Disappointment melts onto his features, as he had became conscious of his lacking of a camera. Many times has it crossed his mind, popping up to remind him to purchase one for his own possession, but either money was not in his side, or he had forgotten due to becoming distracted of some other object. Beautifully detailed architecture flashed in front of them, to not capture it at the moment, would be a waste of sight. He’s in Haneda Airport— Japan, for crying out loud! He envies the partner whose flashes and clicks filled their atmosphere, and soon realizes his possession of a phone now. Slipping his hand on his pocket, he grabs his cellphone, and captured pictures from there. Not fully contented, but it was something, and the quality of modern phones were nothing to be laughed at. Caught off guard by the sudden tug of the male, he is abruptly pulled into a picture. A confused expression greets the already prepared male as he shifts his gaze to him, and the idea of smiling or posing for a photo eventually sinks into his mind. An epiphany separates his lips, and soon flashes the quickest smile he could form at that very second for the camera. Awkward it sure was, but he tried. Flash!
After their luggage was kindly grabbed by the older, the two soon maneuver their way out the airport, photos still being busily taken in the midst of it by the runaway, but legs still moving. Feet soon stand at the side of the road, just a few feet outside the exit of the airport. There he watches people call for a mode of transportation; may it be a taxi or a bus. He assumed a taxi would be the most preferable in their case, and calls for one, placing their baggage in the trunk, inside they go in the vehicle. In a rather pressured state, his hands dig in his backpack to find the piece of paper they printed out as a reservation evidence for the hotel, and shows it to the driver. Words not being able to process easily in his mouth, he is only left pointing at the name typed on the paper, before being able to blurt out a mixture of English and Japanese, 「 あの。。。ホテル で — take us… drive…. ドライブ を 。。。ください。 」( Uhh… Drive us to the hotel… please ) The driver takes a second to let the young boy’s directions be absorbed in his mind, before becoming familiar with the hotel name, and soon driving off, leaving Daehyun in relief as he sinks back in his seat. His heart pretty much about to burst out his chest in nervousness. Occupied by the scenery outside the window, he endlessly captures photos on his phone, occasionally nudging the other to share what he had seen in his side of the view, and before they knew it, they had arrived.
Unfortunately, Maxim didn’t get to study useful Japanese phrases before the trip since he’s too busy burying his head in several textbooks for school. He wanted to be somewhat prepared to communicate with residents so he packed with him a Japanese-English dictionary that he got from his father a while ago. A “useful souvenir” was what his father called it as he tried to cheer up the youngin’ that expected figurines or just a plain t-shirt from Japan. That didn’t matter anymore. It was his turn to go crazy and spend his money on whatever catches his eys in the many shops of Tokyo. Hearing the broken Japanese coming from his left, he whips his head with an amused expression etched across his face. It wasn’t that he was making fun of his partner in his head or anything like that-- okay, maybe a little bit. It was fun to see that not only he will struggle with the language barrier. If spewing a few words here and there will get them somewhere or something, then they’ll spit some incorrect sentences all day.
There wasn’t a single person in the world that didn’t know how to say thank you or was familiar with ‘arigatou’, but it was informal and the last thing Maxim wanted was to offend a stranger. With his handy dandy dictionary in his grasp, he hastily flips through the many pages before scanning down the list of words, only to find the most formal thank you. 「 大変ありがとうございました。」 ( Many thanks. ) It sounded a bit odd to him, but it was enough for him to showcase his gratitude to the taxi driver after paying up. The sound of the wheels of their suitcases dragging along the ground echoed from behind as they made way to the check-in desk. He thought to himself that it would be very helpful that the hotel would be in English also like their website, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. “Aye, I hope you know your numbers because I don’t.Then again, we can all resort to our fingers to communicate what room we’re in.”