“Stop it please. Oh Sehun is just a classmate to me! If he has a crush on me, I don’t return the favor. I want to be a girlfriend, not a nanny. And besides, I don’t want to be seen together with an abnormal person. The pretty face would never compensate for that embarrassing lisp!”

The sheer voice rang clear, deadening all other sounds in that supposedly busy hallway of the university. There it was again, the words which never fail to make his world crumble. Abnormal. Embarrassing. Lisp. Shrill laughter followed, but he refused to listen to it anymore. He took one step away and left.

How many times had things been like that? How many more times would he have to suffer the pain of rejection just because he couldn’t pronounce a single letter properly? Was it a crime to be born with a lisp?

He wanted to blame someone for his misfortune. But he couldn’t get mad with God, not even his parents. So he ended up blaming himself.

Sehun shook his head as he tried to blink the tears away. He continued walking until he saw himself in the observatory deck of the university’s planetarium. Due to the rampant technology used by the university today, the spot is as good as abandoned already. Located in an isolated area of the university’s enclave, it has a silent and solitary feel.

Because of that, it has become a favorite hideout for Sehun. Everything he wants to let everything out, he would go to that place. There, he’d be alone – away from people who do nothing but hurt him. There, he could endlessly blame himself for everything. There, he would let it all out. He would cry in solitude; because he would rather weep on his own than shed tears in front of people who wouldn’t even bother to care.

He pushed open the door to reveal the wide deck. The tears he had been trying to hold back then fell shamelessly as he walked to the center of the place. He breathed the fresh air to somehow relieve his constricting chest. There were too many emotions bottled up – anger and shame leading them all. He then took his school jacket off and laid it down on the cold stone floor to serve as his mat.

However, his attention was caught by a real mat lying a few feet away from where he stood. He noticed a small pillow in the center of it. Curious and quite distracted, Sehun wiped the falling tears off his eyes with the back of his hand and walked to the foreign objects.

As he came closer, he noticed a small brownish envelope placed neatly on top of the satin-covered pillow. He bent over to look closely at it. He has never been mindful of other people’s things but there is something telling him that the things were put there for him.

True enough, it was.

“To Sehun,” he whispered as he read what was scribbled on the envelope. The handwriting was beautiful, like medieval. The of every letter were elegant and crisp, as if written by a professional calligrapher.

Forgetting all his woes, Sehun took his letter as he muttered his thoughts. Disbelief and surprise washed through him as his skin felt the texture of the envelope. He never had received any letter apart from his parents, and he doubt his parents would find time to send him such letter since both were too busy running their business in Ilsan. So it was a relief to know that someone cared.

At least, someone cared.

“But who?” Sehun asked mindlessly as he opened the letter. He was greeted by a piece of parchment paper which flaunts the same beautiful calligraphy. But this time, it wasn’t the style of writing which stunned him. It was the content.

“What makes you different makes you beautiful,” he read.

The young man stared at the letter as if it was a mystery. What makes you different makes you beautiful. What was that supposed to mean? Who sent him the message? There were questions and he hated that it was all left unanswered. What if someone was playing a prank on him? What if someone is out there to give him false hopes again?

Paranoia was setting in.

Suddenly, doubt crept its way back to his thoughts, followed by anxiety. In a few seconds, he was reminded of why he was there in that place and all the depressing emotions came pouring onto him again.