You screamed, shouted and cursed at Jung Hwan when you suddenly realised that he had touched your hair with his dirty gloves.

“Hey, you didn’t remove yours when you grip onto me either!”

You pushed him out the door. He was seemingly amused by your behaviour as there was a crooked smile hanging off his face.

“Get out and reflect on your actions! Don’t come back until you know remorse!”

You slammed the door shut after him. He probably wouldn’t think much and return home then come back again later in the night, feigning that he was sorry only that you wouldn’t be here anymore.

You had already told yourself that today was the day. It was a good time for you to go back before the attachments to Busan grow any stronger. You didn’t manage to tell Jung Hwan about his future that you knew. Why would it matter if he would just forget eventually? You decided to pack away your feelings because it was probably the only thing that you could do to protect yourself. You didn’t want to make it painful for Jung Hwan, neither did you want to make it painful for Mrs. Jang, and that could only mean one way.

“Hey, Mom,” you said as soon as you saw her face. “I’m coming home.”

She gave you a knowing smile and said in her kind voice, “We’re all waiting for you, hun.”

Truthfully, you were reluctant to go back. You didn’t want to go back. You couldn’t bear to leave. But, there were your family, and friends. They missed you terribly, too. You had actually wished that they could all migrate here, to 2008 Busan. You all could live happily together. But, you couldn’t be so selfish anymore. You had to start thinking for the others. After all, the real reason why you made the trip was to grow up.

You were in the yellow jumper that you had first arrived in. Your hair neatly pulled back into a ponytail. You took a last lingering look at the apartment before you locked the door behind you quietly.

“Goodbye,” you whispered.

You walked along the path that you had walked, and you found yourself standing in the middle of the street again where you two first met. It had only been four days yet it was strangely nostalgic. You turned into the dark alley that you hadn’t seen on your first day.

“If given another chance, I would still want to meet you, Lee Jung Hwan,” you said in between sobs as you backed away into the darkness.

There was a sudden flash of white light, and the alley was empty now.

<>

The boy came to from his daze and found himself in a very blue room. There were fresh tear stains on the book he was holding. It was flipped to a page with a picture of space. At the bottom left hand corner was a star drawn in what looked like yellow highlighter and an ‘S’ below it.

He closed the book and put it aside, unable to fathom what it meant. Jason would surely not vandalise his precious books. When he reached into his shirt pocket for his phone, a tiny piece of paper fell out. He picked it up from the ground. It had the art of a primary school kid with messy handwriting. He placed it between the pages of the book on the table and left the room.

If he had looked closely, he would have noticed that the wallpaper on his phone of the busy street in Gyeongnam actually had a tiny girl in a bright yellow jumper in the sea of people. If he had looked closely, he would have noticed that the girl in the photo was the same girl on the funny bookmark.

The girl was home now. 

Almost