Bom's eyes were wide open, searching and looking for Dragon's astral spirit. He was here just a minute ago, she thought. We were together. Where is he? The cat meowed and stretched its back. It was the only echoing sound heard in the pavillion. W-wait, did he fade already? This quick?

"No," Bom silently cried out. She sat dejectedly, her back hunched over and looked lost. We promised each other. But her ears peaked up when she heard a familiar voice calling her name. 

"Bom."

"Dragon!" she looked up and found him standing in front of her. Still a spirit, still transparent. But he was there in front of her. She couldn't stop her tears from flowing out of her eyes. "I thought you were gone." she managed a weak smile.

However, something was unusual. His spirit kept flickering. Disappearing. Reappearing. Disappearing. In a matter of few seconds in between. Bom tried to assure him that everything will be okay, yet she herself have no idea what would happen. The cat climb on her lap and her hand.

"I don't know what's happening," Dragon softly said as he watched his own body. He looked at Bom with pleading eyes. Is this the end? Dragon asked himself. No, Bom, I'll fulfill my promise to you. That we'll be together.

"I think it would be better for us to go home," she managed to say. With the cat still in her arms, she stood up and nodded at Dragon's direction.

"Bom!" he shouted. Bom stopped walking and looked at him. "What I said earlier, about fading away than letting you die... I take that back. I don't want to fade away. I want to be by your side forever."

"I know you didn't mean what you said," she replied with a smile. "So, Dragon, let's find a way to save you."

Dragon smiled and followed behind Bom as they walked back home. But he knew there was a hint of sadness in her voice when she said those words. As if she knew that time is running ahead and that they haven't got much of it left. The walk back home was quiet, yet tension-filled. Every once in a while, Bom would glance at him just to check if Dragon was still with her. She deliberately slowed her walking pace so that she would just be by his side. And Dragon would try hard to catch up with her pace, but sometimes she walked too fast, or was it because he was already becoming weaker and weaker? But whatever means it would take, he tried to match her own pace in the light of fulfilling his promise to her.

~~

The house sat quiet, the setting sun hid behind the roof. Bom mindlessly got inside not noticing two pairs of shoes in the foyer and her father's car in the garage. She walked straight past the living room and she would have not seen her father and  mother sitting at the couch if her mother didn't call out her name.

"Bommie," her mother's gentle voice woke her from her trance-like state. Surprised, Bom set down the cat on the floor and gave her parents a bow. It was only when she straightened her back again when she fully grasped the scene before her. They were waiting for her. Her mother had her head down, but her father looked straight at her with his arms crossed and a stern expression on his face. In between them were some of the paintings Bom had kept hidden under her bed.

"Sit down," her father ordered her which Bom immediately obeyed. He looked angry, and sounded angry too. And it probably was the first time Bom had seen his father get angry at her. "I've talked with the Director from Yonsei's Medicine Department. He told me that you didn't show up during your appointment with him?"

"Appa..."

But before Bom could explain her own side, he cut her short with his angry tone. "But you told your mother that you've been there? Since when have you lied to us?"

Bom's mother still kept her head hung low, her hands clasped together at her lap. She didn't look angry at Bom, but felt sorry for her. It was as if she also felt that it was her fault that Bom turned out this way. That it was her fault for raising Bom this way.

"And what are these that you've been hiding in your room?" his father continued to scold her. He grabbed one of the canvesses and threw it on the table in front of them. It landed with a resounding clack as the wooden frames hit against the oak table. Bom flinched at the sound. She took a deep breath and felt an icy hand on her shoulder. It was Dragon who comforted her with his touch. This is the first time that the cold has ever felt comforting, she bitterly thought. 

"Umma, appa, listen to what I have to say first," Bom finally said with trembling voice. She didn't want this life anymore. The perfect life. The life of pretend. She just wanted to live her life as how she wanted it to be. "I did go and visit to Yonsei, but not at the Medicine but at Design and Arts." She glanced at her parents who listened intently, but she could not decipher what each of them were thinking. They did not say a word nor interrupted her, so she continued with her confession. "I've always wanted to paint my whole life. And I want to study art in college too. I'm going to take up art in Yonsei. This is what I want."

"Didn't you want to study medicine!?" it was her father who first spoke up, his voice still angry.

"No, that's what you want, appa! Not me..." Bom finally said the words she had been keeping to herself for years. She felt relieved, as if a huge burden was taken off her chest. 

"You--" her father started to say, but he was having difficulty in finding the right words. He pointed at her, his fingers trembling. "I don't have a daughter that talks back at me!"

With that, Bom stood up with tears welled in her eyes. Can't they just be proud of me for what I am instead of being disapointed for what I'm not? she asked herself. Her mother was caught in the middle, torn between her husband and her daughter. She clenched his husband's shoulders and calmed him down.

"Yeobo, you didn't mean what you said," she said. "Bom is our only daughter."

But Bom couldn't take it anymore. Her cheeks were stained with tears and burned from her emotions. Their large house suddenly felt confining and oppressive to her. The walls were contracting, getting closer and closer. With blurred vision from her tears, she picked up the cat, grabbed her bag and the pet carrier and ran out the door. She heard her mother calling for her, screaming her name. But Bom didn't dare look back. She didn't want to look back. All she wanted for a while was an escape.

Dragon followed her. Her pace was getting faster and faster. Time was much slower for him, and the distance between them increased. He called out to her. Dragon knew she wanted to escape, but he didn't know where.

Everything was a blur for Bom. She went where her feet would take her. And soon she found herself in front of Cheonan Station. The train station was empty and Bom stopped for a while to catch her breath. Her heart was still beating fast. She finally released her pent up emotions that she kept all this time. And a surge of emotions ran through her whole body. 

"Bom," Dragon's gentle voice broke her train of thoughts. He looked at her face and felt the need to wipe her tears away. Except that he couldn't

"Mianhe, Dragon," she apologized and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry you have to see an ugly scene like that."

The train whizzed by and stopped in front of them. They got inside and settled in one of the plush seats. The train carriage was almost empty, devoid of people who would travel to Seoul at this late afternoon. As the train sped by north, Bom watched the scenery unfolding outside. It was beautiful, with the sun half hidden in the edge of horizon, and casted its own beauty to the green fields. She wanted to paint this scenery, to preserve its memory of temporal, passing beauty, to remember this moment of her life.

I ran away without even having a plan, she thought as soon as she stepped out of the train at the Seoul City Hall station. It was busier and more packed compared to her previous visit. It was the second wave of the rush hour, and Bom who stood still amidst the crowded station, got bumped numerous times by speeding commuters.

"I'm here with you, Bom," Dragon reassured her.

With no money, no place to stay, and only enough for the fare back home, Bom wandered off the streets of Seoul, with her small bag on her shoulder and the pet carrier in her other hand. She trudged slowly at the sidewalk, not knowing where to go. She was a stark contrast compared to the different people in the metropolitan. They walked with direction, with an end-destination in mind. Whereas she had no idea where she was headed to.

"This is foolish of me, huh?" She stammered and choked on her own tears. Bom and Dragon found themselves at the western part of the Han River, the cool breeze from the western winds sent waves of ripples at the calm river.

"I don't think it's foolish," he answered back. 

"But I guess I have to come back home tonight, eventually," she said with a hollow laugh. She wiped her tears once more as they both sat on the grassy grounds near the riverbank. The sun had completely disappeared, and it was the moon who replaced its light. And with the moon, hundreds of stars littered the sky, lending their glow to the moon.

Sitting across Han river, illuminated by the stars from above, Bom cried once more as she truly felt how alone she was in the big city.

~~