There’s that phrase we learned in school when they made us study Chinese characters, and you and I used to think it was so stupid that we had to memorize those four-character phrases that were supposed to teach life lessons with so little words when we spoke Korean and maybe a little bit of English. But I’ve had so much time in this small and cold bed that all those things came back to me, and for the first time I think that there is a truth to them.

會者定離. 去者必返. 生者必滅. Those who meet must part; those who have parted will always return; those who are living must eventually die.

They’re simple words that were so hard to grasp, because to our sixteen year old selves, they were reckonings of the distant future, something that we wouldn’t ever experience in that moment, something we could push back to the back of our minds until the time came that those words would ring true. Make sense. Because I finally understand why they teach it to us so early on, Seulgi. It’s a lesson so grave yet so hopeful, brutally realistic and endlessly giving in its wisdom. I’m still trying to come to terms with their truth, but I hope that you won’t have to live it out in full.

Remember how we were really sad that that one show ended? The cartoon that we had been watching since we were kids. It ran for twelve years, and then they said they would end production. You and I talked all day about the funniest episodes and how relatable the characters