(A/N:
Disclaimer: I do not own Hikaru no Go or any of these characters, although I would like to lay my grubby hands on Yongha.;))
The flight from Haneda to Incheon is a tense one. Yongha would like to disclaim all responsibility for the strained silence, but even he knows that it is completely, and irrevocably his fault.
He turns his face to the window to hide his smirk. Tae Son, his reluctant neighbor, shakes the leaves of Sports Chosun restlessly.
Il Hwan, who has, through vile means, obtained an aisle seat (the bastard) is busy being violently sick into an airbag. A queasy looking stewardess passes by their row, ignoring them completely. Yongha wistfully thinks of over-salted complimentary airline peanuts. He hates the taste of course, but noisily chewing them in Tae Son's ear is a sure-fire way of getting a reaction.
He toes his shoes off restlessly, and starts humming 'Nobody'. The Wondergirls are strangely addictive.
He wonders if Su Yong has gotten his rematch yet, and if he has won. He wonders if Su Yong and he are still friends. Things had been a little tense between them, when Su Yong had come to see them off at Haneda.
"I'm staying back for a day," Su Yong says, with hard eyes and a determination that overrides any objections.
"What will you do?" Yongha asks, although he hardly needs to; It is written there in Su Yong's eyes, and the tilt of his mouth and the way it forms an obstinate line whenever Shindou is the topic of conversation.
Shindou Shindou Shindou. Yongha isn't going over their game in his mind, as he peers through the reinforced glass of the window, but he isn't not thinking about it either.
He is thinking about desperate hands and very dark eyes and Shusaku.
"Shindou owes me a game." Su Yong says, and there is a sudden flash in his eyes. It is something like defiance, and something like a challenge; one that Yongha doesn't respond to.
Instead he looks at the sign for a coffeeshop above Su Yong's head and says, "Your Meijin league match is coming up."
Su Yong's shoulders relax, and he says "Yes…yes, I know."
It feels a little absurd to be saying goodbye to someone Yongha will be seeing enough and more of in a few days, and he has never been a fan of kdrama goodbyes anyway, so he turns away.
Su Yong, at least, is not bored to tears in a shitty airplane with no room to stretch his legs. Yongha is sure of this, in the same way that he is sure that Shindou and Su Yong are almost friends, and in the same way he knows that the next time he plays Shindou, he, Yongha, will lose.
Il Hwan groans into his third paper bag, and Tae Son cringes.
"Isn't there some kind of medication for this?" He asks Yongha in a whisper. The smell is clearly getting to him.
"Good God," Yongha replies, bored, "Give the moron some Ambien. He'll be out like a light for the next few hours."
Tae Son's face falls in a way that is almost comical.
"Only you, Yongha. Only you would suggest drugging your teammate to help him with his motion-sickness."
Yongha considers telling him that he wasn't really thinking about Il Hwan's wellbeing as much as he was about his own, but refrains.
"One hour and twenty five minutes to Incheon International Airport," a musical voice offers helpfully.
Yongha sighs. He is almost done with 'Nobody'. The next will be 'Tell Me' and after that will be 'Love Letter', because he's run out of Wondergirls songs, and he really has a soft spot for BoA anyway.
Il Hwan groans into his fourth paper bag.