Moon & Suzuki: The Life We Had Before

Chapter One

I walk along the dark blue path, where the midnight sky turned the brown cement into a bright hollow space where only one person can walk through at a time. It used to be a space that could fit at least two people, but had started to become covered by the limping magnolia trees. The bushes begin to appear infested with practically invisible, yet loud crickets. Even the strong winds that pull my hair from one ear to the other seem almost unnoticeable.

Here, it is seen just how much change can happen in such a little time. It's hard not to notice it either since the colors have changed too. Actually, it seems to have been much brighter before, or maybe it is the fact that reality has woken me up, making me step back from the sun I'd follow around as a child.

It's almost sunrise by the time I step on the soft grassland that laid on the other side of the pathway. My curiosity had begun to stab me in the back little by little since the day I followed the clear river stream near my home. That was when I ended up getting stung by tiny mosquitoes that seemed much larger than my pink thumb.

I guess it runs in the family, which may be why our surname is Moon. We dream of reaching the moon and the stars, even wanting to get through the whole galaxy. Yet, since we know it would be too far, there's only other lands we can cross to see a change in the sky. 

All of a sudden, I realize that I'd have never thought I'd reach this far on my own. I don't even think I've seen this multicolored tree before. The only thing that stands out from it, which I don't recognize, is the yellow-smudged trunk and some purple leaves. It appears to be so full of life, almost too full. It's quite tall too, a type of tree that I would attempt to climb first as a child, even if I'd begun to get red rashes on my arm from scraping it against the hardwood.

Even in these cold winds, where my nose burns from the icy temperature, I'll continue to walk this path. Even if the end seems dark or hidden even from the moonlight and starlit stars that remain in the sky, I'll continue walking. By now, the sound of chirping crickets have come to a stop as it's too far away now from where I've ended up.

My fear has intensified. Even though I've never been scared of the dark, I have been scared of being alone. How ironic, no? Living your whole life with hardly any family since it seemed as if every year we'd watch a new star in the sky move from left to right, so why would we bring more people than necessary as we move so much?

It's only a few days, I continue to tell myself, that I just want to experience living in someplace new. Either way, I am already an adult, no? I even left a simple note, if anyone even cares to check my bed. Most days, they leave the house and don't come back until late, which is what has happened tonight. This was how I've been able to leave so promptly and unworried. They left early this morning and weren't back yet, even if it had gotten so dark already. I assume they've yet to return by now, or at the very least, realize that their only child has gone missing.

"Bumonim,

I hope there isn't too much trouble while I'm gone,
I've made sure everything is neat and tidy,
and that anything that needed repairs has been fixed by now.
Please don't worry about me, I'll only be gone a few days.

Your son,
Moon Jaehyeong"

I'll be walking for a while longer. Although this is possibly double the walking I've ever done in 3 hours. I've never been able to see the border between Korea and Japan from where I live.

The only way I know to take this path is by using the map that would always remain hanging on my parents bedroom wall. They believed that the only way guests would know we travel, even if it's only within our own country, is to wear a map as a souvenir that covered the area around our country and the country itself. I had spent the past few months drawing out the big map on this ragged piece of pocket-sized paper.