Every step she took felt like she was carrying gold bricks on her back, yet at the same time it felt like she was floating down the road.
The area she was in now was slightly familiar and crowded. All the faces, and all the noises were muted and in her mind only Jade's voice resonated.
"I can't wait to get out of here, I have so many plans to give my brother a better life and more stable life."
"At the start I'll kind of need your help to start my own tattoo parlour, but I promise I'll pay you back every cent later."
In her daze, she started walking up an inclined street, her steps making her tears fall down like rain droplets sliding down leaves.
"Would you be my model? You've got nice skin. And I'll use pictures of the tattoos to advertise my designs, that's a good idea right? Will you agree to it? And don't worry, they'll be fake, your skin doesn't need any skin, its perfect the way it is."
"I don't know how to explain it Luna, but coming here and meeting you has made me clear my mind, and my view of things has changed so much, I just know that Iv figured out how to lead my life from now on."
"Luna, when we get out, you'll still meet me right?"
A well built woman accidentally bumped into Luna, making her drop her pouch.
Leading to multiple orbs illuminated by the sun bounce down the road. They were the marbles Jade had gifted her.
She let out a short gasp, "No." and ran down after them but because of the slant, she lost her footing and tripped, rolling down the road like a tumbling log.
At first it hurt too much to breathe. And onlookers had stopped to gape at the scratched and bruised girl on the ground.
She tried to suppress it but the urge to bawl her eyes slipped out little by little as her pathetic and embarrassing condition loomed over her.
A man came forward to help her up but she shook his hand off and scrambled to collect the marbles. The ones she managed to collect were quite less and even in front of her eyes, two of them rolled into a gutter.
Desolate, she put the ones she had, safely back inside the pouch, "Hey, are you okay?" The man asked.
With the pouch still clutched to her chest she silently got up, sniffling and started to walk back up the road. Its not like she had any destination, might as well follow the unconsciously chosen path.
She found herself at the entrance of Namsan Tower and the crowd going in slightly pushed her so she started moving and went up.
The cable car ride, which a sympathetic girl bought Luna a ticket for, gave her a nauseous feeling in her stomach and as soon as it opened she hurried out, breathing in the fresh air.
She stared at the stairs leading to the observatory deck where the love locks were. Though she was conflicted over what kind pull she had towards the place.
Regardless, she stalked up the stairs, the blood on her wounds now dried and not hurting. And looked around the place, the colourful locks and colourful people. She felt grey in front of them.
"As long as both of us are here, we dont ever have to be lonely!"
But Jade was alone when she was being beaten up, Luna left her alone.
She walked over to the railing, resting her hand on the cold metal. With the strong wind scattering her hair, she closed her eyes.
"Regardless of any other human being on the planet, we'll always have the best interest for each other."
She tightened her grip, and opening her eyes she jumped on the railing, standing still, balancing herself.
People around her exclaimed dramatically, and she clutched the pouch tighter.
"We'll be like Christina and Meredith from Grey's Anatomy!" Jade said.
"Stop!" A guard came towards her but kept a distance so that she wouldn't rush into anything, "Don't do it."
"Or Cher and Dionne from Clueless!" Luna added.
The wind almost pushed her to her doom as she looked down at the rocky downhill.
" Or we could be like Max and Caroline from Two Broke Girls!"
A sob erupted from her.
"Get down from there, we can fix it together." Another young man said. Now more guards were there, and so was a cameraman who was originally there for a simple documentary and was now getting hot news.
"When you, yourself are against yourself, you're embraced by vanta black darkness. I wanted to be by her side and show her that mistakes are to be learned from and then left where they belong, in the past."
Haemin said this. For Ella, but if he knew the truth, Luna was sure that he'd say this for her too.
"Mistakes are to be learned from and then left where they belong, in the past." It repeated in her head.
She realised why she was pulled to this place, not to jump from the railing and die the way Jade had died to punish herself, but because she came here with Haemin. She came to a place where she would find an answer that didn't include self-loathe but self forgiveness.
The low howl of the wind in her ears made goosebumps rise on her arms and the state she was in dawned upon her with sharp clarity. The thought of falling on the horrid looking rocks almost gave her a heart attack. She sucked in her breath and widened her eyes, trying to figure out how to get down without toppling forward. And a gush of wind made her lose her balance.