Chapter 2

Conclusions.

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For the first time ever in three years, Changmin received a bill.

When he saw the formal writing and the amount due, he almost did a little happy dance —but didn’t (mainly to avoid looking like an idiot on his street where all the neighbors can see), very different from how someone would typically react to a bill — with displeasure at the money ripped out of their already thinned bank accounts. Unfortunately to say though, his victory was short-lived.

Holding the already-ripped open letter, Changmin was so happy until he looked at who it was addressed to, it wasn’t him. It was meant for someone named Victoria Song, and Changmin felt relatively guilty — he had tore open someone else’s letter after all — until he read on that whoever she was, she had the same address, even though it said the payment was clearly for the month of July.

That’s messed up, I was the only person in this house all of July. He was extremely dumbfounded, until of course, he read further on. It was definitely for the month of July, though the year was completely off: 2008.

That was the moment when Shim Changmin finally faced how weird things have gotten, the first time he had tried to write a letter: it went absolutely nowhere, and not to mention the response came from someone who claimed to have the same address as him. That should've been enough oddity.

But now, he was receiving a bill, addressed to his address, yet with a different name. Changmin walked back into his house, still holding the bill, and wondered about the situation.

He was a logical person, Changmin believed he was, and it wasn’t soon until he made the conclusion his mail has been going somewhere else (though that somewhere is nowhere close to being confirmed), and someone else’s mail was going to his. However that conclusion did not answer everything, it barely answered half, and that’s assuming that this Victoria Song person got his mail too, if she hadn’t, it would be a different story altogether.

There was still a plethora of questions going through his head at that point. First, why is it that when he tried to mail the letter it had gone to Victoria too? Not only that, why was every single date have been just as screwed up as the situation itself?

His thoughts were interrupted by a ring from the doorbell. When he swung open the door, Changmin found himself face-to-face with the fairly unpleasant elderly lady who lived next door and would never visit him unless for two reasons: a. she had to complain to him about something, probably the noise he made (which was minimal) or b. she had mistaken his house for hers and got frustrated if the key didn’t work.

Naturally, Changmin hoped for neither those situations, as they would result in unnecessarily long explanations from his part and a lot of yelling on her behalf.

His hopes came true, nevertheless it wasn’t exactly a good thing: this time she uttered something so bizarre that he couldn’t help but wonder how he has gotten well in this house for so long without anything like this ever happening.

“Your mailbox’s flag is going up and down by itself.”
 

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Victoria swung the red flag on her orange mailbox ( a terrible colour combination anyone would agree with) up and down in frustration, determined to find something wrong with it, or the mailbox in general.

She held a letter in the other hand, the source of all her problems, along with the mailbox itself. When she woke up that morning, Victoria had received a rather irritating reply, someone telling her to check her own address because whoever he was, he was sure that he lived in that one. Overconfident much?

Victoria was just about to finally accept that the mailbox flag was perfectly normal until during one of the up-and-down intervals, it refused to budge. Victoria pushed it with all her might and felt it tremble in an abnormal way.

There wasn’t many ways to describe the feeling. Normally if something was stuck, the movement would be very mechanical, but the feeling she had gotten when she pushed the flag against this force, was a somewhat humanly feeling. Almost like, someone else was pushing from the opposite side.

Before you knew it Victoria found herself having a little tug-of-war with the flag until she noticed what she was actually doing. She quickly cleared , and restored her dignity, while something nagged at her.

Is there some kind of ghost behind the mailbox, delivering future newspapers, wrong ads, and sending other people’s mail to me? Victoria shook away that ridiculous thought, though had to accept that most of the latter part of the speculation was true, indeed someone or something was causing all of this to happen.
 

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The flag itself seemed to have a force behind it, as Changmin tried to hold it from continuing to swing up and down. It was almost like someone else was behind the force, because the force seemed to have an arrogance of its own.

The elder lady had already left, muttering something, the only two phrases Changmin managed to hear was “witchcraft” and something like “I remember this happening, poor youngsters”. He shrugged it away, though it sounded sinister and ominous, he simply assumed that was just useless rambling.

Changmin was surprisingly calm, he wasn’t quite sure why. A great idea shot into his head, if there was really a good ghost, it would be able to see Changmin. Maybe Victoria is the ghost! He knew he was getting closer and closer to the truth, and that’s when another idea hit him.

If Victoria was able to get my post going to the post office, then that means, the mail hadn’t traveled at all, Victoria would just take them. So that basically means, if I want to contact her, all i have to do, is write her a note, and send it to the mailbox!

With that, the excited Changmin quickly ran back to the house, and wrote:

Hi Victoria, I have loads of explaining to do.

First, I’m quite sure you aren’t aware you are a ghost. (I saw this movie once, there are type 2 ghosts that know they’re ghosts and haunts people, then there are type 1 ghosts who died but still think they’re living, you are probably type 1, but anyway, that topic is for another day.)

Next, could you please stop taking my bills and mail? I hope you realize that they aren’t for you, even though you think you live in my house. I ask this with kindness, because I must realize how big of a shock finding your ghost is, but I am sorry this is my house.

Lastly, could you kindly reply with acknowledgement of this? I would want to confirm greatly that my mail would always be getting to be with ease.

Yours truly,
Shim Changmin

 

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Victoria received another surprise, after her little struggle with the flag, she fiddled with other aspects, before opening the door of the mailbox again, revealing a brand new letter. This time she reacted much better, as she was already smart enough to figure out this mailbox was delivering by itself.

However, when she opened the mailbox, the surprise was displeasing.

After reading the letter that was inside, she had confirmed one thing, and one thing only: Whoever Changmin was, Victoria definitely did not like him. Who does he think he is, calling me a ghost and telling him to go away from his house? Last time Victoria checked, she has never seen such a person living in her own house, and she was pretty solid herself.

No, I actually am not a ghost. You should think before you make such stupid assumptions. I don’t even know who you are, never even seen you before. However, I am kind enough to believe that you didn’t mean to offend me, and your mere assumptions were just of idiocy.

Victoria wasn’t a cruel person, she really wasn’t, but one of the things she hates the most, is when people make assumptions insanely quickly, and this was definitely one of the quickest and most incorrect assumption someone has ever made about her. She continued writing.

I do have a few stray pieces of information to offer. I am not stealing your mail, your mail delivers itself automatically to me, I think you might live a great distance away —she had no idea, that wasn’t any physical distance, but instead, the distance is great anyway— and the mailbox is somehow sending your mail to me and my mail to you.

The only thing doesn’t make sense at the moment, is our identical addresses, unless you actually live in the same house, under some kind of alternative universe, which I believe impossible, since everything that comes from your mail is pretty normal. Unless . . .

It hit Victoria like a bullet, she remembered the newspaper. Everything seemed normal except: the dates. Changmin doesn't actually exist, well, not in her time anyway, but instead, in some other time, more specifically, 2011, three years later. She finally figured it out, the pieces finally all fitted together.

Whenever the mailman delivers Changmin`s mail, the mailbox automatically sends it to me, and the same vice versa. That`s why all the dates are wrong! Wow, he really is an idiot, thinking I`m some ghost. Victoria thought, and chuckled lightly, before realizing how incredibly supernatural it was, and said to herself that there was no point in getting excited, since who knows if her facts matched up with Changmin`s.

The absurdity of it all really made her question her motives, she barely knows Changmin, yet she felt a great need to speak to him in person and explain everything. She wanted to know more, and yet in a bizarre way she knew it wasn't just plain curiosity.

It was a weird feeling, but Victoria liked it.

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Changmin should've been happy and relieved he found out the truth, actually, that Victoria told him it, but something about the situation was recognized in a part of his brain. He couldn't remember what exactly, maybe he never experienced it, but was certainly told something too similar.

He tried to remember what it was, but after concentrating as hard as he could, and looking everywhere to try to find any object around the house that would remind him, there still wasn't anything that was recalled, besides that whatever the story or experience, it was definitely not very positive.

It was then when the phone rang. It was Kyuhyun, his best friend.

“What do you want?”
“Geez, you could at least be a little less grouchy.” Kyuhyun replied lightly, with his usual witty tone.
Changmin apologized, “Sorry, I have stuff on my mind. So why’d you call?”
“How do you not remember? Your uncle’s yearly barbeque is in a week! Funny how I remembered better than his own nephew.” Changmin went silent.
“Hello?”
His mind snapped back to the phone conversation.“Sorry, uhh, yeah of course I’ll be there. Meet me in the usual place, same time as before. See you then.”
“Okay, Mr.I-can-be-grouchy-and-zone-out-whenever-i-want.” His best friend teased.

Changmin remembered what had bothered him before, it was his uncle. Well, his uncle didn’t actually bother him. His uncle wasn’t married, and was pretty young for an uncle and was always in a good mood, but that wasn’t the bad thing.

He had told Changmin, who was just a little boy, a story about how he met a girl through mail, but she died and how the pain of it was not worth going back to. The house Changmin sat in right now, used to be his uncle’s house a long time ago, until he moved away abruptly. Now Changmin was pretty sure that was after he had lived in this house.

Which meant that . . . His uncle had used this magical mailbox and knew about it! He almost yelled it out loud. But the horrible thing dawned onto Changmin, look at how well that worked out for him, not very.

Still, Changmin now looked forward to his favorite uncle’s BBQ more eagerly than he has ever before.

Before I make my own little commentary and apology, I want to actually say a few things about this. In this chappie you can actually both see their own flaws. For Changmin, it may look like he's a huge idiot, but it's actually that he is really likely to assume things, and follows his actions based on assumptions, which I warn you, is definitely not good in the future of them. And Victoria, you see she gets frustrated extremely easily, though normally she has a clear head and is clever, if she is angry, it will cause her to be particularly cruel. Now don't hate on Victoria, because this is just the beginning, and they are both good people, and everyone has flaws. (unless you look at most of the fanfics on aff, which all seem to have a perfect oc)

My own commentary now! I'm sososo sorry for taking so long to write it, but so many school things came up and it was overwhelming ;_; I promise I won't take this long next time.

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Soul Mates

Oh and one more thing, drop by my wall and say hi, id really like some more friends on aff, thanks :)