Love Letters

14: Family

After the almost kiss with Hoshi, I haven't seen him the rest of the week. It's not because we've been awkward since then. He's been busy with work plus the dance team has an upcoming competition. That means Chan, Minghao, and Jun were busy too so I couldn't call them to hang out. I text Mingyu, but he is visiting an old friend with Vernon and Wonwoo. I don't even dare asking Jihoon or Jeonghan. Jihoon most likely wouldn't want to and Jeonghan is always busy with student council stuff. Joshua doesn't even answer his phone so I don't ask, Seungcheol answers but says he is busy trying to catch up on the homework he was behind on otherwise he would've, and Seungkwan and Seokmin are busy recording songs for their vocal class.
That means, sadly, I have the day to myself. In all honesty, I wanted to hang out with at least one of them today. I was becoming a little homesick, missing my boys back home. I thought of calling them too but I know they are busy with training. I even call the girls, but they are all visiting family as well.
Sighing, I fall onto my bed, facing the ceiling. It's quiet for a moment while I think about nothing in particular. What to do? I turn my head and notice my computer on my desk. Sitting up, I stare at it, deciding if I should really do it.
"When do I not watch kdrama though?"
I shrug and grab the computer, moving myself to the living room.
Easier access to the food, duh. Immediately, I begin looking up a new drama to watch. Scrolling through loads of titles I've already watched, I finally see one I haven't watched.
"Fall In Love With Me." I read the title out loud, "Sounds interesting to me." I shrug and click on the first episode.

~
In the middle of the seventh episode, I finally receive a text from Joshua. I unlock my phone, reading his text quickly:

Shua: Hey, cousin! You busy today :)
Shua: Sorry I didn't answer earlier. I was taking a nap and had my phone on silent.

I'm not in the mood to hang out with him anymore. I type a response to him before engaging myself back into the show I'm deep into:

Me: You should've answered earlier =(
Me: I have plans now

~

The door to my house opens, and once again I don't look up to see who entered. I stuff some potato chips in my mouth like the junky I am, keeping my eyes glued to the screen in front of me like my life depends on it.
"Thought you said you have plans?" Joshua's voice rings in my ears.
"Yeah, my show is on." I plop a handful of chips into my mouth, not even looking at him.
"Come on, Momoe. I bet you've been sitting on your butt all day since you called me and I didn't answer." He chuckles, sitting on the couch, facing me.
"Speaking of that, you didn't answer me cause you were taking a nap?" I raise an eyebrow at him.
"Yeah. And?"
"I called you at ten in the morning..."
"Your point is?"
"It's almost two o'clock now."
"I stayed up all night last night because of a project that's due on Monday. I wanted to finish it early cause I haven't seen you since break started. I figured I should see you before you go back."
I press pause on my computer then look back at him with a sigh.
"Watch this with me then." I pout.
"Not a chance." He smiles.
"You're so mean." I whine.
"You're still as childish as ever." He chuckles, ruffling my hair, "You and Soonyoung are similar in that way."
"Maybe that's why we get along so well." I shrug, going back to click play but he grabs my wrist.
"Why don't you get off your lazy booty and let's do something productive?"
"Okay... Like what?" I tilt my head.
He's silent for a few seconds thinking, making me smirk.
"You don't know, huh?"
"Give me a few minutes. I'll think of something."
"Well, when you figure it out, tell me. In the meantime, I'm gonna watch this and cry my heart out." I wiggle my wrist out of his grasp easily and press play.
He stands up and begins to walk around the living room, curiosity getting the best of him. He slowly walks around the room, seemingly examining the area like a detective. It distracts me for a few seconds, cause what in the world is going on in that boy's mind that'll help him come up with an idea to get me off my inactive ass? I eventually shrug him off and advert my attention back to the screen.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I notice him pick up one of the many photo albums on the shelf next to the home videos shelf. He flips to a random page in it and scrunches his eyebrows.
"Momoe?"
"Hmm?" I respond, still look at the screen.
"Have you looked at any of these old photo albums?" He asks, flipping to another page.
"Nope. Why do you ask?"
"Cause this album is from-" he looks at the front cover, "1920 and the guy in here looks exactly like me."
"Jinjja?" My eyes widen and I pause the show to look at him.
"See." He walks over to me, still looking at the picture and sits down next to me, "Doesn't this guy look exactly like me?"
I study the picture, looking at every detail of the man's face. I blink a few times, making sure I'm not going crazy. Back and forth, I look at Joshua then the photo then back again.
"Wah~ He does look like you. Kinda scary how similar the two of you are." I scoot the photo book closer to me, "Wouldn't that be our great grandpa?"
We both look at each other, our mouths agape.
"Whoa." We say at the same time.
"Guess what we're doing the rest of the day." He smiles.
"Discovering our family tree!"
"Yes." We high five then turn back to the photos.
Flipping through the pages, we find pictures of all kinds of people with our great grandpa. Most of the pictures are of the time when he was our age, right before he met our great grandma. The reason we came up with this theory is because the only girls who showed up in the pictures were family like his mom and sisters.
Soon enough, we reach a section when handwritten letters begin to appear. The envelope was old and crinkled. You can tell by the stamp on it in the corner and the old, brownish stains in small spots on the papers.
"Should we read them? There's a few of them in here." He carefully looks at the other pages to see that there's more.
"Wouldn't you like to know the love story between our family?" I smirk.
"If I'm telling the truth, then yes."
Clearing his throat, he sits up straight and begins to read them out loud.
In summary, it's all in his point of view about how he met her. She met him because her best friend used to work with him and they were close friends. He actually liked her best friend a lot and tried to get to know the best friend through her, meaning they hung out a lot. One day, he hit her best friend in the head with a soccer ball, which ended up making her hate his guts. He was trying his best to apologize to the best friend and her, because she was pissed, but she was a stubborn girl. The best friend let it go but she never did. He bought her a bunch of things in apology, but she refused to accept any. Eventually, he publicly apologized to her, even though she wasn't the one he hit, and she finally accepted it. He didn't know it at the time but he was trying so hard to apologize because he liked her. She didn't want to believe it, but she was starting to like him as well, but she liked someone else first and that someone else was finally getting feelings for her. Soon enough, he convinced her to go on a date and when he dropped her off back home, he kissed her goodnight for the first time which led to many more like so. That's when she started to fall in love with him. He eventually courted her and years later they got married and had kids who were our grandparents. The sad part about this story is that the best friend did like him back but saw how he got worked up for her instead, making her give up on him. Her best friend didn't tell the two of them about it until years after they married. It was the last thing he wrote in the letters, after mentioning how horrible he felt about it, but doesn't regret it since he fell in love with a beautiful woman.
"That was intense." Joshua looks at me, "Wouldn't that be something to witness in modern day?"
"Y-yeah..." I frown, staring at the papers in front of me.
"You alright, Momoe? You look kind of pale now." He frowns.
"It's nothing. Don't worry about it."
"Momoe, I haven't seen you in years, but I still know you. We're blood, I can tell when my family is upset. You're probably my closest and favorite cousin. Jebal, tell me what's wrong."
"Joshua..." I mumble, my voice slightly cracking.
His eyes follow mine and he stares at the letters in confusion. His lips form a straight line as he thinks.
"Does it have to do with the letters?"
All I do is nod.
"Momoe, you have to tell me so I can help you. It's not good to help stuff in-"
"Ex."
"Ex?"
"My ex..."
"What about him?"
"He did that to me. He left me for my best friend after getting to know her through me."
He stares at me for a long time, but I keep my mouth shut. He gently puts the papers back in the envelope and shut the album. He places it on the coffee table next to my computer then faces me, his hands folded in his lap.
"So you're telling me, what happened to our great grandpa, happened to you, but instead you're the best friend?"
"Ne..."
"Omo. Momoe, mianhe. How long ago was this?"
"Senior year. Not just any normal day though. It was the night of prom."
"Ah jinjja aish." He shakes his head in disappointment and wraps his arms around me in comfort, "You don't deserve that kind of treatment."
"You're right. I don't. But it happened." I smile sadly at him, "I'm okay now. I have a boyfriend and we're happy together. He won't hurt me."
"He better not. Otherwise, he'll never know what's coming."
I can't help but laugh at him, covering my mouth in the process.
"What? You don't think I can beat him up?"
"Not to be rude, Shua, but you're a softie. I can't imagine you hurting even an ant. You're too much of a sweetheart." I smile big, "I wouldn't have you any other way though."
"Well I'm glad you're smiling now. It's all in the past now so just let it go and think about the upcoming future. How about we burn all of the photos of the two of you together?" He smirks.
"Wow, Joshua being violent? That's new." I giggle.
"Yah, do you want to do it or not?" He raises an eyebrow.
"Sure. I actually have all the photos here. I brought them here because I didn't want them anywhere near me in Cali. Thank goodness I did cause now I can get rid of him forever."
He stands up then holds his hand out to me with a giant smile.
"Then lets get that box of photos and burn them. How does a bonfire sound?"