I’m standing by the opening of the boarding room’s door while looking at my parents, especially my mother who’s sobbing hard at the fact that I’ll be leaving them for several years. My father has his hand wrapped around my mother’s shoulder while looking at me with his sad eyes.

“Are you sure this is what you wanted?” He asked, since my mother couldn’t even dare to open or she’ll come running to me and begging me to stay. I sighed, nodding.

“You guys used to say that I have to chase my dream.” I replied while fixing my bag’s strap on my shoulder. “I’m not going to push away my dream just because of what happened.” I said, unable to bring up about our past. My father nodded in understanding as my eyes darted to my mother who’s still covering to prevent the sobs to be heard clearly.

“You’re still 25, Baekhee.” She said between sobs. “You can just go later when you’re older.”

“When’s later?” I asked and she’s just keep on crying.

“I can’t lose you.” She cried, palming her face. My father her shoulder soothingly and I look away, trying to be strong when there’s a part of me wanting to stay after what she said. “I can’t lose anyone for the second time.” She shakes her head.

“Mom.” I sighed, looking at the security guard who’s standing not far from where I am while looking at me, signaling that I have to board as soon as possible. “Take care, Mom, Dad.” I said, eyes flickering between them. “I have to board soon, or else I’ll miss the plane.” My father nodded again and my mother’s sobs are getting louder.

“Don’t forget to always contact us, okay?” A sad smile starts forming on his lips and I nodded.

“Bye.” I said, forcing myself to turn around. I can hear my mother calling my name several times but I’m holding myself from turning back as I walk through the door. No turning back. I have to sit inside the airplane for 11 hours until the plane landed on the land of my dream.

Los Angeles, California.

Since I was in elementary school, I’ve been wanting to become a musician. My parents are supportive with my dream, but there’s one person that’s always been there for me, and that is my older brother. He bought me my very first guitar using his part-time job’s salary when I was turning 12 and I started learning guitar from books. My older brother was into piano instead of guitar so most of the times we would do a collaboration. I even performed on school events and I received many praises from my teachers and friends.

Stepping into high school, I had several auditions and I got into a not so big entertainment to become a trainee. The first person to know that I got into an entertainment was my brother who decided to leave the country when he graduated from high school. He went to Boston to get higher education about music. My parents were against his idea, just like how they forced me to not go earlier, but in the end he flew away. Every 2 months he would send us a letter to notify us about his well-being. I was trained for several years before I had to resign from being one because of one incident that happened.

My brother got into an accident when he was having a trip with his friends.

And he was gone.

I still remember how my mother fainted when the news was out. We couldn’t go there because my family’s finance wasn’t that stable at the time so our relatives in Boston took care of the funeral and all.

“Let’s meet again on top, Baekhee.” Was the last sentence he said to me before he flew to Boston. That time I didn’t know, that’s going to be his very last word to me. Those words kept on floating in my head for years and finally I decided to book a ticket to LA, to start anew. I have been doing some research about some music producers and all and I decided to contact one of them. I sent some of my recordings and gladly, they said they wanted to meet me to talk about it.

“So, what genre are you into?” A man in his late 30s who’s known to be the producer of a certain entertainment. I tightened my grip on my guitar bag’s strap in tense.

“I, um, any music that I can play with my guitar?” It’s more like a question than an answer. He tapped his finger on his chin while