Letter #67.5: The "April" Letter (An Interlude)

Daryl, circa April 29, in the Fix You letter,

on the historical trend of having very bad Aprils:

“I mean, granted, last year’s typical April shenanigans ended up happening in May, but I think the point still stands that April hasn’t been mean to me since we became K-drama buddies.”

Daryl, circa May 9, 

in his apartment, approximately 3:45 AM:

“…oh, come on.”

* * *

Good morning, Erin.

So…I’d like to tell you a story, dear seonbae, if you’ll indulge me for a few minutes—or, more likely, for many, many minutes, because I am nothing if not prone to long-winded storytelling. And afraid of serpentine sea monsters. Which has made being a Slytherin in Hogwarts Legacy more trying than I’d like. 

And which, surprisingly, is not a digression—because playing Hogwarts Legacy is part of the story. Or, more specifically, it is a detail of the overall story, which begins with the fact that, on this past Monday night, I was absolutely WIRED and felt nothing even approaching the edges of sleepiness, as the hours crept closer and closer and eventually crossed over midnight. And, rather than settling in with a book or firing up the white noise machine after turning off the lights or literally anything that might slowly relax my mind and body into a state ready for sleep, I played hour after hour of Hogwarts Legacy. Maybe because I was so rapt with the story that I had to find out what would happen next. Or maybe because the dreamy boy I met in the common rooms asked me out on a date. Who’s to say. 

But, even so, I knew continuing to play was not going to help anything, so, at around 1:30 AM, 

I wrapped up my session and, still very much awake, moved on to puttering around on the internet (checking the weather forecast, correcting wrong opinions about anime I don’t like, wondering why So-e hasn’t posted anything new on Instagram—all the usual stuff). Because, of course, given how I’d decided staring at a giant screen with flashing images wasn’t going to help wind me down, staring at a smaller screen with flashing images was undoubtedly going to be the difference maker. 

And stare I did, until about 3:30 AM, when my passive staring gave way to a much more active “have a one-person dance party while sitting in a chair,” and I started rocking out to whatever music I had sitting on my desktop—including, ultimately, the recently-lauded-by-me remix of “Mic Drop,” the official dance for which I have unwittingly learned chunks of over the course many, many video rewatches. Which meant, of course, that I—riding high on a surge of insomnia-adrenaline—was very enthusiastically in-my-chair dancing along with the boys as we proclaimed the “thick” and “trophies” nature of our personal carrying containers, forgetting that, as I did so, I was connected to my laptop via plugged-in headphones. Which meant, when I launched into my impassioned RM “oooo!” leg kick in the post-chorus rap, my knee met not only the glorious suaveness of the moment, but also the chord that connected my ears to the computer. 

And the computer met the floor. 

Corner of the screen first. 

And that was the end of that.

I was then up until 6 AM trying to figure out if I could save the hard drive because of what I had stored only on it (nothing terribly important, but also not nothing), taking the damn thing apart in a desperate attempt to pull the hard drive out before realizing my laptop doesn’t have one and, instead, has a solid state drive (“...what the f*** is that?!” I yelled)—which is apparently an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THING—before realizing that I could hook it up to my TV and use that as the monitor for at least long enough to nab all the files on my desktop and put them on the external hard drive I’d bought months and months ago to back up exactly those files but never remembered to. 

I then went to work on about an hour of sleep, inexplicably started bleeding from my hand onto my new khakis, and—when preparing to eat my dinner—pressed down on my plate with a knife in the exact spot that I needed to to flip the plate over and onto the floor, spilling my dinner everywhere and shattering the plate into pieces all over the kitchen area of my apartment. 

I got a new laptop right away, which I’m thankful for…but it’s already not as good as my last one, even if it is technically a better laptop, if only because it has Windows f***ing 11 on it, and it didn’t take long for me to realize I am not a fan of that operating system. 

Also my dresser broke. (But I digress.)

So.

I’m not saying BTS owes me a new laptop. But maybe the person who introduced me to them does. Is all I’m saying.

Cough. 

…I mean, not really, but there’s just so much May left. And it has been very, very “April,” so far. 

Anyway. 

I hope you had fun at the concert. And I hope to see you soon enough for at least one of us to remember that I want to hear all about it. 

—Daryl 

P.S. - I’ve just eaten a cupcake in your honor. Like, just now, as I type this. I don’t even think my fingers are fully clean of the frosting. They were brought in to celebrate your graduation (and that of others, but…I mean, we both know I was only celebrating you), but they immediately put me in mind of—and here’s a deep cut that maybe only I remember—one of the first times you and I ever spoke to each other, which was when you asked if I wanted one of the brownies Lisa baked. And I made a big show of wanting to keep it secret, like you’d snuck me something I wasn’t supposed to be offered (even though you very plainly said it was fine for me to take). Yeah, back in a time when I wasn’t basing all of my media consumption off of lists you’d given me, and when I still didn’t know what your face actually looked like because we were all still in masks so I mostly recognized you from the red streaks in your hair. But after the time when I tried to impress Lisa by saying I’d learned your name, and she told me that I’d met you well before then, which was embarrassing. Ah…the good ol’ days. I mean, not really, because we weren’t K-drama buddies, yet, and I didn’t even know what your face looked like. But also my computer wasn’t all smashed up, so…in a way…the good ol’ days.