[CONTENTID1] 002 [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2] "I love you, Mimi. Always have. Always will." [/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3] Hyeri spent the rest of the day curled up in her room, reading the letters she found. They were love letters – something she didn’t expect – all addressed to a certain someone named Lee Se Mi. She didn’t know who she is but she knows she’s lucky. Whoever that Do Kyungsoo is, he surely is very much in love with her.

Hyeri can’t help but feel jealous. She’s never fallen in love. She doesn’t even have the faintest idea of what love is. Was it the way her parents gaze at each other? Was it the simple gesture of saying ‘I love you’? She’s only read it in books. And now that she’s read the letters, she can’t help but wonder how it feels like – to love and to be loved.

“It’s Valentine’s Day today, Mimi,” that Do Kyungsoo had written on his first letter. “I would have given you a bouquet of fresh carnations and a box of your favorite chocolates. You love them, don’t you? But only if you were here – only if you didn’t leave me four months ago. I miss you, Mimi. You haven’t written anything back yet. Have you started to forget about me? Please don’t. Because I still think about you every single day.”

The rest of the letters were filled with stories. The Do Kyungsoo narrated how he would visit the places the two of them usually go to in order to relive her memories – in order to relieve their memories. The letters were so wonderfully written – every destination intricately described – that by the end of the day, Hyeri could almost picture out the whole village where the Do Kyungsoo and the Lee Se Mi once lived.

She already learned that Do Kyungsoo’s an eleventh grader just like her and that he’s from Gangwon Province. She could tell he’s not an ordinary student with his way of writing and his talent with words.

Everything was all butterflies and smiles for Hyeri until she reached the last few letters where she noticed how the contents are slowly turning darker.

“It’s already June, Mimi. It’s been eight months since you left and five months since you’ve last written back to me. School has started but it’s not the same without you there. I still see the same people inside the room, the same teachers, but why does it feel so different?”

“I miss talking to you, Mimi. I miss having lunch with you under the canopy of the school’s oak tree. I miss hearing your silent giggles. I miss seeing your smile. I miss you – the entirety of you.”

Hyeri can’t help but feel bad. What that Do Kyungsoo thinks is his letters are still being received by his Lee Se Mi. But he didn’t realize all his letters for the past eight months were just crammed into an abandoned house’s mailbox – a house that now belongs to Hyeri’s family. Maybe Lee Se Mi’s family were the previous occupants of the house. Maybe this room she’s now calling hers is the same room she used to sleep in. Maybe the ceiling she’s currently staring at is also the same one Lee Se Mi used to look at when she’s having her head flooded with thoughts. Hyeri felt herself shiver at the possibility. She feels guilty for having read the letters. They aren’t meant for her. But they were too wonderful to throw away and left unread.

She reached out for the last of the letters, the one that is dated October 14, 2016. She wasn’t even surprised anymore to see the date. She already learned the pattern behind the letters – how they were written on the 14th day of every month. This one’s the last letter. And it’s written on the anniversary of Lee Se Mi’s departure.

“It’s been a year, Mimi – an unbelievably long and miserable one year. I visited all our favorite places today: the twins’ store, the playground, the oak tree, the cliff, the river, the haunted house… I went to everything. Just so I could remember you. Just so I could feel you’re here with me again. And I almost suc