ａｎ　ｏｐｅｎ　ｌｅｔｔｅｒ．

Dear Akame,

Hey there. I wouldn’t expect you two to remember, with all the things going on with your careers right now, but today is the day you first met. Kame, you were a lanky boy in a colored track suit, hair all spiked up, features still adjusting with prepubescence. Jin, you had bangs which were unceremoniously split in the middle, and also that real awkward gap between your front teeth was something too. You became really good friends. Johnny seemed to have noticed because the next thing you guys knew, you were joined by the hip at everything you do. You know, little kids just wanting to run and dance and sing on stage. And then you both grew up.

Taking your pictures as children and tacking them side by side to what you both are now, the difference is so encompassing that it’s hard to miss. The photo shoots and the television appearances, the concerts and the performances, I cringe at them. It’s as if every frame of every second of every video clip echo insurmountable tension, as if it’s difficult to even, merely, stand side by side with each other. I can’t help but quirk a frown at the awkward air that never did lift ever since things started to shift and toss and turn and change. We changed a lot too, you know, with all these metamorphosis. We became anxious. We became too discerning. We blew things out of proportions. We ended up clinging to the smallest things such as small looks and idle chats. It became difficult. 

And then our world kind of crumbled. The gap-toothed kid with bangs split midway decided to follow his dreams. Sadly, the path of yellow gold ran the opposite direction. Something crashed cosmically in my mind, that time. I think it was the hope that clung onto young Kame and young Jin, joined by the hip, grinning; the best of friends.

Why am I saying all this? To reminisce on simpler times. To envy such a magnificent start of  friendship. To mourn over its’ seeming end. To acknowledge the delusional things that I end up doing just for the name of both of you. To enlighten others that this fandom have reasons behind its somehow screwed over nature and inexplicable over-the-top characteristics. Because November 8th would be the only day I’d have an excuse to logically break over something that could have been just a business ploy propagated by one old business man.

Despite the fanfictions, the fan videos, the edits, the heart breakingly manipulative manipulations, I do not want you as lovers. Delusions have limits. I want you, Jin, to have the children you’re just dying and hoping to have. I want you, Kame, to teach your kids all the amazing things you are able to do—singing, dancing, acting, baseball. And lastly, the thing I want most?

Be friends.

Muscular frame, eternally permed hair, stylish and chic Kame. Fedoras, slight stubble, comfortable and casual Jin. Way past lanky, way past gap toothed, but Kame and Jin, nonetheless.

I will support you both no matter what.

Happy 13th year. 

Love, an AKame fan.