"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty." 

Aera blinked her eyes open, swatting Sunghoon's hand away. "Stop poking me," she complained. 

"We have to get off," Sunghoon said, poking her shoulder again. "Everyone else is leaving. Come on!" he insisted, grabbing her arm and pulling her up. 

She sighed, rubbing at her eyes. It had been such a long trip. Movies followed by food followed by naps and then do it all over again. 

But they were here. 

Excitement coursed through her. 

She was here. Actually in Australia. Her first time abroad. 

Her last bit of sleepiness lifted and she followed Sunghoon off of the plane. Still kind of in a daze, she wordlessly followed him around as they found their luggage and exited, finding a driver waiting for them already, courtesy of Mrs.Lee. 

When she got into the car she turned on her phone, and a second later it rang, as if on cue. She smiled, seeing K's name pop up on the screen, and excitedly picked up. 

"You got there safely?" he asked as soon as she picked up. 

"Yep, we're both heading to the hotel now." 

"Both?" 

Aera shot a sideways glance at Sunghoon. Clearly he hadn't told anyone he was leaving either. 

"Sunghoon's here with me," she explained. "The Chairwoman sent him too." 

K was silent for a moment. Then he sighed, and she could just imagine his face in that moment. Worried and confused. "Okay. Call Heeseung when you have a chance, huh? He's going crazy right now. He left the company hours ago and went to who knows where."

"I'll call him when I get to the hotel," she assured him. 

"Sunoo here wants to talk to you," K said. 

"Okay-" 

"Aera, how could you leave without telling me?" Sunoo whined from over the phone. "You have to tutor me, remember?" 

Oh gosh. She'd totally forgotten, with everything going on. 

"I can still tutor you," she told him. "We can FaceTime, right? Is that okay?"

"Okay!" he said brightly, and she smiled, picturing his happy face. "Can our first tutoring session be... tomorrow? Since you're probably all tired and jet lagged today." 

Aera suspected she'd still be tired and jet lagged tomorrow, but whatever. "Of course," she told him. "That sounds perfect," she said, looking out the window of the car and watching as they neared the hotel. "I have to go," she said sadly. "You two go practice. Don't slack off just because I'm not there," she said playfully. 

"We won't," Sunoo assured her, laughing. "Bye!" 

Aera and Sunghoon both exited the car, and after grabbing their bags from the trunk they walked in together to the lobby, finding their keys from the front desk and heading to their respective rooms, which were right next to each other. 

"What are you going to do?" Sunghoon asked her as she opened the door to her hotel room. "You want to go out and explore or something?" 

She shook her head. "Maybe tomorrow? I want to unpack and rest." 

He nodded, "okay. Let's go sightseeing tomorrow then, maybe after work?" 

"Sounds like a plan," she told him, trying to sound happy. Hopefully it worked. 

When she got into her room though, her smile faded. 

Gosh, it was getting hard. Having to be strong and put on a smile for everyone... when inside she was screaming and crying. It was terrible. 

But she'd get through it. She knew she could.