[Chapter theme - "Departure to the West" - copy paste tinyurl.com/hofsotsound in the browser ]
After saying goodbye, sharing their provisions and parting ways with everything Soo-Ah'd known for the past seven autumns of her life, ahead came the unknown. The journey to the northern barracks would be the first road trip she ever took. Behind them, columns of smoke bid them farewell. With a bitter heart, Soo-Ah and her grandfather distanced themselves from the familiar village. Soo-Ah would miss the thatched roof houses that once sat peacefully in the shallow and rich valley, nurtured by the river, tucked away between the hills. Beyond the gentle mounds awaited anxiousness and awe.
