Happyends Are Just An Illusion

When I woke up again, a widely grinning face greeted me. My new neighbour started talking to me, but with my music still playing, I could only see his lips moving. I pressed the pause button and took out my earphones.

"I'm sorry. I couldnt understand you." I smiled apologetically at him.

"Oh, no problem. I just said hi and I'm Jackson." he repeated himself.

"Uh... Hi Jackson. I'm Marlo." I introduced myself.

"So Marlo, are you going on vacation or returning from vacation?" he started his investigation.

"Uhm, I'm going on vacation." I replied cautiously.

"Are you going to stay in LA?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any plans while you're there?"

"No, not yet."

"So, you're going on your own or are you meeting someone?" his questions seemed to never end.

"Uh, well... I'm going on my own."

"Jackson, stop it! You're making her uncomfortable." Another voice piped up.

As I was looking over, I recognized him as the guy who sat beside me earlier.

"What? No. I'm just casually making conversation." Jackson defended himself. "Do I make you uncomfortable?" He turned to face me again.

"Uhm... I... Uh..." I stuttered. To be honest, he did make me uncomfortable but I didn't come off as rude and tell him off.

"Don't put her on the spot like this. Move over." The other guy said and stood up.

They switched seats again and I could hear Jackson mutter 'But Jinyoung's no fun' under his breath.

"I'm sorry for him. He can be a bit overwhelming. I'm Mark by the way." My new old neighbour introduced himself.

"Oh, it's no problem. Really, he was nice. I'm Marlo." We shook hands and held a bit of smalltalk.

Mark told me that Jackson, him and the other five guys were a group of friends and on their way to visit his family. I was impressed. Taking in 7 guys for an extended period of time must be quite the hassle. But apparently Mark's parents loved his friends and they've been at his home together before.

He then asked me about my plans and reasons to go to LA. At this question I laced my fingers together and squeezed my own hands tightly.

It took me a few seconds to think of an answer that was not giving away too much but was still true.

"I saved money for a big trip but some things didn't work out so I decided to change my plans and go on vacation to LA."

Mark got the hint that I was not really keen on talking about this topic any further and he steered the conversation in another direction.

"So, what are you doing when you're not flying to LA?" he asked.

"I'm studying business. Nothing special really. It's actually quite boring." I shrugged.

"Do you think it's boring or do you think others find it boring?" Mark asked on.

"It's a bit of both actually. Studying business is not something special. Everyone does it. And to be honest, I think there's a hundred more interesting things to study." I explained.

"Then why are you studying it? Aren't you a bit unhappy?" he frowned at me.

I just shrugged again. "It's safe. I'll find a job after majoring and then I'll probably get married... and have a family..." my voice faltered and I cleared my throat loudly.

Mark's frown deepened and he took a breath before opening his mouth to say something but was interrupted by one of his friends who peeked behind him over the backrest of his chair.

He said something in a foreign language and got smacked by his seat neighbour. Then chaos ensued as the two boys before us broke out in a battle.

Mark tried to seperate the two but was a bit helpless. He called out to yet another one of his friends who raised his voice slightly which was enough to have them stop and sink back into their seats. But not without mumbling something sulkily under their breath.

"I'm sorry again." Mark grinned. "Those two goofballs before us are the youngest of our group, Bambam and Yugyeom. They're quite a handful."

"Bambam? That's quite an uncommon name." I mused.

"It's his nickname. He's from Thailand and his birth name is quite hard to pronounce." Mark explained.

"Oh, well, that makes sense." I said. "Are you all from Thailand? Was he speaking Thai to you?"

"Oh, no. Bambam's the only one from Thailand. Jackson is from Hongkong and I'm from LA. The other four are from Korea. We live there together and mostly speak Korean to each other."

"So are you all students? Why did you go all the way to Korea? Wasn't there a college here that you wanted to go to?" I wondered.

"Uhm... No, we're not students. We work together. It's actually a bit difficult to explain." Mark tried to find the right words.

"Oh, it's okay if you don't want to tell." I assured him and he smiled thankfully at me.

I looked at the small screen in front of me and found out, that we had more than half of the distance covered. There was two hours of the almost five left.

Another change of seats took place, as Jackson shooed one of the two younger boys in front of us away to take his seat at the window. The tall boy stood in the aisle for a few seconds looking lost before he sighed and let himself fall beside the guy that I remembered Jackson call Jinyoung.

He tried to strike up a conversation but was silenced after no more than five words.He pouted and crossed his arms. He looked a bit like a lost puppy. I giggled at the sight.

"That's not Bambam, right?" I asked Mark. This boy had a rounder face than the one who was looking over before.

"Nope. That's Yugyeom. He's the maknae, which means he's the youngest of us." Mark answered me and then said something in what I assumed was Korean to Yugyeom.

"Hello. My name is Yugyeom." He introduced himself in heavily accented english.

"Hey, I'm Marlo." I waved at him.

A bright smile appeared on his face and I couldn't help but smile back. He was a cute one.

I leaned back again and while Yugyeom and Mark started their own conversation, I went back to my music and let my brain shut off once again.

Notes

Hello and welcome back to chapter 2 of this story.

Please leave a comment and tell me what you like and don't like about my writing. I'd really appreciate it.

I hope to seen you soon for chapter 3.

Have a wonderful day!