Written Confessions | Boy Story Jia Hanyu

6 - new beginnings

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『September 2019』

Around six months have passed since the last letter was sent, so here's a recap of what happened during that time before the new beginning in the lives of these teens is revealed.

Erica and Hanyu both graduated middle school with good grades and a clean record, thankfully there were no mishaps or setbacks in that regard. Both of their lives went on as normal, Erica hanging out regularly with the rest of 3ChaCha and doing other hobbies in her free time and Hanyu training hard and having a new comeback. Everything was normal, except for one thing.

Whenever one of the two was stressed, or needed advice about something, they couldn't give in to their instinct to take out a notebook and write to their penpal because they didn't have one anymore.

Because they had got used to relying on another person, both teens had to find another way to cope with hard times in their life. Erica, who found that writing it all down was the best thing for her, began to write songs while Hanyu, who didn't specifically need to talk about everything, found a love for playing piano as it helped him release his stress through music. So in a way, the two were able to grow a bit more as people because they found ways to deal with difficulties by themselves and develop their independence.

The only thing was, both teens still felt a slight sense of disappointment in how everything turned out in the end. All those letters, memories, life lessons, and they didn't even get to say goodbye properly.

The last time you saw Erica she was getting ready to send her last letter, but unfortunately for her that last letter didn't arrive to Hanyu, nor did she get a goodbye letter from him. Weeks had passed after she dropped it off at the post office but Erica got no response or indication that the letter had been received. It was only around the time of her graduation that she found out that as soon as the program ended the schools involved in the exchange stopped delivering the letters sent by the various pairs of penpals, so she concluded that their letters must have missed the deadline and just weren't delivered.

It was sad, yet Erica still held on to her wish that one day they would meet again, no matter how unrealistic that hope was. But half a year had gone by and now that Erica was starting high school, she felt that it was time to turn the page and expand her circle of friends at her new school.

While her high school was connected to the middle school that she had graudated from and Jianne now went to, this didn't mean that the jump from middle to high school was any smaller. For example, throughout their three years of high school, students were expected to spend one day a week at a job placement for work experience and training. After a lot of consideration, Erica finally decided to apply to an internship in management, and fortunately she was able to secure a place at a company close to school.

In fact, that's where she was today for the induction course that was set to take place before school began. Erica was nervous at first, but found that it was less daunting once you were actually there. It was odd at first because she had to wear semi-formal clothing to fit in with the professional atmosphere of the office, but having other people her age there doing similar training programs and internships helped to make it seem less intimidating. The people in charge of managing the interns were not as harsh and pedantic as Erica thought they would be, so after going through the basic company rules and the breakdown of how they would be working, she felt that the job she was about to take on was no longer a hugely impossible task.

Erica was scheduled to work at the company every Friday for the time she would normally be spending in school, which was from 7:30am to 5pm.

This was perfect timing because her sister Jianne enrolled in an extracurricular program for music production at the same company, which lasted for the last half of the school day.

Today's lunch break had just started for Erica, and while she enjoyed learning about the new environment she'd be spending one day a week in, she was more than willing to take a break and have some food instead. She made her way to the staff room in the building, which felt very strange and unfamiliar as she was used to seeing her teachers at school go into staff rooms and couldn't imagine herself doing the same until now. Just as she was about to dig into her delicious pasta, Erica's phone rang and interrupted her long awaited meal.

"Erica? Are you there?" Erica's mom had just called, with her voice booming through the speakers and causing Erica to hold the phone at arm's length.

"Yes I'm here, do you need anything?"

"Could you please give Jianne her lunchbox? I left it at the secretaries' office on the ground floor. She's always staying up late and it's starting to affect her memory, it's because of all that kpop!"

Erica shook her head with amusement, "Ok Mom I'll go give it to her."

Slightly irritated she wouldn't have as much time to eat but also excited to hear about Jianne's introduction to making music, Erica retrieved Jianne's lunch from downstairs and walked to the room she was assigned to, having to ask directions on the way because the building was still unfamiliar to her and she couldn't self-navigate for her life.

She eventually made it there and was about to open the door when it suddenly swung open. Two boys walked casually out of the room and Erica had to stop herself from doing a double take when she realised who they were. To prevent them from thinking she was a crazy fan, Erica gave them an awkward smile as a greeting and made her way into the room as quickly as she could to find Jianne. Thankfully all of the other students had already left to go to the canteen.

"Jianne!" Erica whisper-shouted, "Did you see what I just saw?!"

"I know right," Jianne said with a sarcastic tone while putting aside the laptop she was working on and clearing her workspace at her group table. "Who would have known that we would meet Boy Story while doing programs and internships at the company they're under?"

✩.･*:｡≻───── ⋆♡⋆ ─────.•*:｡✩

Word count: 1169
Written: 17/03/21
Published: 23/04/21

A/N: I'm currently working on chapters in advance but I wanted to space out the posting of these first few just so I don't bombard anyone with too many of the (and also because it's taking me forever to get past chapter 11 jsjsjdjjd) anyways enjoy!!

Edit: For some reason my chapters aren't uploading? Idk if it's the same with anyone else but after I "upload" a chapter and then go to read over it, it always comes up as a draft :(