Chapter Text
The mailbox made a familiar sound as the daily mail hit the bottom of the metal container. For a few weeks now letters had been arriving at Artemis' house every other week. These letters only bore the information of the receiver and none of the sender.
When she received the first letter, this freaked Artemis out, and naturally, she told her friends at work about it. Unexpectantly, her colleagues seemed to know more about the situation than they were letting on and assured her that the sender had no bad intentions. No matter how hard she pressed, they would not reveal the identity of the sender. This left Artemis with no other choice but to reply to the letter.
The first letter that she had received gave off the energy that the sender was eager to talk while also trying to avoid overwhelming Artemis.
Hey there!
Receiving letters all of a sudden must feel weird, huh? I've thought about ways that would make contacting you more comfortable and organic but I always came back to this. There's just nothing like writing a good old-fashioned letter to express yourself!
Where was I?
Oh yeah, I don't want to scare you or anything but I think it's only right to let you know that I know you. And you know me! Let's say we're old acquaintances.
I'm contacting you to talk about certain unresolved things between us and to make expressing myself easier I will be staying anonymous for a bit. I hope that's okay with you? There's no pressure for you to respond or anything so if this makes you uncomfortable feel free to just ignore me!
Sincerely,
Your Penpal
Needless to say, Artemis did reluctantly respond but she couldn't figure out which of her old acquaintances would go to these lengths to reach out to her. She didn't have the best interpersonal relationships before moving away to another country.
Considering that she was at a disadvantage information-wise she kept her response general and light. Artemis' penmanship was quite ordinary. Legible, but nothing worth complimenting. Her pen pal however turned the act of writing a letter into an art. The letters were stylish while still keeping the letter readable. Artemis took note of the recognizable lettering, hoping it would serve as a clue to ascertain the sender's identity.
At last, Artemis had finished her analysis along with her reply. She couldn't send the letter because she didn't have the necessary information, a fact which she had brought up to her colleagues in their initial conversation about the topic. Like before they told her not to worry about it and that they would send it for her. Artemis wasn't fully convinced that the letter was genuine and not a setup for a prank but she reasoned that, even if it were a dumb prank it would be better to get it over with sooner rather than later.
The letters that had then followed had disproven that possibility. They contained in-depth knowledge of life in Artemis' birth country and so she concluded that the sender must be a native from there as well, which ruled out her colleagues. One letter read:
The weather is starting to lighten up a bit so I've been going on walks again. Do you remember the park across from Sparitia College? The flowers are blossoming and the tree still stands as majestic as ever.
I thought that maybe as we grow up that tree would feel smaller and I wouldn't appreciate it as much, but it's only gotten more brilliant. Every time I need a breather, I visit and the memories we made here together give me a reason to keep working hard.
Is that cheesy?
Perhaps it was due to nostalgia or an underlying feeling of things left unfinished before she moved, but Artemis felt her walls crumbling unusually fast around her pen pal. She opened up to the supposedly not-so-strange stranger and they did as well. She began to look forward to those letters and the replies to her issues. Her pen pal was very understanding and made problems that Artemis' had agonized over seem so much simpler and she felt like a weight that she hadn't realized was there had been lifted off her shoulders. In one particular letter, the pen pal had talked about their childhood.
I love my major but studying really sucks. I think I was better at it in middle school. But then again, I was better at most things back then.
It's easy to get good at something when it's the only thing you have. Not like I had anything better to do.
Her pen pal cared less about aesthetic lettering when they talked about something personal, Artemis had learned.
Kids can be really cruel sometimes, but I guess I don't need to tell you that. My peers didn't like me because they thought I was ignorant and rich. I guess being good in class didn't help.
You really saved me back then and I can't thank you enough. You were the best random acquaintance anyone could ask for. Even with everything you had to deal with, you still listened to me and gave me the strength to go on.
Sometimes I'm disappointed that still haven't fully moved on from my middle school days. But then you wrote me that you're still working through that time as well and if someone as strong as you still struggles then I guess I'm doing well enough :)
That got really heavy somehow haha. Whoopsie!
But yeah, talking to you again after so long is helping me a lot more than I expected. I hope my letters are helping you as well. I would love to meet up in person but I know that we have far too much going on to do that. Maybe in the future?
Artemis wanted to meet her pen pal too, but they did have too many responsibilities to travel to another country to meet up. She sent her reply as per usual, wondering if she sounded too eager about the prospect of meeting in the future.
And then the letters stopped.