By Features/Op-Eds Section
Disclaimer: The below love letter exchanges (including figures, pen names, mentioned events, and mentioned thoughts) are completely fictional and are figments of creativity in celebration of Valentine’s Day.
We wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day!
1: From a Confused Lover to an even more Confused Respondent ~
Dear Giraffe
I know you must be so shocked to be receiving a letter from me. After all, that year, I stomped out your door and you never heard from me again. But…I must confess that that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I had to leave you so that you could learn to love yourself too.
Know that I’m not sorry for leaving you, but also that all these years, you’ve still been on my mind—whether it’s when I wake to the early dawn or when I doze off under the twinkling sky. I won’t forget you!
Dearest,
Snowball
Dear Snowball,
If I remember correctly, you stomped down the door and not out the door. And, Snowball, you still seem as confused as ever—you didn’t want to do it but you had to? That excuse only makes sense in these cliché romance films you made me watch.
And yet, when I give it some thought (yes, as I rarely do, I know), I find that knowing you has only cost me the bill for the door repairs. In contrast, you seem to know that you gave me much more. I only hope that our paths may meet again.
Yours,
Giraffe
#2: From a Burdened Lover to a Brick of Ice
Dear You,
My heart is burdened as I write this small note, for I’ve come to learn that to know you is to love you. As such, I suppose I’m bound to compete with the plethora of suitors you no doubt have. So what can I do? Steal you away so that you only know I and I only know you? How cruel love can be…
Should you feel the same way or, dare I say, find the above proposition remotely appealing, I will be forever in your debt, if I am not already.
Yours Always,
Me
Dear Me,
Your lovely note has been well-received in my cold, dead heart. Perhaps for the first time in eons, I have felt a glimmer of positive emotion. However, it is not in my nature to love, I’m afraid. While it pains me to reject such forceful, emotional, raw sentiment, I am far too dead inside to be all that you think of me. I do hope that you can find your ideal partner sometime in the near future.
Sincerely,
You
#3: From a Lover of Details to a Heartbreaking Support Person
Dear EZ #1,
While I admittedly am absolutely horrible at expressing romantic thoughts, there is something I’ve always needed to tell you. Ever since I first saw you, I’ve felt this innate, deep, unfathomably strong connection. I know that we’re meant to be together, forever. We complete each other, we even have the same initials. Although that detail may give away my identity, it’s important because it proves how connected we are. Two halves of the same whole. I love everything about you—your honesty, kindness, and caring nature. I feel that I do not possess such a kind and caring heart, which is why I need you in my life. To lead by example, to be my inspiration and muse. Now and forever.
Forever Yours,
The Second One
Dear The Second One,
I am honoured that you feel and speak of me so highly. I also think the utmost of you as my platonic soulmate! I hope we can continue our long, deep conversations as the bestest of friends. Know that I’ll be there for you whenever you need me—one call away.
From Your Dearest,
EZ #1
#4: From a Drunk-in-Love Lover to a Romantic at Heart
Dearest Nero,
Uponst this fiery day I wish you only the best and must hereby confess my undying love and adoration. For these many months we have known one another, I must admit that you have become my heart’s Orpheus and I, the harp you must play. Truly, on this Earth, there is none other deserving my soul to bewitch and ruin but thyself. We shall be like the great love stories of yore: Like Achilles and Patroclus, like Ares and Aphrodite, like Romeo and Juliet! Indeed, if you accept my hand, we shall be poetry personified and we shall be a tragedy: the greatest romance to ever exist. Forsooth, the witching hour draws near and I must now away, but know my heart is forever more thine.
Love,
Pygmalion
My Fair Pygmalion,
You never fail to grace me with your letters from the heart, and I must admit your feelings are reciprocated. To personify poetry is a romantic desire that matches your ambition, but why must you think of us in terms of failed romantic endeavours gone past?
Do you think we are doomed to shatter our family names and cause the deaths of our loved ones, culminating in our own grizzly ends?
You truly desire an abhorrent love affair, the greatest act of adultery in classical literature?
We needn’t be Romeo and Juliet. We needn’t be Aphrodite and Ares.
Is there no beauty, my dear, in the simple, the joyously pure, Pygmalion and Nero?
Love,
Nero
#5: From a Wondering Lover to a Desiring Respondent
Dear Cal,
There’s nothing quite like looking into your eyes as you’re lost in thought, immersed in a world to which I can never travel.
You try to take me there, but all that I can focus on are your hands as you scribble away at yet another journal entry or unfinished story.
You give me hints at what you write about in your journals that you keep secret from the world: fear, wonder, sorrow, love.
But all I can wonder is whether any of that love could be spared for me?
Perpetually Yours,
Lucille
Loveliest Lucille,
For my crimes I must beg forgiveness at your feet but if my mysteries haunt you so, I shall pull away these emerald silks. My journals contain the greatest treasures of the world, the ones most prized by all those who draw breath. The worlds I create within them, the stories and poetry I conjure into tapestry, are all dedicated to you—all the words and confessions I wish to say, to do, but cannot.
How can I confess that each glance I take away from the blank space of a new page, and at those beautiful eyes of yours, I am flung deeper into the chasm of love? Indeed, the journal is my last restraint. If not for it, you would be all my desire, all my love, all my world, and I would want you as I have from the moment stardust was forged in the empty cosmos until nothingness makes love to silence at the end of the world.
Ever Enchanted,
Cal
