(author note: shhh pretend there are no cellphones in this universe)
***
August 18, 2018 Minghao,
I hope you had fun at the dinner party, and I hope the hangover the next day wasn’t too bad. I have to say, your handwriting is pretty neat even when you’re drunk.
Minghao, maybe this is crazy, but would you like to maybe meet in person? What are you doing after New York Fashion Week?
Yours, Mingyu P.S. I recommend chicken noodle soup and two Advil for hangovers! P.P.S. I miss you too, especially when I come home to my apartment late at night. My thoughts feel especially loud when the world is quiet.
***
3 September Dear Mingyu,
I have no plans. Youngmi daepyo-nim is going to London Fashion Week soon, I can meet you in L.A. at the end of this month?
Yours truly, Minghao
***
September 10, 2018 Dear Minghao,
Yes! God yes. I’ll be here! My hand is shaking writing this. Where should we meet? How about the lamps in front of LACMA? For old time’s sake? Is that too cliché?
Yours, Mingyu
***
19 September Dear Mingyu,
Yes, I can meet you at the lamps at LACMA! Let’s meet at 7pm on Saturday 28 September. I will be wearing a blue button-down shirt with a wave printed on it.
My hands are shaking too. I’ve been thinking of you more and more. I go to sleep imagining us standing in front of each other face-to-face. I wake up wondering how closely my guess of you matches how you look in real life.
I can’t wait to see you.
Yours, Minghao
***
September 28, 2018 Dearest Minghao,
I’m writing this before I leave, so I have to be quick. I am sending this to your Seoul apartment, so you won’t get it for a long time and we will have met by then anyway, but I think that sometimes things are safer on paper than anywhere else.
I am so eager to meet you. I have treasured our correspondence, but I’m also impatient. Sometimes when I’m out photographing, I imagine you coming with me. Not even as a stylist (though I have thought about that too), you are simply there keeping me company as I work. Or other times, I encounter something so beautiful—a bird, a skyline, the sound of laughter—that I have the urge to tell you about it right there, in the moment, before it fades.
I’ll see you so, so soon! Yours, Mingyu
***
September 29, 2018 Minghao,
I waited for as long as I could. At 8, the security guard asked me to leave, but I managed to find parking across the street so I waited in my car for a while longer. Maybe you forgot? I don’t know how else to get in touch with you other than writing letters. I hope you’re safe and everything is ok. I’m going to go back tomorrow night in case you got the dates mixed up.
Yours, Mingyu
***
September 30, 2018 Minghao,
You didn’t come tonight either. Maybe you got cold feet? Or maybe you really did forget? Whatever the reason, it’s alright, as long as you’re safe! I’m leaving for New York tomorrow. If you're able to write, please send it to my New York apartment! Or if you’d rather not write, that’s ok too.
Travel safely! All the best, Mingyu
***
28 September Dear Mingyu,
I waited for you all evening, but I didn’t see you. I got there a little before 7, so I found a spot on the wall to the left of the lamps and watched the passersby for a while, but I started to worry that maybe you got caught up in something and forgot. I hailed a taxi and gave the driver the address for your place here in L.A., but we couldn’t even find the street on a map. I had him drive me to Silver Lake anyway, and we drove around the neighborhood and looked and looked but there is no “Kenilworth Ave.” anywhere in L.A.
I don’t understand what’s happening, and if you’re doing all of this just to fuck with me, please stop.
Minghao
***
11 October Dear Mingyu,
I’m back in Seoul now and I just read your letters. This whole thing is extremely weird, and I don’t even know where to begin. I think I just need time to process what is happening. Don’t worry, I’m safe, and I’m glad you’re safe too. I’ll write to you again, just please, wait a bit longer if you can bear it? if you can, just until I feel like I have stuff figured out.
[remix] somewhere only we know (pt. 1b)
***
August 18, 2018
Minghao,
I hope you had fun at the dinner party, and I hope the hangover the next day wasn’t too bad. I have to say, your handwriting is pretty neat even when you’re drunk.
Minghao, maybe this is crazy, but would you like to maybe meet in person? What are you doing after New York Fashion Week?
Yours,
Mingyu
P.S. I recommend chicken noodle soup and two Advil for hangovers!
P.P.S. I miss you too, especially when I come home to my apartment late at night. My thoughts feel especially loud when the world is quiet.
***
3 September
Dear Mingyu,
I have no plans. Youngmi daepyo-nim is going to London Fashion Week soon, I can meet you in L.A. at the end of this month?
Yours truly,
Minghao
***
September 10, 2018
Dear Minghao,
Yes! God yes. I’ll be here! My hand is shaking writing this. Where should we meet? How about the lamps in front of LACMA? For old time’s sake? Is that too cliché?
Yours,
Mingyu
***
19 September
Dear Mingyu,
Yes, I can meet you at the lamps at LACMA! Let’s meet at 7pm on Saturday 28 September. I will be wearing a blue button-down shirt with a wave printed on it.
My hands are shaking too. I’ve been thinking of you more and more. I go to sleep imagining us standing in front of each other face-to-face. I wake up wondering how closely my guess of you matches how you look in real life.
I can’t wait to see you.
Yours,
Minghao
***
September 28, 2018
Dearest Minghao,
I’m writing this before I leave, so I have to be quick. I am sending this to your Seoul apartment, so you won’t get it for a long time and we will have met by then anyway, but I think that sometimes things are safer on paper than anywhere else.
I am so eager to meet you. I have treasured our correspondence, but I’m also impatient. Sometimes when I’m out photographing, I imagine you coming with me. Not even as a stylist (though I have thought about that too), you are simply there keeping me company as I work. Or other times, I encounter something so beautiful—a bird, a skyline, the sound of laughter—that I have the urge to tell you about it right there, in the moment, before it fades.
I’ll see you so, so soon! Yours,
Mingyu
***
September 29, 2018
Minghao,
I waited for as long as I could. At 8, the security guard asked me to leave, but I managed to find parking across the street so I waited in my car for a while longer. Maybe you forgot? I don’t know how else to get in touch with you other than writing letters. I hope you’re safe and everything is ok. I’m going to go back tomorrow night in case you got the dates mixed up.
Yours,
Mingyu
***
September 30, 2018
Minghao,
You didn’t come tonight either. Maybe you got cold feet? Or maybe you really did forget? Whatever the reason, it’s alright, as long as you’re safe! I’m leaving for New York tomorrow. If you're able to write, please send it to my New York apartment! Or if you’d rather not write, that’s ok too.
Travel safely! All the best,
Mingyu
***
28 September
Dear Mingyu,
I waited for you all evening, but I didn’t see you. I got there a little before 7, so I found a spot on the wall to the left of the lamps and watched the passersby for a while, but I started to worry that maybe you got caught up in something and forgot. I hailed a taxi and gave the driver the address for your place here in L.A., but we couldn’t even find the street on a map. I had him drive me to Silver Lake anyway, and we drove around the neighborhood and looked and looked but there is no “Kenilworth Ave.” anywhere in L.A.
I don’t understand what’s happening, and if you’re doing all of this just to fuck with me, please stop.
Minghao
***
11 October
Dear Mingyu,
I’m back in Seoul now and I just read your letters. This whole thing is extremely weird, and I don’t even know where to begin. I think I just need time to process what is happening. Don’t worry, I’m safe, and I’m glad you’re safe too. I’ll write to you again, just please, wait a bit longer if you can bear it? if you can, just until I feel like I have stuff figured out.
With love,
Minghao
[Thank you for waiting.]