As the airplane ascended to a certain height, the sound muted as if cotton had stuffed my ears.
It was a phenomenon caused by the pressure difference.
Thinking that Siyeon must be feeling it too, I casually turned my body and stretched out my arm.
“Siyeon, your ears are blocked, right? Drink some water.”
I picked up a bottle of water awkwardly placed in the armrest and handed one to Siyeon.
Siyeon was closing and opening her ears with her fingers, experiencing a rare sensation that one rarely feels in daily life.
I heard the sound of her gulping down the water she received.
“Oh, it’s all better! This is so cool!”
Siyeon seemed thrilled with the whole situation.
She took the bottle back and, without touching her lips to it, tilted it slightly away and poured the water into her mouth like she was catching water from a waterfall.
With a gulp, as she swallowed a mouthful of water that filled her cheeks, the muffled sounds around us became distinctly clear.
The water bottle still had quite a bit left even after we both drank.
It seemed a bit excessive to finish it all at this height.
I capped the bottle with the plastic lid I was holding, placed it back into the appropriate slot in the armrest where it originally was, and thought, ‘What to do for 11 hours now…’
At first, staring out the window at the clouds was fascinating.
Since I hadn’t had many opportunities for such experiences, I took a few pictures with an excited heart.
Then, Siyeon and I took turns looking out the window.
But the novelty wore off quickly…
“I don’t think we need to switch seats anymore.”
After doing so for an hour, I was completely bored.
Sea, clouds, sea, clouds.
The repetitive scenery made Siyeon, at some point, only busily fiddling with her smartphone.
The luxurious seat was indeed the perfect environment for spending the whole day glued to my phone, featuring strong Wi-Fi and plenty of charging ports as long as the cable was plugged in.
As Siyeon sank into the world of her smartphone, I turned my gaze around.
With spacious seats and various amenities, what caught my eye was the screen right in front.
Just within reach of my fingers, I finally unbuckled my seatbelt, leaned forward, and tapped the screen.
Only then did the previously black screen light up, displaying various movie and anime posters.
“Ah, so I can watch movies.”
Eagerly displaying my first-time flyer’s ignorance, I stood tall, scrolling through options for a movie to kill 11 hours.
Searching for content, I even reached for movies I wouldn’t normally look at.
Once you start watching a movie, it’s hard to stop.
I boldly selected a crime film, commonly referred to as film noir.
If someone were to ask why I chose this among many…
“Let’s see some fighting.”
I suppose I wanted to reference the punches from skilled actors.
Surprisingly, such movies often exhibit excellent detail in their fight scenes.
I plugged in the headphones provided by the airplane and focused entirely on the movie’s sounds.
After getting into the film for a bit, just as a sturdy-looking actor was about to pound a criminal like he was beating a dog on a hot summer day,
I felt a poke on my side.
It wasn’t the usual poke from the fluffy bear’s soft stick that comes from a pocket.
Turning from the screen to the source of the poke, I found Siyeon jabbing me with her finger.
Curious about what was going on, I saw a flight attendant standing beside our seats.
I quickly removed my headphones and tilted my head to ask what she needed.
“What would you like to eat?”
“Ah, food…?”
Only then did my brain connect the dots; I unbuckled my belt, paused the movie, and took the menu to survey what was available.
For Western cuisine, the basic selections included tenderloin steak, roasted chicken, grilled salmon, etc…
Aside from those, there were suggestions like flounder or others, but it stated you couldn’t order them unless you pre-ordered.
For Korean cuisine, there were dishes like grilled short ribs with wrap, galbi-jjim, bibimbap, and others.
Foods that seem like something you’d encounter on a special occasion.
Considering that Western food often doesn’t come with rice, I decided on the Korean option.
I thought they might serve rice if I asked separately, but I didn’t want to add to their trouble.
Plus, I had doubts about how well Western food would go with rice.
“I’ll have the galbi-jjim set, and what will Siyeon have?”
“Hmmm… this one!”
She confidently pointed with her finger to the words “tenderloin steak.”
Bold choice for Western food?
I couldn’t remember the last time I properly cooked Western dishes.
Maybe she chose it just because it was a new dish she hadn’t seen before?
In any case, thinking it would be an experience, I didn’t question it and conveyed our order to the flight attendant.
“Tenderloin steak and one galbi-jjim set, please.”
“Yes.”
The flight attendant nodded and immediately went to the back to place our order.
Breaking away from the world of movies, I pleasantly awaited our food.
“Do we have to finish everything we ordered?”
I asked, glancing at Siyeon, who had unconditionally ordered the tenderloin steak, reminding her we should eat everything we ordered.
“I’ll finish it all!”
Siyeon was showing some unfounded confidence.
As far as I knew, the steak served at places like this…
Would probably be a bit pink inside.
“It’s red, gross…”
Just as I expected, Siyeon was struggling to poke the steak with her fork and had shredded it all over her plate.
Steaks don’t cut as easily as pork cutlets.
I knew this would happen, but with a sigh, I puffed out some air and stood up to place the galbi-jjim set in front of Siyeon instead.
“Let’s switch, and give me a bit of rice.”
“Okay…”
In a hurry, Siyeon swapped the tray from her side to mine.
That impressive confidence about finishing everything just moments ago seemed to have evaporated.
The neatly arranged meat chunks on the white plate were now scattered, looking like a soggy cardboard box on a rainy day, thrown across the plate.
And then we started our meal.
Generally, you’d enjoy beef with sauce and seasoning of salt and pepper.
The tender pink juices splattered on the plate, and I picked up one of the haphazardly shredded chunks to take a bite.
It was somewhat thick and honestly didn’t have that great of a texture.
But was it so inedible? Not quite.
Dipping it into sauce that looked like it belonged with pickles you’d get with pizza and taking a bite with rice improved things a bit.
In any case, it’s hard to make bad combos with meat and rice.
The aroma of the food gradually filled our section.
Flight attendants busily moved about, even carrying wine bottles.
Of course, Siyeon and I were on a no-eating zone.
A business class seat on a plane I might not get to experience many times in life—it was a bit disappointing that my age kept me from fully enjoying the experience.
After the flight attendants collected the trays, once again, it was time for movie viewing.
“Uaaahh!”
In an action scene where the main character, a detective, subdued a criminal, the screams of the actor playing the criminal sounded quite vivid through the headphones.
Would a monster scream like that if I twisted its limbs?
After watching two parts of the series, I noticed the indoor lighting seemed to dim.
Even the voices of the usually loud uncles were no longer audible.
Looking over at Siyeon, she was barely holding onto her smartphone as she almost nodded off.
She had been playing a game, still connected to the charger.
Reaching out gently to touch her smartphone with my arm, I felt the phone was hot enough to give burns.
“Hot hot.”
After turning off the game, I placed Siyeon’s phone down somewhere more spacious.
Adjusting the adjacent seat to lie flat, I covered her with a blanket to help her sleep comfortably.
About five hours had passed since we took off.
After watching a couple of movies, we were already past the halfway mark of our scheduled flight.
“Ughh-”
In the quiet plane cabin, I stretched my arms wide while yawning.
If we were to consider the Korean time, it was probably around 2 PM?
It was too early to sleep, but the business class was silent aside from the sound of the aircraft.
Maybe everyone was adjusting to the jet lag, as when I glanced around, I only saw uncles who had donned sleep masks and earplugs, sitting quietly.
…The peculiar scent of wine also tickled my nose.
The overall dim lighting and quiet atmosphere must have led Siyeon to drift off to sleep as well.
Perhaps that was for the best.
It would be better to get some sleep than to suffer from jet lag after we arrive.
“I might as well catch a nap.”
While I had never experienced it, jet lag is notoriously known to accompany overseas travel.
I didn’t want to suffer for no reason, so even though I wasn’t sleepy, I cheekily prepared my eye mask and earplugs.
After adjusting my seat to lay back like Siyeon’s, I covered myself with a thin blanket.
I pulled down the window shade to block out the outside view, readying myself for sleep, and closed my eyes.
Neither noise nor light could disturb my sleep.
Time passed, though I lost track of how much.
What disrupted my thoroughly prepared nap wasn’t noise or light…
It was a pungent aroma tickling my nose: the smell of instant noodles.
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