Moon nights - a summer romance in Seoul

Chapter 41 : Ayla

And as I was having my conversation with the moon
About life and doubts, my mind feels trapped in this crowd
The moonlight adjusted to my guitars
From the very far
Picking it up, playing the strings
It felt like I just got wings
To fly out of this hole
The moon and the melody make me feel like whole
Cant you hear the beautiful sound?
Powerful, quiet,
Peaceful and loud
Dancing in the living room
Losing myself in the presence of the moon
__________________________________

Our last day as a group.

I dreaded this day, but it was here.

Last night felt like a fever dream fairytale that had come true.

Tomorrow everyone except Tala and me would leave Istanbul, returning officially to their home.

Just thinking of it caused my heart to tighten.

I grew so used to Mina's sassiness, Naeun's sharp yet calm aura, Faras' ever so judgmental expressions, Tatho's golden retriever energy, Taehyun's stoic self, and Jonghyun's... well, everything about Jonghyun if I'm being honest.

I didn't want to miss them again. But that's part of life; people come and go. It's up to us if we continue our friendship even if there are thousands of miles apart.

I knew I wanted to return to Seoul soon to visit so I could look forward to seeing the girls again.

Looking back to the beginning of the year, I'm so grateful that Tala persuaded me to participate in the show with her. If I had stayed home, it would have been a summer like any other back home in Izmir. I'd probably drowned further into the pit of the darkness I now identified as a "lack of confidence in myself and no orientation between living life and just breathing."
This was a summer dream you couldn't repeat easily; I had learned so much about myself, my history, people, and life. I had more confidence in myself and my abilities, which was my proudest moment. And yes, I was reflecting again because it doesn't hurt to do it twice while building yourself up for the upcoming farewell.

The breakfast was again in the hotel, but for this morning, we had ordered room service to eat outside on the balcony, taking the view of Istanbul for a while so. The weather was turning more chilly in the morning with the fresh wind that greeted us once we set foot out, so I threw a thin cotton blouse over my shirt to avoid the chilliness.

The last thing I needed now was catching a cold in the previous weeks of summer break.

All the others were already seated at the table; I rushed inside to get additional glasses of orange juice.

"Sooo, before you hear it from someone else, I have to confess something", Mina stated the second I sat down between Jonghyun and Tala. Seven pairs of eyes were set on my blonde-haired roommate.

"I filmed you two last night when Jonghyun arrived at the Gala. And then uploaded it on Twitter, and well, the video went viral", she explained and pointed at us two with the fork in her hand.

Jonghyun and I shared a look before we looked back at her.

"With audio?" I asked her carefully. Was I ready for the information that perhaps thousands of people might have heard a very INTIMATE confession of mine from last night? Not at all.

"No, you couldn't hear anything you two were saying to each other from the noise. And I wouldn't do that; I put audio over it" She unlocked her phone and opened her Twitter account to show the video to us.

"Holy shit, the video has over a million views! In less than 12 hours!", Tatho exclaimed. There were thousands of comments from people:

"To have someone who looks at me like Ayla looks at Jonghuyn."