Time After Time

Rose Lette knew she didn’t get enough sleep last night, but she thought she could sleep in the plane, anyway—even though she had no idea how sleeping in the plane would feel like. Maybe she wouldn’t be able sleep there, but she didn’t care. She had took her last bath before leaving and currently watching her reflection on the long, body-length mirror on her room. She wore her simple, light grey shirt with collar, dark blue jeans, and her lightest leather boots. She reckoned she would wear put on a layer of plaid shirt and jacket or coat later when she arrived in Heathrow since it would be cold there. Couldn’t contain her joy, she squealed and jumped up and down in front of the mirror.

In less than twenty-four hours, she would in England.

England! The England.

She stopped jumping like an idiot and then stared at her reflection once again. This ordinary, plain red-haired girl with big green eyes and freckles on her face was going to be in England in less than a day. Squealed once again, Rose would continue jumping up and down not only if her phone wasn’t ringing because Gustav called.

“I’m ready. Let’s gooo!” she shouted excitedly while dragging her trunk to the door.

The flight was on ten in the afternoon, so they decided to leave early and have their breakfast on the airport. They were leaving in two cars; Rose’s, who would be brought back Gabriella later, and Dan’s. Rose was with Gustav and John in Dan’s car, where Dan was driving, while Gabriella was driving Fraser, Si, and Ben. Knowing how Gabriella was, Rose was sure that she was going to ask them tons of questions for the one and a half distance to Sydney.

When they entered Sydney in the end of Princess Highway, Gustav turned to Rose and asked.

“Would Michael be there to see us leave?”

To which Rose responded, “Um…”



Michael came personally to Rose’s house three days before the departure. The first thing he said when Rose opened the door for him was, “I’m going to have perform a surgery late this afternoon, but I’m ready—so do let me in because I’m going to miss you.” Rose smiled and huffed then she let him in. She always had this feeling where somehow Michael was lingered for her for reasons she didn’t yet understand, but she knew that it wasn’t good for both of them.

Strangely, she got to understand the reason that day.

Michael was staring at the painting he gave Rose months ago near the kitchen when Rose called him because the tea was ready. He stared at her and smirking—or maybe smiling, she didn’t know, “Do you know that this painting cost at least fifteen thousand dollars?”

Rose laughed because she thought Michael was joking.

But he wasn’t.

She got a little angry after that.

Michael kept his smirk, though.

“You hang it here. You like it,” he said matter-of-factly as he was helping himself for tea. They were sitting facing each other in different couch with coffee table among them.

Rose pouted, “It looks nice, okay? I didn’t know you spent so much on that. Take it back, please?” She sighed, “The colours…they’re nice. Very nice. But I didn’t think that it would be…expensive.” She sighed again and Michael smirked.

“We actually met the painter on the party at The Rocks—of course, I told him to keep the fact that I bought his painting from you,” Michael continued as if there was nothing wrong.

Rose was still pouting.

“Do you remember him? The guy with silver-framed glasses, military haircut, Armani suit—the one who kept asking for more Hatten Wine sparkling wine?” he raised his eyebrows.

Rose sighed but she nodded, “The Bali wine. I remember that part because he offered us some and it does tasted brilliant.”

Michael chuckled, “Good times, good times.” He finished his tea and then sat straight, staring at her, eyebrows furrowed. “You know…I don’t know anymore how to make you like me. You’re happier with who you are now and I guess we are too different in that department. You despise Sydney as a place for living. Even me…I’ll never be good enough for you. I guess the reason why I just couldn’t let you go is because…I don’t know…maybe because you’re with Gustav Wood now?”

Rose wasn’t sure how to react to that.

“I mean, he’s…” Michael groaned and rest his back on the couch he was sitting at. “He’s okay, of course. I guess he has his own charm—but you just never strike me as the type of woman who would be with him—with that kind of person...I mean, rock star? Really?”

Rose shrugged, “Have you ever think that I see someone because of their personality, not their occupation or anything that somehow attached to their identity?”

Michael went silent.

And he laughed loudly afterward. He didn’t look like himself when he laughs like that, but Rose didn’t interrupt. If there was a side of Michael Jones-Andretti she couldn’t relate with, it was this side. Michael was the kind of grown up who see the world as bitter, sceptical place. What important were status, job, income, and all that stuffs. Maybe that was why he always tried to please Rose with money and party—because that was his idea of happiness. At the same time, Rose felt like Michael had never stopped hoping that one day someone would see him past his job and status and see him as who truly are—which was probably why he fell for Rose, the girl who could care less about what he thought important but despised at the same time.

Michael made a stern face when he done with laughing and said, “I will personally fly to England to stab him with surgeon knife if he ever hurt you.” And he left just like that. Rose was after him, unsure whether he was joking or not—again, tugging his arm so that he stopped and she could ask.

“Will you be there when we leave? I mean, you organise our plane ticket, you know when our flights is…”

Michael shook his head, “Sorry, but I’ll be busy that day. I’m going to keep the surgeon knife very close to me, though.”

He smiled and really left, leaving Rose dumbfounded.



“No, Michael isn’t coming today,” Rose in the present day smiled awkwardly to Gustav who responded by raising his eyebrows and nodded. She quickly added, “He said he was busy today—you know, hospital things.” She laughed nervously but Gustav didn’t ask him further and she was pretty relieved because of that.

Rose then threw her sight out of the window. It was still the same road towards Kingsford-Smith Airport, but somehow it felt different. She was different. She was going to different place now—not to mention, the furthest place she would ever go. Now she felt like immigrant from Europe before the world war era; nobody knew where Australia was and it felt like Australia exists in the end of the world and everyone was so scared to go there. Oppositely, she was going to Europe now.

But Europe is so far away.

Suddenly, Rose was scared, even though she knew that she was really thrilled to actually go there. Gustav was going to get surgery too and everyone knows that there’s a chance of hit and miss in surgery. Michael seemed confident about the ability of the surgeon who was going to work on Gustav later, but was it really okay?

“Rose?”

“Huh?” she turned around to see that Gustav was staring at her, his expression concerned. John and Dan, who were sitting on the front seats, were looking at her as well. She quickly plastered a smile to her face and shook her head. “Oh…it’s nothing. I’m just a little…nervous, I think. I mean I never leave this country before.”

Gustav smiled and patted her head gently.

“You’re not going to be alone, so you will be just fine,” he assured her and Rose nodded, smiling back.

She just needed to trust the future like she always did anyway.



Gabriella was the most emotional one when Rose was being the first who put her trunk to be taken to the baggage. She sniffled and everything and muffled, “Oh…my little baby Rosey is a grown woman now…she’s going to England.” Young Guns were chuckling while Dan only looked at his girlfriend calmly because to him there was nothing wrong. After a while, he went to put his arm around Gabriella’s waist and calm her down.

“There, there. She would be fine—she’s going to bring you a lot of signature, isn’t she?” said Dan.

“Oh yes…yes!” Gabriella finally changed her mood and then ran to Rose to hug her.

But when she held her close enough, she whispered in a voice low enough to make Rose heard them but not the guys around them.

“Be safe, okay?” Gabriella hugged Rose a little tighter.

Rose nodded, “Of course, Gab. I’ll miss you a very lot.”

“Don’t miss me too much, though. Someone might get jealous,” Gabriella smirked and gestured to Gustav as she pulled back. Gustav made curious expression, his right eyebrow rose, questioning.

Both Rose and Gabriella were now looking at him. Gabriella was still smirking, but Rose threw him a goofy smile and an expression that says that she’d explain that later to him.

The part where Gabriella saying goodbye to Young Guns and Young Guns to Gabriella and Dan weren’t as emotional as Gabriella to Rose. Fraser patted Dan’s shoulder strongly, wishing him luck for his band. And by that, they moved to departing area, leaving Gabriella and Dan waving their hands to them- Gabriella being really enthusiastic while Dan was as calm as usual.



On the international departure area, where Kingsford-Smith Airport had tons of shops and food courts, the six people who were about to go to England felt nothing but hunger. So they ordered breakfast for six and sat on the food court, chatting loudly as they went. The guys were very excited to go home, to go back writing song, and to show Rose England- even though they mostly just nod in agreement that England, particularly its temperature and weather, wouldn’t be as good as Australia.

Swallowed her bacon, Rose raised her eyebrows, “But there would be snow, right? Like, not only in The Snow?”

“…The Snow?”

Ben and Fraser shared a confused look. John and Si were just staring at Rose, eyebrows furrowed. Gustav was the one who responded, “She means Snow Mountain- the only place with snow in Australia? Where people specifically go for skiing and do all wintery stuff in winter?”

“Ah…” everyone nodded and quickly spoke.

“Oh, there would be snow everywhere.”

“It’s very cold, though, I’m not sure whether you’d like it.”

“But we can play in the snow. Building house and snowball fight and shit…”

Rose’s face beamed with excitement.

“I’d probably be very lame in snowball fight, though,” she sighed a little, but the guys just laughed, because she wouldn’t stand a chance against them start from the size of hand, the length of arm, and other factors like how Rose never really did snowball fight before. She’d probably started by stating ‘England is too cold’, which was pretty obvious compared to place like East Coast in Australia.

They continued eating until Rose spoke again.

“Don’t worry too much about me, okay? You guys just do your thing and I can go explore London on my own or something.”

Everyone thank her and they continued their breakfast with mindless chatter and then went to wait on their gate. Rose kept staring at the planes outside their gate nervously as they sat among people who were going to be in the same plane with them. They were going to fly from Sydney to Singapore and then Singapore to London. She kept thinking about the time she was about to spend in the plane and she found it unbelievable. Suddenly, their flight was announced.

Young Guns, who were obviously used to travel around the world, shuffled from their seats and go to the boarding gate like it was nothing- but Rose could feel that her legs were about to give up on her before Gustav stood on her left side, his hand supporting her, squeezing her right shoulder gently.

“You okay?” he asked, looking down at her face that was in lower height compared to his.

Rose nodded, staring up at him.

She could feel that somehow Gustav understood that this was her first time flying- anxiety was quite normal for her situation. While the guys already stepped forward, clutching their own bags to their back, Gustav quickly kissed the top of Rose’s head and smiled.

“You’ll be fine. I’ll hold your hand the whole way if that’s going to make you feel safe.”

Rose nodded again and they proceed to the plane, holding-hand.

“But Gustav…?”

“Yeah?”

“What if you want to go to the lavatory?”

“…Do you want to come with me as well?”

Rose chuckled even though she was absolutely confused, “What does that supposed to mean?”

Gustav smirked and pulled her closer while they walk, whispering to her ear playfully, “I mean, it’s not like there’s something you haven’t seen yet.”

When Rose sat on her chair, John, who had already sat next to Fraser who was reading safety guide to kill time, looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

“Hey, Rose, your face is really red- you’re okay? You don’t have to force yourself to fly with us if you decided that you don’t like plane or something,” John threw her a concerned look.

Shaking her head, the red headed girl just staring down into her hands on her lap while Gustav chuckling as he sat next to her. He grinned at John and tilted his head, “She’s fine, really.”

John didn’t buy that, but he just shrugged it off.

It was five more minutes until the plane was going to take off.



“Well…it wasn’t so bad. It feels weird, though.”

The plane had take off and Rose, who sat next to the window, tried to peer outside but she quickly sat straight in her chair after she told him that. Gustav seemed to be overly interested in seeing her reaction, but Rose was too occupied to notice that. She leaned closer to him and whispered, “Are you sure we’re really, like, ten thousand feet above the sea surface?”

Gustav didn’t answer right away, shuffled in his chair for a moment before spoke.

“Yeah. I guess.”

“Whoa.”

He buried his mouth on his left palm, laughing to Rose’s reaction. Even boring moment like sitting on plane for a very long time could be fun this way.

“I’ve never been this high,” Rose nodded enthusiastically.

“At the risk of making pun, that is pretty factual,” Gustav chuckled and ruffled her hair.

Rose pouted but then she just grinned real big, while trying her best not to jump up and down in happiness- which actually would be hard considering she was strapped to her chair with belt.

After fifteen minutes, she leered at Gustav.

“Now what do we do?”

He knew this would coming, Rose acting like a little kid in a plane, but he just simply found it entertaining and plain funny.

“Now we sit. And wait,” he grinned to her.

“Oh, right, right. We’re going to Singapore first before London.”

“Yeah. Changi first, then Heathrow.”

“…Gustav?”

“Yeah?”

“How long it is before we reach Singapore?”

Gustav chuckled and pointed at the screen indicating the location of the plane on the map, which in a second blipped to the information of how many kilometres had passed, how many kilometres to go, how many times had passed, and how many times left before the reach destination.

“Oh,” Rose tried to smile but he knew she couldn’t hide her shock.

“England is a far away land, Rose,” he kissed her cheek but she didn’t budge.

“Well, I still want to go there,” she shrugged.

“Yeah? You want to see London and everything?”

“I want to see the place where you came from, basically,” Rose nodded. “I want to see the place where the guys came from too.” Gustav stared at her. “I also want to see the country where my mum was originally from.”

He let out an “Ah.”

Rose smiled a weary smile, “Sorry. That might sound a little depressing.”

“No, no, absolutely not. I mean, it’s normal wanting to know about our parents or where they came from,” Gustav smiled back at her, waving his hands in front of him as he talked. “I feel the same way when Young Guns were going for our early European tour. We went to Norway and I was thrilled to go there, since I’m half-Norwegian.”

Rose looked at him, her green eyes were somehow reminded Gustav that he hadn’t finish with his story just yet.

“I’m not going to say that I have great memories of my Norwegian father,” he somehow avoided staring back at her, for he was telling something he didn’t really like to talk about. “I was really young the last time I saw him and we never had good relationship. But he’s still part of me. I mean, I’m basically half-him.”

Gustav chuckled bitterly and continued.

“So we went there. It was cold, basically. I mean, England is pretty cold, but there, it was colder. It was a strangely relaxing place, though you don’t see much- I guess, there was nothing much to look at. I don’t really feel anything expect that I remembered that this a place where my father came from.”

Rose’s body has leaned toward him. “And that was it?”

“I guess that was it,” he smiled, patting her head. “I don’t know- I mean I remember him. I met him. We talked and I guess we tried to sort things out, but some things aren’t simply meant to be sort out.”

She just stared at him with wonder and twinkle at her eyes and Gustav felt bad for sort of complaining about his father. At least he was there- he knew he was there even though he wasn’t a very pleasant person.

“Sorry,” the blue-eyed man muttered.

Rose shook her head, red hair fluttering around her head.

“No. It’s okay. I understand that it’s important for you. Every person has different scale of what they think important, right? I might be sad for not having family, but there was people who are sad because their parents brought them wrong car or because they had to sell their daughter in order to continue on living.”

Gustav didn’t respond, he just stared down, trying to let Rose’s words sink in.

“A rich kid might get sad because they didn’t get their newest iPhone, but a poor mother somewhere in Southern Asia is sad because she could barely live for herself, let alone her daughter, whom she end up sold to someone else. And they are both important feeling for them, nevertheless.”

He chuckled, “But you don’t even get to know your parents at all.”

Rose just laughed, “Just like Harry Potter.”

“Say, Rose…do you miss them?”

“My parents?”

“Yeah.”

“I guess it’s more like I can’t miss them rather than I don’t. I mean,” she put her hands together on her lap. “How can you miss someone you don’t even remember?”

Gustav tried to imagine how does that feel.

“I’m pretty sure I have memories of them when I was much younger, but then I simply forget. And when I realised, I don’t remember them anymore. I don’t remember their face, I don’t remember what they do when they were with me, I don’t remember their voice…I just don’t remember them anymore.”

For some moments, the hum of plane engine filled the air in the cabin.

“Sometimes I think I remember,” she tried to being lighter, smiling and patting Gustav on the shoulder. “It always feels like dream- like hearing someone was chopping food in the kitchen and then distant sound of two voices; a woman speaking in English accent and the other one was man speaking English in a heavy accent. I’m not sure whether that actually happened or my brain makes it seems like it actually happened because I know that my mother is English and my father is Ukrainian, but I feel happy nevertheless. I like to imagine little me, sleeping in my room, while my parents were in the kitchen. The door was slightly open so I could hear them. They were talking happily. Sometimes I had the dream where they were talking about my mother’s pregnancy, that I’m going to have a brother or a sister…”

Gustav felt hypnotised for some reasons.

“But they’re gone,” Rose stared at him. “They’re gone and I’m not going to have brother or sister. So the least I can do is wanting to know what kind of country my mother was grew up in…you know.”

He just nodded and kissed her forehead.

“Mm?” Rose chuckled. “What is it?”

“That’s a really sad story, Rose,” he was now kissing her head.

“I’m sorry- this plane trip is supposed to be light-hearted and happy, isn’t it?”

Gustav laughed, “No, I mean…it’s okay. I like that story. It’s an important story. Thank you for sharing it with me.”

“Well…you’re very welcome.”



They spent the rest of flight to Singapore by watching movie, listening to songs, and mainly sleeping, that was until lunch was served. Then the watching movie-listening song-sleeping-chatting in between activity was continued. The most interesting thing happened before they landed in Changi International Airport was that they flew upon red, blazing hot Australian desert and that Rose found the plane’s bathroom surprisingly small.

“It’s even smaller than the one on Central station,” she commented and Gustav chuckled as response.

When they arrived there, Rose was still the most excited one despite the fact that she had spent the last eight and a half hours strapped to a chair in flying metal chunk.

“Welcome to Singapore,” Si announced to Rose who was hardly able to control her excitement as they walked to arrival gate. Changi was a massive airport and the architecture was surely interesting to look at. Even the smell of the air was something different for Rose.

“So many people,” was her first comment.

They proceeded to the next gate where they were going to take a flight with British Airways and Rose was always walking in front, looking at things and people. When all the guys were sitting on their chairs at the gate, Rose kept standing, watching planes outside their gate in awe.

“Druk Air, Valuair, Tigerair…” she read the name attached on the plane’s body rather loudly. “Ah! That’s our plane- British Airways!”

Everyone laughed at her comment and Fraser commented, “Sit down, Rose, the plane’s not going anywhere.”

But Rose shook her head, “We’re going to sit for the next fourteen hours, right? I want to stand and walking around in an object that doesn’t move while I still have the chance.”

Ben nodded, mumbling, “She had points” and resting the sunglasses that were on his head to his nose.

Finally, the passenger of British Airways, flight to Heathrow-London was announced and they went inside the plane, Rose throwing ‘Goodbye, Singapore!’ look outside the window all the time until they left the ground.



Not long after their flight started, Rose remembered something.

“What is it?” asked Gustav. Rose turned her head to face him and she just realized that he must had been staring at her the whole time she was daydreaming.

“Oh, it’s something funny, I guess. But maybe you don’t want to hear that,” Rose laughed awkwardly, but Gustav only glared at her until she finally muttered. “Alright, I’ll talk.”

Rose told him something about how Michael talk about knife-stabbing, that might sounded like a joke to Rose, but she was worried anyway.

“Was he serious?” Gustav groaned.

“I don’t know—I don’t think he was. He always says weird things all the time and sometimes I underestimate or simply forget that he’s…well…a real grown up men. With connection and all those stuffs? As far as I’m concern, he could get away with being angel of death or serial killer because he was a surgeon—God, I hope he isn’t actually one…” Rose mumbled nervously, mostly to herself.

“I don’t know about you, but I find him hard to read,” he shrugged, resting his back to the chair and leaning his head backward, chin tilting up towards the cabin’s ceilings.

“Yeah?” Rose stared at him.

“I think it’s simply because we’re different—different background, different occupation…but I guess I can imagine that he was saying weird things to you and you don’t know whether he was serious or joking. Let me guess…he had said things like ‘I can totally murder someone over you, Rose’ to you?”

Rose took a moment to answer and when she did, she did it almost like she was embarassed, “Well, it appears he wasn’t that difficult to read for you.”

Gustav smiled sarcastically, turning his face to stare at the redhead who sat next to him, “That part was kind of obvious and I have feeling that he meant that one.”

Rose laughed awkwardly and she couldn’t help but thinking about the surgeon knife talk she had with Michael.

“Well…we can’t just get rid of him or something,” Gustav spoke again. He looked tired as he said so and he took a long sigh. “I mean, he help us and I owe him a lot—but most of all, he’s still your friend, yeah?”

Rose nodded reluctantly, her brows furrowed.

“He’s a good person, I think. But I think you know that better than me,” he continued, slipping his left arm behind Rose’s back to tug her closer to him. She closed her eyes slowly, leaning to him and feeling his warmth, nodding in process. “I know that he’s uncomfortable with you being close to me now, but he’s a man. He knows when to step back like a gentleman.”

Rose smiled, “Do you know why I don’t think I’ve ever stop thanking him?”

Gustav pulled back so they could stare at each other’s face. “Why?” he asked.

“Because he saves you,” she replied, eyes staring straight into Gustav’s eyes. “He did all this so you can get the surgery and going back to England.”

He laughed, “That’s right. There’s that too.” The half-English man let out a long sigh and mumbled, “Well, let’s go thank him again when we have chance. But for now…just think about being in England, okay, Rose? I’ll show you everything there.”

Rose Lette was shivering with happiness.

“I really can’t wait,” she stared at him, grinning widely.

Gustav replied her grin. He then slowly placed his arm on her waist, where he tugged her closer to him once again. Rose held on to the front side of his shirt with one hand and they kissed a long, gentle, tender kiss.

When they both pulled back, Gustav pecked her lips once again and muttered, “You might consider this very late and I feel like I should’ve done this ages ago, but…would you be my girlfriend?”

Rose blinked. Their faces were only inches apart and she raised her eyebrows. She chuckled not long after that. She kissed his nose and smirked.

“Of course I would, Silly, I mean we’re—“ but her words were stopped by his lips on hers and when they both pulled back, they laughed again.

When they finally shuffled back to their chairs, sitting in proper position, Ben and Si’s face were facing at them, their eyebrows raised in playful expression, with Fraser and John staring at Gustav and Rose as well from their seats.

They blinked.

“We saw the whole thing,” Ben snickered. “Heard, too, I must add.”

“You guys are on plane cabin—did you remember that?” Si grinned. Some other passengers were chuckling in the background.

John was trying to contain his laugh by facing away and scoffing in other seat while Fraser was just shook his head and mumbling something that sounded like ‘Kids nowadays…’

Gustav looked a little shy because he did forget that they were on pretty public place. He groaned and buried his face on his right palm. But Rose just shrugged and kissed him on the cheek, grinning cheekily when he stared at her.

“I already get used to your best friends—don’t worry about that.”



After a couple of “Are we there yet?” asked by Rose who slowly get tired by just sitting for hours and hours, something that even a lot of sleep finally wore her off, they finally reached Heathrow. It was when they reached London and the sun was already setting. It would be morning in Australia but a day just ended in England. The announcement that everyone could hear in the cabin informed them that the local time was ten at night and Rose groaned but then she covered her face with her right forearm, sinking deeper in her seat, and chuckled.

“Aaaah. I’m in England. This is unbelievable. I’m in London. How much money did I just spend to fly here?”

Gustav just smiled and kissed her head.

“Come on. London is waiting outside this plane.”

She nodded and took his hand when he offered it. But then Rose smiled a different smile and Gustav went, “What?”

Walking behind him as they made their way outside the plane, Rose whispered, “You’re kind of my boyfriend now.”

“Not ‘kind of’,” he corrected and smiled wider than her.

When they stepped off the plane to the airport, Rose practically screeched at her contact with London’s winter temperature.

“It’s cold!” she whimpered even though she was already on her thickest sweater, which would be okay if she wore that in Australian winter, not English winter. Everyone laughed at her reaction and Gustav quickly grabbed her hand and they jogged a little to inside the airport, where the temperature was moderately warmer.

“Well, we better get our trunks and get home as soon as possible,” Fraser spoke while they made their to take their belongings, joining other passengers from Singapore. “So we’re going to get straight home to our place- and you, Rose, you’re going to stay at Gus’, right? I mean, now that you’re officially…going out.”

The other guys made cheering sound and Rose managed a weak smile while Gustav smiled rather confidently. One by one, their things appeared and everyone took it sideway to be put to different trolley according to whom they were going to share cab with later- in a sense where John obviously shared the trolley with his brother Fraser because they were going home to their parents first.

When all the trunks were finally disappeared, they realised that Rose’s trunk wasn’t there. Just when they were about to ask someone, a middle-aged man in uniform approached them.

“Miss…Lette?” he gestured to Rose who quickly nodded. “We’re very sorry, but it seems that we have misplaced your belongings and it would take us another twenty four hours for flying your belongings from Kingsford-Smith to Heathrow.”

Rose’s mouth was hanging open to the information.

Gustav grunted, but before he made any remark, the man quickly raised his hands and added, “We’re going to give you reimburse, to be obvious. Would you mind giving us your contact so we can let you know when your belongings have arrived and to talk further about the repay?”

Rose nodded and then looked at Gustav who nodded in return and mentioned his number and his address to the employee of British Airways.

“Thank you very much. I will be in contact.”

And by that, he walked away nervously.

Rose just laughed watching him looked like run away.

“Rose…what are you going to do, then?” Si put on a concerned face.

Fraser followed, “You do have spare clothes on the bag you carried to cabin, right?”

“Like…enough clothes?” Ben somehow threw a terrified look to both Rose and Gustav.

John just blinked with a look but everyone kind of get what he meant.

“Well, I have one set of spare clothes in my bag, but that’s basically it. There will be clothing shops open next morning, right? Until then, I will be just fine,” she grinned. “It’s okay, really. At least everyone’s things are safe. Alright, let’s go to get the taxi now.”

They shuffled from their position and walked to get what Rose would refer as ‘taxi’ but everyone else as ‘cab’. In front of the Heathrow airport, next to the place where people standing in line waiting for their turn to get into their black cabs, the guys hugged each other and they left one by one, disappeared into a black car and then into the city lights in the distance. Rose watched the street and then London at far. Everything seemed unreal to her right now. But then the cold seeped in, her sweater was failing at warding off the low temperature, and she shuddered. Gustav saw her hugging herself as respond of cold and he tugged her closer to him, heating her up with his own body heat.

“Cold?” he whispered under his breath to her, waiting for the next cab to stop in front of them, his chin was upon her head.

“A little,” Rose smiled, nuzzling her head to his chin.

“Don’t worry. I have enough warm clothes you can borrow back at my place,” Gustav kissed the top of her head and Rose just remembered that her trunk was still somewhere in Kingsford-Smith Airport. She chuckled and nodded. “Thanks.”

Their cab stopped and they scooped themselves in.