Chapter Text
Seonghwa,
I should think I am about the last person you would expect to be writing to you. It's been such a long time. So long, in fact, that perhaps you will think it odd of me to address you so informally. But the warm memories I hold of the past make it quite impossible for me to imagine you as "Mr Park." Besides, I am hoping very much that we may be able to renew our previous friendship now that I am back in England to stay. You must be wondering how I got hold of your address, but I shall get to that later.
You will not have heard any news of my travels abroad. There was none. I can confess to you that my attempts to establish myself in an acting career met with failure after failure, no matter where I went. The skill I had thought so dazzling in provincial theatre was a spluttering candle flame compared to the talent of the greats. The blow to my pride proved less injurious than the one to my pockets. I found myself marooned in Paris, with barely enough money to eat. You may remember that I had no family to call upon for help, so I believed that I was stuck there. The excitement of seeing foreign lands had palled as my resources drained away, and I was desperately homesick.
One miserably rainy day in July, I was trying to make a small cup of coffee last as long as I could in a café near the Gare du Nord. There was an English man sitting nearby, and he left a copy of The Times behind him. I was not too proud to snatch it up from his table and I had all the time in the world to read it from cover to cover. You can imagine my astonishment when I found my own name and description in the classified advertisements, placed there by a firm of solicitors. I gambled the last of my savings on sending them a telegram making an enquiry into the business.
The long and short of it is - I've somehow inherited a small house, and a comfortable yearly income. I'm far from being the Duke of Devonshire, but it's a great deal more than I had any expectations of. It's come down to me from some distant cousin on my mother's side that I have never even heard of.
Well... I'm not just writing to tell you my news, strange as it is. I had been staying in London, signing off on all the paperwork, and had plenty of leisure to see all the latest plays. I ran into the wardrobe mistress of our former theatre. She told me about your great success since last we met, which has given me the opportunity to send this letter directly to your boutique, where it ought to find you easily enough.
From all that you now know of my situation, you will not be surprised that I find myself quite alone and without plans for the first Christmas in my new home. My dearest wish is that you might find a little time during the festive season to visit me here, to find it in your heart to forgive me for my former silence... for the bonds of affection between us to be as they used to be. I will understand if you cannot - I refused myself the opportunity to call upon you in person to avoid forcing you into any feeling of awkward obligation.
Nevertheless, I still hope very much that I will hear from you.
Hongjoong