That morning I woke up crying. As usual, I didn’t even know if I was sad. Along with the tears, my emotions have gone by sliding down. Absorbed, I stayed a while in my bed until my mother came and said “It’s time to get up.”

It wasn’t snowing, but the road was white, frozen. Half of the cars circulated with chains in the wheels.

In the passenger seat, next to my dad, who was driving the car, Heejin’s father sat. Her mother and I occupy the back seats. The car started. The two men in the front of the car only talked about the snow, that if we would make it or not to the airport of if the plane would leave at the scheduled time. Meanwhile Heejin’s mother and I barely spoke.

I looked out the window at the landscape that we left behind. Both sides of the road were covered with snow. In the crest of the mountains gleamed in the rays of sun that shone through the clouds. Heejin’s mother carried a small ash box in her lap.

The snow became thicker so my father and Heejin’s father got out of the car in the parking lot of a hostel to adjust the chains to the wheels. Meanwhile, I decided to take a walk around. There was a forest beyond the parking lot. A layer of untouched snow covered the undergrowth; the one that accumulated in the treetops was falling to the ground with a dry sound. When I turned, I saw a wintery ocean spread out on the other side. Calm, a bright blue sea. Everything I saw filled me with nostalgia. I closed the lid of my heart firmly and turned my back to the sea.

The snow of the forest becomes deeper. The broken branches and the hard stumps made walking more difficult that I had expected. Suddenly, a bird flew from the trees with a high-pitched scream.

I stopped and listened, I didn’t hear anything else. It was as if no one was left in this world. When I closed my eyes, I heard the sound of the chains of the cars that were circulating on the road. I started not knowing where I was, not knowing who I was. Then I heard my father’s voice calling me from the parking lot.

Everything went as planned. We arrive at the airport at the scheduled time and, after checking in, we go to the boarding gate.

“I appreciate this so much” My father said to Heejin’s parents.

“No, on the contrary,” Said Heejin’s father. “I'm sure Heejin is happy that Hyunjin is coming with us.”

I turned my eyes to the small urn that Heejin’s mother carried in her arms. Inside that urn wrapped in beautiful brocade, was Heejin really there?