The ring slipped on my finger, still a perfect fit all these months later.

October 12, 2022. 18:31 PST - 내 편지를 받았나요? Did you receive my letter?

I read the text again, noting once more the small 'unread' notification that had disappeared just 4 minutes after sending it. The ring felt like an old friend, like a book first read as a child and found again as an adult, something that had long brought comfort and joy in it's inability to perish, only fade away for a time. Worn and scratched, yet still glinting in the light, the ring taunted me as I held it, twisting it around my finger, pulling it off and putting it back on. A full 24 hours had passed. 24 hours, 9 minutes, and those seconds ever marching on. Still I waited - surely he was awake now. Did he think of me, or was it only some cruel accident by chance that he had opened it? And still, I waited, unable to see my own doom marching slowly towards me.