Joohyun and Seulgi had returned to their chambers from a ridiculously long dinner. The pair were tackled left and right as the maids wrestled around them to take their measurements.

“Hyun, what are we going to do now?” Seulgi plopped herself on the edge of the bed and took off her shoes.

“…”

“Hyun?”

“I don’t know!” Joohyun followed Seulgi over to the edge of the bed. “I don’t know, Seulgi–ah.” She looked to the younger girl. “Do you think my parents would blame us if we got married without them?”

“…” Seulgi was beyond dumbstruck. That was what she’s been worrying about?

Unknown to Seulgi, the moment Yuri declared their wedding ceremony Joohyun hadn’t looked back since. Her mind never processed that there could be another way around this. Was it because she never thought that marrying Seulgi was a bad thing?

Ever since they met, Joohyun has always thought that they would live the rest of their lives together, no matter what they were doing or where they were. If Seulgi really kept true to her words back then, they were to stay side by side through joy and sorrow.

“You’re right, mother would kill me.” Joohyun mistook Seulgi’s silence.

“So would your father. Sometimes I find her more sensitive than mother.”

Joohyun groaned as she buried her head in her palms. “What can we do, our lives are at stake! Surely, they won’t blame us. We were poisoned after all…”

There was an unconscious tug on the corner of Seulgi’s lips when she realized Joohyun had addressed their problem as a single entity. If her parents would blame ‘us’…

“It’s getting late, we should get some rest.” Joohyun pushed Seulgi towards the inside of the bed and then she took off her own shoes. “We’ll deal with the problems of tomorrow… tomorrow.”

Seulgi mentally scolded herself for keeping this habit of blindly following the older girl. It was the hour of the rat, and she was still wide awake. The steady breathing over the other side of the bed told her that Joohyun had already entered the land of dreams.

She lightly rolled onto her left side to get a look at her. Due to the preparation for the ceremony half of the residence staff were still running in circles. The reflection of the lanterns faintly protruded into their dark chamber.

Seulgi was able to see the soft features that accentuated Joohyun’s beauty even in her slumber. The latter was asleep in a firm position with her hands placed on her abdomen. The sleeping habit of a typical soldier.

Ever since they met, never in her hopeless dreams did she ever imagine there would be a day she’d marry Joohyun. When the latter had saved her from living on the streets all those years ago, Seulgi was determined to devote herself to her. She didn’t know when, but her glances of devotion eventually turned to love and affection.

She didn’t realize what these feelings were at first until Joohyun left to help in the war. If it wasn’t Joohyun who made her stay with Seungwan back then, she would’ve journeyed across the vast mountains and rivers that separated them. She owed a lot to Moonbyul for helping her accept it. Just as she had come to terms with it, the engagement to Seungwan was announced. Since then, she could only keep it to herself.

Then she realized how strong this love for the older girl was when she almost risked the identity of the imperial ghosts by ordering a mass transfer to safeguard the Bae Manor. She could only render helplessly to it when she relentlessly chased after the girl thousands of miles to Dongqian in order to see with her own eyes that Joohyun was fine.

It always managed to surprise her how these affections never ceased even when the latter had made her feel so many other emotions. How Seulgi spent several anxiously sleepless nights at the southern barracks worried about Joohyun’s hidden identity. How apologetic she was when she tricked Joohyun into whipping her so cruelly. Or how infuriated she felt when she witnessed how vulnerable the older girl was after being drugged by the bastard of a deputy general.

It's hard to miss fate when it stares back at you in the mirror, but Seulgi couldn’t tell whether it was hers or not.

While she was reflecting on these lingering feelings, her hand had unconsciously reached out toward the sleeping beauty. She cautiously swept a misplaced strand of hair to the side of Joohyun’s face. 

The small contact woke Joohyun up but her eyes remained closed. Feeling Seulgi’s hand hovering above her, she smiled. Then she shifted onto her right side and closed their distance. Like the complementary forces of yin and yang, she slid perfectly into Seulgi’s embrace. 

“You never change.” Joohyun dived deeper into Seulgi’s neck.

Although Seulgi was surprised for a second, her body moved on it’s own according to muscle memory. Her arms comfortably wrapped around the older girl, as they had in the past. 

Seulgi was one that was hard to call awake and hard to fall asleep. Back then, there were many nights when Joohyun shared her bed in order to soothe the younger girl to sleep. On nights that Joohyun had fallen asleep first, Seulgi would wave her hand across her face to see if she was still awake. This movement would then wake the older girl up and she would proceed to hug Seulgi to sleep. 

The misty cold breeze of the winter morning knocked lightly on the paper doors of the to–be–wedded couple. As a light sleeper, Joohyun had woken up instantly. But the neighboring warmth radiating from the younger girl cuddling next to her made her retreat