 

When she finally left her apartment, it was only half past seven. She knew she was too early, but who knows? There must have been someone waiting for her whom she didn't want to make wait till his hair turned grey. She wondered in her mind what 'he' would do today to surprise her. 

She walked out of the elevator and made her way towards the underground parking lot. To make the journey tremendous, She unlocked her lucky car, a pitch-black Aston Martin. She got inside and the car smoothly made its way to the highway within the next few seconds. 

There was rarely any traffic jam in the roads, so it took her only ten minutes to reach Soul Airport. She parked her car outside and decided to wait before the main entrance. 

When she reached there, with her wonder, she found herself being disappointed not finding him there. She was never someone who would wait for anyone or anything in her whole f*king life. But, well he was different. Someone so special to her heart. So, she decided to wait at least five minutes, and if he fails to appear, she'll leave. 

She once thought of texting him, but looking at his last text, she couldn't... 

He usually doesn't like texting. He just likes to call, in his words, why bother hurting my fingers when I'll get to talk and hear your holy voice in one click? It was weird that he actually wrote those long texts yesterday, breaking his own quintessential rule.  

"I should stop hoping anything from him and leave." She uttered in a very calm voice that was throwing light on the relaxed environment before a heavy storm. 

While walking inside, she sarcastically mumbled, "Please never doubt me, my ass! You'll never change." 

It was her first flight as a captain of a plane, so she in any way didn't want to ruin it. It was the best day of her life, despite everything. 

How were her feelings?

No, she wasn't so nervous. Actually, she wasn't even thinking anything and just hoped everything to work out today. A guy with sweet teeth had just ruined her morning after getting her hopes up and she did never want it to get worse. She was never a coward, nor a front-row fighter. She just wanted to have a sound life without any worries. 

Before taking off, she had to go through some official checkups. And it was a relief that everything worked out well for her. And finally, she was prepared for the flight. (She seemed to be)

✵°✵.｡.✵°✵

(after an hour)

About half an hour before the take-off YiAhn entered the cockpit, sweating and breathing heavily as if someone put a 50 kg load over her solder and had made her run through the whole runway. She got vanished from the airport all of a sudden and when she finally arrived at the eleventh hour, she still seemed zoned out of the world around her.  

Choi Soo Bin was her co-pilot for today's flight. Well, though they never talked that much to be called friends or whatever, Soo Bin has known her for a long time. They were in the same high school though he is her junior by 2 years. 

Soobin who always had an eye over her seemed worried to see her like this, "Is everything okay, Nuna? You don't look so good." He couldn't resist asking. 

...

"Nuna!" He called her again rising his voice when she didn't show any reaction to his words. 

...

When he found her totally lost somewhere else, he gently pressed her solder and called, "Nuna, is there anything wrong? Should we call for a replacement?"

"Hmm? What?! What are you talking about?" She didn't seem to get what he said first but was fast enough to get back to herself, "I am fine, I absolutely am. Look," she blinked twice while trying to make that serious energetic face to make her statement look real. 

Soobin had known her for ages and thus he could easily tell that she was actually hiding her true feelings. She always does. 

Getting the hint that she was not so much willing to share what happened, he hung his phone before her eyes indicating the missed calls and asked. "Then what are these? You've never been like this. What if someone found out that you were out of the cockpit for almost one hour straight? Do you know how scared I was after getting the text from you?" 

"I am sorry, Soobin," she tried to explain, "something really urgent came up." 

"I'm letting it slide this time. But, next time, be careful," he replied knowing that Yi-Ahn was considerate enough not to waste those times without any particular reason.  

While they were talking and making themselves prepared for the flight, the aircrew informed that everything was prepared for take-off. Yi-Ahn and Soobin put on their microphone as the control center announced, 

"Seoul 4517 
Runway 21L
Ready to depart"

They then released the wheels, turned the engine on, and hold the steer in a sharp n' pro way.

Soon, the aircraft made its way to space.

Yi-Ahn carefully released the deep sigh that she was holding into her little heart for a long while now. Little did she know what was waiting for her in the future...