Chapter Two

‘Being fallen into a weird world, even if you tell me so, I’m fine’

The car’s window suddenly rolled down, taking Jiwoo by surprise, she looked at her mother quizzically who pulled her hand from the car’s control panel. What a child, she thought.

“No one in this town drives with their window’s up…because the air outside is better” Her mother then reached her arm outside, palms wide open, arm riving the thin air, hand basking on the air’s material, a smile on her lips.

Jiwoo scoffed and turned her head away unable to so much look at her mother for over ten seconds, but she must agree with what her mother said though, as the conditioned air was replaced by the warm rush of air entering inside the car while they drove pass endless patch of land, some covered with green, some brown, some gold wheat.

It was indeed different, just different, in a good way though.

Still no words were wished to be breathed from her lips, Jiwoo didn’t feel doing so. Her mother, Taeyeon, as she remembered her name so, had welcomed her with a weary smile and a loose hug from the airport; their years of no communication had manifested itself as a thick air stopping them from trying to recover it.

She pulled her weight dropped embittered on the chair’s backrest towards the window, head propped on her arms on its frame, and the wind grazed her face warmly as her hair continuously get swept back, like fingers running on her scalp.

“It’s not a perfect place…but you’ll enjoy this town Jiwoo, like I did”

Jiwoo was losing herself to the scent of trees mixed with the castaway whiffs of the bay, when that pang of bitterness soiled it inside her “Enough to leave your child I guess?” She couldn’t take it well, to hear her mother being all…normal.

“I have my mistakes Jiwoo…I’m not without guilt and I apologize, let me make it up to you eh?….won’t you try leaving your city attitude for awhile?”

Jiwoo frowned, though she didn’t talk back. It was just so strange to talk to her mother.

A vocal heavy song cut the silence inside the car, it was a female’s voice over an acoustic accompaniment, all the other instruments muted except for the guitar, highlighting the soft country vocal of the singer, drifting through the wind.

She closed her eyes.

Jiwoo never hated her father even if he deliberately threw her in this new place, his three seconds of side hug before she departed told her that maybe, he did after all hesitated letting her go. He is a man of few words and never knew how to show affection at all that when he gave her his 16^th birthday gift for her, the grey hoodie folded on her lap now as they parted, made the thought of him getting rid of her because she was an annoying little brat thrown out of the crevice of her brain. He must have a different reason sending her back to her mother, hopefully, she’s right.

The welcome arch of Yangsan came into view, though if Jiwoo had not known beforehand her destination was, she wouldn’t have read what the arch said, with the arch being all covered with crawling vines and the lettering of the town’s name being all fragmented and colors fading. Built out of bricks and a bridge next to it after, it finally sank in, how she’s already truly in a different place…out of the city…out of familiarity.

Houses and buildings were a rare sight unlike the city and were replaced by trees and hills. Right at a rising slope going towards their residence, Jiwoo looked outside and finally saw a condensed area of the town with the bay next to it. The orange hue of the afternoon basked it strikingly, she couldn’t help but stare at it.

If they were in a city, she’d probably have a hard time distinguishing what and what with all the high rise and identical buildings in every corner of the city, but here she figured that the rectangular building on top of a hill not that high from the rest of the buildings must be the school she would be attending, the town’s hall in the middle and a church not far from it.

They stopped in front of a peach colored two story house enclosed with clean white painted wooden fence. Taeyeon went on to take her luggage to take it inside when Jiwoo saw an unfamiliar woman by the door…smiling brightly at her mother and a welcoming one on Jiwoo herself, the woman’s eyes pushed closed by her smile, then Taeyeon kissed her by the lips.

Jiwoo gasped and turned around.

It her like a lightning

Twelve years she counted, twelve years that she was clueless why her mother suddenly left her without a word.

And now she knew why…

Just like that.

“Jiwoo…”

She could hear her mother calling her in worry, her voice trailing, wishing it would make her turn around, but she couldn’t. Instead she tried to hide herself from her mother’s sight behind her own mother’s pick-up truck and slid down on the ground, pulled her knees towards her chest and hid her face behind it.

Jiwoo would like to call her father and ask her to take her back…as desperate as she could, but she didn’t have the strength, whirling inside her were mixed emotions, only she felt so isolated and alone.

The feelings rushed inside her like bullet train that she had not enough time to process it and produce a tear.

She was just left dumbfounded is all.

Was she sent here just for her mother to tell her the twelve years overdue of her reason of abandoning her that December night? Was the truth supposed to hit her like a bulldozer? Yes she had wondered for years of the many why, for years she sought to feel that familiar feeling of what was left when she was five years old with her mother kissing her cheek happily because she was singing cutely.

She sought those feelings like she was a desperate love struck girl, and she does remember Gyuri telling her that in irony because some mean girl also said it at her face.

‘You’re so desperate….sis at least show some self-respect’ That girl said to her…whom, Jiwoo didn’t realize before, was her crush’s girlfriend before giving him a letter of admiration.

And the strange thing is, Jiwoo wasn’t tired seeking for it, deep inside, she’s still hoping.

Jiwoo took a glance inside the house, looking if her mother and partner were inside and when she saw there was no one inside, she entered her mother’s place, slowly, with heavy steps still debating whether to accept the fact that she’d have to live here for a while. The entrance of the door opened straight to the living room, couches filling most of its space to invite people to have discussions there. The walls were paneled, decorated with degree certificates and other medals, cabinet tops were lined with family portraits and pictures, there was one in which Jiwoo guess have all the family members, and they actually have a big number, but the house was empty of these people. Her father never really mentioned the side of her mother’s family, it was mostly his’.

A frame of an old woman was in the center of this collection of portraits and pictures, she had not remembered seeing any of them.

There were soft rumblings at the second floor, Jiwoo figured it was her mother and whoever she kissed earlier. Jiwoo picked up the picture frame of the old woman and suddenly, a lone firefly alighted on the frame, wondering where it entered, she glanced at the kitchen’s window at the end of the room, it was opened, she went closer.

What she saw behind the house was a vast space of grass, cutting that space was the long line of trees that fronted the woods. Now in the city, Jiwoo didn’t see much of fireflies, but she’s sure they don’t fly in great coordination that forms a waving line leading to the woods; it was like they were waiting with the way they were idly floating.

It was enchanting to see, surely she couldn’t take her eyes off of it but Jiwoo wasn’t just going to pass through the grass like frogs and other insects don’t live there. Though it felt fairly strange, like something was urging her to get close to it, follow where this line of fireflies ends.

And so Jiwoo did, two strangers inside the house or a bunch of fireflies that would give her a silent company, she chose the bright insects instead; she walked the courage across the patch of grass with audible sound of crickets and frogs croaking everywhere. She followed the line of fireflies skewing pass the trees, they light up the path, making it easier for her to see where she must put her foot on. There were shuffling on her sides and emerging from it were squirrels, their heads tilting to the sides looking at her with curiosity.

When Jiwoo took a step to continue her path, the squirrels also moved, when she stopped, they also stopped. Jiwoo giggled, she found them entertaining so she just let them be, and the squirrels followed her.

The fireflies was taking her deeper into the woods, thoughts of going back gnawing her brain, but she couldn’t, she was enchanted to see where the line ends.

Jiwoo stopped and ran her fingers on a tree trunk standing at her side and felt a flash of familiarity. It felt like she had done this before, felt like she had crossed pass lines of trees from a distant memory. She kept on walking.

The sun had fully set and the stars had bathed the sky, but Jiwoo had just largely realized it when the line of fireflies ended and was greeted by a defoliated area; she gazed up, the moon was staring back at her, soon she saw herself standing at the center and realized she was not alone, there were lots and lots of birds perched on the tree’s branches visible to her eyes, and when she looked around, dots of lights were twinkling around the woods like the stars itself went down. Like she was in the center of the galaxy and the stars are orbiting around her.

Jiwoo was confused, what are these all of a sudden, she raised her head, staring at the night sky looking for answers, the wind blew around her and strange enough…Jiwoo heard it faintly…the wind carried with them a soft magical melody.

Jiwoo didn’t wonder long as she twirled around the melody, and she smiled, for the first time that day.

The stars that night were starting to align.