Letters [KTH FF] [SOF Prequel 0.1] ✔

Chapter 3

"So-ra!" Aria kept the letters aside and went to the door of the attic, calling out to the older woman waiting below, "Can you please ask someone to help me? I need to carry a chest downstairs to my room but its too heavy for me to be attempting it by myself."

"Yes. Wait for just a few minutes! I am sending help." So-ra replied.

Aria turned away and went to the chest and silently bent down to pick all the letters she had read, to bundle them back and keep them inside.

Her mind was buzzing with all her thoughts.

Her grandfather had married the love of his life who had loved someone else. A boy named Taehyung who had loved her back with his every fiber of his being.

The ending of the story Aria was reading was her present. The past, the beginning, the deepening of her grandma's love to Taehyung in their youth already had an outcome which she knew.

Their bond, could not be woven together. They had lost each other.

Aria paused when she realized that her task was done, all the envelopes were inside. She closed the chest and stood up, lost in the implications.

Only the journey was left to be discovered. The journey, undoubtedly catalogued and preserved between the pink and white sheets of paper.

Her grandmother had married in the year 1963 and died at 1964. She had been 18 at the time of death. The letters she was reading had started in 1957 when her grandmother had been 12, till the point of her inviting Taehyung by the stream to finally confess her love to him when she was 16.

Which meant, in just a year, she would be marrying Aria's grandfather and die the year later.

The time period in between was lodged in the history of their life, shared in the present by the black ink of a pen translating their emotions into frail papers.

Papers, that Aria was hesitant to read now.

Why had her grandfather made this request to her? To know and understand a past between someone who she never knew?

"Ms. Aria? Which chest do you want to bring down?" the voices of the butler with other staff broke her inner musings.

Gratefully smiling at the assistance, she directed them towards the one she wanted to bring to her room.

They carried out her wishes and bid her to come with them which she agreed to. Casting a fleeting glance at the room she had discovered tonight, she moved aside the chairs in front of the door and closed it gently, sealing the room shut.

As her footsteps faded away, going down the stairs, a soft breeze in the attic with closed windows, blew the discarded golden ribbon on the floor, in the air. The ribbon floated in the air for a few seconds before it landed on the top of the now empty recliner, coiled around itself carefully and perfectly.

🍂 🍂 🍂 🍂 🍂 🍂 🍂 🍂 🍂 🍂

Dinner had been cozy. She had been introduced to the rest of the staff. The whole household was run by So-ra with 6 girls and 4 men, 3 gardeners and 1 handyman who stayed. The Manor was huge, and the maintenance it required both manually and financially to keep it in the pristine, elegant and charmingly vintage state was substantial.

Aria's own profession as a writer along with the vast financial holdings she had, made her never worry about the cost took. She loved the beautiful house.

After everyone dispersed for their usual duties, Aria requested a mug of hot chocolate with a little cinnamon on top. Taking the delicious treat with her, she made her way to her room.