Letters To You

10.0

Late at night, when all the hyungs and the maknae were sleeping profoundly in their assigned rooms with their roommates, Vernon sneaked out of the dorm with his the chest box tightly clutched against his body. He did his best to not make a single sound, not even the light creak of the door must be heard. Once out of the dorm, he walked to the back, grabbing pieces of old newspapers and a lighter.

He dumped all the newspapers in the iron can, then dumped all the letters he had written into the can as well. Taking a moderate amount of the newspaper, he lit it up with the lighter he had in his hands. He threw it into the iron can and let them burn so they would cease to exist.

"Burn," Vernon said, staring at the glistening fire before him, "burn so that you'll never haunt me again."

Ashes danced around him in the air and the fire casted a nice glow to it. They looked like small fires dancing in the midnight sky. Vernon might be the only one awake in the entire neighborhood.

"Hey, um, hello?"

Then again, there was another voice that invited its way to his thoughts. Vernon had to slap himself twice to make sure he wasn't imagining voices in his head.

"Who's out there?" It sounded like any cliché horror movie, where the voice would call out to them and the main lead would reply to that voice.

"Relax, it's just Seung Ah. Wait, are you a robber?"

Vernon's tensed muscle slowly relaxed when he heard that it was only Seung Ah. He stepped out of the back of the dorm and peeped out of the gate. "How do you know I was outside?"

"Vernon? You were outside? Wait, did you hear another voice? You'll never know if there's a robber around here," Seung Ah said, eyeing the area from left to right. "Should we go check it out?"

"Don't worry, there's no robber around here. It was just me," Vernon assured her. "What brings you here late at night? Not to mention midnight."

Seung Ah's eyes dropped down to ground as she hid something behind her back. "I-I have my reasons."

That made Vernon curious, but when he saw how red her cheeks turned, he knew it would be best not to ask. "Okay, then."

"What are you doing outside the dorm? It's midnight, too," Seung Ah noted. "It doesn't seem like you have any business. And what's that behind the dorm? I see smoke. Seolma... Is the dorm on fire?!"

Vernon chuckled in reply as he threw his hands into his sweatpants. "No, it's not. I was just burning something back there."

Seung Ah, curious as always, asked, "What are you burning?"

"Letters."

"To?"

"Somebody from the past."

That made Seung Ah even more curious. "Who? Your childhood crush?"

Even if Seung Ah was just teasing around, Vernon replied with much seriousness but was barely visible to her, "Yes. My crush. Ex-crush. I want to forget her, so I wrote letters and now I'm burning them."

"If you don't mind, can I come and watch it burn?" Seung Ah asked.

"Why would you want to see it burn?" Vernon never failed to feel astonished and amused by the way Seung Ah's mind works.

"Oh, like you don't want to see it too. Come on. Let's get looking before it burns out," Seung Ah said, grabbing onto Vernon's wrist and pulling him towards the direction of where he burned the letters.

What was ironic was the person he wanted to send letters was right there, watching as they burn, and hopefully, along with the feelings he had for her. Vernon would glance secretly at Seung Ah, and he felt his heart slow down from that racing heart he usually felt when he was around her.

He smiled to himself. He was slowly moving on.

"The fire is really pretty," Seung Ah noted, sitting not too close to the fire, but close enough to stare at its fiery beauty. "Whoever your ex-crush, I hope she knows that she had the amazing power to make you write a letter about her, then burn it. Did she hurt you a lot, Hansolie?"

Pabo, that girl is sitting right next to me.

"No comment," Vernon answered with a sly smile. "How are you and Joshua hyung doing? I heard it's almost your two years anniversary. So happy advance."

Seung Ah's cheeks immediately turned red by the comment of his. "H-how did you know that?"

"We live together, and hyung has this calendar in his room and a certain date was circled. I know he wrote anniversary in English on purpose so that the members wouldn't understand, but he's forgetting that I live under that roof. So... happy advance to the both of you." Vernon still felt bitter, but the feeling pass faster than before. "What did the two of you do last anniversary?"

"He took me on a date in a restaurant. It was really fancy and we ate Italian food," Seung Ah replied, blushing by the thought. "Ack, my cheeks are so warm. Yah! Choi Hansol, neo!"

Vernon shrugged. "What did I do? It wasn't my fault you and hyung enjoyed your date so much. It's also not my fault your cheeks are so bashful."

"Well, you were the one who reminded me of such event, so, hmmph! Your fault!" Seung Ah playfully punched his shoulder.

Vernon faked a pain face and did the most girly scream ever, "Ah."

"Bwoya? What was that?" Seung Ah eyed him weirdly before shaking her head and standing up to cheek the fire. "The letters are pretty burnt out and I don't think anyone will be able to read anything that was written in them."

"What are you doing?"

Vernon watched as Seung Ah grabbed the hose nearby and switched the faucet on, then watered the iron can to put out the fire.

"Go to sleep. We'll see each other soon enough, Boononie. Bye!" Seung Ah waved goodbye and dashed to the front gate.

Once Seung Ah left, Vernon went outside of the dorm's premises and stared at Seung Ah's back view. In a low mutter, he said, "I kept my promise, Seung Ah."

Seung Ah's body went farther and farther and soon, he couldn't make out the body of the girl he once loved. Just like how she disappeared from his sight, she has finally disappeared from his heart and now belong to someone else.

Congratulations, Vernon thought, for moving on and letting someone better love and take care of the girl you always thought was yours. Congratulations to both you and Seung Ah, for ending each other's story book that was never meant to intertwine with each other. And, one last thing, congratulations, Vernon. For finally moving on.

~Author's Notes~

And congratulations to you Kimichies for completing this story! :)

This was a short story, really short, but I hope you've enjoyed this story! :)

It took me two days to write this entire thing, and this feels great! ㅋㅋㅋ (i just slowly posted the chapters)

Check out my other stories if you want to, and this has been Kyungie, signing out!

xoxo

Byun Sang Kyung