Blog

Too soon, Nani found herself packing to go home.  The mood of the hotel was significantly glummer than it had been earlier that week.  The happy spirit that they’d come with had evaporated as the week came to an end.  And Nani was really not looking forward to the flight.

Somehow, Jinie managed to keep a smile on her face as she dragged them through the airport.  Nani couldn’t tell if it was just a show or if Jinie was actually happy to go home.

The plane ride was almost worse than it had been on the way there.  After takeoff, when she’d almost squished Jinie’s hand, she decided to sleep.  It didn’t go too well.  Jordan and Jae were engaging in a not-so-silent conversation behind her.  Jinie was singing under her breath.  It didn’t help that Nani’s ears hadn’t popped yet.  The gum hadn’t worked so well this time around.

Nani wished she could somehow talk to Jimin right now.  But it didn’t matter anyway.  He was probably busy.  They had another concert in a few days, and they were probably flying out today or tomorrow.  Nani sighed, succumbing to the headache that was setting in.

“Nani,” she heard a quiet voice whisper beside her, “are you ok?”

Nani peeked her eye open to look over at Jinie, who had a worried expression on her face.

“It’s just a headache.  I’m fine.”

“Do you want some ibuprofen?”

Nani frowned. “You have some?”

“Are you kidding?  I always have some.  You know I take it everywhere in case of an emergency.”

Nani nodded. “Ok.”

The medicine helped a little.  She was asleep soon enough, drifting off into dreamland.  She awoke over an hour later from Jinie shaking her.

“Nani, we’re about to land.”

Nani groaned and sat up straight.  How were they home already?  Well, almost home.  She rubbed her eyes. “What time is it?”

“Three pm.”

“How!?”

“Time change,” Jinie chuckled.

“Oh…”

Nani realized she probably needed to catch up on sleep.  She hadn’t been sleeping much while they were in California.  She’d slept at most six hours each night.  She sighed.

“Jinie?  Do you know where I put my jacket?”

“Um…did you put it in your suitcase?”

Nani sighed.  She probably had.

“Here,” Jinie unzipped her jacket and pulled it off. “You can wear mine.  I’ve been kinda hot anyways.”

Nani looked hesitantly at the jacket as Jinie held it out to her. “Are you sure?”

Jinie nodded, smiling.  Nani sighed and took it before putting it on.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Jinie started.  She glanced back at Jordan and Jae.  They were busy trying to collect all the candy wrappers off the floor.  Jinie turned back to Nani and lowered her voice. “I got us tickets to the concert this weekend.”

“What?  How?” Nani asked, her eyes widening.

“Well…I actually bought them a while ago, but I couldn’t only buy one ticket, so I had to buy two.  I didn’t think I’d use it, but…I guess I can take you now.”

“Why couldn’t you tell anyone else you were going?”

“I promised to meet Tae at his hotel afterwards.  I didn’t want anyone wondering why I couldn’t go home with them.”

Nani stared at Jinie with wide eyes.  There was no way now that she wasn’t dreaming.  This was too insane to be real.