Eric stormed off down the road in the opposite direction to Yongsun. He needed a plan if he was going to get her back and the best man for the job, other than himself of course, was Jackson. Although Jackson hadn’t really contributed to his plan for getting Moonbyul to back off, that little spark of genius had all been Eric – who had just now decided to overlook Yongsun walking out on him, leading to the need of this new plan – just like most of NORA’s plans.

It wasn’t long before he was pounding on Jackson’s door, not quite waiting patiently for his long time friend to open the door. Eric could hear movement within and decided to speed up the process of getting inside by yelling. “Open up ya big oaf!”

“What?” Jackson half yelled as he yanked the door open.

Eric pushed past Jackson and made his way to the kitchen to see if there was any alcohol in the fridge. “Yongsun left me. I need you to help me get her back.”

*******

“I wonder if she hates me for leaving her behind in Lake Bresha. We had to move on, complete our focus. But Eric had no trouble throwing that aside to try and dig her out. Maybe it’s made her think I don’t love her enough.” Moonbyul was barely speaking above a whisper, but if there had been someone to hear her they would have easily detected the obvious hurt such thoughts caused.

All Moonbyul ever did was fall short. She couldn’t look after Yongsun properly after their parents died, leaving her to look after Yongsun. She couldn’t keep her away from good for nothings like Eric. Byul had even failed at the basic task of keeping her best friend safe as proven by Yongsun being branded a l’Cie and being trapped in the pulse vestige. And now Yongsun was marrying Eric and she failed to simply be happy for Yongsun and she had finally driven Yongsun away.

Moonbyul curled up on the ground and closed her eyes. She could no longer bring herself to look at the pillar. It reminded her too much of Yongsun running into Eric’s arms after being released from stasis and the friends she had lost as a trade off.

*******

Yongsun could see the pillar not too far up ahead, but still no sign of Moonbyul. “Maybe I was wrong and she went somewhere else.”

“No, you know her better than anyone. If you thought she was here when she ran off then she probably is.” Wheein was quick to r