letters!au

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INSPIRED BY:

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"dear brian,

it's hard to chill with your bro in an orchard when you're more than five feet apart,"

brian mumbled. he was currently reading the new letter he had received from his pen pal from america. his eyes trailed further down the letter, their corners creasing as he smiled.

"i bet you're reading this in a tree again..."

younghyun stifled a laugh, looking down at the branch on the maple tree he was sitting on, then glanced back toward the letter, sarcastically muttering, "yeah. how'd you even guess, jae?" then he started reading again.

"this may sound really super gay but because of you i started going outside more. i even have a tan now! look!!"

the younger boy took a look at the small pocket glued to the letter, then removed a paper from inside. it was a recent photograph of jae, a small polaroid, to be exact. the boy was chilling in an apple tree, looking happy as can be. his radiant smile must have been contagious, as younghyun couldn't help grinning at the boy in the picture and reaching out his finger to poke the area near the black-haired boy's nose where his thick, round-rimmed glasses were faintly visible in the slightly blurry picture. the boy was indeed a bit darker than he had been before, his pale skin now seeming toasted and warm in the yellow tint of the sunlight gently falling on his body and face through the tree's green leaves.

the canadian boy caught himself staring at the photograph, finally pulling his eyes back to the letter after shaking his head.

"the weather here is really hot right now so i go to the orchard and play my guitar all day. i wish you were here with me so we could just sit in an apple tree, chillin in an orchard, five feet apart cuz we're not gay..."

brian smiled, feeling a red-tinted brush tickle his cheeks.

"anyway send me a letter so i can send you another picture! i can't fit them all in the envelope ugh.

your bro, jae."

younghyun looked at the letter for a few more seconds, warmly smiling at the chicken scratch that was jae's handwriting. he then carefully returned the picture into its little pocket, folding up the letter and replacing it back in its envelope.

he crossed his legs to more comfortably situate himself on the branch he was sitting on, then took a piece of paper, a book, and a pen out of the red rucksack hanging from his back. placing the soon-to-be letter on his book, younghyun picked up his pen and began to carefully write whilst muttering out the words he was sculpting into the page.

"dear jae,

stop calling me brian.

i'm tempted to take you up on your offer but canada is pretty far from america...

also, we're half-gay, right? i mean, we're both bi... two halves make a whole, you know. [insert wink here]

so let's sit closer than that if we meet and play guitar next to each other on a tree all day.

anyway, here's a photo for you too. have fun chilling outside by yourself and staring at my blurry face.

your bro, young k."

brian took a piece of paper, a glue stick, and a polaroid out of his rucksack, proceeding to glue the paper onto the open spot he had left on his letter to make a sort of pocket. he then smiled at his photo, sliding it in the pocket and folding his letter. his fingers reached for the envelope he had placed in his rucksack, gently slipping his letter in it. he had already written everything the post office needed him to write and stuck a stamp on the upper right corner of his envelope. so he jumped off the tree he was sitting on after he made sure he had placed everything back in his rucksack and ran to catch up to the post worker.

the photo he had asked his mom to take of him hanging from a tree by his legs and the letter he had just written now rested in the safe clutches of the smiling mail carrier, soon to be picked up by another smiling boy sitting in an apple tree, strumming his guitar.