𝐒𝐄𝐎𝐔𝐋 | √

this city's harmony, it's so familiar to me

𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲?

It's the most beautiful feeling. One moment, you're walking down the street, and then this emotion hits you.

It's sudden, potent; you feel it consume you, swallow you whole and envelope you in its warmth. You look around, and there, you suddenly see those little hidden gems of the city, and you smile, because you know now what secrets this place that bursts with life and hurts with death, can offer you. You understand that this is the one place that will never leave your heart, because all of the secrets that belonged to the city are now yours, whispered in your ear by the sounds of life and by the current of time.

That's when you know you're in love. It's the happiest, and yet the loneliest realisation, for you know not another soul who has fallen in love like you have.

Standing on the edge of the shore, looking out over the Han river, Ellora closed her eyes and breathed in, deep and slow just like the mellow music that wrapped around her head and slid over her eardrums like a siren singing to her. Chapped lips curving up and her ebony hair flowing back in the wind, she let her arms spread wide, as if to wrap them around the skyline that she stood in front of.

This was her city. The grand metropolis of Korea, the City of Hope, the heart of an ancient culture. The City of Morning Calm.

The sun was rising, in a blaze of orange and yellow, to paint the sky with pale colours that reflected in the rippling waters of the river that flowed through the city, gentle as a brush of a leaf against a finger. Pastel yellow swirled with pinks and blues of the morning sky, and the vast canvas that once was coloured in the deepest and darkest of hues now burst forth with soft, comforting pale tints that spanned the entire sky in front of her.

Ellora started to hum in tune with the song that hung in the air that surrounded her, her small smile growing just a little bit in recognition of the melody that came from the speakers of her phone, settled on the bench that she had been sitting on not fifteen minutes ago. The paint on the bench was the prettiest, she had decided, for the powder blue had been decorated with brown and pink of cherry blossom trees that wrapped around the painted metal bars.

"Blue side, blue side, back to blue side blue side. . ."

One of her favourite songs, with one of the best ways to drink in the beauty of human creation. Blue side by J-Hope, with the sun rising over the skyline of Seoul on the River Han, and Ellora couldn't have had a better start to her second day in the city.

"nae palan kkumsog-e neol dam-eullae (blue side, back to blue side). . ."

Her humming had quickly grown to soft singing that slipped past her lips to colour the winds with the raw notes of the song, and they moved around her with a slow, lilting grace that made her heart flutter in her chest.

Birds chirped along with the music, sat in the cherry tree stood behind her. It's flowers had long ago turned to fruits that gleamed in the morning rays of the sun that brushed their fingertips over the flushed skin of the cherries. Now, leaves were sprouting on the branches, eager for the infinite cycle of growth to begin, again for the hundredth time.

And beyond that tree, beyond the rose bushes that Ellora had slipped through to reach the shore of the river, lay the cobblestone path of the park. It was covered in moss, and several minutes ago Ellora had danced barefoot over them, glittering smile lighting up her face in the semi-darkness of the early dawn.

The young woman felt at home in this unfamiliar place, at complete peace despite never having been to the city before. The unknown feeling trickled over her skin from the top of her head to the tips of her toes and fingers, covering her in a warm blanket that made her wonder, why was it that she felt at one with the city that she had never before visited?