The Fourteenth Letter From Dahyun

Seoul, South Korea

September 21, 1995

The day was hectic. To say the least.

But she was glad to finally be home.

Nayeon sighed when she removed her shoes and took one step inside. She stood there for a moment, dumbly looking around her apartment even if she knew that she wasn’t going to find what she was looking for.

Her own home felt emptier.

It always had been, but the feeling just grew since Bruce had passed away. She was so used to being greeted by his deep and lazy barking, then she would walk over to where the barrier was, open the door and watch him slowly waddle towards her even if he couldn’t see anymore. It was like he knew that she was there.

She missed the way he licked his snout whenever he barked. Or the sound of his nails tapping into her wooden floors whenever it was time to eat. Nayeon still kept his collar and leash by the door. She wasn’t ready to keep them away.

She missed him. Terribly.

Then again, if she was being honest, she would rather come home sad and lonely than angry and betrayed.

Daewoo had done enough.

And Nayeon felt like her heartbreak over Bruce had overlapped her anger towards him. It could be because of work, because things started to be busier than before. Or because she spent months doing things for herself and loving herself a little more.

Or because Dahyun and her letters had somehow healed her from it.

There was a lot to unpack, a lot of emotions for Nayeon to scrape out and reflect on. But one thing was for sure, Daewoo didn’t mean as much to her as he did before and that Dahyun had been a great friend who helped her heal with each letter the woman had sent. If anything, she was thankful for him, because then she wouldn’t have met Dahyun if she didn’t angrily send that letter to him.

Even when he showed up at her house and tried to mend things, she knew nothing could have taken back all the hurt that he had caused. The only thing she could have done was move on. It was the easiest thing to do. She still had something to hold onto when he had disrespected and degraded her like that.

Bruce was the only man that could make her heartbroken forever, Daewoo could eat shit for all she cared.

Nayeon shook herself out of her trance and finally started moving, beelining towards her couch and dropping herself on it.

She was tired.

She was sad, missing Bruce terribly.

And it didn’t help that she had been doing nothing but wait for Dahyun’s letter. It was the eve of her birthday, and she didn’t receive anything. She told Dahyun to only send her a letter because that would always make her feel better.

Especially after today.

Her bones felt weak, her head was hurting, her heart felt heavy. Her mind was all over the place.

Nayeon didn’t know what to think about first.

If she wanted to recall how Daewoo cheated on her then left and felt amazed at how unaffected she was already. Or that this was going to be the first birthday she would be celebrating without Bruce. The first one after eight years.

Or that Dahyun’s letter still hasn’t arrived yet.

A part of her felt like she didn’t have the right to complain because of the times she had delayed her letter on purpose the first few times they wrote to each other. Or how her emotional turmoil had also played a part of that. If Dahyun waited patiently for her delayed letters then she could do the same.

She even missed Dahyun’s birthday. Which still felt unforgivable. But she believed that her friend liked the gift she gave. She just wished Dahyun didn’t think that she could win her over with gifts.

Nayeon wanted to give something better. Something that wanted to show Dahyun how thankful she was for saving her life because of her simple letters.

Tears were starting to form, vision turning blurry as she stared at her ceiling. She remembered writing to Dahyun that she didn’t feel like a mess, but a part of her felt like she was lying and that she shouldn’t have said that to Dahyun.

Maybe it was a part of her that wanted to prove to Dahyun that she was normal or had her shit together. She knew that Dahyun had a stable job, she had friends and was able to work abroad. What did Nayeon have? Materialistically, she had everything. She could buy anything she wanted. But she still felt like something was missing in her life and she honestly wished she could have a life that was simple.

Something like Dahyun.

There were moments where she wondered if she was envious of Dahyun or if she wanted to just be like Dahyun where her worries were… mundane. But Nayeon knew that it wasn’t good to be jealous over someone who also had her own struggles. Maybe Dahyun wasn’t the type to express them. Or she didn’t want to tell Nayeon because she was the one who was emotionally unstable.

She sighed again. That was probably why she lied. But she did hope that Dahyun felt good when she said those words. Nayeon may have felt like she lied about having her life in order, but how Dahyun made her feel was the truth.

Remembering the words made her feel flustered again. Why did she write that?

Then it hit her.

Was that the reason why Nayeon still hadn’t received a letter yet?

“Oh my god,” she groaned out, arm covering her eyes as tears started to drop. What an idiot she was.

Dahyun had already told her that she didn’t deal well when someone was showing any advances. But then again, was she even doing that? Nayeon didn’t mind if she wanted to flirt in writing, but Dahyun had specifically said she wasn’t comfortable enough for that. And what were they even? Were they close enough for Dahyun to be alright with this?

Great.

Maybe she really was lying to Dahyun. Because her life was indeed a mess.

Nayeon was about to allow herself to wail into the emptiness of her apartment, feeling her shoulders shake again from her crying. But then the sound of her buzzer rang through and that made her freeze. She took her arm off from her face and stared at the door, thinking that she was imagining things.

But then it rang again, and she frantically got up from her spot, wiping her tears away with her hands, smoothening her hair out with her hands. She got to the door, took a deep breath and peeked through the hole.

Her brows perked. What was he doing here? They just saw each other.

Nayeon opened the door to greet him. “Mingyu? Is something wrong? What are you doing here?”

“Sorry to bother you at this hour. But I had to go back because you have a package,” the tall man explained as she opened the door wider. He then handed her the small packaging.

She blinked, not moving an inch since she had bad experiences from unknown packages that were sent to her apartment. She simply stared at her employee. “I do?”

Mingyu furrowed his brows, slowly pointing at the package in his hand. “Right here.” Then he shook his head. “Front desk called us and wasn’t sure if it was safe, so I drove over to check it myself. It’s soft so I think it’s safe.”

She blinked, glancing back at the brown wrapper, noticing a card on top. She was scared to find out who sent it. But there was one person she had in mind, and she hoped it was from her.

“Where is it from?” she asked, still skeptical.

“Uhh…” Mingyu then picked the package and brought it closer to his face, squinting his eyes. “Tainan… Taiwan—h-hey!”