Schadenfreude
By Autumn Win-Dow
(AoGA House Cup. Words: 554)
Koko was seated at the very back of the plane, as the only occupant in his row. With his headphones on, he blankly watched the action movie playing in the inbuilt screen in front of him while munching on some peanuts. He remained indifferent to the slight turbulence of the plane, as he was silently cheering for the protagonist, engaging in a suspenseful final fight with the terror-inducing bad guy.
"Sir, what would you like?"
Immensely drawn in by the antagonist's grip hold of the main character's neck, his chewing slowed, and he started to unconsciously lean forward, closer to the screen.
"Excuse me, sir?"
His hold on his packet of peanuts tightened as the two characters exchanged words of hate, before the protagonist turned the tables in the bloody battle.
"I'm talking to you, so answer!"
The sound of a woman's enraged screech jerked him out of the suspense of the movie, and he turned to meet the eyes of a green haired flight attendant.
An annoyed green haired flight attendant.
A beautiful and annoyed green haired flight attendant.
If he told himself that his heart didn't skip a beat from the sight of her, he would be lying to himself.
Koko immediately pulled off his earphones and replied, "…Yes?"
The woman clicked her tongue in irritation before sighing, and placing her hands on her hips.
"Hey, wait a moment." Koko drawled, slightly offended by her rude reaction. "What's with the attitude?"
"You're the one too drawn into your action movie that you've lost complete sense of your surroundings." She retorted as she glared down at him.
"I'm sorry, but don't you think it's rude to mistreat a passenger…" He took the opportunity to glance at her name tag. "…Sumire?"
"Who gave you permission to call me by my first name?!" Sumire hissed, but despite that Koko was amused by the whole ordeal.
He never knew that he was such a sadist. Koko considered it as a funny case of airborne Schadenfreude.
"Well… your nametag, for one. What other purpose does it serve than to tell us passengers your name?"
She lifted up a finger in order to lecture him, but was immediately stopped by another flight attendant – a shorter brunette with a glass of orange juice in her hand.
"Permy, calm down! You might wake up the other passengers!" She warned Sumire, unaware that many of the passengers were already awake and irritated from her yelling.
Sumire noticed the interruptions she had unintentionally caused, and her expression immediately changed from irritated to regretful. She turned on her heel to face the passengers seated in economy class, and she made a ninety degree bow.
"I'm sorry for the disturbance. It won't happen again." She promised, with her head down.
Koko couldn't help but snicker at her misfortune. He happened to find her embarrassment amusing to witness, even when he had just met her on the same day.
After the passengers started to focus their attention on things and people other than Sumire, she immediately stood up straight and sent a glower at Koko, as she flipped a curly strand of hair over a shoulder.
"…so Permy is your nickname?"
Koko was in such a good mood that he didn't report the fact that a flight attendant had hit him in the head.
A/N: This is just a random drabble collection of airplane encounters. Ugh, it's really incoherent.