Seulgi’s standing in a graveyard of trees, their giant limbs outstretched to the sky in some kind of curse to the world that betrayed them in the first place. Something had told her to come here, an instinct of sorts, a shift in the world that drew her to this one spot. Needless to say, this wasn’t the change she was hoping to see. The brutal hacking of axes and mechanical reapers mar the ancient bark of each tree with deep scars. She feels a pang of dread and sorrow as she gazes around her. Some of these trees are as old as she is. Her frigid fingers trace circle after circle of their trunks as she surveys the land. The sky is swollen with snowflakes, billowing down powdered snow onto the desolate yet once fruitful landscape. It’s beautiful. But it’s missing one thing. 

“It’s just awful, isn’t it.” And just like that, the picture is complete. She’d recognize that voice anywhere, swirling through the air like a lullaby lulling her to sleep. Seulgi forces herself to stop the urge to relax as Irene steps out of the gloom before her, wearing at least three layers of clothes underneath an oversized parka. The girl is as beautiful, no, more beautiful, than when Seulgi had first met her. Long, silky lashes fan snowflakes out of seemingly innocent eyes. Rosy, full lips part to drink in the icy air into chilled lungs. Pale skin matches the snow on the ground. A smirk uncharacteristically blooms across her angelic face, and she sighs, “The dawning of a new era.” Seulgi remains rigid next to a fallen tree that’s thicker than a telephone pole as she keeps a careful eye on the other girl as she approaches. 

That sounds like a line Seulgi’s heard before. The dawning of a new era. It’s 1899, and frilly hoop skirts and full length dresses were the definition of fashion. She remembers it like it was just yesterday she was climbing aboard the ship that would take her from her hometown of Suwon, South Korea, and whisk her into the budding country of America. Her parents were ever worrying over her, she’d always been the wild child of the family. But traveling from one half of the globe to another, a daring proposition that would eventually cost her mortality, seemed like such an unimportant thing back when she had been so young and naive. So she left her family and arrived in the United States. Horse drawn buggies toted couples around the cobblestoned roads of New York, and Seulgi was in love. And then she met Irene.

Even to this day, after seeing and meeting billions of people all over the world, Irene is the most beautiful person Seulgi has laid eyes on. The day the pair came face to face changed Seulgi’s life forever, but when she crashed into the other girl in the middle of Times Square, she had no idea what she was getting herself mixed up in. She had been carryin