[01/01] Sakumoto Fic Meme - Day 12: Letters
Sakumoto Fic Meme - Day 12: Letters
Summary
“Day 12: One paragraph about unrequited love.”
Notes Am blatantly disobeying this prompt. This is as short as I can make it.
Disclaimer
The mastermind behind this plot derives no material profit from it. While several people, places, and events exist in reality, everything that follows should be digested with a healthy dose of suspicion.
Warning/Rating
I cannot write bromance or erotica to save my life.
Words 1,635
Day 12: Letters
Sho is twenty when the first girl he loves breaks his heart, and it takes him forever to get over it. Jun, gangly, awkward and overeager Jun, tries to reassure him, tries telling him it will be all right and someday he will find the one person who will not break his heart. Sho believes him. Sho smiles and tells Jun he is right. They clap their hands over each other’s backs as Sho leans into Jun’s shoulder and weeps. Watching over him, Jun feels his eyes water, too. They part that day with an unsaid promise never to mention the incident again. It is not the right fodder for magazine interviews - it is not the right memory for parties.
It is shortly after their tenth year anniversary when Sho seems to have lost all hope in the possibility of true love. Having had his heart broken once, twice, three times by the most wonderful women he could ever meet due to the worst possible consequences of horrible timing, Sho starts drowning himself in work, starts answering in TV interviews that he thinks in the group it is Jun who will marry first. In their green rooms, Jun smiles each time Sho reminds him of this.
But then Sho tells Jun he should start writing letters to the woman he will one day love, to the woman he will one day marry, if only to tell her he had been waiting for her for a very long time. Jun smiles at this nervously and asks if Sho is doing this as well. Sho answers he has started doing it once a year since that one time, that one afternoon when he was twenty and the first girl he had loved had broken his heart. Jun had told him he would one day find the right one for him.
And if he someday should, Sho tells him over a bowl of steaming ramen while the others get their makeup done, then he will have a set of letters to give her if only to tell her how long he has waited to find her and love her for the rest of their days. Jun contents himself with smiling faintly as he sips his tea. Sho laughs at his own sentimentality and spills soup all over the break table.
When Sho is thirty-eight and Jun thirty-seven Jun finds himself engaged to a young model after a whirlwind romance. Sho is bothered by this choice - the relationship had lasted all of six months - and she is but a child, with her fascination for frilly dresses and the constant fluffy state of her hair. But Sho does not tell Jun this. The Jun that he sees in the pre-nuptial photos is calm and relaxed and ever-smiling. They had known, the five of them, that in their profession marrying for love was highly dependent on luck, and as a rule of nature, only a chosen few would be that lucky. Jun is marrying for convenience - Sho can see it in his eyes. Jun is resigned and marrying for convenience, if only because Jun is thirty-seven and Sho is thirty-eight and they are not getting younger in years. Sho claps like the rest of the crowd at Jun’s wedding party, claps despite the worry in his eyes. But Jun catches his gaze at one point of the reception and nods to him gently, yes, it will be all right. It will be all right.
The next few years are a whirlwind in Sho’s eyes. Arashi’s reign finally ends, and he becomes just another showbiz has-been. These days he is known for hosting the evening news rather than for being the super idol he and the other four once were. But over the next few years he meets her, the one, and he knows it is her, the one person he had been writing all his love letters for. In his letters, spanning all of two decades, the headings are always addressed to The One he will Someday Love. When he meets her, when he kisses her for the first time, he knows it is her. And this time the timing is right.
Jun is two years a divorcee and Sho is eight months in a wonderful relationship when the stars align and Sho gets to his knees to propose. She says yes. The invitations are sent, the catering is brought in, and the kimono are all sewn for the one big day that Sho has been waiting for all these years. The wedding itself is surprisingly unromantic, Sho ponders, as he cuts through his wedding cake with his hands wrapped around his wife’s, and a thousand camera flashes go off before their eyes. They smile for the photographers, and they are genuinely happy, but the scene is not as heavenly as it is in the movies. Sho is ever so slightly disappointed. But from the fourth table he sees, and he cannot help smiling, that Jun is crying into his handkerchief and smiling at the same time. They exchange a brief nod, Sho gives his wife a small kiss, and the whole time he recalls that one day when he was twenty when Jun had told him he would one day find the one woman he would love for the rest of his life. And he has found her.
By the evening of that day he hands her his letters, twenty letters for twenty years of him waiting for her to be his. She smiles and tears up and asks vaguely where on earth he had gotten the idea. From Jun, Sho says simply. It’s all Jun. He told me I would find you someday. I didn’t want to believe but I did. I did.
It is morning the next day, as they are opening the gifts from their numerous party guests, and Sho finds that Jun has sent them a barbecue set and a single envelope with his name and the request that he read it alone. In a corner of the garden, in the one corner he knows is his, Sho opens the letter and runs his eyes through the words in aging yellow paper. The handwriting is Jun’s.
Dearest Sho,
How are you right now? I hope you’re doing well. Today you cried into my shoulder and said you are never going to find someone to love the way you loved Natsuko. I decided to write to you for when you someday do. Because I really think you will. Find the right person for you, I mean. She’s out there somewhere. You just have to be patient.
If you are reading this then I’m probably thinking that this one is the one. Whoever you’re with right now. Have you gotten married? I hope you invited us. I hope we’re still together. Congratulations, and I hope you have lots of beautiful children. I will probably have sent you household appliances for gifts. Use them well. Use them well and be happy. It is my only wish for you.
The me of your present will probably be unsuccessful, I think. I will probably have married. I might even have children. Could I possibly be divorced? I’ve always wanted children, but I don’t really think I’ll ever want a wife. I don’t think I’ll ever want a wife because the one I want to be with for the rest of my life will never want me. I’m sure of this. If you are reading this, then my feelings will not have changed. I only want you to be happy. It is my only wish for you.
I have always believed that I am privileged for having been part of your life. It is more than enough for me. Now if you could just be happy, and take care of yourself and your health then I will be happy, too. And then I hope you can forget the contents of this letter for me. Let’s go about our lives as we always have, as though nothing has changed or will change, because in the first place I do not want you to be mine. I am your number one fan. But before I fell in love with you I was your friend. Thank you for being my friend. It is your greatest gift to me.
Be happy. And if you could remember me with fondness, that would be great.
Jun.
When his wife calls him in for their first breakfast as a married couple Sho realizes he has been standing in the garden for too long. The letter is crushed in his hands. His eyes are dry but his heart is heavy and he realizes he is forty and blind. But Jun had written him not to remember. So he would not remember. He would choose to forget.
Summoning his best smile, Sho walks into the kitchen where his wife is waiting. Their breakfast is French toast, fruits and yogurt. She has mastered exactly what he likes. He kisses her forehead, smiles into her eyes and picks his fork to begin eating. She is the one he has been waiting for all these years. She is the one he has been wanting to love all these years.
Sho smiles to himself and laughs quietly at how Jun could have known everything.
A/N: Soooooooo drama. But! I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks very much for reading!
Summary
“Day 12: One paragraph about unrequited love.”
Notes Am blatantly disobeying this prompt. This is as short as I can make it.
Disclaimer
The mastermind behind this plot derives no material profit from it. While several people, places, and events exist in reality, everything that follows should be digested with a healthy dose of suspicion.
Warning/Rating
I cannot write bromance or erotica to save my life.
Words 1,635
Day 12: Letters
Sho is twenty when the first girl he loves breaks his heart, and it takes him forever to get over it. Jun, gangly, awkward and overeager Jun, tries to reassure him, tries telling him it will be all right and someday he will find the one person who will not break his heart. Sho believes him. Sho smiles and tells Jun he is right. They clap their hands over each other’s backs as Sho leans into Jun’s shoulder and weeps. Watching over him, Jun feels his eyes water, too. They part that day with an unsaid promise never to mention the incident again. It is not the right fodder for magazine interviews - it is not the right memory for parties.
It is shortly after their tenth year anniversary when Sho seems to have lost all hope in the possibility of true love. Having had his heart broken once, twice, three times by the most wonderful women he could ever meet due to the worst possible consequences of horrible timing, Sho starts drowning himself in work, starts answering in TV interviews that he thinks in the group it is Jun who will marry first. In their green rooms, Jun smiles each time Sho reminds him of this.
But then Sho tells Jun he should start writing letters to the woman he will one day love, to the woman he will one day marry, if only to tell her he had been waiting for her for a very long time. Jun smiles at this nervously and asks if Sho is doing this as well. Sho answers he has started doing it once a year since that one time, that one afternoon when he was twenty and the first girl he had loved had broken his heart. Jun had told him he would one day find the right one for him.
And if he someday should, Sho tells him over a bowl of steaming ramen while the others get their makeup done, then he will have a set of letters to give her if only to tell her how long he has waited to find her and love her for the rest of their days. Jun contents himself with smiling faintly as he sips his tea. Sho laughs at his own sentimentality and spills soup all over the break table.
When Sho is thirty-eight and Jun thirty-seven Jun finds himself engaged to a young model after a whirlwind romance. Sho is bothered by this choice - the relationship had lasted all of six months - and she is but a child, with her fascination for frilly dresses and the constant fluffy state of her hair. But Sho does not tell Jun this. The Jun that he sees in the pre-nuptial photos is calm and relaxed and ever-smiling. They had known, the five of them, that in their profession marrying for love was highly dependent on luck, and as a rule of nature, only a chosen few would be that lucky. Jun is marrying for convenience - Sho can see it in his eyes. Jun is resigned and marrying for convenience, if only because Jun is thirty-seven and Sho is thirty-eight and they are not getting younger in years. Sho claps like the rest of the crowd at Jun’s wedding party, claps despite the worry in his eyes. But Jun catches his gaze at one point of the reception and nods to him gently, yes, it will be all right. It will be all right.
The next few years are a whirlwind in Sho’s eyes. Arashi’s reign finally ends, and he becomes just another showbiz has-been. These days he is known for hosting the evening news rather than for being the super idol he and the other four once were. But over the next few years he meets her, the one, and he knows it is her, the one person he had been writing all his love letters for. In his letters, spanning all of two decades, the headings are always addressed to The One he will Someday Love. When he meets her, when he kisses her for the first time, he knows it is her. And this time the timing is right.
Jun is two years a divorcee and Sho is eight months in a wonderful relationship when the stars align and Sho gets to his knees to propose. She says yes. The invitations are sent, the catering is brought in, and the kimono are all sewn for the one big day that Sho has been waiting for all these years. The wedding itself is surprisingly unromantic, Sho ponders, as he cuts through his wedding cake with his hands wrapped around his wife’s, and a thousand camera flashes go off before their eyes. They smile for the photographers, and they are genuinely happy, but the scene is not as heavenly as it is in the movies. Sho is ever so slightly disappointed. But from the fourth table he sees, and he cannot help smiling, that Jun is crying into his handkerchief and smiling at the same time. They exchange a brief nod, Sho gives his wife a small kiss, and the whole time he recalls that one day when he was twenty when Jun had told him he would one day find the one woman he would love for the rest of his life. And he has found her.
By the evening of that day he hands her his letters, twenty letters for twenty years of him waiting for her to be his. She smiles and tears up and asks vaguely where on earth he had gotten the idea. From Jun, Sho says simply. It’s all Jun. He told me I would find you someday. I didn’t want to believe but I did. I did.
It is morning the next day, as they are opening the gifts from their numerous party guests, and Sho finds that Jun has sent them a barbecue set and a single envelope with his name and the request that he read it alone. In a corner of the garden, in the one corner he knows is his, Sho opens the letter and runs his eyes through the words in aging yellow paper. The handwriting is Jun’s.
Dearest Sho,
How are you right now? I hope you’re doing well. Today you cried into my shoulder and said you are never going to find someone to love the way you loved Natsuko. I decided to write to you for when you someday do. Because I really think you will. Find the right person for you, I mean. She’s out there somewhere. You just have to be patient.
If you are reading this then I’m probably thinking that this one is the one. Whoever you’re with right now. Have you gotten married? I hope you invited us. I hope we’re still together. Congratulations, and I hope you have lots of beautiful children. I will probably have sent you household appliances for gifts. Use them well. Use them well and be happy. It is my only wish for you.
The me of your present will probably be unsuccessful, I think. I will probably have married. I might even have children. Could I possibly be divorced? I’ve always wanted children, but I don’t really think I’ll ever want a wife. I don’t think I’ll ever want a wife because the one I want to be with for the rest of my life will never want me. I’m sure of this. If you are reading this, then my feelings will not have changed. I only want you to be happy. It is my only wish for you.
I have always believed that I am privileged for having been part of your life. It is more than enough for me. Now if you could just be happy, and take care of yourself and your health then I will be happy, too. And then I hope you can forget the contents of this letter for me. Let’s go about our lives as we always have, as though nothing has changed or will change, because in the first place I do not want you to be mine. I am your number one fan. But before I fell in love with you I was your friend. Thank you for being my friend. It is your greatest gift to me.
Be happy. And if you could remember me with fondness, that would be great.
Jun.
When his wife calls him in for their first breakfast as a married couple Sho realizes he has been standing in the garden for too long. The letter is crushed in his hands. His eyes are dry but his heart is heavy and he realizes he is forty and blind. But Jun had written him not to remember. So he would not remember. He would choose to forget.
Summoning his best smile, Sho walks into the kitchen where his wife is waiting. Their breakfast is French toast, fruits and yogurt. She has mastered exactly what he likes. He kisses her forehead, smiles into her eyes and picks his fork to begin eating. She is the one he has been waiting for all these years. She is the one he has been wanting to love all these years.
Sho smiles to himself and laughs quietly at how Jun could have known everything.
A/N: Soooooooo drama. But! I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks very much for reading!