Work Text:
Jungwon waited as his friends shoved their things in the overhead compartments of the plane. Sunghoon, Jake, and Heeseung managed to get three empty seats together, but Sunoo and Ni-ki took the two seats next to some guy. Jungwon only realized he’d have to sit somewhere else a couple seconds after they got seated.
“Where am I supposed to sit?” he asked Sunoo, side-eyeing the foreigner in hopes that he’d take a hint. He didn’t.
Sunoo glanced at the guy and then looked back at Jungwon in sympathy. “Sorry, Jungwon-ah, you’ll have to find a new seat.”
Ni-ki imitated Sunoo in an annoying, bratty voice. Sunoo rolled his eyes. “Actually, on second thought, you can sit here, Jungwon.”
“It’s oka-”
Suddenly, the guy behind Jungwon in the aisle gave him a light shove. “You’re holding up the line, kid!”
Jungwon didn’t know what the guy said, but he sounded angry, so Jungwon left Sunoo and Ni-ki and took the first empty seat he saw.
Why’d we have to get such high ticket numbers? Jungwon thought as he dropped his carry-on bag onto the floor and shoved it under the seat in front of him. Who wants to sit alone for a 15 hour flight?
He looked to his left, at the guy he shared three seats with – the guy was in the window seat while Jungwon had the aisle seat, leaving an empty seat between them. Jungwon couldn’t really see the man’s face, as he was wearing a hoodie and looking down. Jungwon assumed the stranger was sleeping from his slumped, relaxed position. Sighing, Jungwon grabbed some earbuds and his phone from his bag and tried to get comfortable for the long flight.
***
An hour or so later, they were up in the air and Jungwon was very bored. He watched as a flight attendant got closer and closer, until she asked for his order. He pulled out his earbuds and said, “Coke, please,” in heavily accented English. He was about to put in earbuds when he glanced at the sleeping guy.
Maybe he’ll wake up soon and be thirsty…
Before the flight attendant could walk away, Jungwon sat up and lifted his finger. “Um, excuse me!”
The flight attendant turned back, smiling widely. “Yes?”
Jungwon pointed at the sleeping guy. “One coke . . . for him . . . two coke, please.”
The flight attendant nodded in understanding. “Of course, of course. Two cokes.”
Jungwon hoped she got it. He took a breath of relief once she left, the stress of communicating with foreigners gone. Though he didn’t know what he’d do when the stranger woke up. It would be really awkward. Should he have ordered the extra coke?
He noticed Sunoo looking back at him down the aisle out of the corner of his eye and he made a face at his friend, who rolled his eyes and turned back to the front.
A couple minutes later, his cokes arrived. He opened the tray for the middle seat and placed the stranger’s drink on it, before going to drink his own. He put his earbuds back in and continued listening to music, trying to fall asleep.
Eventually, he had to get up and go pee. When he came back, the stranger was staring at him! Jungwon nearly jumped in shock. He quickly bowed and said, “Hello,” before sitting down and staring ahead awkwardly.
He’d only gotten a short look at the stranger’s face, but he immediately had noticed how good-looking the foreigner was. Just the kind of guy that belonged in New York, the place they were currently leaving behind.
The guy made a noise and Jungwon looked over. The handsome stranger raised his eyebrows and pointed at the drink, “Is that for me?”
Jungwon didn’t understand exactly what he said, but he got the point and nodded quickly, pushing the drink further across the tray towards the man.
“Thank you,” the man said, and he took the coke and chugged it all prettily, showing off his smooth throat and extremely sharp jawline.
Is this guy a model? Jungwon thought.
“You’re welcome,” he finally replied.
The guy glanced at him with furrowed eyebrows and Jungwon wondered if his English was wrong.
“Do you speak Korean?” the stranger asked in Korean, and Jungwon reeled back in shock, mouth open.
“You speak Korean? You look like a foreigner!”
The man laughed, “I get that sometimes. It’s kind of true, since I was born in Seattle, Washington, but I’m Korean and I’ve lived in Korea since I was nine.”
“Aahh, is that so?” Jungwon said awkwardly.
“Mm. Anyway, if you couldn’t understand me earlier, I really appreciate you ordering me a drink.”
Jungwon blushed and looked down. “Ah, it’s no problem. I just thought you might be thirsty when you woke up.”
The handsome Korean-American smiled, which was not good for Jungwon’s heart that he did not realize was so gay, and said, “And I was! I’m Jay, by the way. My full name is Park Jongseong. What’s your name?”
“My name is Yang Jungwon.”
“Yang Jungwon,” Jay said as if he were tasting the name. Jungwon was embarrassed to admit that he wanted Jay to keep saying his name over and over again. “A cute name for a cute guy.”
Jungwon felt his face flame and looked away from Jay, afraid that he’d see. Was Jay flirting with him? “Thank you.”
“How old are you?”
Once Jungwon felt his face was back to normal temperature, he turned back and said, “I’m twenty.”
“Ah, I’m older. Twenty-two. You can call me ‘hyung’ if you’d like.”
Jungwon looked at his hands. “Hyung.”
When he turned back, Jay was leaning across the seat, right up in Jungwon’s face, staring at him with crinkled, smiling eyes. Jungwon flinched backwards, staring with wide eyes as Jay began laughing endearingly.
“You’re just so cute. I can’t help teasing you. Sorry.”
“No, it’s okay,” Jungwon forced out quickly, still recovering.
Jay finally stopped laughing and asked, “So, what brought you to New York?”
Jungwon was grateful for the conversation starter, “Well, my friends and I thought it would be a good idea to…”
They talked for a couple hours, clicking seamlessly. Jungwon just felt right talking to Jay, like he was talking to his other half. His, well, soulmate.
Jungwon had to go to the bathroom again later in the flight, and when he came back, Jay patted the seat next to him, so Jungwon took the invitation and closed the seat gap between them. It seemed to break whatever ice was left between them and they fell into an easy, comfortable silence. Jungwon began to get tired, and Jay’s hoodie-clad shoulder looked soft and welcoming, so he let his head fall. Jay didn’t say anything; just adjusted his position so his arm was around Jungwon’s shoulders and rested his own head atop Jungwon’s. They fell asleep like that for the remainder of the flight.
***
“-won. -ungwon. Jungwon!”
Jungwon startled awake at Sunoo’s voice, rubbing his eyes. He slowly became aware of his surroundings, and shot up after he realized he was still in Jay’s arms. His movement caused Jay to blink into awareness as well.
“Jungwon, what are you doing? It’s time to get off the plane!” Sunoo said, looking back and forth between Jungwon and Jay suspiciously like any annoying friend would.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming, Hyung.”
He scrambled out of the row and into the aisle, reaching up and grabbing his suitcase. He quickly followed Sunoo to not cause traffic. He wanted to look back to see if Jay was behind him, but there wasn’t any time. As soon as they stepped out of the plane and onto the ramp, Sunoo pulled Jungwon up to walk beside him.
“Who was that?” he whispered to Jungwon. “And why were you cuddling with him?”
Jungwon blushed and coughed. “I wasn’t cuddling with him!”
Sunoo gave him a deadpan stare, and Jungwon blushed even more.
“Let’s just keep going. We’ll talk about this after we’re out of this traffic,” Jungwon said.
“Fineee.”
They made their way off the ramp and into Incheon International Airport and found Heeseung, Sunghoon, Jake, and Ni-ki waiting for them outside the gates.
“Slowpokes!” Ni-ki said loudly. “What took you guys so long? We were waiting forever.”
Sunoo giggled, “Jungwon was cuddling with a handsome foreigner.”
The group gasped – their dramatic asses – and Jungwon punched Sunoo’s arm. “Shut up!”
Sunoo only cackled evilly while everyone started asking him for the tea.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Heeseung said, counting their heads. “Jungwon, where’s your carry-on?”
Jungwon’s blood went cold. He looked around himself before looking up at Heeseung with guilty eyes. “I . . . think I left it on the plane…”
Heeseung pinched his nose. “What are we going to do with you, Jungwon-ah? You’ll have to go and ask the flight attendants to get it for you.”
“Looking for this?” A familiar voice said, and Jungwon turned and smiled happily at his Jay hyung, who was dangling Jungwon’s bag out in front of him.
“Jay hyung!” he called, and Jay came and joined their little circle. He greeted Jungwon's gaping friends politely, but then turned his full attention back to a bubbly Jungwon.
“Were you going to leave without saying goodbye?” Jay asked, pouting.
Was Jungwon going to leave without saying goodbye? Technically, he barely knew this guy. They had only spent a fifteen hour flight together. So why did Jungwon feel like they’d known each other for years?
“Sorry, I didn’t want to hold anyone up. I didn’t know if we’d run into each other outside or not,” Jungwon answered honestly.
“Mm, is that so?”
They fell into a thick silence. Jungwon glanced at his dumbfounded friends and blushed. Sunoo caught his eyes and mouthed, “Get his number, you dumbass!”
Jungwon cleared his throat, still blushing, and said, “Um, I know this is a little sudden and weird, but can I get your number? I know we’ve only known each other for, like, fourteen hours but I feel like we really connected.”
Jay’s pout morphed into a giant, attractive, adorable grin. “I thought you’d never ask!”
He handed his phone over and Jungwon gave him his. They gave the phones back after adding their contacts, and Jungwon stared a little too long at the selfie Jay took for him to use as his contact photo. Cute.
“Well, Jungwon, I hope we see each other again sometime. I’ll text you,” Jay said, smiling sadly. He turned and bowed to Jungwon’s friends again, and waved before taking his designer suitcase and walking away.
Heeseung just barely got out a “that was so weird” before Jungwon finally came to his senses.
“Jay hyung!” he yelled, running after the man he felt was his perfect match.
Jay turned and Jungwon threw himself into his arms, nearly knocking them to the floor.
“Whoa!” Jay shouted, before laughing and hugging Jungwon back tightly. He kissed Jungwon’s forehead and rubbed his face in his hair, making Jungwon feel a hurricane of butterflies.
Jungwon pulled back, face flushed. “Let’s see each other again, Jay hyung. No ‘maybe’.”
Jay smiled in adoration. “Of course.”
“We’ll talk later?”
Jay ruffled Jungwon’s hair. “Absolutely.”
Jungwon hesitantly stepped away. “Well, is this goodbye then?”
“Not goodbye,” Jay said, pulling Jungwon back and looking deep into his eyes. “We’ve only just begun.”
Epilogue:
“I can’t believe how sweet you two are,” Sunoo said, pretending to gag at the couple sitting together at his birthday party. “How do you act so different to each other than you are to everyone else? Literally gives me whiplash.”
Sunghoon wiped cake on Sunoo’s face, much to the birthday boy’s dismay. “You say that, but your own personality is the definition of whiplash. Cute one moment and a sassy brat the next.”
“But you love me for it,” Sunoo remarked sassily.
“There you go again,” Sunghoon sighed.
Jungwon laughed and leaned back against Jay, who immediately wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.
Ni-ki, Heeseung, and Jake looked at the two couples with disgusted looks on their faces.
“Gross,” Ni-ki commented. “I hate this.”
“Any respect for the singles?” Jake asked.
“We should ban PDA when we’re all together,” Heeseung added.
“Y’all are just salty and lonely,” Jungwon said, sticking out his tongue.
Ni-ki fake cried, “Jay hyung! Do you hear this? Jungwon hyung is bullying me! Your boyfriend is bullying me!”
Jay didn’t even hear his dongsaeng, too occupied with admiring Jungwon.
Everyone laughed, while Ni-ki just sighed in defeat and ate some cake sadly.
“Okay, but for real, I don’t think anyone will be able to top Jaywon’s get-together story,” Jake said. “Who would’ve thought two strangers on a plane would bond in the fourteen hours of their flight and say goodby- sorry “see you later” only to find out they were neighbors. It’s gotta be fate.”
Jungwon squished himself even more into Jay’s side, breathing in the comforting smell of his boyfriend. “It is fate, because we are soulmates.”
Everyone gagged some more except Sunoo, who just smiled at his best friend, happy for him. The peace was broken quickly, as Sunghoon was back with more frosting smeared on his fingers.
The room fell into a chaotic cake war, the seven friends – and two couples – running around and wreaking havoc. Just a normal day in the life of Jaywon and their friends.