Moon nights - a summer romance in Seoul

Chapter 5: Ayla

Let me gaze into your eyes and decide for myself
If I want to taste your ocean
or if I want to be blown away by your storms

______________________________

"This is your pilot speaking. We have arrived in Seoul, South Korea. It's 6:50 am with a temperature of  17 degrees outside. The cabin crew and I thank you for travelling with us and wish you a wonderful stay in South Korea."

Sleeping three hours, I mainly spent the flight rewatching some of my comfort movies on my tablet. Did I silently cry in my seat while watching the scene in Tangled in which Eugene and Rapunzel share the tightest hug in the tower? Yes, but thankfully no one noticed. Watch it a million times; that movie will make me weep like a baby every single time.

Spending her flight differently than me, Tala had slept nearly through the entire flight to the point that I was beginning to worry that she was concerningly unconscious and needed medical assistance. I reached out and gently shook her shoulder at the 8th hour she was sleeping, and she swatted my hand away. All good, and I returned to my movie.

Despite my protests, she had spent all day in the dance studio yesterday, returning home after midnight and sleeping less than I did.

I know that she felt sad that she didn't have her family being able to send her off since they all live back in her home town in the Philippines. My parents offered her to come over and stay with us the same day she refused my proposal, but she kindly declined their offer as well and emphasised how much she needed to be in the dance studio before we left the country.

My guess: to deal with her emotions through body language and release her thoughts she was too anxious to speak about with anyone, even with me.

Tala had learned from a very young age to mask her autism, but in situations such as these that are very emotionally buckled, she needs to talk to someone about the rushing thoughts in her brain. But she rarely shows her vulnerable side and sits down to talk about them with anyone, not wanting to burden them.

Throughout our friendship, I probably told Tala twice as many hardships and apologised multiple times for making her carry a part of the weight on my shoulders with me. The sweetest friend she was, she'd permanently deny it and voice back that she tells me just as much. If I did one thing good in my life, it must have left a significant impact and cleared up my karma so well that she was gifted into my life and decided to stay until now.

There wasn't a life in which I couldn't live without my morning star anymore.

"Tal, can you believe we're in South Korea?" I whispered to her while I packed my tablet and the other belongings back into my tote bag. She let out a soft yawn as she stretched herself, eyes puffed from sleep.

"I'll start to believe it the second I see Hangul written everywhere instead of Turkish."

I tapped her TV screen and quickly changed the settings from English to Korean.
"There you go."

"Haha, hilarious, Ayla," was her sarcastic response that made me laugh, which she followed. Saying goodbye to the crew with bright smiles, we walked out of the plane onto new ground.

There are a lot of buildings that look familiar, no matter where you are in the world.
Classrooms, hospitals, and airports.

The Incheon airport was huge, even compared to the Istanbul Airport, one of Europe's biggest airports, so they say. It was easy to feel lost in it, people rushing past you left and right. A place where people bid goodbye to the love of their life, their family members. A place where people reunited with their loved ones. A place where people began a whole new chapter in life, moving away or moving into. And then there was us, amongst the crowds, ready to spend the summer here.