“You’ve been awfully absorbed in reading letters lately.”

Younghyun looked up at Jaehyung with a small smile.

“They’re one of my sources of inspiration.”

It wasn’t a lie, but that wasn’t the only reason.

Younghyun does, indeed, get ideas for his lyrics from fan letters sometimes. He enjoys reading all the stories his fans choose to share with him. The content is almost unlimited – words of encouragement to him, vacation memories, stories about past relationships, day to day worries, problems encountered in school or at work and much more. He likes how his fans write to him like they’re talking to a friend, and in return, he tries his best to convert those stories into relatable lyrics.

It was during the period where they did the Every DAY6 project that he started taking notice of letters from a particular fan. She always used the same envelope and letter pad – sky blue with a cute cartoon shark – which was how he started recognizing it. The letters were always signed off as ‘Haru’, a nickname he had given their fans, and he had no way of knowing whether it was her real name or not. What really caught his attention was the contents of the letters Haru sent.

Younghyun had mentioned before that he created his stage persona, YoungK, because he felt like he needed a façade to be someone he never thought he could be. As Kang Younghyun, he is insecure about life and the choices he makes. YoungK, on the other hand, is the perfect rock star who writes good songs and stages amazing performances.

Of course, right after he opened up about those thoughts of his, their fans have been sending him endless words of encouragement. He felt really grateful and touched, for he never thought of himself as someone who was capable of receiving so much love.

Haru’s letters, however, always made him feel like she saw through him since the very beginning, long before he even decided to open up to their fans about those thoughts he had kept private for years.

(When he first started noticing the letters and their contents, he rummaged through his drawers of fan lettersin order to find out when did Haru start sending him letters. It started as early as early 2016, he noticed, and in her very first letter, she briefly introduced herself as a female fan living in the city of Suwon.)

She would write to him about her day to day life, her thoughts on their music and performances, and everything else like all other fans do, but somehow, there was something in her words that let Younghyun feel like she was talking to him as the real Kang Younghyun whom, apart from his band, only a handful of people truly knew, compared to the YoungK/Younghyun he chose to reveal to the public eye.

Since then, Younghyun had always been looking forward to the days when they would get fan letters, collected from the company’s P.O. Box and sorted by their managers, distributed to them. He would also pay attention to each and every letter given to him at fansign events, but it seemed that Haru never attended any of those, for her letters always came through the mail.

“Fansign starts in 5 minutes, guys!” their manager’s voice made him look up from the letter he was reading, and he nodded in acknowledgement.

Younghyun would never read Haru’s letters when they were in public. Although the band was open about pretty much everything with each other, Younghyun wanted to keep the existence of Haru’s letters to himself, so the only time he would read her letters was when he was alone in his room, after making sure everyone else was asleep.

He kept the stash of letters he had been reading into his backpack and went over to the mirror to do a quick check on his appearance, before heading out of the room after his band mates.

The fansign went on as per usual, and Younghyun was waiting for the next fan in line, who was still engaged in a conversation with Sungjin beside him. She sounded very nervous, from what he picked up. Her hands were trembling when she set her album down for him to sign.

“Relax!” Younghyun gave her his brightest smile in an attempt to calm her nerves.

And then the post-it with her name caught his full attention. Choi Haru. He zoned out for a second before he realized she was saying something to him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that,” he gave her an apologetic look, “could you please say it again?”

“Oh! Uh…it’s actually my first time at a fansign…so I’m really nervous…” she trailed off.

“Don’t be! Just talk to us like you’re talking to your friends! By the way, is Haru your real name?”

She nodded, staring wide-eyed at him. He didn’t want to assume anything, because for all he knew, she might not even be the person he wanted to identify.

“That’s really special! It’s like you’re destined to be our fan,” Younghyun laughed, still trying make Haru less nervous.

It seemed to work, for a smile finally made its way to her face.

“Thank you! And um…I just wanted to tell you that I really like the lyrics you write. Your songs give me strength whenever I’m feeling low, but the lyrics especially, I always feel like they speak to me, and it’s really amazing, so thank you, Younghyun.”

He had heard the same words conveyed to him by so many of their fans but, somehow, from something in her tone, Younghyun knew that it was her.

“I, uh…I…t-thank you,” he wasn’t one to stutter usually, but she just had that effect on him, “I’ll do my best to not let you down.”

The smile on her face grew, and then their manager was telling her to move to the next member.

“See you next time!” Younghyun handed the album back to Haru, although he wished he had more time to talk to her.