15 Years Ago (Age 20-21)

                                       *phone ringing*

                                       "Hello?"

                                       -

                                       -

"Hey, it's me."                                       

                                       -

                                       "You? Who is you?"

                                       *chuckle*

                                       "Hey, Chanyeol."

-                                       

"Hey."                                       

*laughter*                                       

"So I guess you got my letter by now?"                                       

                                       "Yeah I did. I was going to call you myself and thank you, for... you know.

                                       Being supportive and all."

"Yeah well you're too slow apparently."                                       

                                       "I know. Isn't that how I am with everything?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah."                                       

                                       "See, this is why I'm better with letter writing.

                                       I like how long it takes for communication to travel."

"I hate to break this to this, but the world is changing. We have these things called phones now."                                       

                                        "Yeah, and it ."

"To be you!"                                       

*laughter*                                       

                                       -

                                       -

                                       *verbal pouting*

-                                       

"So, tell me more about Joon."                                       

                                       "What's there to tell? I've already told you most everything about him."

"Yeah, but that was before you were gay. So have you moved in with him yet?"                                       

                                       *scoffing*

                                       "No. And I'm not going to."

"Aww, trouble in paradise already?"                                       

                                       "Trouble in college, more like. We've decided to uh... focus on our studies first.

                                       And, get to know each other. This way. You know. Since things are different."

"I see..."                                       

                                       "Yeah. Change of subject. Tell me about Yoonsuh."

"Okay. Have you got about half an hour so I can tell you her whole life story?"                                       

                                       "No. I'll give you about two minutes."

"Fair enough."                                         

Dear Yixing,

Since you're so fond of letters, I decided to spare you the agony of answering a phone and take up the next hour of my precious time to handwrite you a letter.Do you realize the sacrificse I make for you? This takes hand muscles. And pencil lead. Pencils are precious! What if I run out and then I won't have enough for when I take my exams? Which are in about a month. Maybe I should quit wasting time. Feel grateful that I waste both your time and mine because I realize now I haven't written one thing that's actually entertaining.

Are letters supposed to be entertaining? What's the purpose of letter writing anyway?

Maybe I should be a philosopher.

I think Yoonsuh is jealous of you. She keeps asking why I don't write her any letters. Why don't I write her letters, Yixing? I don't know. Is it because... I see her every other day? Like physically, and I can see her face, and we can talk to each other without a phone. Why should I write her letters when I see her every day? Anyways, I'm pretty sure she's just joking but she calls you my American boyfriend. Wow, and I haven't even told her you're gay. I should do that, huh, or else she might get suspicious later when I accidentally let it slip?

I'm assuming your spring break drive was good. Where'd you go this time? Tennessee? Is that all you guys do for fun? Drive across the country? How long does it take? A day or something?

I haven't even gone outside of Seoul for a few years. I'm saving my big excursion for the day I visit you in America *wink*

Your (other boyfriend) Chanyeol

Dear Chanyeol,

A day to drive from California to Tennessee?? Try 3 days. 4 if you make it fun and stop. 5 if you make detours. Oh, but we high-tailed it home in 2 1/2 without breaks because school was starting back up. And then because I let my entire Spring Break go without working on a single thing and I had 2 days to write 2 whole essays. I can't wait to be done with school.

What is the point of letter writing anyways? Do you ever think our letters to each other are more a force of habit? It's been over 10 years and we just don't know how to quit writing? I'm not saying it's a bad habit! But, think about it. The only thing I know how to do is to respond to people and just keep up with the tradition, and that is to write a letter and wait for a response, and then write another one, and wait. (And phone calls seriously mess with my perfect system, but I guess I can live with that. When, you know, it's important...)  I'd call myself a philosopher for this, but I just realized that if anything, this isn't a deep speculation at all. It's just me reciting facts, and I'm boring and non-inventive. That's why I keep to the same things over and over... 

Now I'm depressed.

Not really though. (This is me laughing at myself!)

Funny how Yoonsuh thinks of me like that. Joon does the same thing. Only he doesn't get jealous. I write him some letters too. Not long, just random things. But I don't recommend you trying that with Yoonsuh because after all these years your handwriting , and it's getting worse and worse over time! At least mine is pretty and has character. Yours is just messy. Why do I bother. I guess yours has character too... it's just a messy character!

Alright, so here is where I sign off and, please help me continue the tradition. Or else.

Yixing

Dear Yixing,

I'm pretty sure you just insulted me while explaining that you can't live without me (and our letter exchange). I don't know what to think about that so I'm going to mope for a bit and then move on. *smiley*

You write letters to Joon too!?! You're cheating on me! How dare you! I almost called you just to mess with your "perfect system" Haha.

Actually though, I think you're right. Although it feels cheesy to agree with you, I kind of like this habit. Makes me wonder if we'll always write, or if someday we'll both be too busy. You ever have friends like that? You see each other all the time but then years go by and you're not in high school anymore and so you just don't see each other and then it's like you were never friends? I mean, we don't see other now so that part of this won't change, but will it? Some day? Okay now that I'm totally depressed, I'm going to make you a promise to never forget about me. And I don't care if you get old and ugly and marry that Joon guy. You are not to forget about me! So there.

By the way, I cleaned my room last week and pulled out a box where I used to keep your letters from years back. Your handwriting back then.

Your never-to-be-forgotten best and FIRST friend,

Chanyeol

Dear Chanyeol,

Wow. Way to talk about the end before we've even gotten that far! Just for this though, I think it'll be you who forgets about me first. Haha. *wink*

It's summertime again. And you know what that means. Beach! I admit, I go outside a whole lot more these days. I even tried water skiing last week. Joon knows a guy who has his own business and takes people out. Another Korean, would you believe it or not, named Jongdae. (I'm surrounded by Koreans, and I even write to one too...) Anyways, my point is, I'm finding the outdoors life to be a little more fun than I used to. Also, that I at water sports. It's just fortunate that Joon got one good picture of me before I fell off and made an idiot of myself. I had him develop several copies, so treasure this photo of me looking awesome. I expect to see it on your wall above your bed whenever I make the trip to Korea. 

Actually, don't do that. That's kind of creepy. Plus Yoonsuh probably wouldn't like it.

Here's to the final year of college. We can do this!

Your best friend,

Yixing

Moving speedily along! Expect a small time jump before the next round of letters. :)

Rosie