Age 15

Jongin comes home from school and has the urge to sleep for the rest the evening away.  He's tired from six hours of classes and an extra hour at dance practice.  He doesn't feel like doing homework or cleaning his room.  He doesn't even want Sehun coming over and asking him to hang out at the park.  He hopes things will be quiet when he gets home.

Before he goes into the house, he checks the mailbox.  It's empty, except for a small white envelope tucked neatly into the corner.  The send address is from London.  It's from his father.

He rips it open, his fingers shaking because it's been so long since he's received any news.

But then he realizes that he can't read this letter on his own.  There should be someone to share this with.  Someone who would love this letter just as much as him.  Someone who was just as sad when he was about to move away forever.  Someone who came with him to the airport to say goodbye to his father the day he left.  

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It's been a long time since Jongin remembers sitting under the cherry tree and doing something.  Doing something while doing nothing.  Listening to music or reading a book or just sitting.  It's been a long time since he's sat down with Young In and just did nothing.  It's a feeling that he's missed.  A feeling that he should have remembered to feel but somehow let it slip away.  

He feels a little guilty for letting so many chances to do nothing just pass by.  Even though he's tired today, he wants to make it up.  Just one evening will do.

So he sits under the cherry tree with Young In, shoulder to shoulder.  She starts laughing for no reason and Jongin feels like she's even happier than he is.  They open the letter from London and read it together.  And then they read it again.  The letter is so long that they have to read it a third time.  Young In's voice gets higher and higher as she reads and after an hour of reading she wants to rest her head in Jongin's lap.  He lets her.

The evening folds into darkness and Young In tapers into a late nap.  Jongin stays awake, his back leaning against the trunk of the cherry tree as he puts his father's letter back into the envelope. He listens to the wind shuffling the leaves above his head.

Jongin wants to think how different things would be if it was Young In's father who went to London, and not his.  How different it would be if he was the kid who grew up with only one parent in one house and not a dad who lived in his office and a mom who lived in the hospital.  How different it would be if Jongin had never went to that audition and never stayed here instead of going to London.  How different it would be if Young In was just the girl who lived in the house across the street and not the girl asleep by his side.

How different it would be.

18:45 pm