Chapter Text
To whoever is unlucky enough to have found this letter,
Greetings.
They say the cherry blossom petals are the epitome of spring itself, is that statement factual? I have never once glanced a single petal my entire life as the window of my quarters doesn't quite let me see the outside world in a wide view. I suppose I must tell you who I am but for now, I should play with you a little game. This would be the first time I am doing such look down upon activity and the air of secrecy this gives off is making my heart race like the horses prancing around in the field.
I will keep you guessing as to who I am but I will eventually reveal myself to you at the end of this letter.
If by this statement you are not in agreement, could you pass it on to someone who would? My warmest gratitude extends to you if you so wish to accept my request.
Anyways, the cherry blossoms.
I can hear everyone in close proximity talk about how it would be beautiful to bask in the dancing of their petals come spring but I am quite sure I wouldn't be able to participate in such frolicking. My father won't allow it and my mother, bless her soul, might be persuaded but in the end she would take my father's argument and that would be the end of the discussion. It is always the two of them against the world.
I am, I confess, quite envious of how genuine their bond is. I do recognize that they are only protecting me but I would rather much see a cherry blossom petal than spend another time with one of my tutors who treats me as if I am but a little toddler unable to understand their words. It irks me to think that they only do so because it is their work and not because they wanted me to learn.
This is quite the shock, isn't it? Reading a letter from someone you don't know but here you are, curious of the words written on this parchment. I, for one, am more curious of you.
So allow me to ask you a few questions.
What is your favorite season? What kind of life do you live in? Are you free to do your own choices or are they chosen even before you were born?
You might find it hard to send me a reply letter but I promise I will wait for your response even if it takes a millennia.
I am but envious of your freedom yet I am indebted to you for going along with this foolishness of mine.
I bid you well,
Yang Jungwon.
-
Hi,
I just found out about your letter from a book I purchased at a garage sale. I was quite astonished when an envelope plopped into my floor as soon as I opened the book. We are the same with the fact that my life had been planned out for me but I took it by the neck and now I am my own person.
Broke, but I am free.
As for my favorite season, I prefer winter. The chill in the air as soft carols play will always lift up my mood and the thought of curling up in bed with a hot beverage and a good book is too much to pass up on.
I hope you are okay whenever this letter reaches you. I don't even know your address but I have included your name in the post. The postman would probably just send this back to me though. I'm pretty sure they would.
Anyways, I've attached a single cherry blossom petal since, luckily enough, it is spring here where I live in.
I hope you dance under their beauty one day.
All the best,
Lee Heeseung.
-
Greetings Heeseung,
You have a very beautiful name. I found myself practicing to recite it in front of the mirror as I read your letter. Where have you gotten the white package it came in and the little portrait attached on the back? I would want to have them as they look so pretty but when I asked the head bookkeeper, he couldn't determine where it originated. I am glad you replied to my last letter as I have thought it must've scared you.
The cherry blossom petal was a very thoughtful gift and I asked the handmaid to turn it into jewelry, one that I would be able to wear around my person at all times.
It’s strange how your words are comforting even though I haven't had the chance to see your visage. If my father finds out about this, I would surely be banished and never to return.
Do not stop though. Your words were the only solace I had when the cries of the people starving wafts into the silence of my bedroom.
I am glad winters on wherever you are aren't as harsh as the winters here. Livestock die and people starve. My father and mother are doing the best they can, offering the little amount we've saved up but the people are many and resources are scarce.
I will keep this brief as to not alert the courier and he, in turn, alert my father.
Also, if you would kindly answer my question, what is a postman? Is that a new position in the army?
Waiting fervently for your response,
Yang Jungwon.
-
Dearest Jungwon,
I am surprised you don't know what a postman is. They're the ones who gets my letter to you and vice versa. Also, this is called an envelope, a much more widely used container of a letter. It cost almost nothing and won't make a dent in your bank account.
I do find the vintage feel of your letters cute though so it would probably be best you keep the aesthetic. Next month would be our exams and I’m kinda nervous about it. If I fail, it would seem that my parents were right and I would have to obey them once more but if I pass, it would prove that my independence is a good thing.
My friends stayed over last night and left a huge mess. I should probably start cleaning up the bottles of soju before I accidentally break one of them.
Stay well and I hope one day, I get to meet you.
Sincerely,
Heeseung.
-
Heeseung,
If I may abashedly say, I am quite happy with you calling me dearest. It’s such a pure term and I’ve only heard it used once, back when I was little and my mother would coddle me.
The message couriers here never heard of the term postman so I’m guessing it would be a unique term to where you are from. Winter has passed and it is time for springtime again. The cherry blossom petal you have gifted me almost twelve moons ago had been turned into the most beautiful piece of jewelry and I adore having it hung down my neck. Though, I hide it from my parents as to not give them any idea I am speaking with you.
Again, another term with which I am unfamiliar with, what are exams? Are they edible? You use words that aren’t found in any sources here in the library. Aesthetic, cute and even soju. It makes my head hurt thinking I cannot keep up with adult talk.
I will ask of my father for a little bit of freedom to go outside the grounds and join the people in viewing the cherry blossoms once they bloom. For now, he is busy overseeing the census of the people. I heard we lost quite a lot this past winter and my prayers rests on their souls.
I do wish to meet you too,
Jungwon.
-
Dearest Jungwon,
This is how we start our letters to friends. In fact, out of the two of us, you are the weird one. You construct words with such cadence that I haven’t read in any modern letters. If I may say so myself, I would’ve thought you are from the past.
Exams are like tests after every lessons. I’m sure you’ve had one since you said in one of your previous letters that you have a tutor.
And even if you aren’t an adult, I’m pretty sure kids know what those words mean. Also, I am not that old, I just turned 21. That was the reason why my friends had their party here a while back. I cannot believe its spring where you are, the shrill autumn wind just made rounds and everything is in vibrant colors of brown and yellow and orange. It’s as beautiful as the cherry blossoms.
May I ask how old you are?
Sincerely,
Heeseung.
-
Dearest Heeseung,
Writing my greeting had made my face undeniably red that it made the handmaid laugh.
I too have just celebrated my nineteenth twelvemonth.
I believe a greeting is overdue. I wish you happiness and long life. It seems like we live in different parts of the world yet I feel such a connection when reading your letters. I look forward to seeing them in my vanity every time they arrive, contrasting the lush brown of the wood with your letter’s white envelope.
Although, I am exultant to have reached this age, I am quiet fearful of what this implies.
My father is already accepting betrothals from different lands and I couldn’t bear the thought of marrying so soon, but it is to be done to help the kingdom prosper. I do wish to extend an invitation to you once they decide who I am to marry.
If you could, could you whisk me away?
Heeseung stared at the letter in his hand. It was weird how Jungwon hadn’t signed the letter.
He read the letter over and over again until his eyes dried from overuse. The recognition of the words get rejected by his brain every time he rereads the passage over and over. He always found it weird how Jungwon’s words were constructed like it was from olden times and now he is talking about kingdoms and betrothals like it was the weather.
Heeseung scratched his head in frustration, rousing his already naturally messy hair. He sat on his desk and pulled a blank sheet of paper—poised to write what he was thinking but as the tip of his pen touched the white of the paper, his hands stopped. He didn’t know what to say.
Despite not meeting, Heeseung thought of Jungwon like he had known him for all his life. He felt closer to him and maybe much closer than he was to Jake or Riki. Also, Jungwon’s last line worried him. It wasn’t as if he was abused in his own home, Heeseung can read it in his words that he actually loved both his parents but he was also trapped—just like Heeseung was before he decided to go against the flow his parents want him to.
The door to his apartment opened and Jake and Riki came in bickering about something Heeseung deemed irrelevant. He plopped his head backwards and looked at the two with a look of haughty boredom.
“I told you, it was a plate that had a dish with milk for base.” Riki argued, gesturing his arms wildly. Jake rolled his eyes and they both threw their bags at Heeseung’s bed. They still haven’t acknowledged the oldest who followed their movements with vague interest and clear aloofness. Heeseung sometimes gets annoyed how his friends treat his apartment like it was their own, yet Heeseung couldn’t deny that without them, he would’ve wallowed in pitiable silence.
“No. I swear it was a white envelope. It stood out like a sore thumb.” Jake argued back. “Besides, it wasn’t like you poured over the book like I had.” He dragged a tired hand over his face and plopped on Heeseung’s bed with his legs dangling towards the floor.
“Why would there be a white envelope in the Yang dynasty? I thought you were smart?” Riki teased which earned him a pillow to the face—courtesy of one annoyed Jake.
Heeseung’s ears peeled. Yang? He thought and looked at the brown parchment sitting on his table. It was impossible, yet Heeseung doubted that it was just a coincidence. He decided to satiate his curiosity by asking the two younger males.
“What do you mean Yang dynasty?” He asked, swiveling in his chair to give the two a look that offered no escape. Riki plopped down beside Jake’s lying body and slapped the skin on the older guy’s knees that was exposed by the tear on his jeans.
“Ow! What the fuck?”
“Heeseung asked us a question.” Riki deadpanned and gestured towards the oldest who waited for an explanation, dragging both his legs upwards and crossing them, each knee tangent with the arm rests of his chair.
“Oh. I was just studying history. I had this paper about the Yang dynasty and I was pretty sure I saw a white envelope in one of their dinner portraits.” Jake waved his arm around, dismissing the idea of a modern object drawn in a painting from centuries ago. Now that he thought about it, maybe Riki was indeed right.
Heeseung looked like he was thinking of a thousand things at once.
Is this why Jungwon didn’t know modern terms like postman or soju? Why he uses archaic construction of his sentences and words like twelvemonth and why he was so sheltered? Why he hated the winter because winters back then were harsh and unforgiving?
The oldest out of the trio stood up and gathered the letters he’d exchanged with Jungwon. Jake and Riki looked with fascination at the oldest when he held the parcel like it was his lifeline. They never questioned the ancient looking things when they accidentally glanced at it, they’d figure that Heeseung would tell them on time—and it seems like now was the time.
“I—I’ve exchanged letters with someone named Yang Jungwon and I—I think he’s from the past.”
Jake accepted the letters like he would a gold bar. What Heeseung was saying is something that defies time and space, and the aspiring physicist in Jake was skeptical, but the friend in him—the believer in all things supernatural—believed the older guy with all his being.
Heeseung wouldn’t joke about this.
Riki moved towards Jake as the older guy began to peel the cover away, the sight of the ink on the parchment made him think that it should be in a museum instead of on their hands.
The letters were neatly written, like the writer had spent many nights practicing his penmanship.
“The first one fell from a book I got on a garage sale and in a sudden lapse in judgement I wrote back, though I hadn’t thought I would get a reply since I didn’t write any addresses.”
After finishing the first letter, Jake whispered the name signed at the end of the parchment.
It was a name he was very familiar with as he had read it over and over while doing his paper.
Yang Jungwon, the crown prince of the Yang dynasty.
And the reason why it ended.
Dearest Jungwon,
I just found out that you are from the past.
Today is February ninth, year twenty-twenty two. My friend said that today is your birthday. So I just want to write you a happy birthday message. I don’t even know how this letter would get to you and how I would get your letter but I am glad I wrote to you when I found your first letter despite my rational judgement.
I don’t know how time passes between us two as in your last letter you had mentioned about turning nineteen, yet I had received that on December.
Maybe time flows differently for these letters than it does normal.
My friend, Jake, was quite excited about the prospect of something breaking the laws of physics as he is an aspiring physicist and is actually studying to be one. It was through his paper about the reign of your family that I found out I was talking to someone from a distant past.
Riki, my other friend, thought it was weird how we could communicate even though we exist in different timelines but he had that look in his eyes that told me he, too, was fascinated.
This is the first time I am writing to you about my friends but you had said you wanted to know more about me so here they are—another aspect on the life of Lee Heeseung.
It’s weird how, even though, I know you’re a crown prince I don’t find talking, or in this case, writing to you hard. I always await your letters.
And I think whisking you away isn’t possible. I do hope I could be there for you.
Sincerely,
Heeseung.
-
Dearest Heeseung,
You don’t know how glad I was to find your white envelope when I awakened.
I have a vague guess as to why the gods made us communicate with each other. When I was a kid, I had wished zealously for a friend, for someone to talk to without all the pretenses of royal duties binding us. I had thought the thesis to that prayer was my dear friend, Sunoo.
But alas, it was you.
What a twist of fate!
I am quite saddened by the fact that you aren’t far because you live on the opposite side of the world from me but because you are far from me in time. I cannot just order a carriage to take me to you.
Tomorrow, 9th of December year 30th, I would meet my first consort candidate.
It’s weird thinking about it, if I may be too honest. I do not want to marry, at least not until I can say that I can offer my heart to the other person. My mother said I could learn to love my significant other in time like she did my father, yet my heart screams no.
Since you had talked about your comrades, I should talk about mine too.
I have three, yet I cannot say I am close to them as you are to Jake and Riki. By the way their names are lovely too but I like yours the most.
Sunoo is one of the princes from the north, he hails from the Kim family. I met him when the Kims swore their fealty to my family’s crest. He and I have exchanged letters ever since but his does not give me the joy yours does.
Then there’s the cook’s son, Jongseong. We don’t talk much but he always gives me extra servings of the white lotus cake when they do have time to bake it. It is heavenly and I would have loved to give some to you.
And lastly, Sunghoon. Like Sunoo, he is a prince from the north yet their dispositions couldn’t be anymore contrasting. They also have constant arguments and I would always play the median. I am a lot closer to Sunoo in terms of age but I feel like I am a lot closer to Sunghoon since we take the same classes and he lives nearby.
This letter has been long but I do not want to put the quill into the inkwell. I wish to talk to you more. I wish to see you the longer I get to read your words.
And I wonder how it would feel if I get to turn with you underneath the falling of the cherry blossoms.
Waiting underneath the light of Selene for you,
Jungwon.
-
Dearest Jungwon,
I cannot pretend to know how royal traditions work so I cannot tactlessly say to disobey your parents but if you do not wish to marry, maybe you could sit down and talk about it with them. Make them see your reason and come up with a compromise.
Jake and Riki now are interested in reading your replies and insisted I read it out to them.
Yet I deny them of their request. I want your words all to myself.
It’s like this thing is our little secret. A thing only the two of us knows. The guys, of course, were disappointed but I can assure you that they will respect my decision. These letters between us are just too precious to share. They may have read some of them but at least from now on, I can say that your words are only for me.
Same as you, I too wish for all those things to happen.
I await your reply.
Sincerely,
Heeseung.
-
Dearest Heeseung,
I do not know how long a time has passed since my last letter.
I have been too busy preparing for the merger. My father had finally succeeded in finding a royal consort. She is from the east and her family have a good connection with mine. We are compatible, or so they say.
The marriage is to be held in a fortnight. They are pushing the date up since my father had fallen ill and the doctors cannot seem to cure him. I am afraid I might have to step up into a position I am still not ready for.
Your previous letters were my only comfort.
I read them again and again until the wick had burned out and still I read them under the pale glow of the moonlight. I have memorized them by heart now and yet I want to read them in your words, in your handwriting because that would seem like you are saying them to me.
The year I have been preparing opened my eyes to what I might’ve been feeling for you.
Impossible as it seems, I think I harbor romantic feelings for you and that may be the biggest hindrance from making me marry the consort my parents chose for me.
It doesn’t matter if we are of the same gender. I fell for your words and the soul you have entwined with them. That is why I fervently wish for you to forget me.
No matter how hard we try, we couldn’t be.
If you feel the same for me, I beg of you to forget me.
I do not want to tie you down to something that is impossible.
You have to reach for the stars.
Forever yours,
Yang Jungwon.
-
My dearest Jungwon,
I do not know if by the time you’ve read this letter, you would’ve gone through the marriage. I am both glad and saddened to know you might’ve liked me too.
I cannot express what I feel right now as I lock away your letters in a safe place. Maybe one day I would open it with the hopes that they will have disappeared. But for now, I look at them like I would the stars. Something that I want yet I know I cannot have.
I am so glad to have went to that garage sale and pick that book up for, by doing it, I got a chance to know you.
If we had meet under the same sky, I would hold your hand and never let it go. But that’s just a big hypothetical scenario.
Maybe in another time, if we have another chance, I would look for you and we could write things not to each other but with each other addressed to the tomorrow that we will build together.
In modern times, this would be the best part to say these words.
I love you.
For eternity and a lifetime.
Yours,
Heeseung.
P.S. Here’s a picture of me. Something to remember me by.
Heeseung rolled in his bed.
The sunlight filtering on the gaps of his curtain as he tried to lift his tired body away from the comfort of his bed. He only had an hour max of sleep since he had been studying this case for a client which he think was wrongfully incriminated.
He felt like he needed his caffeine fix yet he knows he’s out of beans since Jake had used it in one of his experiments. He groaned.
The book he had bought from the garage sale still sat on his night stand. It has been seven years since his last letter to Jungwon. He wasn’t even sure if it had reached him but the morning after he wrote the letter, it had vanished.
He hadn’t had the heart to search for information regarding his lost love. He knew it would just break his heart to see more of him after he had begged Heeseung to forget about him.
Yet the lawyer still couldn’t get the guy out of his mind.
As he stepped into the cold winter air, pulling the trench coat closer to his body and pushing his silver-rimmed glasses up, he looked around the little people walking about the snowy landscape.
He trudged into the snow, glad that it had stopped falling, and walked to his favorite coffee shop. He loved the snow, loved the winter, but Heeseung without his morning coffee doesn’t want to be disturbed by the coldness of snow on his face—the one underneath his boots is enough.
Opening the door to café Moonlight, the barista greeted him and immediately fixed him his order even without him talking. He’d frequented the shop so much that Geonu had already memorized his order by heart.
“Here you go. One tall Americano with a hint of cinnamon.” Geonu said and placed the java cup on the counter. “Jake and Riki’s not with you?”
“Nah. They’re still sleeping.” Heeseung answered and took a sip, feeling the warm liquid trailing down his throat and wakening his senses.
When he graduated, he moved closer to his law firm and bought a house that he and the other two had shared. It was spacious and it provided them enough privacy. It feels like home, especially with the other two with him.
“Thanks.” He said and paid.
Geonu gave him a small smile and went to entertain the next person in-line.
Heeseung waved and turned around ready to lose himself with the casefile once again now that he had his caffeine fix.
As he opened the door, he glanced up and read the shop sign. He’s had a thing for good graphic designs even as a kid and the sign was no exception.
Moonlight.
A body collided with his and caused him to drop his cup into the waiting snow below—staining the white with brown.
“I’m sorry!” The guy apologized and bowed over and over. “I was going in for my shift and I was running late so I was rushing and I didn’t notice you going out!”
Heeseung just looked at him then at his spilled coffee in shock.
He was about to say it was okay when a pink petal-like pendant fell out from the guy’s turtleneck from his constant bowing that almost made him freeze like he had been hit with a blizzard.
He knew it was impossible. He knew it couldn’t be. He knew it might just be a coincidence. And he for sure knew that staring was rude.
“It’s alright.” He answered calmly yet his mind was reeling.
The guy looked up and when brown met brown, Heeseung found himself speechless.
‘Waiting underneath the light of Selene for you.’
Heeseung slowly looked at the sign that harbored the name of the shop.
Moonlight.
The guy’s hand immediately clutched at the cherry blossom pendant that dangled from his neck. Heeseung smiled, relieved and overwhelmed and everything in between.
He knew it was impossible. He knew it couldn’t be. He knew it might just be a coincidence. And he for sure knew that maybe the gods gave them another chance.
“I don’t know you but is it possible we had met before?” The guy said, his voice sounding hopeful yet confused. His right hand still clutching the cherry blossom pendant. A promise.
“I feel the same way too.” Heeseung brought his hand out and offered it to the guy—who looked like he had forgotten why he was rushing in the first place. “I’m Lee Heeseung.”
The guy tried the sound of his name on his lips and smiled.
“You have a very beautiful name.”