Things went as expected after that. Both of our families were accommodating with the condition we were in, and allowed us to move around easier. After a good night's sleep, morning came. As usual, Emily woke up before me. She even went as far as to wake me up…

By pushing me off the bed right in front of the eyes of my parents. My parents already knew and believed about our condition, so what she did was entirely unnecessary. Her actions did cause me to be wide awake, so I guess it had its merits, although I would prefer not to be woken up that way ever again. We went through our morning preparations and had breakfast together. Everything went back to normal, as if last night didn’t exist. 

Then again, it wasn’t like we actually discussed anything important last night. I decided that there was nothing to be thought of. I put all of last night's events into a folder I called ‘filler’, a place for events where nothing happened and things that existed without a reason, and forget about it. I focused my mind on getting through today. I need to last till the afternoon, until we see Emily off. 

“Good to go?”

Me and my family didn’t have much stuff when we stayed in the hotel. My parents just arrived yesterday, and I myself didn’t carry much, so we spent far less time packing. The same couldn’t be said for Emily. I asked to make sure that she didn’t leave anything. 

“Nope. Everything’s good to go.”

She said as she carried a bag. I went to her and took the bag from her. 

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

I brought the bag to Emily’s family car. Emily’s father assisted me in loading it into the trunk. We headed out to have a little outing, along with Olivia’s husband and his family. 

It soon came time to head back. I parted ways with my family and tagged along with Emily’s for a ride to the airport. 

While they were having their emotional parting moment, I just stood there, knowing well that I would see her again, as in, right after this. After some exchange of words, Emily waved to us, her suitcase in her hand, and went inside. It would be weird if we started talking in public, so I messaged her on Fine after she disappeared and reappeared beside me.

We waited for her flight to depart before leaving the airport. Emily’s family invited me to pick up a snack, so I went with them. As I was eating my burger, I felt a tap on my shoulder that came from Emily. 

“I’m boarding.”

She whispered. Since no one other than her family was close to me, I replied with my voice. 

“Stay safe.”

I let out a little prayer in my heart for her protection. She smiled and boarded the plane. I saw her foot move as she went higher up the staircase. From my view, she wasn’t getting any higher. Her feet floated in the air before going back down, making it look like she was pretending to climb. She held onto her belt bag as she moved, her hands no longer holding her suitcase. She made her way to her seat and sat down. 

Upon finishing our meal, we made our way back to the terminal. The domestic terminal had a waving gallery, a place above the terminal where we had a limited view of flight operations. We saw Emily’s aircraft. The second it came into view, Emily disappeared from beside me, meaning that she could see me from her seat. The plane’s door was closed and it was pushed back out of the terminal. Emily had turned on the flight mode from her phone, so my recent Fine message didn’t go through. We waved toward her, hoping that she could see us. She may be too far for us to see her, though. Despite that, I felt sure that she was looking our way. The plane’s rear turned to face us, and the engines were turned on. 

A loud humm filled the previously not-so-silent air. The rear parts of the aircraft’s wings moved down, and the ground crews waved. The plane then started moving away from the terminal. 

“I see you guys.”

I heard Emily’s whisper. I looked to my rear, finding her back near me. She sat in her seat, leaning her head toward the window, her right hand covering her mouth.

“Well, I mean before.”

“Won’t the person beside you feel suspicious?”

“Probably, but it’s fine. The middle seat is empty.”

“I see.”

Emily’s family looked toward me, noticing me speaking with their child.

“Sure is nice being stuck together.”

Emily’s mother nonchalantly said. I couldn’t agree with her, not wholeheartedly at least. 

“It got its perks.”

I said. Saying that it was purely bad wasn’t true, either. I brought my phone out and opened the flight tracking app I installed. It showed her plane moving toward the end of the runway, lining up behind other planes. The sun sets behind us, painting the skies in a yellowish glow, with white fluffy clouds in the distance, floating freely above the horizon. We watched as one by one, airplanes departed toward the afternoon sky. 

Eventually, it was Emily’s turn. Her jet lined up on the runway. We couldn’t see her plane as it was blocked by a cargo terminal, so we set our sights on the exposed runway section before us. Within a few seconds, Emily’s plane roared its way down the runway, leaving a loud sound as it took to the skies, disappearing from our sights. 

“Safe flight.”

I whispered to Emily who was seated beside me. 

“Thank you.”

 

Despite all the parting and goodbyes that came with Emily’s return to Surabaya, for me, nothing changed. I returned to my apartment, and once I set myself down on the bed, I found Emily seated beside me. I checked the tracking app, finding Emily on the final approach. I looked toward her, realizing that she had been sleeping. I decided to wait another minute or two before waking her up. 

Not having anything else to do, I watched as the aircraft slowly lost altitude and airspeed. It entered a line, lining up behind some other planes for its turn to touch the ground. Three minutes passed. With the plane entering the final approach, I stood up and approached Emily. I shook her slowly so that the people around her didn’t feel suspicious. 

“Hmmm…?”

“Emily, wake up.”

“Huh… yeah…”

Her eyelids flapped open and close. She rubbed her eyes. She looked at me, her eyes slightly watery. Her eyelids opened and closed again, her vision getting clearer. 

“Thanks.”

She muttered before preparing for landing. I smiled and moved behind her. I continued watching her flight from the flight tracking app. It made me feel like I was traveling beside her. Of course, I knew that it couldn’t be further from the truth. Several hundred kilometers separate us, but with how she was visible in front of me, it felt like those hundred of kilometers meant nothing.

Emily gazed out the window, probably looking at the ground that got closer and closer. I continued watching the tracker from my room. The calibrated altitude number hits zero feet. I didn’t know what that meant, but based on how Emily shook, I assumed it meant the plane had touched down safely. I let out a breath of relief and exited the application. I lay down on my bed and kept myself busy. 

The journey hadn’t ended for Emily, after all. She still needed to get back to her apartment, so I tried my best to not be in her way. 

 

“Home sweet home!”

Emily leaped into the bed, not seemingly noticing me who had been laying on it the entire time. I dodged her, throwing myself to the ground. 

“Whew… I missed this.”

“Isn’t your home in Jakarta?”

I asked as I got off the floor. 

“Well, this place is as comfortable as my own room so…”

Emily got up and sat on the bed. She still wore her outside clothing. 

“I’m going to take a shower.”

“Alright.”

With that command, I lay back down, facing the other way. 

“It felt weird to be back…”

“What do you mean? Didn’t you just say that the room felt like yours?”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

I couldn’t hear the rustling of her clothes, nor could I see her, so for me, it felt like I was talking to a ghost. I had been doing this for a while now, so I wasn’t really that bothered by it. It was still weird to think about, though. 

“So?”

“I mean. It’s like… we’re supposed to be apart right now.”

“Oh, yeah.”

At this point, we were so used to being together that we often forgot the distance. I had been watching her flight, so I wasn’t as surprised, but for Emily who entered her bedroom and found me there it all probably felt weird. She didn’t seem to be interested in it any further and said nothing else. 

One year.

 It hadn’t been a month, and our lives were already so twisted, how would things be after an entire year of living together? What if we get separated again? How long before we could adjust our lives back to how it was before the entire ordeal started?

While I knew that thinking about it wouldn’t help, we still needed to get that Torii gate to reappear in the first place, my mind couldn’t help but wonder that way. Our distorted future, far from normal, what would it look like? 

The future that stands beyond us, what does it look like?

I, too, wanted to know.