Take care of yourself,
Hannah
Hannah,
I don’t even know why I’m writing this maybe it’s because it’s the only way I can make sense of whatever it is that I’m feeling, but I thought you were different and now I see that I was wrong. I believed in you, and us, or whatever us even was, but clearly you never did. And I add that the sheer fact that you think I would out you shows that you never really knew me at all. But if you’d like to play make-believe, I’m happy to oblige, I’m happy to pretend that all the letters we exchange, and all the secrets we shared just never occurred. If that would make you happy to live in a reality in which it was always Wynter for you, then that’s fine. I don’t regret letting you in, I just regret thinking you’d let me stay.
Goodbye,
Jiwon.
Jiwon had been writing to hannah all summer long, she knew her before even he did. That sure explained all the impromptu trips to the post office and coldness she’d had with him lately. Furthermore these werent just letters they were carefully curated confessions of love and desire between the two, he felt as though he were an intruder flipping through those letters. He didn’t know his sister liked girls– then again she was never the type to ramble on about romantic love none of his siblings were. They all faced romantic affection like vines around their throat, like a cruelty inflicted upon their being. He only wished thingswouldn’t be the same for jiwon. Now it made sense the way she leave the room immediately he and Hannah stepped in, the helplessness in her stare every time he wrapped his arm around the girl. It all made sense. And he felt terrible about it, how could he have been so blind to his own sisters silent torment? For someone who prided himself on being emotionally aware this was perturbing.
The truth crashed over him like a tidal wave, drowning him in guilt. He had failed her.
The sound of a door creaking open snapped him from his reverie. Yesoh stood in the doorway, curls in pigtails, sunburn on her shoulder and deep brown eyes. her figure a silhouette against the dim hallway light. He didn’t need to look at her to know the weight of her gaze, the knowledge she had been carrying, perhaps for longer than he realized. The air between them thickened, heavy with the unspoken.
“Did you know about this?” Wynter’s voice broke through the silence, raw and pained, his words as jagged as the fragments of his heart.
Yesoh’s eyes drifted, and for a moment, she seemed to shrink, the doorframe the only thing holding her up. She didn’t speak right away, the silence stretching thin, taut between them. Finally, her voice was a fragile whisper.
“It wasn’t my place to say.”
“That’s not an answer,” Wynter snapped, and she looked up at him, her eyes glassy. “And that’s not fair.”
“I promised Jiwon,” she said quietly. “She didn’t wantyouto know. She didn’t wantanyoneto know.”
Wynter took a shaky breath, running a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe this,” he muttered, the weight of the betrayal crashing over him. “This is why she’s been so upset. This is why she—” He cut himself off, grabbing his coat from the back of a chair.
“Where are you going?” Yesoh’s voice was tinged with worry now.
“To get some answers.”
Yesoh’s words were a slap to the facehe could not beleive that he was being told that his younger sisters affair was none of his business. He crumpled the letters in his hands feeling the kind of frustration and rage he had long attempted to suppress. He was a wildfire rapidly spreading and ready to turn anything in his way to crisp. He made his way down the winding path to Mirrorball house, then to March house, Sydney's house. In search of the cause of all this hurt, in search of Hannah. He knocked on the door frantically.
“What do you want?” She asked, opening the door her voice calm,toocalm, as if she didn’t know the hurricane she was about to face.
Wynter shoved the letters into her hands, his fingers trembling as he did so, his anger rising like smoke from a fire. “What thefuckis this?”
“Woah!” Syd gasped never having heard the Kwon boy curse before.
“I— where did you find these?” Hannah muttered.
“That’snotwhat I asked you, now explain.” He urged but she glanced down swallowing the guilt.
“Your sister and I we were um penpals.” She expressed trying to cover up the truth.
“Penpals don’t write to each other like this,” he shook his head.
“What are you insinuating Kwon, huh?” Hannah folded her arms defiantly. “You don’t get to waltz into my house—”
“Notyourhouse!” Sydney called out from the living room. “You made that bed Han now lay in it.”
“You’re shameless, just because you didn’t want to live in your truth, it doesn’t mean you get to screw around with my family.You don’t get to make my sister look like the fool.” He expressed and it was an incredibly significant moment.
This was the first time anyone had ever seen Wynter get angry. The first time he ever lost his composure, the first time he ever spoke his mind entirely and without restraint. Yesoh watched from the doorway her mouth hung open in shock, Sydney, Cahya, and Jax agast from behind the living room couch.
“That’s not what I meant to do.” She chewed down on her bottom lip eyes welling up with tears.
