The First Letter From N

Tainan, Taiwan

March 10, 1995

Dahyun blinked.

It had only been her second day living in Taiwan and she already received a letter.

And she wasn’t even hallucinating or anything. But there it was, sticking out like a sore thumb from the opening of her mailbox.

The only ones that knew of her move were her mother, brother and Chaeyoung. But she hadn’t given any of them her address yet, since she insisted that she wrote to them first. So, for her to receive something was odd. It couldn’t be a notice either because she had just spoken to Mr. Chen, the apartment manager, just earlier and he was delighted to see her.

When she heard the door close behind her, another tenant entering the mail room, she shook herself out of it and opened her mailbox. To no surprise, the only thing that was in there was the letter. She carefully took it and immediately read the back of it.

“I.N.,” she read out to herself. The sender had placed their initials and an address. Her eyes grew wide when she saw the address. They lived in South Korea as well and in Seoul. Just like her, but she lived somewhat close to Seoul. It must be some weird fate or something.

She then read the recipient's name.

Kim, D.

That was weird. But she knew no one that lived at the address of the sender. But there was no mistaking that this was probably for her. It had her last name, her first initial and the address was for her apartment, with her unit number and all.

Maybe she needed to go back and finish packing. Organizing her things was just the same as organizing her thoughts. So, she tucked the letter inside the box she placed down on the floor, picked it up and made her way back inside the apartment building.

A part of her was curious, because she wanted to know what the letter was about. It could be someone from her previous work that she had unfinished business with and had no idea. Dahyun did accept her new position so suddenly and the company requested her to move to Taiwan as soon as possible. Or it could be a friend? But she knew no one with those initials.

But who was she kidding? The only friend that she had that was left back at home was Chaeyoung and that idiot wouldn’t write to her so soon after the move.

“Oh, hey,” Tzuyu greeted her when she opened the door to her apartment. Tzuyu was busy unpacking her books and placing them on the bookshelf. She paused. “Did you have a hard time finding the mailroom?”

She shook her head, slowly using her foot to shut the door and walked towards her kitchen counter. “No, it was pretty easy. I also talked to Mr. Chen, and he were happy to see me.” The moment she placed the box on the counter, she opened it, seeing her potted plants and the mysterious letter at the side. “I did get a letter.”

Tzuyu whipped her head to look at her, brows furrowed. “Already? Who’s it from?”

Dahyun shrugged, taking the letter out and walking over to her tall friend to show her. “It’s all initials but it has my last name on it.”

Her friend hummed. “Seems like it. You should open it.”

She chewed the inside of her cheek, contemplating about it even if her curiosity was killing her. “I guess.”

“Alright,” Tzuyu said, going back to what she was doing. “Once I’m done with this, I gotta go back home and make dinner. You can come with me if you like? My mom said she wants you over from time to time.”

“I’d like that.” Dahyun smiled.

Tzuyu was such a great help. Dahyun knew she wouldn’t have a hard time with this new chapter in her life because her friend was there. At least it was convenient, and she could say that she had at least one friend here in Taiwan.

Dahyun stared at the letter again. Her mind may be in several places at once, wanting to finish packing, thinking about going with Tzuyu to her house so she didn’t have to travel alone, her route to the new office when she had to go to work on Monday.
And then to this letter.

She sighed. Might as well get it over and done with. She walked towards her couch, plopped herself on it and then proceeded to carefully open the lid of the letter. It was sealed shut, a bit of tears, but she eventually got the letter out of the envelope, finally able to read the content.

It was a handwritten letter.

You are an endless suffering.

I don’t think you would ever understand the things I’m going through. You don’t know half of it, not even a smidge.

And yet you act as if I was the one who did you wrong. Which is crazy to me. But if that’s the way you want to think then fine. Be that way. You’re only ever good at running away from your problems and even from me who has done nothing but love you. I am the only woman in this lifetime that would treat you like you were everything. But you decided to throw that away so easily.

How could you?

I hope by the end of the day, when you’re about to fall asleep, you will think of me and remember what kind of monster you were.

N

Her brows shot up. There were still no clues as to who this person was. But Dahyun definitely knew that this letter wasn’t for her.

A thought came to her.

“Tzuyu?” she called.

“Yeah?”

She placed the letter down on her lap. “Do you know who used to live here before?”

“Dunno. But when I asked, Mr. Chen said it was a telemarketer from South Korea,” Tzuyu said after closing the empty box that was beside her. Then she smirked. “Which I think is cool cause then you wouldn't be the first Korean to stay in this building.”

Dahyun looked back down on the letter, shrugging. “I guess that is cool.”

That somewhat answered some of her questions, but there was still a lot going through her head.

“Why'd you ask? Is it about that letter?” Tzuyu asked.

She shrugged again, looking back at Tzuyu. “Maybe, just curious.”

Tzuyu nodded and then picked up the box from the ground. “I’m going to throw this out. Want me to take the others out too?”

“Yeah, I’d appreciate that. Thank you.”

Then Tzuyu took the rest of the empty boxes that were placed by the corner of her living room and made her way out, leaving Dahyun alone with her thoughts and the letter.

She honestly wondered what this person did to the sender. She sounded so hurt and for some reason, Dahyun could feel the suffering from her words alone.

For some odd reason, it made her want to do something stupid.

Dahyun was a young woman, she was bound to do stupid things anyway. Packing all her things to accept a job that was so far away from home was one of them. Another one wouldn’t hurt.