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Nature's Masterpieces
TOO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,
The first thing you learn is to cry. From the second you're born we wail to breath, scream for food, weep for love. Before you can speak, or walk, or even remember, you cry. With joy, with despair. With relief, with pain. In its simplest form, to cry is to be human.
Then we spend the rest of our lives learning not to. Learning to hold things inside. Bottle up your tears — and your hopes and dreams with them. Bottle them up. Because that's the way of the world. The cold, cold world, made of people too full of their own tears for yours.
But don't judge them too harshly. One day, child, one day you'll be one of them. You'll understand then.
Or maybe you won't. Maybe you'll dream, maybe you'll cry, maybe you'll shine. A star. Bright, burning, beautiful.
I had a friend like that once. He seemed to believe I was one of you. Or that the very least that I hade hopes and dreams like you do. I told him I don't. I don't even sleep. He never believed me.
Your father was a strange man. I never understood him. But I know one thing: he'd be proud of you. He'd want you to cry.
With best wishes: Valamir Alinsky, Esquire
PS: I took it upon myself to include a portion of your father's fortune. It should cover any expenses, either in the wake of our meeting or before it. Consider it an apology. Your father always said humans liked them.
———
SOO-JIN HAD NEVER BEEN HAPPIER TO GET OFF A PLANE IN HER LIFE. Which was quite the statement — she was almost always happy to remove herself from planes. They were always cramped, poorly cleaned, and never smelled less than vaguely like sweat. And, most importantly, getting off the plane meant she was home.
Min-Joon and Ah-Yeon where already waiting when she had arrived. Soo-Jin had expected that, having called them the night before so they would be prepared. It took everything to keep Ah-Yeon from wriggling out of her father's grasp and running off for a hug.
Not that Soo-Jin blamed her. There was a wave of relief as she collapsed into their embrace.
Of course, very little got past Min-Joon. There were benefits to being observant. He noticed Soo-Jin had been exhausted when she arrived, that she cried when she saw them and didn't even try to hide it like she normal did. He noticed that she insist on sitting in the back as they drove home, so Ah-Yeon could sit on her lap, and that she let the girl sleep in their room when she'd normally tell her she had to get use to sleeping alone.
