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Dearest Coryo,
Congratulations on making the top twenty! I am so proud of you darling!
After everything that we’ve been through, you deserve it. I am sure that the Plinth Prize will find its way home into your hands so you can pay off your family's debts and so you can finally take me out on a proper date .
I know that I will be there in person to congratulate you at the reaping ceremony but I just wanted you to know that no matter what, I will be cheering you on from the side lines.
You know, the first letter I ever wrote for you was way back when we were kids during the war, right?
Me and my family had just fled to our safe house in the mountains and I was wondering how you and your family were doing. Then of course, news of your fathers murder spread even into our small cabin in the middle of nowhere. Of course, my first instinct was to pull out parchment and a pen and just write, write, write.
And write, write, write I did. I somehow ended up writing 30 pages of parchment front and back recounting every single moment we had until that exact moment. From the first time we met at the tender age of three at a family dinner, to the first moment we played at the park together. Even now, I still remember the ache of my wrist after writing for nearly the entire afternoon. My mother even helped me bind the collection of letters into a book for you, do you remember that?
Or well, I suppose you don't see as I never sent the letters. Something in my chest just never let my hands grab the letters where they lay hidden in my room, underneath my bed. My heart never left those pages though, and as I write this letter I feel my heart once again pouring into every dotted i and crossed t.
I have no doubt that this letter too will never see the light of day just as many other letters I have written over the years have. It is quite the affair after I finish a letter. I feel as though I have accomplished something by immortalizing my feelings and memories into these written pages of paper.
Anyways, I love you and I am just so proud of you my dearest Coryo.
Love,
Your Biggest Admirer
Dearest Coryo,
I am so terribly sorry for you. My heart aches just knowing that you got so close to the Plinth prize only for Dean Highbottom to rip it out of your grasp and shred it into a million pieces right in front of your eyes.
And not to mention, the new mentorship you are expected to undertake, I mean do they not know who you are.
Coriolanus Snow, the brightest, most intelligent, most caring, and most loving student at the Academy, a school known for the rich snobby kids who pay their way up to the top.
You’ve worked so hard to get to where you are today, even your cousin worked so hard just to help propel you to where you are now darling.
I believe that it is an utter disgrace to the Academy name to have students such as ourselves, though one could argue you are from another world entirely compared to us plebeians, to mentor district scum. Not to mention, they think it will be a challenge for you to tame that wild Lucy Gray Baird.
Sure, you may get nervous but I know you will pull through. After all, Snow lands on top right?
Although, sometimes I wish that Snow would land on top of me. Oh to feel you hovering over me as you kiss me tenderly or passionately. To be honest I would take either of the two.
It is quite ridiculous, and embarrassing really, how gorgeous you are. I often find myself staring at you from across the room. Your deep blue eyes focused on the assignment or task at hand, sometimes your eyebrows would pull together when you are concentrating on calculations or deep in thought. Your nose would scrunch, adorably, and your lips would forma tight line when you stumble across a particularly hard problem.
But you never stop trying, it's why I love you. You’ve worked hard to reach where you are today, never bribing people with long winded promises or money. You always worked for what you got, even if you didn’t have to put in all your effort.
The fact of the matter is that you’re brilliant Coryo. Even when we were young, I remember there was a time when we were playing hide-and-seek and you just knew me too well and found me within five seconds.
And see that’s the thing, you remember. You always knew exactly what to say to make me laugh when I was crying, what to do when I was furious, and especially when I was sick, you’d bring me flowers and snacks while I lay too nauseous to even ask anyone for food. You truly know me too well.
Just like I know you. Or atleast, I like to think I know you better than say Clemensia. I know that you prefer tea over coffee in the mornings no matter how many espressos you drink with Felix. I know that you dislike strawberry shortcake no matter how many people rave about because you dislike cake. And I know that no matter how hard to try it, those bright blue eyes of yours can’t hide the hunger you have.
Most importantly though, I know you hunger. Money, power, glory. You thirst for it and I just know that through this mentorship you will be satiated and heavy with happiness after.
I will cheer you on, no matter what Coryo.
Love,
Your Biggest Admirer
Dearest Coryo,
It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?
You’ve been quite busy though so I understand. You’ve really taken into this mentorship, haven’t you?
Not that I blame you, everything you’ve ever wanted is right within your grasp as long as you prove to Dr.Gaul and co. that you are deserving of the Plinth prize. But, that also means that you have to do everything you can to also prove Dean Highbottom wrong.
Of course, that also means that we haven’t really been together in quite a while.
Not that I mean it in that way it’s just, I miss my best friend sometimes you know.
It’s been a blessing to have grown up with you. And to have found you after the war. You are after all, still my Coryo.
But of course, because I know why you’ve been busy so I guess I’ll let it slide as long as you let me treat you, and Tigris and your Grandma’am, out to dinner when you win that prize. Once you solidify your future with me.
Of course, not in that sense, but as in we can attend the University together and take this country by storm together.
I’ve noticed that you and Lucy Gray have been quite close. It was sweet of her to not leave you for dead after that awful rebel bombing.
Did you know I visited you in the hospital as soon as I heard?
You were laying there, skin all sickly and sticky. There were tubes and stuff hooked up into you. The doctors said that they would help you heal quicker so of course I thought nothing of it. And now you are better.
Me and Tigris never left your side in that hospital bed. Sometimes I wonder if you had heard all of my ramblings as I say there beside you in that dingy hospital.
I wonder if you felt my hand as I stoked it back and forth waiting, pleading really , for you to wake up.
I wonder if you felt my hands as I wiped the sweat off of your forehead and handsome face as I cried for you.
I wonder how it felt for you when you woke up and I wasn’t there. You see, Gaul and Highbottom had asked me to step in your place to soothe wild Lucy Gray before she performed on stage. I’d like to think it was because they both knew how close we are. Or perhaps they thought it proper torture to remind me just how much you needed this win and how willing they were to keep you from it.
Regardless, I still begged Lucy Gray to perform with a guitar from my family’s collection that had been requested by you.
And I’m glad that we had a common shared interest, you .
It may have been too much of a shared interest between you and her because I saw you two at the zoo tonight. I left before you two could notice me but the burning ache in my chest left a scar that wouldn’t heal. The way that you cradled her fear ridden face. The way that she tenderly took your hand as you wiped her tears away with your mother handkerchief.
Do you like her!??
But regardless you are my best friend and I just want you to be happy so I’ll pretend I never saw anything, promise.
Anything for you, right?
Anyways, the Games are tomorrow and I hope the odds are ever in your favor Coryo.
Love,
Your Biggest Admirer
Dearest Coryo,
You did it! That Plinth prize is as good as your darling. I'm so proud of you, I mean this is huge, it's your ticket into the presidency. Now, not even Dean Highbottom can catch you now. I hope you unleash your bitter fury onto all of those who doubted you and show them truly how Snow lands on top. Some people just seem to gossip as they please, talking about your too tight shoes and your tile buttons but none of them can take this win away from you Coryo.
Goodness, the way you lit up as you won. It kind of hurt though when you didn;t even spare me a second glance after you won . You and Tigris just looked so relieved and happy which made me happy for you. That all that mattered to me at that moment, you happiness. You smile that nearly lit up the entire Capitol. Of course, when you turned to look at me with those warm arms of yours open for me to jump into you, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.
And the feeling of you lifting me up, thanking me for supporting you through everything, kissing my cheek, I don’t think I’ve ever been more in love with you Coryo.
The feel of your lips against my cheek lit up a light in my chest that I thought I lost when I saw you and Lucy Gray in the zoo that night.
I’m just glad that now that the games are over, we can forget this Lucy Gray and cleanse ourselves of the Games. She can go back home to 12 a hero and a leader and we can continue our lives as they were.
Maybe we could even go out for a celebratory round of drinks, if you want.
Love,
Your Biggest Admirer
Dearest Coryo,
Where are you?
After your win it’s like you’ve just up and disappeared. Tigris has been talking about an eviction and losing the penthouse. I thought that the Plinth prize was yours?
Even Highbottom hasn’t said anything about your whereabouts, or well not to me anyway. But even Sejanus said he knows.
Coriolanus, I’m worried about you.
There have been rumors that you cheated in the Games and got exiled. I hope they aren’t true. I know you, you’d never cheat and destroy your chances at getting the money. Highbottom, no matter how much we hate him, had a point with making the punishment for cheating in the Games severe. There’s no way you would stake your entire family and your home for some District girl, right ?
You hate cheaters yourself, remember that one time that we were playing a card game and I had hid some of the cards in my sleeve to ensure I won? You didn’t talk to me for three months. You hate how Clemensia always takes all the credit for your partner assignments when you know damn well that her wrist has never known ache like yours. You hate how Felix has never even had a meaningful conversation with any of the people at political dinners yet he had more support than you did amongst the rich and powerful. You even hate that Sejanus’ family had so much money from a war that we suffered from only to be inducted into the very society their people had been at odds with.
Sejanus told me that you had given Lucy Gray rat poison to kill the other tributes with. He even told me that you retrieved him from the arena, killing one of the tributes. And he said that you had been exiled to 8 to serve as a peacekeeper.
That can’t be true, it just can't, right?
I mean, even if you had been sent to 8, you would’ve at least told me right? And Tigris would’ve told me and your Grandma’am would’ve surely written to my father with the news.
Highbottom and Gaul must be mistaken right? There's just no way in my mind that a boy as smart and sweet as yourself would throw away everything for some District clown in a frilly dress. There is just no way that you would’ve manipulated Gaul into letting her into her lab just so you could sneak in and make sure Gaul’s hellish snakes wouldn’t sic Lucy Gray. There is just no way that you snuck her your mothers compact full of poison to use in the Games. And there is just no way that you killed a boy in the Arena saving Sejanus, there's just no way?
Right?
There is no way that you would leave me here to rot all by myself in the capitol without the one person who has ever mattered to me.
Regardless, whenever you come out of whichever hole you are hiding in, I’ll be here, waiting for you to come home .
Love,
Your Biggest Admirer