Serendipity

She had time. 

Tzuyu told herself a little more than usual as she was lining up to get her bags checked at TSA. 

Her flight was boarding in four hours; she already got her suitcase checked in and she had enough leeway in case something happened. Rather be early and wait for a long time than run through the airport because she was late. 

Plus, she was used to this. Having a job that required her to travel back and forth to different countries, it made her somewhat desensitized about the horrors of traveling and airline protocols. 

This was just going to be a quick trip anyway. Her company assigned her to the branch in Osaka for about a week, saying that they needed her expertise on plans and other future endeavors for the project. 

Which was fine by her because she loved going to Japan. The weather was great, the food was great, they had beer ready for her when she needed it—

She was a bit startled when someone accidentally bumped her in the line, making her drop her passport. 

“I’m sorry,” a sweet, yet panicked voice came from behind her. Tzuyu stood up slowly as she picked her passport from the ground, eyes glued to the woman behind her. 

Beautiful brown hair that went over her shoulders, a soft face with the softest looking cheeks, eyes that sparkled when she looked up at her with a crease between her brows. And she smelled like a garden. 

“I wasn’t looking,” she spoke again, then pulled her heels up. “I lost balance while taking my heels off and I dropped my passport too.” 

For a stranger, she was pretty talkative and friendly. That made Tzuyu smile. 

“It’s okay,” she said gently. “Are you okay though?”

The woman nodded, smiling back. “Yeah, thank you.” 

Tzuyu felt a little something with that smile of hers. This woman was cute, definitely her type, and maybe too beautiful for her own good. 

But she wasn’t really one to pick up women on the go. She had no idea where this woman was going either so there wouldn’t be much use if she gave it a shot. Instead she smiled at the woman politely and went back to waiting for her turn in the line. 

Without any problems, she got through the line, raised her arms for the scanner, allowed the officer to pat her down, grabbed her shoes then her bag, went to the side to wear them. Once she was done, she couldn’t help but look back to that woman, she was still in line, waiting until she was in the clear. 

A part of Tzuyu wanted to wait for her, to see if she wanted to chat. But she realized that was a bit too forward. There could be a chance that the woman had company, maybe a boyfriend or a husband. So Tzuyu shouldn’t waste her time. 

At least she saw a pretty face today. 

Tzuyu glanced from her ticket to the signs above her. “Gate 29…” she mumbled, walking along the crowd of people as she searched for her gate. 

Once she saw the number at a distance, she walked towards it, seeing as there was too much time on her hands, she decided to take a vacant seat right in front of the gate. There weren’t a lot of people around, which was good because she could spend the rest of her time sitting down. 

She got comfortable in her seat, placed her shoulder bag by her feet on the floor and took out her phone. 

There were emails from work, a text message from her mom and a couple of messages in her friend group chat. She quickly opened the emails, read through them, replied when she understood and then texted her mother right after. 

Her friends were just talking about the next high school reunion back in Seoul, which they all didn’t want to go to because they all hated high school. Tzuyu decided to reply to that later, she honestly didn’t feel like engaging in that certain topic. 

Before she kept her phone, Shuhua’s name appeared on screen, calling her. She answered. 

“Hello?”

“What time are you arriving?” her best friend asked, straight to the point, and no greeting.

Tzuyu smirked. “Hello to you too. I’m arriving at four in the morning.” 

“Right, sixteen hours,” she grumbled. “Anyway, I’ll pick you up since Elkie plans to drink tonight.”  

“I’m not surprised,” she said, resting her arm over the other as she held up the phone, eyes wandering around to see if there were other passengers coming to her gate. “But I appreciate that, I know you love your beauty sleep.” 

Her best friend laughed. “Yeah, but that just means I love you more.”

That made Tzuyu smile and laugh along. But at the corner of her eye, she saw someone walking past and sitting down, rows away from her. She glanced up and was about to look away, but her eyes went back immediately. 

A brow raised. 

It was the woman from the TSA line. 

Shuhua was still talking about something that was starting to get drowned out, Tzuyu turned to the side and assumed that the woman was also taking the same flight as her, but she couldn’t tell. 

This woman wasn’t really the kind of person that Tzuyu could forget so easily. Especially now that she had a better look. The woman had earphones on, using her phone, and from this angle, Tzuyu could definitely say that she was really pretty. Maybe more than that. She hadn’t seen any woman look this elegant by just staring at her phone. 

She wondered if this person was in the same flight as hers? Was she also heading to Japan?

“Hey, butthead,” Shuhua called out to her. “I was asking you a question.”

Tzuyu shook her head and looked away. “Sorry,” she mumbled, clearing her throat. “What was it?”

“I was asking if you’re in First Class,” Shuhua said, unamused.

She sighed, looking at her ticket again. “I got Economy Plus. It’s not as fancy, but we still get better headphones,” she joked. “I don’t mind, as long as there are no babies crying their heads off.”

Shuhua laughed. “Right, I honestly hate that. Well, anyway, message me when you’re about to board and when the plane lands.”

“Roger dodger. Thanks again,” she said and with that, the call ended. Tzuyu kept her phone in her pocket and checked her watch.

Two more hours before boarding time. That was good enough. She could continue reading her book. Tzuyu grabbed her bag from the floor, fished out her book and opened it to the page where her bookmark was at. 

But before she could even let her mind get carried away by fiction, she took a subtle glance upwards, checking if the woman was still there. 

To her surprise, she was. And she was also reading a book—

Her brows raised. She looked at the cover of her own book and then to the woman’s. They were… reading the same book. There was no mistaking it. 

The woman caught her eyes before she could look away and that made her freeze. The woman immediately smiled at her. Then she narrowed her eyes. Then it lit up once again, pointing at her book, also noticing that they were reading the same thing. 

Cute. 

Tzuyu smiled, held her book up and suddenly didn’t know what to do with herself. She didn’t expect someone like her would be interested in books just as Like Water for Chocolate. But maybe she was just as interesting as Tzuyu thought. 

Maybe she should say hi. The book was a great conversation starter. They had something in common. Plus their little incident at TSA. They could talk about that too. Tzuyu glanced and saw that the seat next to the woman was vacant. Okay, she could totally—