Seulgi’s eyes flicker down. “You don’t…have to feel guilty. You’re the princess, it’s my duty to protect you.” Joohyun is silent for a long moment, and Seulgi chances a glance up. Joohyun’s face is unreadable, remote, so beautiful that it hurts. “So if I weren’t the princess, you—”

Joohyun’s stare used to make Seulgi’s heart race, her face flush, but now she’s incapable of any of those things. Even time no longer moves the same way when she feels trapped within the same moment while the world moves forward without her.