girls of effulgence | bts

thirty

Gluttony could have stared for hours inside the mailbox, telling himself that what he saw was not real. Every time he blinked, however, the letter would not be gone. The little slip of paper sat neatly inside, leaning on the painted white wood like it was relaxing, waiting for its recipient to claim it.

Gluttony had to also blink many times to make sure the letter said Gluttony in curly black letters - there was more Gluttony in the world, right? Unfortunate for the sin, his name did not stray from the paper. He also figured that humans with an ounce of decency would not name their child Gluttony. There was no address below his name, so unless the mailman had been extremely coincidental, this was indeed for him, and just him.

Behind the mailbox, Greed was still laughing lightly. "What? Is there actually a letter in there?" He asked a stunned Gluttony, smirking with interest. He had his arms folded across his chest, vaguely resembling an arrogant schoolboy. Slowly, Gluttony nodded his head.

But the sin still thought this was a joke, he gave a short 'ha' and raised his eyebrows impressively.

"Which one?" He asked haughtily. "Which letter? A? B? C? Or perhaps a lucky letter L?" He chuckled, and then looked at Gluttony expectantly like he was supposed to say one of the twenty-six letters to him.

Gluttony grabbed the letter out of the mailbox and shoved it in Greed's face, the soft paper lightly hitting his face. "Eight letters actually," Gluttony said aggressively without missing a beat, in retaliation. "G-L-U-T-T-O-N-Y." He punctured each letter like he was spitting spitballs, each becoming more edged and shaped like a pointy needle the closer he got to finish his name.

When he was finished, Greed's arrogance and his smile had been slapped out of him, and he was looking quite grim, not at Gluttony, but the letter. "Where did that even come from?" He whispered to him with wide eyes, out of surprise, his arrogance gone, and replaced with fear. "Are you sure this isn't a prank?"

"It's not a prank," said Gluttony with chagrin. He furrowed his eyebrows and sighed, glaring at Greed. "Did you honestly think I'd set all this up, just so I could freak you out?" Greed opened his mouth to say something, but Gluttony cut him off. "No. Really. I'd purposely storm out specifically with Pride, hoping on the off chance that you would notice? And come after me? Yes Greed, brilliant. And the chance that we would go and check out our mailbox?" He grimaced. "I can't even act that well. I expect more maturity from you, Greed."

Greed suddenly was extremely interested in his shoes.

Gluttony hmpfhed, and rolled his eyes. "Is my point proven?" He asked Greed, folding his arms over his chest, the letter sticking out under his left armpit. Sheepishly, the sin nodded, still staring at his shoes, shoes that Gluttony assumed he'd probably stolen at some point.

Satisfied, Gluttony resumed his seriousness with his letter. He unfolded his arms and looked at the letter closely, examining the paper and the handwriting. "Should I open it?" He asked Greed, rubbing his thumb across his name, admiring it. "Right here? Right now?" Greed shook his head quickly. "No. Bad idea."

"Why not?" Gluttony questioned him. As far as he knew, it was simply a letter. He couldn't see any harm in that unless a paper cut was deadly.

"You don't know where this thing came from. There's no return address, so the only way you'd know who wrote it, maybe, is if you opened the letter. And I'm not sure if what's inside may be good." He looked at the letter like it was a weapon of mass destruction. The letter blew gently because of the wind, innocence practically seeping out of it. Whatever Greed saw in it, Gluttony could not see it with his own eyes.

But despite his own opinions, Gluttony still wanted to hear more of Greed's assumption. Perhaps it was somewhat sane, how had the letter arrived so inconspicuously, and how did someone know who he was? And it hit him.