pairing: ChenLay
length: 1613 words

“Dad, did the mail come in yet? Did it? Is there anything for me? Anything at all?” Jongdae practically leapt at his father as soon as the middle-aged man walked into the apartment. “Oh, please say there is! It’s been a whole week already! I can’t wait any longer!”

“Yes, yes, I believe I did spot a letter that was addressed to you somewhere in the pile,” his father laughed as he waved the stack of envelopes in the air above Jongdae.

A high-pitched pterodactyl screech of triumph filled the air in response.

“Just give me a moment to put my stuff down first, Jongdae. Then you can read your letter.”

The young boy’s body vibrated with anticipation and energy as Jongdae fidgeted around his father, watching him set down his briefcase and then shrug off his jacket. The moment his father placed the pile of letters on the dining table, Jongdae lunged for the stack and began riffling through it with fervor. Near the bottom was an envelope with his name printed neatly in the middle and Jongdae let out another shriek of delight as he dropped the other letters back onto the table. “Thanks, Dad! See you later, Dad!”

“We’ll be having dinner in an hour!” his father called after the hyperactive boy, who had already dashed out of the room.

As soon as Jongdae was sitting at his desk, he deftly sliced through the top of the envelope and slipped out a sheet of paper that had little lamb doodles decorating the sides.

Dear Jongdae,

Thank you so much for your letter! It’s so cool that your mom is a traveling chef! I’d love to travel the world someday when I’m older. The next time your mom comes to China, you should go with her! And maybe you can stop by Changsha to visit me!

Anyway, I have a piano recital coming up next week, which is making me really nervous. I don’t know if I ever told you, but my very first piano recital was when I was four years old and it was also one of the most traumatizing experiences of my life. I was so scared to go on stage that I brought my mom up on stage with me. Everyone in the audience laughed, which made me even more anxious. Because I was so terrified, I made a mistake while I was playing and then everyone laughed at me again. So I ran off of the stage and I’ve hated recitals ever since.

I know I’ve practiced a lot, and I can play the piece perfectly at home and at my piano teacher’s house. But part of me is worried that I’m going to freeze up again or my mind is going to go blank and I’m going to make a fool out of myself in front of everyone again. And then they’ll all laugh at me. It happens almost every single time. I don’t know if you have any tips for me, but if you do, I’d really appreciate any help that I can get!

What do you have planned next week? Surely it’ll be much better than my plans. Oh, and before I forget, I want to teach you another Chinese word.

辛苦
xīnkǔ

As an adjective, it means “hard” or “exhausting.” As a verb, it means “work hard.” Now I’m going to give you a short homework assignment! What does this sentence mean?

你辛苦了
nǐ xīnkǔle

If you can tell me the correct answer, I’ll send you an extra photo of my cat next time! I hope you like this week’s picture. He just lazed around all day while I suffered during piano practice. Sometimes, I wish I could be a cat. They seem to have really relaxing lives.

Aw man, I’ve gotta go now. My mom is calling me for dinner. And then I have homework to finish. Well, I hope this letter finds you well! Talk to you soon, Jongdae!

Your pen pal,
Yixing

Behind the letter, there was a photograph of a young Chinese boy dangling a toy mouse in front of a brown-and-white ragdoll cat. The boy was grinning from ear-to-ear while the cat lazily held up a paw, as if to snatch the mouse from his owner’s hands.

Jongdae giggled as he added the picture to his growing collection of photographs of Yixing and his cat. He made a mental note to ask his father if he could buy a cork board so that he could properly display all of the photos that Yixing had sent him. Jongdae had already cleared a wall for the display so that it could face his bed, making it easy for him to see it in the morning when he woke up and at night before he fell asleep.

Grabbing a sheet of stationery that was decorated with dancing dinosaurs, Jongdae eagerly began penning a response.

Dear Yixing,

I’m so happy I finally got your letter! Even though it’s only been a week (at the time of writing this) since I mailed you my previous response, it honestly felt like an eternity! I can’t wait until I’m older and my dad lets me use the computer as much as I want. Then we can email each other all of the time, which will be way faster!

I’d love to visit you in Changsha in the future! My mom usually doesn’t take me with her on her trips, since she says she doesn’t have time to take care of me. She only lets me come with her if my dad goes as well. But I’m big enough to take care of myself now, so I’ll try to convince her to let me go with her on her next China trip! We’ll have so much fun together! We can play basketball or soccer or baseball or tennis or all of them together! And we can play board games at night and watch TV together!

Good luck on your piano recital! I know you’re going to do an amazing job! I’ve never played in a recital before since I don’t play any instruments, but if it makes you feel any better, you can imagine me in the audience! All you have to do is pretend that I’m the only one in the audience. That way, no one can laugh at you, because no one will be there but me! And I’ll never laugh at you, even if you make a mistake, so you don’t need to worry. Instead, I’ll clap for you to help encourage you!

I don’t have too much planned this week. I think my dad wants to take me fishing, but we haven’t talked about it much yet since he’s been busy at work. If the fishing trip falls through, I’ll probably go to the park and play basketball with some friends. I’m getting really good at being point guard! But if we do end up going fishing, I’ll take some pictures for you and send them to you with my next letter. Hopefully I can catch a really big fish to show you!

As for your homework assignment, based on our previous language lessons, I think “你辛苦了” translates to “You worked hard.” Am I right?

Even if I’m not, that transitions nicely to our next Korean lesson!

수고했어요
sugohaesseoyo

This is a phrase that translates to “You’ve done a good job” or “You worked hard.” So it’s basically the Korean equivalent of the sentence you quizzed me on. That is, assuming I got the correct answer earlier. But like I said, even if I didn’t get it right, this is a very useful phrase to know.

So I just want to say, no matter what happens at your piano recital, you’ve done a great job. And you worked really hard. So you should be proud of yourself! Just remember, I’m your number one fan and your biggest supporter! Well, aside from your family, but I’m a close second!

I hope you have a great week, Yixing! Can’t wait to hear back from you!

Your pen pal,
Jongdae

“Jongdae, dinner time!”

“Be right there, Dad!” he hollered over his shoulder before quickly reading the letter once more. After deeming it perfect, Jongdae carefully folded the page and slipped it in an envelope that already had Yixing’s address printed on the front. In his excitement for his pen pal’s response, he had prepared a stack of pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelopes to mail his letters in.

“Jongdae!” his father called again.

“Coming!” Jongdae quickly hopped out of his chair and ran to the dining room with his letter in hand. He then launched himself at his father, who looked up in surprise with his hands hovering over the dining table, cutlery poised over his food.

“It’s time to sit and eat, Jongdae.”

“I know! But can we please mail this letter now? Please, please, please?” the young boy begged. “I want Yixing to get it before his piano recital next week!”

“The post office is closed right now,” his father gently reminded him, “but we can go first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Promise?”

“Promise,” his father cheerily replied while hooking his pinky around Jongdae’s outstretched one. “Now settle down and eat your dinner, Jongdae. And you can put your letter in the living room. You don’t want to accidentally get it dirty, do you?”

“Right! Thanks, Dad! You’re the best!” Leaving the letter on the low mahogany table in front of the couch, Jongdae grinned widely when he thought of Yixing reading the letter and writing back to him.

He couldn’t wait for next week to come.

♈♈♈