October 5th, 2002, Chicago, USA

 

Emma Park was looking through her bedroom window, completely lost in her thoughts, softly humming some song stuck in her head. Her chubby cheek was leaned on her hand. With her other hand she tried to keep her, usually short, bangs from her eyes.

 Emma loved autumn. She loved how Mother Nature would color the leaves yellow, brown and red, before she froze them in winter. She loved warm clothes and the light wind that would blow every day in that time of the year. Even though she, most of the time, had a boy-cut, she would close her eyes and imagine she was Rapunzel, whose hair would be flying in every direction. And the rain. Rarely anyone loved rain, considering it boring and bringing their mood down. For Emma, it was the opposite. She saw a certain glamor in the way the drops were tapping at her window and that calming sound of a shower. Also the rainbows that came after. How could someone not love rainbows?  

October was also the month she was born in. In two days was Emma’s 8th birthday. Her mom tried to persuade her to invite her school friends, like she did every year. But since Jongin told her the news, she wasn’t in the mood anymore.
 

“Come on, Emma, I’ll make you a cake and if the weather plays along, we can make a garden-party”, suggested Lily Park to her daughter a few days earlier.
 “Thanks mom, but I don’t want to celebrate this year. Not without Nini.”
Lily didn’t know what to say to that.

That day, Emma couldn’t enjoy the beauties of autumn. With discomfort, she tried to imagine that that day, the 5th of October, would never come, that time would stop and that her best friend would stay with her forever.

But it arrived, bringing along the sadness. It was the day of Jongin’s moving. Not to another neighborhood or city. He was going to another country, on another continent. Korea, the country their fat