Welcome to Incheon International Airport." The woman behind the desk said handing Luna her passport.
Luna smiled at her and bowed slightly and turned to leave.
As she walked, she looked around and one thing was clear to her, she did not belong there.
There wasn't much that differed her from them, her hair was jet black and straight, her skin was clear and fair - okay maybe not that clear, her dark circles were quite noticeable – yet her big sapphire blue eyes were so prominent that it made all the other similarities seem foreign too.
Koreans, may it be because of her favorite uncle being Korean she was oddly comfortable with them and naively fond of them as well.
Uncle Seo Changmin was her father's half-brother. They had the same mother but different fathers. When uncle Changmin was just 1 years old his father died in a car accident and just for the sake of providing a father figure for her son Grandma Brienne married again, she didn't love the guy but he loved her so much that he didn't care if his love was reciprocated. And that man was Luna's grand father Harold.
And even though her uncle was to inherit his own late father's fortune, Luna's father Raymond was still cautious of him and always kept him at a distance.
She was never told why her father and his elder half-brother were so formal and distant so she never paid it much attention and being the lively person that she was, she always had a good relationship with her uncle and aunt when they came for the holidays, better than the one she had with her parents.
Luna turned towards the luggage retrieval area when a woman bumped into her almost falling herself until Luna grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back to her feet. The woman was on the phone crying and without even noticing Luna she walked away still sobbing with the phone pressed against her ear. People around her moved out of her path eyeing her curiously.
She stared after the tall brazen woman and she heard someone call her name, she turned to see her Uncle beaming at her with his arms wide open for a hug.
Finally, family.
She smiled, her eyes softening and ran into his arms. He embraced her in a tight bear hug.
"Oh my fairy, I've missed you."
☾
At dinner time, an awkward silence surrounded Luna, her Uncle, and her young new aunt, who wasn't very welcoming of the relative who just got out of juvenile detention.
"So Luna." She said " Was it easy getting a VISA? What, with you being a criminal and all."
Her uncle sighed and buried his face in his hands, giving up on his young wife who had been throwing snide questions at Luna ever since they met.
"Well, you see. I didn't run away from Juvie, I was let go." She replied calmly " So, it wasn't a problem at all."
Luna could care less about the new addition to the family, no one could take her aunt's place and that was something she had decided moments after she had gotten a letter informing her of her dear aunt passing away.
A pair of hands wrapped around her eyes and Luna gasped,
"Guess." A male voice spoke from behind her and she smiled knowing there was only one person in this house who refused to grow up and would do something this childish.
She felt around the table and grabbed a fork to poke the hands around her eyes.
"Get your dirty hands off me."
He hissed as the fork poked his hand and retracted it.
"Oh please I'm probably cleaner than you miss I-just-got-out-of-juvie."
He sat down next to her and Luna smiled at him.
"Woah, I never thought you'd go higher that 5'5"
She reached up to pat his head like you would pat a child's.
"Hey stop treating me like I'm younger than you, Iv got like 5 years worth of experience in life more than you." He pinched her cheek.
Luna swatted his hand away, "yet you're still dumber that me" and twisted his ear.
And a second later both of them were throwing hands.
"Ok Tom and Jerry, stop fighting or else no dessert."
Her uncle announced and both of them retreated to their seats and started eating.
Her uncle asked about the weather in Australia and Luna told her it was rainy,
She prayed with all her might that he wouldn't ask her about her parents and thankfully he didn't.
Later Luna realised that he probably must've figured it out considering she was here and not there just a day after her release.
"Where were you Jihoon? I thought I asked you to be here before Luna arrives?" Uncle Changmin scolded him in Korean.
"I was stuck in traffic." Jihoon mumbled.
"That better not be an excuse." Her uncle started but her new aunt Min cut him off,
"If he says it was traffic then it must've been traffic, don't be so hard on my son." She said, feigning his defence.
Jihoon dropped his fork loudly on his plate,
"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not your son?" He gritted out in a low voice.
Luna touched his shoulder to calm him down.
Min pouted like a child at which Luna scowled but her uncle seemed to have been buying the act.
"Seo Jihoon apologize for being rude to your mother. Right now."
Jihoon scoffed at him
Dad, you too?
He slammed his hands on the table on both side of his plate and stood up
"I can do whatever I want because guess what? This is my house and guess who's house this ISN'T? hers." He pointed at Min furiously "And for the last fucking time she is Not. My. Mother."
Uncle Changmin also stood up in anger and Luna glared at the smirking bitch sitting across her watching the scene between the father and the son in satisfaction.
"This is my house! You hear me? My house. And if you don't respect me or my wife then you can bloody well get lost for all I care!"
For some reason his words pierced at Luna's heart too and she looked at Jihoon wondering how much it must've hurt him then.
Uncle Changmin never used to shout at Jihoon like that .
But even if he was affected, he didn't show it.
He closed his eyes for a second and sighed, moving the chair back and leaving the table.
Luna gave her uncle a very obvious angry look and got up to follow Jihoon.
"Luna eat your food." He ordered her, but she ignored him and left.
After 5 minutes of searching, one of the servants helped her find him.
He was on the balcony, leaving over the railing.
"If you're planning on jumping, don't. This place is so boring, I'm pretty sure there are better places to jump from, we can look for one together." She joked as she walked up to him.
"You must want to run back to Australia now right?" He said glumly without turning around.
She stood next to him and also leaned over the balcony looking at the lit up golf ground in front of her, "Nah Australia is still worse, much worse, as always."
He chuckled softly, " Yeah... I know."
"How are you?" He asked.
"I'm great." She lied.
Does anyone ever not lie to that question?
"I saw a husky on the front lawn, yours?"
"Oh yeah that's Storm, I adopted him 5 years ago." She cleared her throat.
"Who raised him then? Because he tried to bite my hand off."
"Don't worry, I'll train him." She avoided his question, she hadn't thought of a lie yet.
"Can I help? Iv always wanted to train a dog to do cool tricks." He asked enthusiastically.
She smiled, "Sure."
Jihoon was older than her but had she not known his age she could've easily passed him off as around her age. Being the only child he was quite clingy to anyone that got even slightly friendly with him and that's why he was quite good friends with Luna and her older brother Francis. And to her he was like a younger brother she never had and yes 'younger' brother because Luna was more mature than even her grandfather at just the age of 18.
A few seconds of sighing passed and Luna spoke up,
"I'm sorry about Aunt Somin."
Jihoon clenched his jaw and hung his head, nodding,
"I know."
"I just wish I could've seen her one more time." Luna looked up to stop herself from crying.
"She wanted to go visit you..." he swallowed "Even when Cancer had drained almost all the life out of her, she still wanted to make that trip."
His lip quivered as he spoke.
"I wish she could've lived to have at least have that wish come true."
Tears were falling down his cheeks now and his whole body visibly shook as he covered his mouth with his hand.
Luna hugged him from the side and brought his head to her chest, kissing his temple soothingly.
I wish she could've made the trip too.
Jihoon hugged her back and continued to grieve as she rubbed his back and silently mourned herself.