RSL Ch 71

The next morning, after seeing off Han Jae-yi who left early for work, I headed to the fitness center. I hadn’t been able to go properly for a while to avoid Co-pilot Cho Min-woo, but now that I felt there was no need to do so anymore, I swam laps in the pool for the first time in a long time.

Although I spent over two hours there, fortunately, I didn’t run into him. Even on the plane returning to Incheon Airport yesterday, we had a comfortable conversation, so I felt that even if we did meet, we could greet each other comfortably. And that prediction came true with an unexpected encounter at the evening drinking appointment.

“Ah, Co-pilot, you’re a member here too.”

I greeted Co-pilot Cho Min-woo first as he was pulling out a chair at the table, greeting company people familiarly. Well, he had so many social clubs outside of work that you couldn’t count them on one hand. Come to think of it, it was more strange that I didn’t think of him when I heard that co-pilots sometimes attend these gatherings.

“I’m actually a founding member here, haha. I heard a rumor that the Captain was coming, so I decided to drop by after a long time. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come.”

“Wow, Co-pilot, I’m so disappointed! Last time you ignored my messages without saying anything. Anyway, what would you like to drink? Soju? Beer? Or mix them?”

“Should we mix after such a long time?”

“As expected of our Co-pilot! Excuse me, can we have one more beer glass and soju glass here?”

The table was set, saying that everyone who was coming had arrived. There were a total of 8 participants: 4 from the cabin crew including Flight Attendant Choi So-young, 2 from the ground crew team, and Co-pilot Cho Min-woo and myself.

With bubbling potato soup in front of us, two glasses were passed around to each person. I had thought deeply about Koreans’ habit of mixing drinks before, and the conclusion I came to was that it was “for fun”. At first, I considered reasons like “to get drunk faster” or “because beer is too expensive”, but whatever the original purpose was, it’s clear that nowadays it’s just “for fun”.

“Oh, I agree. It seems like it’s more about enjoying the ‘drinking atmosphere’ rather than savoring the taste of alcohol. Mixing drinks is fun.”

“And there’s nothing like bomb shots to help someone who’s sitting too formally to keep up with the pace. In that sense, Captain, what are you doing? Empty your glass.”

Flight Attendant Choi So-young, who had been carefully watching my still full glass after the first toast, clinked glasses with me again.

“Ah, um… I’ll drink slowly.”

“The Captain has a low alcohol tolerance.”

Co-pilot Cho Min-woo chimed in from across the table, seemingly feeling sorry for me. At those words, she opened her eyes wide and said it didn’t seem that way at all, finding it amusing.

“You can’t handle alcohol well? Oh, should I be your black knight then?”

“Pardon?”

When I asked what that meant, she said it’s when someone drinks on behalf of someone who can’t handle alcohol well. I firmly waved my hand, saying it was okay. I quickly emptied my glass, feeling a severe internal turmoil. She grinned and poured soju into my empty glass, then added beer. Suddenly, Flight Attendant Choi So-young’s impression was changing 180 degrees.

“Ta-da! I’ve specially mixed it light for you!”

I pondered for a moment, looking at the bomb shot that had been quickly remade. My alcohol tolerance is about half a bottle of soju, but I didn’t know how it would be when mixed. I quickly took out my phone and sent a message to Han Jae-yi with the address of this place, adding:

[If you don’t hear from me after 10 PM, please come pick me up right away.]

Unlike yesterday, a reply came immediately.

[I was going to tell you not to drink too much, but it seems like that’s not the atmosphere. Don’t worry, I’ll come pick you up. Enjoy yourself.]

I found myself smiling at my phone without realizing it. It’s funny how those words made me feel much more at ease than before. Maybe because I now had someone to rely on, I decided to enjoy the drinking party with a bit more confidence.

The average age of the gathered members ranged from late twenties to mid-thirties. The topics of conversation were mostly company gossip, industry talk, and stories about difficult customers. Stories that people like me, who don’t directly clash with passengers, wouldn’t know poured out like urban legends.

“I went to Hong Kong the day before yesterday, and there was this business class passenger who complained so much about not getting an egg in their ramen. Saying things like, ‘I’m in business class, can’t you even do this much?’ Haha. If they knew it was actually packet ramen, they would have been furious.”

“Ah, that’s not even a difficult customer. Isn’t that kind of thing common? Last week when I was doing an Osaka turnaround, there was this group of passengers who wouldn’t let us close the door, saying their party members hadn’t boarded yet and we couldn’t depart.”

“Oh my, did you take out their luggage? They didn’t come even after the announcements?”

“Fortunately, they didn’t have any checked baggage. So even though the purser was trying to persuade them that we had to leave because other passengers were being delayed, this member of the group kept getting angry. Saying, ‘We paid for this, how can you not let us board?’ So the captain got fed up and told them all to get off.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I listened to her story. As a captain, it’s a moment of intense internal conflict.

If everything isn’t ready 10 minutes before departure, you lose your takeoff priority. But due to the risk of terrorism, you can’t carry luggage of passengers who haven’t boarded. In this situation, you have to choose whether it’s faster to wait for the missing passengers or to remove their luggage and depart. The result is different every time.

“It seemed like those people were trying to take advantage. They probably knew we’d wait because it takes longer to remove the luggage than for them to arrive late. But even so, the captain said to just remove the luggage and told them all to get off. Then the rest of the passengers all applauded. They said it was so satisfying and that it was well done even if it meant a slight delay.”

“Well, these days passengers dislike it more, calling it inconsiderate behavior that inconveniences others.”

While their chatter continued, the bomb shot mixing slowed down. With so many people, it was impossible for everyone to focus on a single topic, so Co-pilot Cho Min-woo and I naturally started a different conversation.

Starting from the story of Boeing suffering about $9 billion in losses due to the production halt of the B737 Max after repeated crash incidents, to the stock price plunge of Airbus due to slowing performance. Just as we were getting heated about the unsettling industry stories, Flight Attendant Choi So-young butted in between us.

“Ah, you two can’t keep having your own private conversation. Let’s all have fun together. Captain, haven’t you had any difficult passengers? Europeans are generally more well-behaved, right?”

Hmm… Rather than well-behaved, there are actually a lot of dangerous people.

“When I was a co-pilot, there was a flight from Milan to Berlin, and we had a terrorist on board.”

“Oh my! What a story, is that true?”

At those words, even the others who were in their own conversations turned with wide eyes and started to listen to my story.

“Just 10 minutes after takeoff, we received an emergency call from the company. They said they had received a terror threat and told us to return to the nearest airport without letting the passengers notice. We hurriedly declared an emergency and tried to turn towards Switzerland, but Zurich tower wouldn’t give us approach clearance.”

“That’s unusual. Was it because they’re a neutral country?”

“Well, I’m not sure, but I think that might have been why. They weren’t an EU member either, so they probably didn’t want to deal with the aftermath.”

“So what happened? Wow, the scale of this episode is really different.”

By now, everyone was focused on my words with sparkling eyes.

“In the end, we made an emergency landing in Munich, and the suspect was immediately arrested at the airport. It turned out that one of the company’s crew members was an accomplice. Both were Islamic fundamentalists and German nationals. The captain had ordered to keep the return a secret until just before landing, so we didn’t even inform the cabin crew. If we had shared the information in advance, he might have tried to enter the cockpit, and we, unaware that he was an accomplice, would have opened the door without any suspicion.”

“Wow… that’s scary. A real hijacking could have happened.”

“Fortunately, it didn’t.”

I finished lightly with a slight smile. The people who had been listening to my story with wide eyes, as if watching a TV news report, each voiced their thoughts.

Although I delivered it as plainly as possible, it was actually quite a significant incident. After that, the company conducted interviews with all flight staff and background checks on anyone even slightly suspicious. So, in a sense, passengers asking for eggs in their ramen are quite cute in comparison.

“Captain, let’s have a drink to commemorate your safe escape from the threat of terrorism.”

“Ah…”

Flight Attendant Choi So-young offered me another drink with a solemn expression. I couldn’t refuse and had to drink another glass. I felt the alcohol hitting me hard.

Suddenly, someone came up beside me and started ranting about the Islamic ideology they had studied in college. They were already drunk, and my story seemed to have just ignited their fire.

I wasn’t particularly interested in terrorism, nor did I have strong opinions on this social issue, so it was quite uncomfortable to listen. As a result, I emptied my glass without much thought, causing me to get drunk faster than expected.

From then on, there were sporadic gaps in my memory over the next hour or so. The people who had been engaged in focused conversation were now scattered in individual battles, forming pairs and continuing slow conversations. The member who had been vehemently condemning terrorists next to me had collapsed alone on the table, overcome by alcohol.

When I came to my senses again, Co-pilot Cho Min-woo was handing me water and supporting my shoulder. The time was around 10:30 PM, and my memory cut off again after I got up saying I was going to the bathroom for a moment.

The film of time started to connect again when I heard the sound of a radio. I opened my eyes to the familiar smell of car air freshener and found myself sitting in the passenger seat of my car. Next to me, Han Jae-yi was driving silently in his suit.

“…Sorry. I must have fallen asleep.”

I was surprised by my own hoarse voice. Han Jae-yi turned down the radio volume and glanced at me.

“Is your stomach okay? I bought some things you might need in the back seat, so drink some water at least.”

Looking back, I saw hangover relief drinks, water, and milk in a convenience store bag. I held my forehead with both hands, trying to recall my memories. It didn’t seem like that much time had passed…

“Did I make any mistakes?”

Han Jae-yi laughed with a deflated sound.

“Mistakes? How could you make mistakes? You’re the one who predicts when you’ll black out, sets a deadline, and sends the address. You’re amazing, Woo Seo-jin.”

Strange. Han Jae-yi said I didn’t make any mistakes, but there was a subtle edge to his words. His expression was smiling, but he seemed angry somehow. I took out a hangover relief drink from the ones he had bought and gulped it down.

I seemed to need to gather my thoughts. The uneasy feeling I had was long-standing.

“Are you angry?”

“Angry? Do I have any reason to be angry?”

This confirmed it. Han Jae-yi was in a very angry state. Surely, the reason couldn’t just be because I got drunk and blacked out. Even when we were friends, he had often taken care of me and brought me home when I was too drunk to function.

Then the cause could only be one thing… But could he really be this twisted over such a trivial reason?

“Are you angry because Co-pilot Cho Min-woo was there?”

At my words, he shifted his gaze from the front to look at me again.

“Why are you specifically naming that person? You said he’s just a colleague. There were many other people there too.”

“Because you dislike Co-pilot Cho Min-woo.”

“What does it matter if I dislike him? You don’t care about such things, do you?”

At that moment, I felt something snap inside me. Patience. And self-control. Han Jae-yi was provoking me. Not openly getting angry or arguing, but gently scratching at a corner, twisting his words as if to see how long I could endure. My head started to hurt.

“How many times do I have to say he’s just a colleague? We have the same licensed aircraft type, so we have to fly together at least once a month. And he’s not a bad person. It wasn’t just the two of us meeting, so why do you keep saying you dislike him for no reason? How am I supposed to manage my work life?”

“Who said anything? Why are you getting so worked up? Just sleep. I’ll wake you when we arrive.”

Han Jae-yi turned up the radio volume as if he didn’t want to hear anymore. I also turned my gaze to the window. I couldn’t sleep due to my perplexed and agitated state of mind. I rested my arm on the door trim and looked out the window, then saw my reflection in the side mirror. I was a mess.

At first, I could understand his antipathy towards Co-pilot Cho Min-woo. I thought he might feel bad. When he was unaware of his feelings for me and just grumbled to himself about how annoying that person was, I was even a little happy. But Han Jae-yi’s attitude today was disrespectful.

Trying to recall, Co-pilot Cho Min-woo hadn’t made any mistakes towards me. One of the vague memories that came to mind was him making excuses to the others and helping me out of the restaurant. If being kind is wrong, then maybe it could be wrong.

Han Jae-yi focused on driving in silence the whole time. Finally, the car smoothly slid into the villa parking lot from the alley and quietly stopped. He immediately turned off the engine, got out of the car, and opened the passenger door. He supported me up to the villa and then turned his back again in front of the entrance door.

“Where are you going?”

“Go inside. I’m going to get some fresh air.”

“Hah… Why are you really acting like this? Why are you so concerned about someone who’s supposedly nothing to you?”