Maknae Princess || Stray Kids

14. CHAN'S LETTERS

Chan's Letters

It was the day before their Hellevator music video was to be released. Chan sat the members down in the dance room and wordlessly handed them each a piece of paper. He'd written everyone a heartfelt letter because he was too shy to say what he was feeling out loud.

Everyone was quiet as they read. They were confused at first but quickly their hearts were attacked and overwhelmed. Chan's words were really unexpected and mushy.

Han had to force himself to read the letter because he was so embarrassed and couldn't stop giggling. Hyunjin, Felix, Jeongin, Seungmin, and Minho were all really touched by what their leader had to say while Changbin actually started to tear up.

Nabi only read the first two sentences of her own letter before she noticed Changbin and smiled. She reached out her arm and rubbed at his back in comfort. She then went back to reading her letter just as Changbin jumped up and ran to the corner of the room. His heart was touched, he felt embarrassed, and he was full-out crying now.

"It's so heartwarming," Hyunjin said.

"Very," Minho agreed.

"Why're you crying?" Jeongin asked in a small voice and with a smile on his face.

Throughout all of this, Chan refused to look at any of his members. Instead, he was doing everything possible to distract himself. He stared at the floor, played with his hands, and even slowly turned himself in circles before getting to his feet. Han got up and ran to hug Chan, Chan hugged him back laughing before he went to go and check on Changbin.

"Why're you crying? Why the tears?" Chan asked softly. He wrapped his arms around Changbin from behind in comfort. The latter kept crying but quickly tried to wipe away his tears.

Nabi didn't see any of this because she was too busy reading her own letter. She was crying by the end of it and Hyunjin chuckled before he wiped her tears away with the back of his black sweater.

Nabi's letter

Dear Nabi,

I'm going to say what I want to say to you in English because I know that you can understand me and also because I don't know how to say what I want to say in Korean.

This already sounds silly, doesn't it?

Anyways, I just wanted to tell you to know how grateful I am to you and how much I appreciate you. Nabi, you're very important to oppa. You might not have been the first member that I chose but you were the first one to put absolute faith in me.

I really can't tell you how much that meant to me. How much it still means to me.

When we first met and I asked you to join a boy group, you were hesitant and I couldn't blame you. What I was asking from you was a lot. You knew I was playing on PD-nim's words but still, you ended up agreeing anyway. You would've debuted with one of the girl groups sooner or later, but you trusted me even though you knew there was no guarantee that you'd be able to stay.

You're not only a crazy talented singer and an amazing dancer but a really pure-hearted person. I count myself lucky that I got to hear you sing that day. So I guess this is what I wanted to tell you, I'll protect you, Nabi.

I want to see you live up to your name and spread your wings, I want to see you fly high and accomplish all your dreams. I'm always going to stay right behind you so if anything happens and you fall and fail just know that I'll catch you. You'll stand up again, try again, and I'll still be right behind you just in case. No matter what happens in the future as long as I'm there nothing's going to hurt you.

That's really all I wanted to tell you. Don't think too much.

Fighting!

Chan oppa

"Oppa... " Nabi said as she looked up at Chan. Chan smiled warmly and shyly back at her and Nabi quickly looked down and hid her face in her hands as she cried some more.

Minho chuckled at her and playfully ruffled her hair as he pulled her head to his chest in a hug. Hyunjin, Jeongin, and Seungmin smiled and laughed but Changbin knew exactly how Nabi was feeling.

After a minute, everyone calmed down some and Chan took the opportunity to speak. "In my opinion, we've practiced together for so long, um... " Chan released a breath, his own eyes watery. "We have always been finding friends to debut together with. I am fortunate that those friends are you guys. I think it's all good. So I wanted to say thank you... from the bottom of my heart," Chan said, avoiding eye contact with everyone as a tear slid down his face. Changbin and Nabi were crying again. "Since this is the last time before we debut together, now that we've started, we have to gather our strength because we still have a long way to go. Let's work even harder and love each other," Chan said, he paused for a second and swallowed hard, "I think it's really good that we feel like a real family. We are a family," he clapped his hands with a smile.

"We are a family," Seungmin sang out trying to break the emotional atmosphere.

"This won't do, let's all sit on Chan," Han proposed and jumped to his feet.

Nabi laughed as she watched Han grab Chan from behind in a hug. She stood up and so did everyone else. They all gathered around their leader to hug and comfort him. Nabi was hugging Chan from the front as Han and Felix hugged him from the back. Jeongin and Seungmin were there too but they only patted Chan's arms as Hyunjin, Changbin, and Minho watched with smiles on their faces.

This was just the beginning for Stray Kids....