riki.nishimura → airport hug

3

I head back to my house, and on the way to the front, I noticed the huge 'FOR SALE' sign of the house directly beside mine had been taken off and instead, replaced with a bigger 'SOLD' sign.

I shrugged, wondering who my next neighbour will be. Hopefully someone more tolerable than the last one.

The last one was quite frustrating, the constant noise through the walls, the consistent throwing trash over to my back garden, and just in general, annoyance.

It was so weird that even in pretty expensive houses people still had no morals and decency.

I hummed to myself, proceeding to head back inside, still wondering how my next door neighbour will be.

I walked up to my studio, a few canvases on the stand, half complete paintings and some almost complete.

Seeing my paintings brought me joy, I don't know, they just sparked up light in my building and motivated me to continue doing what I love.

I sat down on the stool, a text message from Min-kyu.

min: 'departure is at 11pm, i should be here by 1am :^)'

min: 'if you're gonna be too tired you dont need to come dont worry'

mei: 'ILL BE THERE!'

I gave a small sigh, a gentle smile caressing my lips. I still couldn't believe my life was this perfect, and it seemed as if it was still heading in that direction.

I took a picture of one of my paintings, but only half of the canvas, just because I liked to tease my followers a little before releasing the full painting.

I had quite a huge following on Instagram and other platforms too, yet nobody knows what I look like, or my full name for that, they just know me as Hirata.

To be honest, I was thinking of revealing more details about myself pretty soon, I mean, it's been long enough and the Art Manager is right - the amount of recognition once I reveal my face would be crazy.

As much as I lowkey wanted to, I know Min-kyu wouldn't like it. He warned me before, just because I'm attractive, people will become weird and it'll just be dangerous for me. And as much as I see his point, I'll have to eventually reveal my face to the world one day.

I groaned, picking up the paintbrush and continuing painting one of my unfinished paintings. I may as well make time pass quickly since Min-kyu's flight is later on.

→

Finally, I finished two of my many other paintings to finish. For some reason, I never finished paintings completely in one go, rather, I'd start several and then gradually finish them whenever I found the motivation to.

It was time to drive to the airport, one of the most exciting rides. The atmosphere of the airport was always something I loved, I wish I could paint what it feels like, but every time I tried, it just wouldn't portray that exact replicate feeling.

The roads were pretty empty, as it usually is near one in the morning. Nonetheless, I head towards the airport, parking the car and paying for a ticket.

I walked inside, looking inside my purse at the photo stuffed inside one of the pockets. It was a polaroid picture of me and Min-kyu, I carried it everywhere with me, I just felt as if it brought me good luck.

Walking inside, a few people were waiting around, with suitcases, or just leisurely strolling back and forth, waiting for either their flight or someone.

I stood near the terminal that Min-kyu would exit from, earlier, he sent me a picture of his outfit, just so I could spot him first instead of looking through crowds of people.

He was wearing a dark grey hoodie, cream hat and matching dark grey pants. See, I wouldn't think it'd be too hard to spot him.

I waited, waited in such anticipation that I ended up checking my phone at least three times every minute, and everytime I saw that only a minute had passed, I let out an audible groan.

A figure stood beside me, a male figure, he looked as if he was waiting for someone too.

I looked up at him, he was a taller figure, relatively smiley and sweet looking. He looked down at me, and we made split eye contact, I immediately looked away out of awkwardness.

"You're waiting for someone too?" He sparked up the conversation as I gave a light chuckle, nodding my head.

"Yeah, my boyfriend, he's coming back to Seoul after a month being in Shanghai." I said, with a smile following, just the mere mention of him made me excited.

"Damn, that's a while, my best friend is a surgeon. He's gone overseas to assist in some complicated surgery, I don't know, I'm not in this medicine thing, I have no idea what he's doing, I'm just here to surprise him." He scratched the nape of his neck, giving out a small chuckle.

I laughed at his words.

"That's kind of you at least." I responded with, before the either of us could reply with anything more, the intercom spoke.

'FLIGHT 2350, SHANGHAI TO SEOUL HAS NOW LANDED'