Chapter Text
To my new friend,
I write this letter as part of a school project where we make pen pals with classmates of our sister school. Since this is my first letter, and we are the ones who write first as per tradition, I'm yet to know my new friend's name. All I know about our sister school is that, like ours, it only allows men, and yours only allows women, and that the architecture is much prettier as well. I haven't seen a painting of the school, nor have I traveled too far east to witness this with my own eyes, so I'll believe it until you give me reasons not to.
I would like to present myself properly. My name is Jungkook Beaumont. I am twelve years old, and my family's coat of arms bears the white swan. My family's business is the importation of textiles like the blue silk we wear around our necks as part of our uniforms. The hobby I'm most partial towards is horse riding. My favourite book is Hugo Burke's Feather Light after we were assigned to read it for poetry class, and I've been told my character leans more towards the gentle side even when I'm angry.
I'm open to any and every question mademoiselle might have of me. I look forward to exchanging letters, for I wish to see the world through the female gaze, which is, I've been told, almost whimsical. I wish to learn about your dreams and fears and aspirations, I wish for us to become friends for life. This is, truly, an assignment I've been waiting for since I first heard of the tradition two years ago, and I write to you in history class after practising in my notebook all night.
I hope this letter finds you well.
Yours truly,
Jungkook Beaumont.
"Now that you're all finished, seal the envelope like we practiced." Monsieur Andre instructed them while he paced with his hands behind his back.
Jungkook was very meticulous as he folded his letter and slipped it inside the rectangular envelope. Someone snorted to his right.
"It's like you're sure it will explode." Samuel leered from the chair beside him.
Jungkook grinned excitedly without taking his eyes away from his work. Carefully, he began to melt blue wax to seal his letter.
"It just might, my friend." He answered in a lower tone than usual due to his focus. "This explosition might bring with it a wonderful conection and I hope it does."
"I hope so as well." Kaylum turned around in his chair in front of Jungkook with his sealed envelope in hand, fanning his smug face with it. "I've added enough details to make any female wish to court me instead."
Jungkook chuckled while Samuel spoke.
"I hope you added the easy way your tearducts react when frsutrated."
"What ever did you write in yours?" Kay snapped back. "Because I'm sure you omitted your need for a special diet due to a delicate stomach."
"I think I did a good job." Jungkook smiled down at his letter while he fanned the seal with his hands, the school's court of arms edged onto the wax with perfection. "I kept it light for the first letter; basic stuff."
"At least you don't have to lie to make yourself look more proper," Samuel said loftily as he glanced at Kay.
The latter fumed in Samuel's direction but was stopped from retailiating when Wilbur walked back from their teacher's desk and spoke in a dejected tone.
"He won't let me write it again."
Jungkook blinked, bewildered.
"Why would you have to write it again? You've already sealed it."
"I know." He let his head hang forward with a grimace. "I believe I might've said unimportant stuff now that I overheard you all speaking."
"What did you write?" Kay wondered with a deep frown but also a humurous grin on the edge of his lips. "Give me an example."
Wilbur sighed, still looking down at the floor.
"Stuff like... how I get seasick when traveling by ship." After he said this, Kay had to press his fingers over his mouth to stop himself from laughing. Jungkook merely shook his head at what he heard. "I also wrote that I hate strawberries after I almost choked on one on my birthday."
Unable to restrain themselves, the three boys fell about laughing, adding to the usual ruckus of their classroom and soliciting a nervous but thankful smile from Wilbur.
Their year was separated into five classrooms of fifteen students each. All the letters were written on the same lecture, on the same day, so the five teachers of these classes could send them away at the same time. Monsieur Andre, like the other teachers, took the fifteen letters of his class, put them inside a canvas bag, and walked towards the communications administration offices once their class was over. The teachers of the other four classes joined him, conversing casually as they dumped the insides of their bags into a much larger one inside the office. They left, and three hours later, the school's messenger had put the letter bag inside his carriage and comanded his four hourses to stride off towards the sister school. Laurent Moreau Boarning School for Girls.
Upon arriving a week later, he gave the bag to their school messenger, took whatever packages they needed delivered to the other school, and then prepared to stay a few nights in the closest village. The new passenger took the bag of letters straight to their communications administration office. The lady there made sure the names on her list were the same as those in the envelopes and then took the bag to the teacher's lounge. The next day, the female teachers of the five classrooms equal to that of the previous school entered their classes with fifteen letters each to pass around at random. The first four classrooms assigned their letters as it was supposed to be, but the last one was missing one student, so this letter, said to be from a Jungkook Beaumont, went without an owner until this student came back. The problem was, she never did.
This class's teacher was an elderly woman of great wisdom, grace, and intelligence, but she was indeed a bit forgetful about unimportant things. After three days, the girls had all written down their letters, and all the teachers gave them to the communications office for next month, when the messenger would return to their school. The letter inside a drawer of the teacher's desk was already slipping her mind before they were all informed that their missing student would not return due to her family moving out of the country and wishing to take her with them. There were preparations to be made for her sending-away party, new letters to write from all her classmates so she could have a piece of them on her journey, and the letter without an owner was forgotten under new piles of papers and assignments.
Two weeks before the girls' letters would be send off, their elderly teacher had gotten sick from one day to the next. The doctor, saying it was exhaustion, advised her to say goodbye to teaching so she could enjoy more time with her grandchildren, and she tearfully agreed. The entire school celebrated the life she spent with them, and many tears were shed once she stood on stage and said her final thanks. She took everything important to her from drawers, desks, and bookshelves and left the papers and assigements that were meant to be thrown away. She told this to Anita, the cleaning lady she was personaly saying goodbye to, and then she left. That same night, as it happened every night, the cleaning crew would leave the halls and rooms spotless and fragrant for the next day. This was when the letter without an owner was found.
The sister school for mademoiselles prided itself in hiring single mothers as cleaning ladies so they had enough to sustain their families. Sometimes, due to personal reasons, these women would have to bring their children to the school campus with them with the promise that they would help them in their duties. That night, Anita Martin had to bring his twelve-year-old son to work because the boy's night-time tutor had to cancel his lectures. The boy's name was Taehyung Martin, and he adored joining his mother for work, finding the cancelation of his lectures a personal treat even when he loved to learn just so he could walk such beautiful halls and help dust countless books. Tonight, he was told to clean the desk of a particular classroom until all the papers were torn in half and stuffed in a rubbage bag.
Taehyung took his time with his only job, knowing his mother would take around five to six hours to finish her job with the other ladies. He would take papers and read through them even though he couldn't understand why most of them were once important, and then he would tear them as instructed. The sound of taring paper was his only company under the chandelier's candlelight until he took what he thought had been the last paper in the drawer. What he found underneath was what looked like a letter. Puzzled, Taehyung took it.
The wax seal was not yet torn open, and the sender was from the brother school of monsieurs. It belonged to a boy named Jungkook Beaumont.
After grappling with his contience for a while, Taehyung looked catiously from one side to the other, making sure he was still completely alone, and then tore open the envelope. He decided it would harm no one since he had already been instructed to tear it in half and throw it away. So he unfolded it and began to read.
By the end, Taehyung was frowning deeper than ever. He finished his job as quickly as he could, stuffed the letter in the inner pocket of his jacket, and took the garbage bag to throw it away. Then, he ran to where he knew was the communications office and found a woman his mother was friendly with, mopping the floor.
"Taehyung," her eyes widened, "what's all the rush for?"
Taehyung's breath hitched as he stopped dead in the threshold, not wishing to step on the wet floor. Quickly, he came up with a question.
"Do you know when was the last time letters arrived?" Then, before she could ask, he gave her a reason. "I just threw away a letter, and I want to make sure it was supposed to be."
Understanding the importance, the lady put her mop to the side and walked over to the office drawer like she knew where everything was. She took one paper out, read it closely, and frowned in his direction.
"Did the letter have a date?"
Taehyung glanced away, trying to remember without needing to pull out the letter he had just admitted to have thrown away.
"I'm not sure." He decided.
"Well, this says the last bag of letters came from the school of monsieurs two weeks ago. Do you think it was one of them?" He looked up at him, raising her eyebrows.
He glanced away again before answering.
"If it was, then it was meant to be answered, wasn't it? So we would know if the school of monsieurs say they're missing a letter, wouldn't they? When are they expecting their letters, do you know?"
She bent over the cabinet for a second time to retrieve a different piece of paper and nodded to herself. "In two weeks. Their messenger would take them then." She retrieved the papers back to where they were as she continued speaking. "We wouldn't have to wait so long, I think. If something important is lost overnight, we're all inquired about it the next day."
Taehyung grimaced, slightly paniqued.
"Let's hope it wasn't important, then." He tried to shrug. "I was told to throw away everything from that one desk, and it was in it, so perhaps we'll hear nothing about it."
The lady nodded as she took back her mop.
"Yes, perhaps. Well, off you go. Back to work." She dismissed him with a hand movement, and he bowed slightly at the waist in a gentlemanly fashion before leaving back from where he came from at a walk.
He was grappling with his contience again as he decided between doing what was right and what was more exciting. His life wasn't particularly boring, but after reading about horse riding as a hobby and textile importation as a family business, it seemed like the most amazing opportunity was stuffed away inside his breast pocket. But, if this was a school assignment, he couldn't simply pretend to be another student without expecting to get caught. If he was, his mother would bear the brunt of it and him by association, so it would be smarter to leave the letter where he found it.
Once he got back to the classroom, however, the fantasy of how he would respond to the letter made him stop in the middle of the classroom. He thought of reasons for why it wouldn't be a bad idea to answer the letter as himself, but the biggest of all was that it was an opportunity. If he put it back where it was, not only would he miss the chance of talking to a boy his age who could become his one and only friend, but he would also be leaving evidence behind that he'd been going through a teacher's stuff before throwing them away. But, if he did throw away the letter, Jungkook would be left the only one without a response after so excitedly writing his own.
This last fact was Taehyung's deciding factor.
It was three in the morning when he and his mother left for their village home, both tired and hungry. He woke up in his room later, at nine in the morning, and got to work. Making sure not to be noicy while his mother continued sleeping in the room next to his, he sat down on his small desk by his window and placed the stolen letter over the dark, old wood. Then, without having ever been lectured on how to write letters, he wrote his own as best he could, hoping that his honesty might win him a friend. And even though he knew this Jungkook would have no academic reason to answer his letter, he still hoped.
He might just be putting them at risk of losing the only job his mother was allowed to have after never going to school in her youth. But he wasn't trying to be selfish. Lonelines fueled his actions, and company was the aim. If Jungkook was honest about being of gentle character, he had more to gain.