♧Nocturne♧

2. Sunset

MOONBYUL
After waving Solar goodbye, Moonbyul had her eyes attached to her black-covered book again.

Books, or to be exact, literature, were Moonbyul's safe haven. She did not remember when she had found interest in it. Every chapter, every sentence, every word, even every letter was glittering star to Moonbyul. Open the book and she felt embraced, safe, loved. Not that it was a way to escape, but that she felt love in them. She thought she could truly experience different emotions through them, and wouldn't be judged if she got sentimental. No one blamed you for mourning for a dead character, or merely for an unfair situation in a book, whereas people expected one another to smile through everything in real life. At least that was what Moonbyul thought.

But the stars that marked our start fall away. We must go deeper for greater pain, for it is not permitted that we stay.

It read.

Moonbyul sighed.

Why must we go deeper into pain if were not allowed to stay? Why can't we just turn away that it hurts?

She frowned and thought to herself.

Because it was exactly what she was doing at the moment.

She silently packed her bag, switched off the classroom lights and left the room.

Walking along the waterfront, Moonbyul couldn't help but felt amazed by the sunset-how beautiful, yet how fast to vanish.
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(5 years ago, when Moonbyul was 12)

Knock.

Knock.

No one came to open the door for Moonbyul. She thought dad was just asleep. Luckily she had got keys.

Nothing abnormal came to her eyes, until she opened the door of her dad's room.

He's dead.
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The horrofic scene just popped out of Moonbyul's head out of nowhere. It was still exceptionally vivid, even after 5 years.

For 3 years after that day, she had been living with her uncle on a seemingly enjoyable life. Her uncle was nice. He raised her well and put money on her as if he was investing on capital assets.

In fact, it was JUST bearable to her.

Number of doctors had come to her asking whether she was having any problem with her life, which was completely changed after 5 years ago. She always played a "NO" audio from her vocal chords as answers.

She was not so sure about if everyone knew she had always been lying, but at least she knew it herself.

What if she said yes to those psychologists? They could do nothing. They would never find a substitute for her dad. Things would never be the same.

And the thing that hurt her the most was not simply her dad's sudden departure, just few years after her mum's, but also the fact that she knew nothing about the reasons.

Why did he leave?

This question had been floating in Moonbyul's mind for 5 years, and no one around her seemed to care about the answer.

So she turned away. She left her uncle without stealing glances at the doorway, and neither did her uncle care. Maybe he cared, but Moonbyul preferred to take it this way, so as to minimize the guilt she felt.
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Ringing bells of bikes echoed through Moonbyul's ears and she realised all of a sudden that she was blocking the cycling path while she was drown in her thoughts.

She immediately went back to the pedestrian and continued walking back home.

Home.

She stopped at a building and went in. Here was where she had been living for the past 2 years. She had been sharing a small apartment with Minhyuk, a british friend whom she knew long ago.

"I'm back!" She yelled as she passed the doorway and took off her shoes.

"Hey byul! I've ordered pizza for dinner."

Moonbyul replied with no words but a thumb up, which was already enough to initiate a smirk on the older boy's face. She then walked straight to her room, throwing her bag just anywhere on the floor.

She closed the door behind her back and climbed to her bed. Staring at the ceiling, she suddenly felt a sense of loneliness. Looking across the room, she found herself stopping at a photofame, which holds her mum, her dad, and her together.

How beautiful, yet how fast to vanish.