A/N: Challenges (both apply to the entire collection):

Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Sheer Valley Task – write something outside the normal prose
Diversity Writing Challenge, k12 – collection of oneshots over 1000 words
Valentines to White's Day Advent 2015, day 16 - blue rose: write a letter/group of letters

Letter 1
From Kouichi to Kouji

Dear Minamoto-kun,

I don't know whether I should say "dear" or not; it seems like an overly formal exchange between two elementary students, but I don't know how else I can – or should – begin a letter to a pen pal. On that point I don't know how I should address you either; I can't call you by your first name because I don't know you, and if you're older than me I should technically address you with the –san suffix, but that would wind up awkward if you happen to be younger. For that matter I can't be sure whether you're a boy or a girl (I think from the name you're male but there was a male Jun in the year above me last year, so I can't say for sure from just a name) so –chan would be highly inappropriate…especially if you happen to be older than me. So –kun seems safest for now.

This is going to make a very awkward first letter. I'd wish you had written to me first, but then you would be in my situation, and I haven't even thought about replying at this stage.

I better stop before I start going in circles. I'll ask for your forgiveness now, because that is unfortunately a bit of a habit of mine.

I suppose the point of this is for us to get to know each other better, but at the same time I don't know where I should start. I mean no offense by this, but it's not as if I can spill my heart out to a total stranger…and I doubt very much you could do the same. If we don't start somewhere though, we'll never get anywhere. And I know I'll never meet the thousand word requirement each letter if we start playing twenty questions.

I guess the basics are the best place to start then. You already know my name – unless it was supposed to be a surprise until your pen pal wrote to you for the first time – but it's Kimura Kouichi. My surname's straight-forward enough: it means "tree village". My first name's a little more complicated in terms of its kanji: the two characters that make it up are "hui", meaning "brightness", and "yi" meaning "one". The combined kanji is read as "Terukazu" normally, but my given name is pronounced "Kouichi", meaning "first child" or "first light". The second relates more closely to the components that make it up, but it doesn't really suit me.

Now…likes and dislikes I guess. And hobbies, since they all relate to an extent. I like reading, mostly fantasy and non-fiction. I like math and art as well; I'm really bad at sport and I'm not too good at science now. My teachers think though I'll be better at high school though, when the approach isn't so dry. I like playing chess as well, and rivers. And carrots and apples as far as vegetables and fruits go, and I'm not a fan of capsicum or anything too strong. Or coffee, though tea's okay occasionally. I'm also not a big fan of movies; contrary to popular belief I just think they're over too fast and too superficial. I get more out of the books. Aside from that…well, it's a very difficult thing to describe dislikes. I'll skip that for now.

So it's mini-autobiography time. I live with my mother and, up till recently, my grandmother (from my mother's side). My parents are divorced – and I know it's a taboo in society but it's hardly reason to hide from you things that are popular knowledge in school. We have no pets, although Niou visits regularly and camps out on the kitchen table most nights. I suppose you could call her our cat as her "home" otherwise is a little alley corner, but it's not official. We didn't name her either; she still has a tag although all it's got is the name. It suits her though; she's good at smelling things.

You know where I live and what school I go to (since we have to write the school name and address on the envelope, so there's nothing more to be said for that at this stage. I'm not in any clubs or anything, or cram school, so there's nothing else to be said there either.

I'm running out of things to say at this point. Maybe it's because I don't know anything about who I'm writing to – you – except maybe your gender, but I don't want to presume things at this stage.

Which reminds me, I forgot to mention that and my age. I'm male, and I'm eleven now, but I'll turn twelve near the beginning of march. My mother said she's going to get me a soccer ball – as that's one sport I can play and enjoy. Not goalie – I'm dead clumsy, but defence…where it doesn't matter where I kick the ball so long as it doesn't go into our goal. Most of the time it's out of bounds, but it resets the field so normally it's a good thing, and even when it's not no permanent harm done. I don't necessarily aim for out of bounds, but it just happens. I'm better at basketball and tennis in that sense, but I'm too small to be good at the former and wind up getting hit by the ball instead of hitting it…or ducking the ball instead of hitting with the racket. Or I'd trip going back and forth. On the whole I'm not very good at running either, and once I'm through with the double lesson I'm too tired to think about anything else, which honestly is disappointing because it means I can't enjoy a book or think of a story –

Oh, that's another thing I forgot to mention. I like writing – stories and poems I mean, this is the first time in a long while I'm writing a letter and the last one was in German – and drawing as well. That relates to liking rivers, since that's my favourite thing to draw, since it's changing all the time, looking different, but somehow the same at its core. New plants around it, a slightly different shade of water…and sadly, different debris or rubbish floating along or sinking to the bottom. On a happier note, the animals that come: the birds and the fish, look a little different by the week as well.

I guess that's it for now. I'm really sorry if I've bored you, but I had to fill up the thousand words and this isn't too far over. Anyway, I hope I've written something worth reading and I hope to hear from you soon and know you a little better by the time I write my next letter to you.

Sincerely,
Kimura Kouichi