red-eye

Forty-thousand feet in the air, at 2 AM, the only thing on Jymaiyri's mind was the epidermis of the leaf.

The plane was dark. Almost as soon as they had boarded and taken off, the lights had been dimmed. Anyone in their right mind- that being, the majority of the passengers- were sleeping. The flight had taken off at 9 PM and would land at 6 AM the next day. But Jymaiyri didn't have time to sleep. She had time only to study.

After a long semester at their university in the south, Jymaiyri was travelling up north for the first time in her life, to visit her boyfriend's family. She and Yeonaixho had been together for almost a year now, and they were so in love and so committed that at some point, one of them had to bite and introduce the other to their parents. Yeonaixho, who by all accounts had nicer parents, had offered. So, they were flying up for the winter festivals and staying as long as they could til they had to go back to university for final exams.

If they hadn't had to go back for exams, if the winter festival had been even a week later, then maybe Jymaiyri would've been able to rest. But it wasn't, and she had spent the last few hours of her flight hunched over her laptop, cramming as much information into her brain as she could.

Her eyes were bleary from staring at a screen so long. Jymaiyri blinked, and pushed up her glasses (the ones she only wore on planes or when she'd run out of contact solution), and wiped sleep out of her eyes. Even though her laptop was on the lowest light setting possible, and even on dark mode, it still was too bright for the dimness of her surroundings. She checked the number of slides on the power point she had left to review- twenty. And she still had to read two articles after that.

Deciding that it might be best to take a short break, at least for the sake of her focus, Jymaiyri clicked away from the slideshow and looked away from her screen. She checked her coffee cup- empty, except for grounds-filled dregs that were certainly cold now anyways. Shifting slightly to see if there were any flight attendants around, she wondered if it'd be worth it to bother one of them for more coffee.

As she shifted, Yeonaixho groaned. He had been sleeping with his head on her shoulder, she must've woken him when she moved.

"Mmmm… mari.." He muttered, shifting slightly and blinking awake. He shielded his eyes from the brightness of her computer screen. "… we landing?"

"Not yet." Jymaiyri said, keeping her voice low. Their two seats were the only ones in their row, but there were still other passengers around she didn't want to disturb. "Sorry for waking you."

Yeonaixo blinked some more, and rubbed sleep from his eyes. In the dim light and his exhausted state, he looked like a disgruntled borzoi. He yawned, and stretched out as much as the cramped space would allow. "Do you need to go to the bathroom? I can get up."

"No, it's okay." Jymaiyri patted Yeonaixho's shoulder, resassuring him she was alright. "I was just seeing if I could get some more coffee."

Yeonaixho settled down, but didn't seem satisfyied yet. "You're still working? What time is it?"

"It's… about two-thirty now." She admitted, a bit embarrased.

"Oh my godddd…" Yeonaixho dragged out, sinking into his seat and leaning back onto Jymaiyri's shoulder. "How many coffees have you had?"

"Including the one at the airport? I think about… five."

"Jymaiyri." Yeonaixho chided. "You're going to explode with that much caffeine in you. Sleep. Your body is telling you to sleep. And I am too."

"I have a lot of work to do." Jymaiyri protested, looking back to her laptop. Even though Yeonaixho couldn't see it, she pulled her presentation slides back up, just to prove the fact to herself. "The minute we get back, it's finals. There's no time waste."

"You'll have plenty of time when we're at my sister's to study." Yeonaixho protested, speaking into her jacket. He was too sleepy to move.

"I don't want to study at your sister's place, I want to spend time with you all." Jymaiyri sighed, but the sigh quickly morphed into a yawn. She really was tired.

"She won't care. I'll be studying too. Maybe we can make a cute party out of it and drink hot cocoa." Yeonaixho said. "Anyways, there's no way you're comprehending any of that with how sleepy you are. Plus, the light is too bright for me to sleep."

"Fine." Jymaiyri relented. Maybe, secretly, she needed Yeonaixho to say it was alright to quit, to take some time for herself. She closed her laptop and stowed it in her backpack under the seat, and leaned back. She opened the window, just to see if there was anything interesting to see.

"What's the view like?" Yeonaixho asked. He must've heard her. Jymaiyri had the window seat, becuase of the two of them she was the only one who could appreciate it, and Yeonaixho had the aisle seat because he was too tall not to. They really were a perfect match.

Jymaiyri squinted out the window. "Not much. It's really dark. I think I can see a city out there. We must be going along the coastline."

"That'd make sense." Yeonaixho muttered. He shifted a bit more, then settled in.

Jymaiyri yawnwd again, and leaned back. She rested her head against Yeonaixho's, leaning on him as much as he was leaning on her. She could feel sleep encroaching upon her- it was like as soon as she had decided to rest, her body had let go of all the dregs of energy keeping her awake and motivated.

It was quiet. The plane hummed noisly, a sound that was something like white noise, and somewhere around them someone snored. A baby was crying. Someone else was having their own whispered, inaudible conversation. But it was quiet. In the quiet darkness of their little row, leaning on each other, 40,000 feet in the air, it was like she and Yeonaixho had their own little world.

Jymaiyri watched the world pass outside the plane window until her eyes got heavy with sleep. "I love you, Yeonai." It wasn't the first time she had said it. But it was the first time it had come to her as she drifted into sleep.

"I love you too, Mari." He said, his voice muffled with sleep. Jymaiyri never wanted to stop hearing him say it.