Duology

Miya laid down on her bed holding two letters. Her feet were kicking and she couldn't stop herself from giggling nervously. The situation made her cheeks flush slightly pink. One envelope had the same address as all the other letters. The other one had a new address that she hadn't seen before; however, the handwriting of both letters was the same. She didn't know what to think about that, so she ended up opening the letter from the familiar address first and putting the strange one on her bedside table.
     "Dear Ms. Miya. Me and Annabelle made a bet about who was right; see, the two of us saw a video that showed off your new move, and we disagreed about whether or not you'd practiced it before or if it was all spur of the moment. Annabelle thought it was spur of the moment, so she got a dollar and wants to brag to you about it."
     Miya smiled.
     "She also got an 'A' on her math test today, so that's good. She says that math is easy, and I think that's a bunch of lies. We were wondering what you thought about math? Annabelle says that math isn't important for idols, and I disagree, so if you could clear that up and make her give me my dollar back that'd be nice."
      Miya chuckled slightly. She hadn't really needed to do much with her mathematical knowledge after becoming a trainee. In her opinion, the fact that Gene was going to lose another dollar was very amusing. 
     "No luck in getting that raise from the Dwights. Mrs. Dwight said that 'as far as she's concerned, I make enough money right now.'  Annabelle agrees with her, but in my opinion it was at least worth asking about: I haven't gotten a raise in three years, and I'm their only employee that's stuck around this long."
     Miya's smile widened as she realized she could completely one-up Gene by telling him that she hadn't seen a single paycheck until the end of her first year as an idol. 
     She blushed slightly, knowing that despite her having lots of money stored in the bank, she hadn't had any opportunities to actually spend any of it because of her schedule.
     "That's all for now; you'll probably get another letter tomorrow. Sincerely, the Southwells."
     Miya let the letter fall down onto her carpeted floor and sighed contentedly. She closed her eyes and thought about what she would do tomorrow. 
     Her eyes fluttered open as she recalled the other letter. She picked it up off her bedside and stared at it for a few moments, her amber eyes weighing and evaluating it carefully, before she shrugged and opened it.
     "Thank you, Ms. Miya."
     Miya did a double take.
     "I didn't realize how self-absorbed my life was becoming until today. If it hadn't been for you writing back to my sister back in April, I would've become very distant from her."
     It took her a moment to realize who the letter was from.
     "Gene?" She muttered quietly, forcing herself to read the letter faster.
     "You know about my job with the Dwights; what you don't know is that up until you wrote back, that job basically became my life. I neglected my parents and my sister for five years. I was barely present, and whenever I was actually with them, my mind was wondering about how long it would be before I got to go back to work."
     Miya's mouth opened and closed several times as she silently mouthed the words of the letter. She could feel saltwater beginning to build up in her eyes, but she wasn't sure why.
     "That whole self-absorbed thing is also why I initially didn't want Annabelle to write back to you. I was worried about how much time it would take to read letters and send them back and forth. Looking back at it now, I can see it for what it was: selfishness disguised as concern."
     Miya's hands trembled as she held the letter above her head.
     "So I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not caring about you, and trying to do the same thing to you that I was doing to my family for years."
     Miya forced herself not to cry so that she could read the end of the letter.
     "Thank you for writing back, Miya. It's not enough for what you did, but thank you for writing back. For forcing me and Annabelle to talk. For forcing me back into my parents' house. Thank you. Gratefully, Gene."
     Miya breathed deeply as a few more tears forced their way out of her eyes. 
     She wiped them away quickly and reached for the notepad in her bedside drawer. Her eyes were focused sharply as she began writing as fast as she could; the words flew out of her mind and onto the page. Her thin lips were pressed together into a determined line as her hand scratched words onto the paper.
     She couldn't believe that Gene was thanking her. In her mind, that made no sense at all. She was the one who'd nearly ended her own life. She was the one who'd reached out to them with a desperate, drowning voice. She was the one who only had one method to speak her true feelings to someone who wasn't a fellow employee. 
     Miya let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in.
     Really, she wasn't upset with him though. 
     She was upset with herself for not thanking them first. She finished the letter and looked it over thoughtfully. It wasn't bad, but it didn't feel right to send it to both siblings. Gene had sent her a private, single letter, presumably from his own house, thanking her.
     She decided to write Gene's address on her thank you letter.
     After she'd done that, she exhaled through her nose and started writing another letter. It took her a little bit longer, since it talked about her day and she had to recall all the little events that had happened, but it was peaceful. Once she'd finished with that letter, she wrote the familiar address on it, which she realized was the address of the rest of the Southwell family.
     Once both letters were finished, she placed them under her pillow, turned off the lights to her bedroom, and went to sleep with a small smile.
~~~
     The janitor had been surprised when he'd received two different letters for Miss Min-Hee the previous day. If he'd been given the opportunity, he would have talked to her about it; but as it was, he barely saw her. He supposed that he would just deliver both and think nothing else of it.
     So when he was cleaning her room in the early noon, he was very surprised to see that she'd written two letters. He chuckled slightly as he picked both of them up and placed them into the pockets of his uniform as he finished cleaning her bedroom. Once he stepped out of it, he smiled and thought about the possibility of her someday receiving ten letters at once. 
     He would need to get bigger pockets for his uniform.
~~~
    Mukashi watched as Miya went through her rigorous physical training with her dance instructor in the large open gymnasium on Zygeist Media's fifth floor.
     He thought about how long it had been since he'd been in that room; the last significant event that had occurred within the confines of the gymnasium had been him comforting Miya with a hug. That had been on the day she'd tried to off herself.
     He glanced at his phone.
     It had only been a week since his conversation with Director Sang-Ki's secretary. He forced himself to calm down as anxiety threatened to gnaw away at him; he was used to not getting what he wanted. The situation with Chi-Hun was nothing new.
     He surreptitiously glanced around the gymnasium, checking once more for the older manager. Ever since their brief conversation in the employee lounge, he hadn't seen Chi-Hun at all. 
     It bothered him. 
     He glanced at his phone.
     There hadn't been any new photographs of him and Miya together, so Mukashi took that to mean Chi-Hun was either unable to sell any new photographs, or he was lying low in fear of being found out if his photographs appeared too frequently.
     The trend 'Miyashi' had cooled slightly, dropping down to the second most popular idol ship involving her. The fact that he hadn't been seen with Miya in public spaces for the last three months had likely contributed to the decline. He sighed, and the scent of yakgwa filled his nostrils as he sorted through the amber colored filing cabinet in his mind slowly.
     Hopefully, the trend would disappear soon and he would be able to be near Miya again.
     His eyes shot open and the filing cabinet slammed shut.
     He looked at Miya as she practiced. 
     Miya caught a glimpse of Mukashi exiting the gymnasium.