Minatozaki Sana works at the postal service.. not the most exciting job, but it has it's perks.. 

Although the job is boring, she has ammased a rather impressive stamp collection from it..

 

The most exciting times are with the appearance of mystery packages, sometimes a little alarming, but mostly always nothing..

 

And then there was the dead letter mail..

Letters that were unsendable..

It would usually fall on her to send them on, so they could be for real..

 

At times when she had found herself bored, she would go through the undelivered letters that were to be sent to the dead mail office.

Through times of processing, about every 2 weeks, she had noticed a letter with a name that had come up multiple times to be passed on to the office.

 

A letter simply addressed to MINA.

Always just that name, with no return address and any that did send through, was always sent back stated as "Does not live at this address".

She knows she wasn't supposed to, but she had seen this name one too many times to let it go unread.. And soon she would do the same with the rest of them..

Whomever was writing to this Mina, was desperately trying to find her..

She had seen about 4 letters recently pass by to be passed on to the dead mail office..

 

All addressed to Mina, each at a different location and every single one meeting the same fate.

Being Undeliverable..

 

Sana didn't know why, but she felt like this was something she needed to take upon herself to solve..

She hoped that when she'd get to the office, that every unsuccessful letter was still there and accounted for.

She'd go there, like she had times before, to deliver the dead end mail for the rightful people to make sense of..

 

 

Hmm surely they wouldn't mind would they? She thought as she approached the front desk

 

"Hi, just the usual Miss Minatozaki?" The man at the desk asked

 

C'mon Sana.. Turn the charm on girl.. She thought as she tried to make a plan

 

"Hmm Oh, Hi! Actually no.." She said as she leant on the desk and tilted her head as she gave a loving look

"Oh ha.. No? Um.. Why no?" The man at the desk asked as he became flustered

"It's just.. Uh there is this letter.. Actually, lots of them.. And our office has found the right address.." She explained as she smiled softly

"Oh great, which letter? We can sort that out.." He said happily

 

She pulled the letter out of her satchel.

 

"This one.. But I was wondering if you could do me a favour?" She asked as her look intensified as she showed him the letter in hand

The man at the desk swallowed hard. "Yeah.. s-sure what can I-I do for you?" He asked as he found himself stuttering

"Well, it would be really kind of you if you could get me the other letters so I can take care of this.." she asked with an air of flirtation

"Oh.. right, sure no problem.." he said nervously with a smile

"Thanks so much!" She said happily

 

Sana handed the letter to him and he went to find the rest.

 

"Ah, here you go!" He said as he came back with a box with a total of 9 letters, this weeks making 10

"Thanks so much!" She said cheerfuly as she took the letters and placed them in her satchel

"And ah.. Miss Minatozaki.. I know, and you know, I'm not supposed to do what I have just done.. so let's keep this our secret" he said

She lowered her glasses, gave him a wink and left him to it..

 

 

This was Sana's last thing to do for the day, dropping off the dead letters to be sorted.

She would now go home for dinner, and to inspect these interesting letters..

 

10 of them..

It's been weeks, this person would obviously send them, wait for a reply and send a new one when nothing was sent back.. she thought as she walked home 

 

Sana lived alone, she moved out of her parents place to a small apartment close to work, why she lived here, or even worked at the postal service was beyond her. But it payed the bills..

Ones she wonders why she pays for when this place can't keep the electricity on..

 

"Ugh again!" She said as she whined, flicking the lightswitch to turn it on with no luck.

Candlelight it is.. she thought as she entered 

 

She took her shoes off and made her way in, and put her belongings away best she could without tripping from the lack of light.

 

She headed to the kitchen and pulled out a torch and some tealight candles, and a box of matches from a drawer.

 

She lit each one and placed them around, a total of 8.

4 in the kitchen, 4 in the lounge.

 

"This place is useless.. even if it is close to work.." she complained 

She could hear her stomach grumble..

Thank God this place has a gas stove.. she thought to herself

 

Sana had made herself some food and proceeded with her bowls to the table.

 

She always wondered what it would be like to eat with someone.

When she was at home she would have her parents there to eat with, she always thought it would have been nice to have a sibling too..

But I guess this is just what happens when you become independent.. she thought as she picked at her food

"Ah.. I'll have someone to eat together with someday.." she said quietly to herself

 

Sana noticed her glasses had began to fog up from the steam from her bowl of food.

She removed them off her face and cleaned them with her shirt.

"Ah.. much better" she said as she inspected them and then placed them back on her face

 

Let's check these letters soon she thought as she finished the last of her meal.

 

She then got up to do her dishes

Ahh.. really.. should see what other places are out there she thought as she washed them

 

Sana dried and placed them away then made her way back to the table now with the letters in hand.

 

Which to read first? She thought as she looked at them

"Mina.. who could you be? And who is trying to find you so badly?.." she said quietly to herself

 

It's time to find out..

 

 

Mina,

Hi, I really hope this letter has got to you finally! And what I hope even more than that, is that you remember me! 

Just your name Mina, is mostly all I can remember about you.. I couldn't remember your family name, which has made this trip down memory lane hard.

Other than just only remembering your name, I also remember the times we spent together when we were younger.. for a time, you were a cherished friend of mine when I was about 7 years old.. and it felt like you were there forever, and now that I think back.. you only lived in the same prefecture for about a year..

And then you just disappeared..

 

Nobody knew where you went..

Next thing all of us knew, someone else was moving into your house..

 

They wrote more about what they remembered.

Sana felt warm reading it all, that even after all these years someone could still mean so much to this person..

 

I guess why I'm writing Mina, is I always wonder what the grown up you is like.. I wonder what you look like..

One thing that I remember is your smile and the way you looked at people.. that's something I've never forgotten..

And I hope the grown up you still wears that smile and look.

If I ever saw it again..  I'd know it's you..

 

And hopefully, some day I can..

I really hope this gets to you. I'd love to hear from you! Just so I know I'm not going crazy here and that you were a real person and not just a figment of my imagination..

Forever your friend.

 

Sincerely, Momo.

 

 

Momo..

 

So that's who you are.. but Mina.. who is she?.. and where can I find her..? Sana thought as she finished reading the letter

Sana proceeded to open another letter to see if that could lead on to anything else about what this Momo shared about her memories of Mina..

 

To her shock, the letter was the exact same as the last.. she opened another..

All of them..

They were the exact same letter..

 

"Well then.. guess we're just going to have to dig deep.." Sana said quietly

 

Mina.. all I know of you other than Momo's memories with you, is that she said about your smile and the way you look at people.. she thought

"She must be something else now that she's grown up.." she said quietly to herself as she looked at the letter in hand

 

Then Sana had a horrifying thought..

What if she moved to a different region? Or a different country.. or even worse..

 

What if Mina didn't grow up..

That these letters never get to her because they can't..

 

She shook her head

No.. don't be so silly Sana.. you will find Mina.. Momo's letter has to get to her! She thought

"It has to.." she said softly under her breath

 

Sana knew it was her fate to reunite these long lost friends..

 

She smiled as she looked at the letter

"You will see her again Momo, count on me!" She said happily 

 

 

Sana wrote down every failed letters address they had been sent to, to narrow her search..

She wonders how Momo was going finding someone by their first name only..

 

"Okay.. well at least they're in a focused area.. 3 prefectures.. 3 for Hyogo, 4 in Kyoto and another 3 here, Osaka.." she said quietly to herself

I guess Momo hopes Mina stayed close.. although how many Minas can there be around here? She thought as she wrote down places to cross off.

 

She'd put her skills to the test at work tomorrow..

 

Sana spent the rest of the night quietly as usual.. it can't be much more than that when you live alone..

And at least the power came back on..

 

As morning came Sana woke, she fished around for her glasses on her bedside table.

Once she found them, she sat up and placed them on, her once blurred vision, now became clear and focused, her eyes widened as she looks at her clock.

She was late..

 

"Ahh! I knew I should't have watched that extra movie" she muttered to herself as she now dashed to get ready

 

She'd be skipping breakfast today..

 

As Sana finally got ready, all with her work uniform a little more skewed than usual, she got the letters and placed them in her stachel.

 

She began the usual walkable distance to work.. at an unusual pace for her today.. as she ran..

Rather slowly..

 

Ughh why am I so athleticly challenged? She thought as she ran

"I could really have done with a coffee" she complained as she puffed

 

Sana finally arrived at work, quickly tidying her appearance as she caught a glimpse of herself in the reflection of the windows out the front of the building.

 

She made her way inside, thankfully nobody to question her tardiness.

The coast was clear..

 

She made her way to her desk and unloaded her things, placing the letters and her findings in her top drawer.

 

"Ah.. Miss Minatozaki!" A voice said as they placed a hand on her shoulder

She knew that voice.. it was her boss..

 

She gulped. "Oh. Ah, Good Morning.." she said nervously as she then looked up at them

I'm caught.. I'm caught.. I'm caught.. she thought as she waited for him to say something

 

"First time you have been late in a while.." he said

"I know.. I'm so sorry.." she said apologeticly 

 

As she was about to continue her apologies and give many reasons on why she was late, she was cut off suddenly.

 

"Nevermind that.. I have some more letters for you to take to the dead mail office later today.." he said