BTS Christmas drabbles 2020 [BxB]

10- From letters to texts - vmon

Prompt: Namjoon and Taehyung both sign up for a Christmas Pen Pal project to exchange postcards.

Namjoon had always liked writing. And by that, he meant hand-writing. In an era where people were obsessed with their smartphones, using posts and tweets and texts and direct messages and emails, Namjoon preferred the slowness that came with writing cursives on paper. There was something meaningful about pouring your thoughts and feelings on a blank page, forever imprinted in the dark ink staining its perfect whiteness. During the times where he'd been struggling mentally, Namjoon used to say that he was soiling immaculate surfaces with the darkness of his torments, a very poetic and otherwise dramatic image Yoongi had pushed him to reuse in some of his lyrics later on. Now, years later, with a new peace of mind and new notebooks to fill with words, Namjoon liked to think of handwriting as the symbol of an intimate and personal journey, the itinerary of which was defined by the traced curves and strokes left by ink on paper.

It was not always about poetic musings, though. Namjoon, who really liked travelling, took pleasure in sending letters and postcards to his family and friends. He also had a couple of friends who lived abroad and who Namjoon would write handwritten letters to. Don't get him wrong, as a millennial, he perfectly knew how to use his smartphone and his computer; he had an Instagram and a Twitter which he also knew how to use, and he would occasionally help his parents whenever they were confronted with some technology-related problem. But there was a special feeling that came with the exchange of letters — the pleasure of thinking of your text before writing it, of sealing the envelope close and choosing a pretty stamp to adhere with care, and then the expectation of receiving something back.

You got it, Namjoon loved handwriting and handwritten letters. Which is why, when Jimin asked him if he wanted to participate in the Christmas Pen Pal project he and Hoseok had just set up, Namjoon immediately signed up.

The procedure had been easy. Namjoon had filled out a Google Form that Hobi had sent him, with specifying if he preferred to write the first letter or to receive it, and then he had waited a few days to be assigned a partner. Jimin had told him some of their common friends were also taking part of the project, but that the pairs would be decided by an algorithm anyway — yeah, technology could really do wonders, sometimes, although Namjoon figured they could very well have written names on pieces of paper and then draw at random.

To say that Namjoon looked forward to this project was an understatement. Sure, he was a bit reserved by nature, but the perspective of sharing something with someone who was as willing as he to write an actual handwritten letter had him all eager and jittery, just like a kid impatiently waiting for Christmas. On the first of December, finally, he received an email from the address Jimin and Hoseok had specially created for the project. His assigned partner was one Kim Taehyung, residing in Seoul just like Namjoon, actually not too far from his workplace. The rules said the participants had to write at least one letter each, and that, of course, its contents were to be only positive messages about Christmas, the end of the year, and the year to come. Namjoon had volunteered to write a letter first, and he was determined to make Kim Taehyung want to return maybe more than one letter. Someone who cared about handwritten letters couldn't be a bad person, and Namjoon didn't mind making new friends in an old-fashioned-way. If anything, the thought that they already had something in common was oddly comforting, and Namjoon had a good feeling about this Kim Taehyung.

Thus, Namjoon's first letter was sent on December 3rd, and a reply came on December 6th. Namjoon was delighted to see that Kim Taehyung seemed to be as eager as he was to keep this exchange going on for a bit longer. His grammar was impeccable, which was a relief to Namjoon. Plus, the guy's handwriting was pretty and lisible, and Namjoon had a soft spot for beautiful handwriting. Kim Taehyung's letter was polite and cute, too; Namjoon had sent him a polaroid of his little potted plants, if only to drop a subject of conversation, and his pen pal partner had attached a polaroid of his cute little Pomeranian (Yeontan) in reply.