1 Prologue

A woman stood by the edge of the cliff, watching the sunset which golden afterglow reflected on the sea surface, creating a brilliant and magnificent sight. The wind blew softly, caressing her beautiful countenance. Chatter of seagulls drifted along the wind, reverberated to all directions.

She closed her eyes and spread her hands as she tried to savor the everything she sensed at the moment, the warmth of the sunset, the coldness of the wind and the sound of seagulls. Then, she opened her eyes and turned her head to various directions, akin to a curious kid who was brought by her mom to a night market for the very first time. She tried to remember the scenery unfolded before her eyes. She wanted to engrave everything in her memory as much as possible.

She took a pendant from her jeans pocket and opened it. There was a picture of a beautiful woman and her daughter smiling happily. Both looked at each other with love in their eyes. The woman caressed her daughter head while her daughter propped her chin with her hands, looking up at her mother.

'Mom, I'll be with you soon. Just wait for me.' said the woman inwardly. She stood still for some minutes before she turned around and got into her car. Soon, she drove the car fastly, piercing through the silent and desolate road.

...

Las Vegas

The sound of rock-metal songs resounded throughout the room. Ball of disco reflected the lights to every corner of the night club. The DJ played the song as he danced along with the music.

Men and women were dancing on the floor energetically. Their movements were random but it was oddly in line with the beat of the songs.

Some people who were not dancing sat on the rear, watching the others dancing while sipping various kind of boozes. They talked and laughed loudly, unrestrained and looked happy.

As the time almost midnight, more people came to the night club. They were wearing attractively -flashy and fancy clothes. Especially women, they donned sexy low-cut dress that highlight their bodily assets. Coupled with striking make up, they looked so seductive that it made men wanted to possess them. Some men who had been hooked up by them started to move. They kissed, groped and caressed the body of their respective women. The women on the other hand, seemed alright with their male counterparts advancement.

It was so crowd and festive that everyone felt cheerful, but there was one man that didn't feel so.

He sat in the private room on the second floor. He looked down at the people on the first floor unenthusiastically.

The man swirled the red wine in his glass and was about to drink it when he suddenly stopped as he remembered something. He put the glass down and took the other glass filled with orange juice. It tasted sweet yet bitter at the same time.

In his whole 27 years of life, he never visited night club. To him, this place was a place where indecent people come. So, when his business partners oe friends invited him to this place, he decisively rejected them.

But tonight, he visited the night club to experience the fun that his friends told him.

When he entered the night club with his friends, his mental and body seemed to reject his action but still, he braced himself to proceed further. 'It is alright. There will be fun.' he repeated the sentence over and over again, trying to self hypnotize so he would keep going.

Though he mentally reminded himself not to be disgusted by what he see and experience, he still involuntarily frowned as he disgusted by it. Fortunately, one of his friends was kind enough to book a private room so he would be able to see everything on the night club without directly participating in any activities. He looked around through the private room and soon his curiosity dimmed as there was nothing fun like what his friends described. Probably the fun that his friends told him was everything he disgusted.

The man gulped down the orange juice. He rested his head on the sofa as he looked at the ceiling. His deep black eyes were dull, as if there was nothing matter anymore, as if everything had ended.

He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down from mental chaos that he experienced lately. As he remembered a sentence from five days ago, his tears welled up. He didn't want to believe that sentence. He wanted to reject the meaning of the sentence as much as possible. But inwardly he knew, the meaning was literally alike with the sentence.

There was no hope. He was utterly devastated. He could not hold his tears any longer as it rolled down from the corner of his eyes. He was so sad that the tears which had never fall from his eyes for more than twenty years finally bursted like water from a broken dam.

...

New York

In a hospital, a middle age couple sat on the bench. They looked gloom and frustrated. The woman leaned on her husband shoulder, weeping and sobbing sorrowfully. The man embraced the woman. His eyes were red and it was obvious that he was trying so hard to retain his tears from falling down from his eyes.

Both of them sat and embraced each other. The atmosphere was gloomy and suffocating that it made everyone passed by the couple subconsciously pity them. They knew, in a hospital, with that kind of reaction, the couple must have heard a devastating news. It was just unknown what news that made them feel so bitter.

The middle aged man blinked as he felt his eyes sore. There was moist in the corner of his eyes. In the end, he also cried.