The Letters He Never Sent || Minsung

35

I slowly open my eyes, trying to stretch out—yet it's hard due to the weight on my chest. I look down at the boy laying on me, a smile crossing my face as I see him. He looks absolutely beautiful in this moment, with the sun on his skin.

I take my hand and lay it on his back—caressing him up and down. He slowly starts to wake up to the feeling, and I smile as we make eye contact.

"Hi." I say, a huge smile on my face.

"Goodmorning." He rubs his eyes. "How long have you been—" he is now interrupted by his own yawn,
"—awake?"

I suddenly yawn too. "Not that long."

He hums.

He doesn't say anything else, he just cuddles closer to me with his eyes closed. I have to admit it, I am getting a little sweaty. I fell asleep in my clothes, and then had a blanket drenched over me. So it's safe to say I'm not cold—at all.

"We should get up. I have a date to take you on." I say.

His eyes flutter open again, and he looks at me curiously. "Already? What time is it?"

I look at the clock on his wall. "Quarter to eleven" I say. "We should get lunch."

He nods, stretching out. He slowly sits up with a little moan, and I giggle at his bed head. His hair is going in every other direction than it should be. He takes his hand and pats his hair, frowning a bit.

"Do you feel better today?" I ask.

He adjusts himself on my hips, "Define better."

"Do you feel... more whole— than you did yesterday?" I ask, not knowing how else to phrase it.

He shakes his head. "Not really—but you're here. And you keep me from doing bad things." He says.

"Have you even considered talking to someone about this—someone with a degree for this stuff, I mean.." I ask, carefully.

"I have, but I have never had access to those things." He says. "Hence why I am so fucked. My parents would rather send me to a bible camp than therapy."

I frown. "That's— " I take a deep breath. "Never mind. This day is about us, not your parents. So let's go have fun, eh?" I say.

He nods.

*

"I'm kinda not hungry though.." He whines.

"You need to eat, it's just a small snack too." I say, paying for the pastry.

He sighs. "Why would you even pay that much for food if i might not even be alive the next day?"

I take the bag from the cashier, then I turn to him with my brows furrowed. "You will be, so I can spend however much I want on you."

We continue to walk down the streets, stopping at all the little shops. Jisung slowly ate his pastry, saying it was actually really good. Jisung only lives a few blocks from the streets, so we decided to take a walk over here to get something to eat.

"These streets are so nice.." I say.

He nods. "I always love walking down these streets. Me and my mom always used to come here on Sundays."

"Really?" I ask, looking at him.

He nods, then lets out a little sigh. "Before she turned all crazy and controlling, she was actually a pretty sweat woman."

I nod. "That's nice. I'm sorry she changed.."

He shakes his head. "Me too, but things change and so do people." He looks at me. "What about your mom.. what's she like?"

I look away from him, letting out a heavy breath. "She was— she.. I don't even know." I chuckle. "I met her a while ago actually, that's when I was all messed up."

He nods. "Yeah? I just though that was—"

"—Because of you? No way." I shake my head. "I'm sorry I acted the way I did though."

He shakes his head. "Don't be. We all go through hardships. I just wish I was more understanding over that.."

"Yeah, I guess so." I say.

He lets out a shaky breath. We continue walking until we reach the end of the street. We debate on going further, but after some serious thinking we both just admit we are tired.

"Let's go home and watch a movie or something." I suggest as we start to walk back to his place.

He nods. "I'd like that."

We spend the rest of the walk talking about little things—or more I was talking and he was just listening. He is a bit off lately, but I just assume with everything going on inside that's the way he is bound to be.

I just don't want him to be lonely. I know he can feel lonely without actually being lonely, but I want him to know he isn't. I want him to know I'm always here, even if I physically am not.

We reach his house, and start to go up the path. However, a phone call stops us both. I take my phone out of my pocket, giving him an apologetic look as I walk to the end of the path again.

I press the answer button and put the phone up to my ear. "Hello?" I ask.

"Hey Minho! This is Mrs. Kim, I need to talk with you about something really serious." She says.

I look back up to Jisung, then answer her. "Like what? It's the break—what's important?"

I can hear her sigh. "Well... you unfortunately got into the college." She deadpans.

My eyes widen. "Seriously?" I say.

She giggles. "I'm being serious. They want you Minho."

"No way." I say. "Like your not joking with me.. are you being for real?"

She giggles. "I am!! They said they absolutely loved what you wrote about. You got in Minho, you did it!" She says.

I smile and chuckle myself. "Wow... I can't believe this." I say.

"Yeah, but the thing is I need you to come down right now to finalize everything—is that alright?" She asks.

"Yeah uh—give me a minute." I say.

I pull the phone away from my ear, and walk back up to Jisung. "Hey, I need to go to the school really quickly."

His face changes to a worried one. "Why, what's wrong?"

I smile. "Nothing, but I just got excepted into the collage we applied to as a joke." I say excitedly.

"You mean the one over seas?" He asks.

I nod.

"Oh—" he says. I can see he isn't as excited as I am, but he puts on a smile anyway. "—Yeah, go. Oh my god, go. I'll be fine."

I smile widely, and give him a kiss. "You're the best, I love you so much." I start to run to my car on the street. "I'm sorry for leaving, be safe!" I yell.

I start the car and buckle my seatbelt, continuing my conversation with my principal. I wave one last time to him, him waving back as I begin to drive. As I drive off, I see Jisung quickly run inside — I'm guessing due to the weather.