You were up at four in the morning, after whipping up some breakfast and picking some of the leftovers of the brunch of the morning before, you headed back to the bed and put everything on the night-table to prop up your pillows and sit next to Hobi.

Not to disrupt his sleep, you simply turned on your night light to see your food and your cup of coffee. Hobi groaned and rolled over, his arm instantly reaching out to find your body next to his, but he couldn't find it when you were sitting up right next to his hand.

His eyes opened sleepily as he frowned and you smiled softly at him. At the sight, his lips curled up and he went back to sleep after moving closer to rest his hand on your crossed legs. It melted your heart how cuddly he could get, he needed to be in contact with you somehow.

One of your hands caressed his arm while the other one held your cup of coffee or chopsticks. You traced the veins on his forearm with a finger and then played with the moles along it, connecting them with invisible lines like constellations.

Hoseok briefly hummed pleased by your soft touch, but quickly was back asleep as you could hear his usual slow and calm breathing. Once you had finished your food and just had your coffee, you took small sips trying to enjoy your last few minutes with him.

It's not that you were reluctant about going to work, you did still enjoy it as much as you always have, but leaving Hobi behind was hard. It was only the second time, but you'd spent more time abroad than with him since you started dating.

You hadn't even been together for a month and a half out of these last three months. He claimed it was okay and you were in contact every day whether you were in Seoul or not. Yet you feared that he'd eventually get tired of you not being around or of having to keep up with the intermittent long distance relationship.

In the beginning of a relationship one is more open to compromising and tolerating slightly annoying things, but with time these might become more relevant or bigger problems than they initially seemed. Maybe you were getting ahead of yourself, but you knew how that went.

Other partners had been more problematic since the very beginning, so at least so far it hadn't worked that way. But the issue could still be a problem in the future when your schedule didn't change or became even more complicated. It was unpredictable.

When you went to carefully remove his hand, he clasped your fingers you'd sneaked underneath his palm instead and willed himself to look at you again.

"Are you leaving?" he asked with a gruff tone and you nodded with the smallest involuntary pout.

"Yes, baby. I have to meet my team and prepare the jet" your thumb stroked the back of his hand as you spoke.

"Kiss me before you go" Hoseok murmured and you leaned closer to him. He quickly turned his head away and pressed his face to the pillow.

"Hobi?" you asked puzzled.

"I haven't brushed my teeth. Cheek," he mumbled against it and you giggled amused by the observation. You pressed your lips to his warm cheek instead and rested them there for a few seconds before pulling back.

"You know, I don't mind. It's the gesture that I appreciate" you commented as he turned back to look up at you.

"Yeoggyeowo*. I do" he scrunched his nose in disapproval and shook his head. Even if your teeth were brushed, he wouldn't want to kiss you with his morning breath.

"I'll keep that in mind. See you later, baby. I'll let you know once I've landed" you whispered petting his hair.

"Mmkay. Have a safe flight" he answered with droopy eyes. Hobi didn't even realize when you left his side, hear you take the bag you had packed the night before out of the room or the door when you left the apartment.

"I have checked the aircraft all over and everything's in order, thankfully. Mr. Kang and his wife should be here any minute. Hangyeol-ssi, Chaewon-ssi, are we all set? Everything ready to receive them?" both flight attendants nodded and you gave them a thumbs up.

"Perfect, we should be on our way to New York City soon then" you smiled reassuringly as your rubbed your hands together, the air-conditioning always felt too cold in the cabin.

All three of you climbed down the stairs and stood by the plane as you usually would to wait for your clients. It didn't take long for you to see a sleek black car approaching you. The driver quickly got off and walked around it hurriedly to open the door for his boss.

Mr. Kang bowed his head as he got out and then held out his hand for his wife. Time froze for everyone but you two when you saw the woman reveal herself. Long hair, soft lips, thin face and big eyes. There she was, all grown up and as beautiful as ever, your first love: Mirae.

As they walked up to you, you could feel your heart racing and your mind rushing to process the situation you were in. Your eyes were wide and your jaw had gone slack. Chaewon elbowed you discreetly when they stopped infront of you and you blinked forcefully.

"Good morning, Mr. Kang. I'll be your captain and this is my team" you introduced yourself and your flight crew trying to keep your voice as stable as possible while you greeted each other.

"Is it...you?" Mirae asked in a low tone. She had always been soft spoken, that hadn't changed it seemed. Before you could speak, her husband did.

"Do you know each other?" he looked at her surprised and then at you.

"We went to high school together in Busan" she answered enthusiastically.

"Yes, we used to be—" you started intending to suggest you were close back then, but she panicked and interrupted you.

"Friends! We were good friends" she said nervously, the pitch of her voice even a little higher because of it. You furrowed your eyebrows.

Of course, the Mirae you knew had no interest at all in guys. It was hard to imagine she could be bisexual when she had been so clear about her lack of attraction for the opposite sex.

"Oh, in that case, you could join us for dinner one day" Mr. Kang proposed and your blood ran cold. You really didn't have any desire to catch up with your ex-girlfriend. She had dumped you in the most cruel way and had left you to rot since, you'd never once talked after that.

"I'm sure you'll be very busy, I don't want to get in the way" you excused yourself politely and he insisted.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can find some time, right?" Mirae added looking up at him and he smiled.

"Of course, we will figure it out" his smile was friendly. You had to force one and nod not to be rude.

As you took a seat in front of the controls, you let out a loud sigh. Five days. You would have to tolerate her for just five days and next time Mr. Kang called you, you would turn him down not to go through this awkward situation again.

You were going to be paid triple for the last minute call, but it was not about money. The only reason you had said yes was because he was desperate and you felt bad, no one else was going to accept his request.

Now that you knew who Mr. Kang's wife was, however, you thought they couldn't pay you enough to come back. Just the rush of memories that came to you when you saw her was painful enough. Reviving everything that happened around the time she broke up with you made your chest tighten.

You were sure it was only the anxiety, but, for safety reasons, you decided to call Hangyeol over to keep an eye on you. He was your flight attendant for the most part, but he also was a qualified co-pilot. You only let him take over when you really had to use the lavatory, but even then you preferred to wait until you landed*² when possible.

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* When something is yucky usually the exclamation sounds like 'ew' or 'eugh', the word yeoggyeowo (역겨워) means 'that's gross/disgusting'.

*² I learned that pilots 'go to the restroom' in the cockpit with either specially designed artifacts, bottles, motion sickness bags or adult diapers. Also if a pilot has to leave their position and has a co-pilot, you need to call over a flight attendant to keep an eye on the co-pilot (this seems to be a thing since a mentally unstable co-pilot locked the door from the inside). A lot of pilots prefer to hold it, but if flights are too long, it might not be possible.