He had been alone for half of his life. For years now, he hadn’t felt any love. After having been forced to leave his hometown to live far away from everything he had been used to, he had never felt truly loved again. And even in his childhood, the childhood which should have been his happiest memory, the one thing that was missing was true and honest love. He had been lonely for so long now that no matter how many people were around him, he was trapped in loneliness. Deep, deep loneliness. He had lived in a hospital for years over years, but in the end, no one was with him when he wasn’t feeling well. When he needed nothing more than to hear calming words, he had no one to call, no one to ask to cheer him up. Moon was all alone in this huge and scary world. He had realized this years ago. He had dealt with this lonely feeling for so long. Yet, when he was ten thousand feet above the ground, he realized it once again.

While everyone had someone by their side to lean on, he was all alone. Everyone around him had someone next to them they knew. But for him, all of them were strangers. No one was there for him to hold his hand when he was scared during the department. No one was there for him to make all these hours in the air a little more fun. No one was going to be there for him when he arrived in a country he hadn’t been in for so long. He was all alone.

Moon wasn’t sure what he was waiting for, who he was waiting for. He didn’t expect anyone to show up. Or maybe no one expected him? He knew no one was going to pick him up and drive him to his new home. No one was going to begin this new chapter of his life with him. Once again, he was alone. There was no reason to wait. Still, Moon waited. He liked the feeling of waiting and pretending that there was someone in his life. He liked to just sit somewhere in the big hall of Bangkok’s airport next to his luggage surrounded by many people and wait. Wait for something to happen. Wait for someone to get him out of the reality he had been wanting to escape for years now.

“Excuse me for bothering you. Is that seat already taken?” A stranger welcomed Moon in this country. Besides the stewardess and a few people working at the airport, no one had talked to him since he had arrived here. Just this unknown guy who was standing in front of him pointing at the seat next to Moon. Moon looked up at the guy. He was about the same age as Moon, maybe a little older. Judging from the way he looked and the language he had spoken, Moon guessed he was Thai, maybe even from this town. Moon needed some time to progress what the stranger had just said to him. Moon hadn’t heard his native language for many years now, had only spoken and used it occasionally, and even those few times didn’t make the process of translating the stranger’s words and his own thoughts into the right language easier.

“Uh,” the stranger made a nervous sound after he had realized the one sitting in front of him didn’t understand him and he had judged him as Thai wrongly. He scratched his neck, couldn’t stop his cheeks from blushing. He was too embarrassed to form a sentence in English, just stared at Moon without saying another word.

“I’m… it’s not taken. You can… sit here,” Moon answered in Thai. He tried his best to not mispronounce anything, but he still had a long way to go to be fluent again. He moved his luggage to the side for the other one to sit more comfortably. The guy thanked him with a shy smile and sat down next to him.

“Are you waiting for someone?” the stranger asked in Thai again. He spoke a lot more slowly now because he had understood the one he was talking to needed to concentrate to understand what was being said. The stranger was interested in Moon, wanted to keep conversating with Moon even though it would take a little longer to get an answer. The stranger was patient and didn’t have a problem with waiting for responses. Maybe he shouldn’t have a conversation with someone he didn’t know and who couldn’t even speak his language fluently, maybe he shouldn’t be this nosy. But he didn’t mind, he didn’t let those kinds of thoughts stop him. While everyone else would have stayed quiet after they had realized Moon wasn’t good at this language, he wanted to have a conversation with this stranger, wanted to help him with practicing this language. Something about the unknown guy sitting next to him amazed him so much that he was ready to do something unusual, something unexplainable, something his heart told him to do.

“Not really,” Moon answered shaking his head. Moon felt a lot more comfortable with speaking imperfect Thai after noticing the efforts the one next to him made to have a conversation with Moon. He knew he wouldn’t be judged for poor language skills by him, knew that it was okay to make mistakes in front of him. “I’m just not ready to leave yet.”

“Is it that scary here? For you to feel anxious?”

“I guess it is,” Moon replied as he shrugged his shoulders and looked away from the stranger afterward. He was scared to death. Moon was about to change everything. He was going to leave behind everything he was used to and was never going to get back to those things. He was going to change his whole life, himself, and pretty much everything this world had given him. He was scared of this change. He was terrified and more anxious than ever. He didn’t want to be here, but there was no other place he could be at, no other place he could go to.

“I know it is hard to believe,” the guy continued to talk even though Moon wasn’t looking at him anymore. He didn’t take his eyes off Moon, he just couldn’t stop looking at him. “But maybe the place you are scared of can bring good memories into your life. Maybe there isn’t a reason to be scared.” Maybe this place could make Moon happy again.