when the woman's son went up to his room, she made the prompt decision by to follow him. she wanted to comfort him, sure, but she knew he didn't like that, so she told herself she would stay downstairs.
as she watched the tuft of mint green hair round the last corner at the top of his stairs, she remembered the ring at the door that produced an unusual package. she sat up from her place at the dining room table and sighed, pushing her chair back in and making her way toward the front door.
what greeted her was a baby blue cardboard box, neatly wrapped in hot pink tape. it was her monthly beauty box, which consisted of five sample items for ten dollars. and when she picked it up, she caught her first glimpse of the letter.
it was a plain white envelope, with a red sticker in the middle to hold the flap shut and a statue of liberty stamp on the right corner. she examined the letter carefully, her heart racing when she flipped it over.
to: yoongi
from: dad
she clutched her heart as she remembered her husband who had left her five years previous. she knew yoongi blamed himself for his father leaving, and always would, no matter how many times she convinced him otherwise.
after a few moments of debating whether or not to bring the letter to her son, she finally complied, and began making her way up the staircase.
she softly tapped twice on the bedroom doorway with her knuckle, and to her surprise, yoongi answered almost immediately. he was wearing a red jacket and he had put on his shoes.
"i'm going for a walk." he said, shutting the door behind himself and swiftly making his way past his mother.
"wait!" she pleaded, pulling the letter out from behind her back. "take this."
the boy didn't question his mother and just nodded, not examining the letter or its contents before shoving it into his coat pocket with a grunt. "i'll be back in an hour or so, okay?"
but before waiting for her response, he jogs out of the house and onto the night streets. he was only ten at the time, but his mother allowed him to come and go as he pleased for two reasons. one, because he didn't go out of the house any other time and it allowed him some fresh air, and two, because there was nothing she could do to stop him, anyways.
the boy walks a far distance to the beach a ways downtown from him. he stops at an ice cream shop and gets a strawberry cone drizzled with chocolate, taking it by the water. night has fallen completely now, the only residences on the beach being him and the ocean.
as he sat on the sand and watched over the waves slowly crashing onto the surface, he remembered the crumpled letter he had placed in his pocket. he lays down and unfolds the piece of paper.
he flips it over and nearly cries when he sees the incomprehensible handwriting that belonged to his father only he and his mother could read. several emotions fill his heart at once, hatred, sadness, hope.
hatred that his dad left he and his mother early one august morning with no explanation,
sadness that he had to grow up without a dad, and all the activities that came with one,
hope that the letter would bring a new horizon, a new beginning. maybe his dad would finally return, or maybe he was just wishing him a happy birthday. so many thoughts refused to quit running through his mind.
coming to an internal decision, he didn't even open the letter before pulling out his lighter and slowly watching it be swallowed by flames.
