My Daddy-Long-Legs

To my anonymous uncle,

Hi how are you? I do not know who you are but what I know is that you are tall!!! Therefore from today onwards, I am going to call you my “Daddy-Long-Legs!”.......

It was summer again.  There were lovely patches of greenswards all about with stately trees bearing plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes. Cha-Young Mi was a young woman who had lost her parents and struggling to fend for herself worked diligently on her script. Watching the pastoral beauty of Star Lake, Young-Mi never felt empty and lonely living alone in the small mill-house. After embracing the beauty of nature, Young-Mi  walked towards the Star Lake and sat gingerly down by the shore of the lake and enjoyed the majestic vista.

She was hoping to see her “Daddy-Long-Legs” who came to her assistance to pay her school and university fees. She tried to search for him but it was clueless. As she sang a melody of Howl’s Moving Castle, she holds a necklace the she had received as a gift from her beloved “Daddy-Long-Legs.”  She went to the post office this morning to send a letter to her friend in Demien. At the post, suddenly an officer called out her name and asked her to come to the counter. He took out a lovely-green box from a nearby drawer. It was from her “Daddy-Long-Legs”. Inside the box, a beautiful carved white gold necklace and a message from him to her. He wrote that she should endeavour to achieve her dreams rather than wasting her time searching for him in his elegant script.

After completing her studies and initially struggling for work, Young-Mi  eventually obtained her dream job as a program writer in a nationally-syndicated radio station. On the first day, working at the station, she was introduced to the crew and officers of the radio station by Program Director, Lee PD. A curly brown haired girl named JJong introduced herself. They became friends and worked together under a same programme. She and Jjong were in charge of evening programme since Young-Mi  was a newcomer. Since Young-Mi  lived in Cravent which was very far from the radio station, she decided to rent a house near her work place.

Luckily, Lee. PD arranged her to stay rent-free in a nice house that the owner vacated due to health reasons. Heather believed that her good fortune was the work of her “Daddy-Long-Legs” . She went wondering around the house and saw a huge portrait of a young girl. She was beautiful.  Young-Mi assumed that this girl was the owner of this house. She went to the study table and wrote an e-mail to her “Daddy-Long-Legs”.

To my Daddy-Long-Legs,

Hi, how are you? Today I moved to a new home. I even have a new friend . Oh, and starting from tomorrow my writing is goin to be broadcasted. You have to listen to it. I really feel that from now on only good things are going to happen

                                                                                        Love,

                                                                                    Cha-Young-Mi

One day, Young-Mi gave a final to her a script, her laptop malfunctioned. Luckily, she had a backup file for the script that she saved safely on her pen drive. Then, she had to use the owner of the house’s computer. Once she opened it, she received an e-mail from the owner of the house.  The e-mail was date-stamped to arrive at the house’s computer on a specific date, though it was written and sent a year earlier. The e-mail details a love story written by the unseen owner of the house.                                                                                                                                                                              The writer confessed that she had secretly been in love with a guy since her school days. In order to be near him, she worked hard to obtain a place in the same course at the institution he was studying in. Although, she did not have the courage to introduce herself, she was happy to see him everyday. The writer explained that when he got a job at an unpopular local radio station, she followed him there. However, an unpredictable mishap had befallen her; she was diagnosed with a terminal disease before confessing her love to him. The illness might cause her to lose her memory and then die. The writer’s greatest fear was not dying but of losing her memory of him, which was why she wrote the e-mail to be sent to herself in the future.

Young-Mi  was deeply touched by the story and decided to air its contents via the national radio program to locate the young man with whom the owner of the house was in love with. The story was serialized and dramatized on the air and instantly became the audience’s favourite. Meanwhile, Young-Mi  met Joon-Ho-Shi who worked as a librarian in the radio station. They had lots in common and spent their time together every weekend. Young-Mi  began to fall in love with him and so did Ho-Shi. On their first date, they went to Young-Mi ’s house in Cravent and had a picnic near the Star Lake. The date was a failure as Ho-Shi fell asleep suddenly and woke up when it was twilight.

                                                                  XXXXXXXXXXXXX

 To remember the memories I had about you I'm planning on leaving them in this mail I year later, I don't know what I'll be like.............If you see this mail, the times when I had no courage to tell you my feelings that I have cherished to myself I want to confess to you. I sent lots of e-mails to myself so that my memories of you will not fade. Yesterday, I went to see a doctor with my dear elder  brother. The doctor said he could not guaranteed of the surgery because of my condition. He stated that I can only live another six months or less and sooner or later my memories will be gone bit by bit. I can only cry silently as the fate befall me. Every minute alone in my room, I feel like drowning of bottles and bottles of sleeping pills just so I can end up this misery. I would rather die with memories of you still keep deep inside in my mind then died with no memories of you. When  I woke up this morning, after thinking all night I finally made up my mind and that is to let you go away. It was simply a cruel demand and it was like a silver shinny blade ripping and slashing my heart to pieces. I tried as hard as I could to remember the first time I saw you. As what I had remembered, the day I first saw you, you were sitting by the window on a brightly shinny day. I could feel a brighter light that the sunshine come right onto me. You were like a sun shone brightly and the only one who brings colours into the dull grey ashes of my heart was. All the memories of you; you’re lips often gave way to smiles and laughters and the most significant feature of yours is your eyes. It is a beautiful shade of blue.

Young- Mi cried and tears streaked down her cheeks without stopping after read the unrequited love.

Later, Young-Mi  discovered that Ho-Shi was the love interest mentioned in the e-mail. She decided to end their relationship, guilty with the knowledge that someone somewhere out there had been in love with him for years. She also investigated that her “Daddy-Long-Legs” eventually the radio station’s director who responsible for all her good luck. She confronted him but it turned out that the director was only acting as on behalf of his younger brother who chose to provide Young-Mi  with her school fees and asked that she should work in the radio station and his house to live in. It turned out the director’s younger brother was Ho-Shi and he was also the writer of the e-mail. Ho-Shi had switched gender when he wrote the e-mail and lost all his earlier memories of Young-Mi when they were students together and that he loved her from afar. After all this while, her beloved “Daddy-Long-Legs” was Ho-Shi and it was too late for her to realise. She wished that she could reverse time where she was in her school years and noticed Ho-Shi earlier and accept his love. Young-Mi was devastated over the truth and her world seemed to be turning upside down.

One evening, somewhere in summer, on the bench sat a lanky, less bulky man with untidy bronze coloured hair man wearing a pair of sunglasses. Under the scorching sun. He was sweating profusely and he fished out a white handkerchief from his back pocket to wipe the perspiration. Heather smiled and approached the man. She reconnected with Ho-Shi and they spent as much time together as possible before his illness relapsed. That day, both of them spent their time in Young-Mi’s old mill-house and had a picnic at the Star Lake like their first date. Unfortunately, the date failed again as Ho-Shi slept again in the middle of their date and this time he would never wake up again and he would forever stay in a deep slumber.

A year later, Cha-Young-Mi visited Joon-Ho-Shi’s grave and left a letter on his tomb.

                                      To my beloved “Daddy-Long-Legs,"

Hi, how are you? It has been a while since the last time I wrote to you. Jjong and Lee PD. finally married. They both seem to be enjoying each other company’s.  I am sure you have an enjoyable time there and be happy as always. As for me, I’ll continue working at the radio station and try my best to cheer myself up and be an optimistic. I'm feel very happy  because I dream of the day when I will meet you again and this time you will draw my self-portrait properly. I am not beautiful as the girl in the portrait that hangs on the wall of the house. 

                                                                                                                                     Yours with love,

                                                                                          Cha-Young Mi