Kang Sehyun parked the car in the short-term parking lot located right in front of the airport instead of the long-term parking lot. There wasn’t even a hint of hesitation in the hand turning the steering wheel, as if the expensive parking fee of 17 dollars a day didn’t even register in his eyes.
Well, for someone who gives tips of several hundred dollars at a time, this amount per month must really be cheap, right?
No matter how much it wasn’t my money, I was simply amazed that I’d come to rationalize and accept things like this.
Kang Sehyun opened the trunk, took out my suitcase, handed me my luggage, and then walked ahead first. Nothing was held in his hands. Come to think of it, even when loading luggage earlier, the trunk had been empty.
“Where’s your luggage?”
“Here.”
Kang Sehyun pointed to the small crossbody bag slung over his shoulder.
“That’s all?”
“Yeah.”
“What about clothes?”
“I have everything in Korea, so I don’t need any.”
Right. Must be nice.
I did that for the first few times too. But not wanting to leave traces of myself in the house where Mom and that person lived, I cleaned things out one by one, and now there were hardly any clothes left to wear there.
Having to go back to that house again.
Whenever I came to the airport, I always had mixed feelings of wanting to go and not wanting to go.
Two hours before boarding, many people had already arrived at the check-in area. Perhaps because it was a flight to Korea, most of those in line were Korean. As we walked toward that place, many people’s gazes turned this way. Everyone was looking at Kang Sehyun.
I’d gotten so used to it that I’d forgotten for a moment. The fact that Kang Sehyun was annoyingly handsome.
I hadn’t noticed when he was mixed in among foreigners, but seeing him here, his appearance stood out more than ever.
“Where are you going. Come here.”
Kang Sehyun called me in front of a line made with blue ribbon. Above the left check-in booth where he was standing hung a monitor with “Business Class” written on it. Only four people were in line.
Is this what it’s like to have rich friends?
Where I should be standing, the line already extended beyond the rope. With 2 booths still not open, it would take quite a while to wait for all those people to check in. But if I went where Kang Sehyun was, since check-in could be done together as long as even one companion was flying business, I could save at least 30 minutes.
Before I could even finish thinking this through, Kang Sehyun, who had approached me, spread out his palm.
“Passport.”
“……Here.”
“Your luggage, are you taking it on board?”
“Yeah.”
“Give it here.”
“Huh? Oh.”
At his too-confident tone, I extended my hand without realizing. It was almost the first time someone was doing something they didn’t have to do for me, but strangely, it didn’t feel awkward.
“We’ll help you over here.”
It was already our turn. I followed behind Kang Sehyun, who had swiftly gone ahead with legs slightly longer than mine, heading to the booth.
“Hello. I’ll check your passport.”
The staff member greeted us in Korean upon seeing us. Then, after immediately checking Kang Sehyun’s passport, she gave explanations in a voice raised by one tone. While Kang Sehyun’s ticket guidance continued, I turned my back completely and looked around at the other booths.
“It’s fully booked today, sir.”
I heard another staff member’s voice from right next to me. A couple who hadn’t pre-selected seats and came early to check in a bit faster seemed to have failed to choose the seats they wanted and had a light argument. One person wanted a seat behind the emergency exit so they hadn’t pre-selected seats, but not only were emergency exit seats unavailable, even aisle and window seats were barely left, so the other person was angry.
It’ll be really tough if they end up in a middle seat on a day like this.
“Sungha-ya.”
I came to my senses at a familiar voice while thinking that people really shouldn’t be greedy. Kang Sehyun had an unusually serious expression on his face.
“They said this is the only seat available.”
“Huh?”
“The seat you designated is on the aisle side, sir. But there are currently no other available aisle seats, and the seat I can recommend to you now is a window seat behind the emergency exit. Even though this is a window seat, the space in front is wide so there won’t be any inconvenience going back and forth, what do you think? Or I can keep it as you designated.”
When did he look at mine?
More than that, didn’t they just say there were no emergency exit seats? Is there one because it’s for one person?
“Then I don’t mind even a window seat. Please do that.”
“Understood. Then I’ll help you check in. Ah, and lounge access is available for up to one companion, so both of you can use it together.”
Wow, it really is good to have rich friends.
Thanks to the kind staff member, I was assigned a good seat and easily completed check-in. However, Kang Sehyun’s expression didn’t clear until after receiving the ticket and before moving on. Before heading to go through immigration procedures, Kang Sehyun eventually returned to the booth. The staff member nodded several times while he talked about something with a frown on his face.
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“No.”
“Your expression doesn’t say ‘no.'”
“It’s fine, so let’s go.”
While I was choosing a gift to give Mom, even though I said he could rest at a cafe or something, Kang Sehyun insisted on following me around. I didn’t understand why he was chasing after me when he was going to be on the phone with his girlfriend the whole time following me around anyway. There were empty chairs everywhere, so he could just sit down and make his call.
For Mom, who would like anything I gave her anyway, I bought lipstick and basic cosmetics that the staff recommended without much thought. As I finished paying and was putting the items in my suitcase, Kang Sehyun, who had been standing a step away, finally approached me as if his long call had ended.
“Done shopping?”
“Yeah. We can go to the lounge now.”
“There’s no rush. If we have time we’ll go, if not we don’t have to. What did you buy?”
“Just cosmetics.”
“For your father? Don’t you need to buy something?”
“No. I only need something for Mom.”
Because he definitely won’t be pleased.
The first gift I gave to that person was a handkerchief. Back then, when I still wanted to be loved by my stepfather, I saved up New Year’s money and allowance to buy what was quite an expensive item for a middle schooler at the time. It was even a gift I bought in person after begging Mom to go to the biggest department store in Seoul.
When I gave him the gift at a meal with Mom, that person smiled and said thank you. But after that, I never once saw him carrying that handkerchief. I wondered if perhaps it wasn’t a design he liked, but was too hesitant to ask, and later I learned.
That whatever I bought for him didn’t matter at all.
That person simply disliked anything I gave.
“There’s a cafe over there. Let’s go.”
“Why a cafe. We can eat at the lounge.”
“They don’t have anything proper. Let’s just eat and go.”
I was just going to go to the lounge and eat something simple, but this time too, I decided not to try to break his unbreakable stubbornness.
“You’re just going to drink coffee, right? I’ll go buy it and bring it, so sit down.”
“Why.”
“Let me at least buy this much. I won’t say anything about filling up your gas.”
The other person laughed briefly and sat down without protest. When I bought two hot coffees and one sandwich and returned to the seat, Kang Sehyun was on the phone again in the meantime.
He really lives with the phone glued to him.
“Yes. …Now. Yes. I understand. Thank you.”
I naturally thought it would be his girlfriend, but this time it seemed it wasn’t. With good timing, Kang Sehyun, who hung up the phone, stared straight at me.
What, that’s scary.
“Thank you.”
“Yeah.”
I’m the one who should be saying thank you with mountains of things to be grateful for.
Even though we sat in the cafe for quite a while, we still had nearly an hour left until boarding time.
However, after pondering for a long time whether it was really right to go all the way to the lounge on the opposite side of the gate, we ended up using it very briefly when there were 45 minutes left and came out.
After stopping by the smoking room one last time, when we arrived at the gate, there were 5 minutes left until boarding. The area in front of the gate was already full of people.
“Kwon Sungha, passenger on XX Airlines flight to Seoul at 10:47, please come to the gate right now.”
Huh?
A flight attendant at the counter right in front of the gate was making an announcement. Wondering if I had perhaps heard wrong, as I was contemplating once more, the person who had put down the microphone looked around in front and shouted.
“Passenger Kwon Sungha, is passenger Kwon Sungha here?”
While turning my head, I made eye contact with Kang Sehyun.
“I think that’s you.”
I left my suitcase there and went to the flight attendant. As soon as I approached closely, he opened his eyes wide and asked.
“Mr. Kwon Sungha?”
“Yes.”
“You received the notification, right? Could you show me your ticket?”
What notification? I hadn’t checked any luggage and wasn’t transferring, so there shouldn’t be any problem, but I was puzzled about what this could be about. Thinking maybe I’d dropped my passport or something, I checked, but that wasn’t it either.
“First, please take this and I’ll explain.”
The flight attendant, who had been pouring out a long story about airline mileage and membership grades, said the most important thing just when confusion was starting to set in my head about why they were talking about this.
“So we’ve upgraded you to first class.”
That was the conclusion. Two first-class seats were empty because the reservation holders didn’t show up. So they upgraded me and I received a plane ticket with a first-class seat printed on it.
“Um……. But what do you mean I received a notification earlier?”
“You spoke with me on the phone just now. You said the phone wasn’t working, so I contacted you at the number you left.”
The number I left?
My phone, which had been quiet this whole time, had no missed calls at all. With a hunch, when I looked at Kang Sehyun standing far away, our eyes met. He was smiling. The guy who absolutely never smiles without a reason was definitely smiling.
Ah. That bastard Kang Sehyun.
