Gary made his way down the narrow aisle of the airplane. He took off his red leather jacket and put it in the overhead bin along with his suitcase. He then collapsed in the seat, leaned back, and looked over at the empty aisle seat next to him. For the first hour of the flight, that’s all he did… just look over at Ji Hyo’s empty seat. 

He didn’t know what to think. He was torn between two contrasting thoughts – he could look at the situation one way with Ji Hyo as someone willing to put her life and happiness on hold to care for an old friend, or he could look at the situation another way with Ji Hyo as someone who was doubtful about her upcoming wedding and was escaping into the arms of that old friend. He didn’t know which was true. Maybe both, he thought.

The flight back to Seoul was just over nine hours. He didn’t know how he was going to last that long when he felt so utterly lonely and confused and helpless. Not knowing what else to do, he reached back into the overhead bin, feeling around in his suitcase for his notebook. He usually carried the notebook with him to jot down song ideas whenever the inspiration hit. And when he reached for it now, he was thankful that he had thought to pack it. He needed to get his feelings down on paper, to work through them and figure things out.

He opened the notebook, uncapped the pen, and wrote at the top of the page: A Song for Miss Song.

Jong Kook, Ji Hyo, and Sun Marie sat around the small wicker table on the lanai out back, the afternoon sun drifting through the clouds.

“Who were you talking to?” Jong Kook asked.

Sun Marie looked up at her appa and then back down at the table. She didn’t answer.

Jong Kook glanced at Ji Hyo and shook his head. He didn’t know what to do. He supposed that it was normal for Sun Marie to have an invisible friend, particularly now, after she had lost her mom. Maybe it was just her way to cope, just like how she had the urn in her room. “Does your friend have a name?” he asked.

Sun Marie looked back up at him and then slowly nodded.

“What’s your friend’s name, sweetie?” Ji Hyo asked.

Sun Marie looked at the two adults and then back down at the table. She shook her head. “It’s a secret,” she said.

Jong Kook wanted to be an understanding father, he wanted to be different from his own father, but he was growing impatient… not out of anger, but out of fear. He was worried about his daughter. An invisible friend was one thing, but why the secrecy?

Ji Hyo put her hand on Jong Kook’s, as if sensing his unease. “Sun Marie, sweetie, can you at least tell us something about your friend? Is it a girl or a boy?”

Sun Marie looked off into the distance, her head tilted slightly, as if thinking. But she didn’t answer.

“Sunnie, look at me,” Jong Kook said. When she looked back up at him, he reached across the table and held her little hands in his. “Appa loves you,” he said. “You know that, right?”

Sun Marie nodded.

“Do you love your appa?” he asked.

She nodded again and smiled.

“Can you tell your appa about your friend?” He squinted as the sun moved out of the clouds, shining brightly now