Throughout the many cultures and countries, there are countless of legends pertaining to love in circulation. Most people merely brush them aside as silly, idealistic stories, yet some people do yearn for such things to be true. Perhaps, they secretly wish that they too, could experience the beauty and the joy of such a heartwarming legend.

Kim Yongsun was one such person. However, something that she did not realise, was that she was living in a legend of her own.

Some place far away, long long ago.

“Kim Yongsun! Your friend is here to see you.”

The emphasis on the word ‘friend’ was not lost on the brunette as Yongsun huffed and gave a little push against her friend and co-worker as she walked out from the tavern’s backroom to take her usual spot behind the counter. Said friend in question could only give a silly grin from her seat across the counter, head rested against the palm of her hand as she watched the antics of the dynamic duo. Yongsun shook her head as she shooed her co-worker, Wheein, off to the other end of their workspace before turning to face her friend with a roll of her eyes.

“That Wheein...With the way she said that Byul, it’s quite surprising how everyone in the tavern wouldn’t suspect a thing between us,” Yongsun joked, though keeping her volume low as her eyes darted about warily. The other girl, Moonbyul, could only just give a slight chuckle as she reached a slender hand across the table and gently clasped a hand over Yongsun’s, pulling the joined hands to the centre of the wooden table top.

“Let them speak then. It’s not really their business after all,” Moonbyul coolly responded, her thumb running over the top of Yongsun’s knuckles. In a small village like the one the couple lived in, it was not surprising that gossip and rumours spread fast. Everyone knew of the young soldier who was enamoured with the owner of the tavern. Most villagers knew about how the owner of the tavern reciprocated the soldier’s feelings. To some villagers, it was not that much of a surprise, seeing how the two girls grew up together. Yet, to a few villagers, their love was treated with scorn and disdain.

However, to the two girls, the pair could not find it in themselves to care too much about how others may view them. They knew their connection to be true.

They knew it from their childhood, where the pair used to play in the grassy plains in the just right outside of their village, sometimes rolling around in the dirt as young Moonbyul mock-wrestled with the slightly smaller Yongsun, much to the older girl’s disdain. After the two of them were puckered out from the play fighting, they would lie down against the grass and watch the moon and the stars at night, surrounded by fireflies. Countless times, Moonbyul and Yongsun would hook their pinkies together and swear that they would be friends forever.

As the two grew up together, Yongsun started to pick up more responsibilities in her family’s tavern with her sisters while Moonbyul had decided to join up in the local military regiment. The brunette initially vehemently disagreed with the darker-haired girl’s choices, her anger stemmed from the worry. One time, Yongsun even marched over to the Moon’s family blacksmith forge during one of her lunch breaks to ambush Moonbyul with an entire list of reasons as to why Moonbyul “should really not join the military and stay in the village”. Moonbyul could only sigh as she put her tools down and step away from the forge’s fires and pull Yongsun into a long, crushing hug. It was then that she promised Yongsun that she would keep herself safe at all times, indirectly promising the other girl that the star will always find her way back to the sun.

( It was only after the appeasing, and frankly flustering promise that Yongsun jumped away from their embrace, complaining loudly at how sweaty Moonbyul was before marching back to the Kim’s tavern, muttering about how she needed to change from all the sweat and grease. )

Over the next few months, Yongsun diligently worked in the tavern, soon taking over most of the operations in the bar itself while her sisters dealt with other things, such as supplies or cooking. Moonbyul spent her daylight hours either training with the local militia or working at the force. In the evenings, she would come down to the tavern to wheedle Yongsun for free food and drinks, and the two would always make an entire show of begging and begrudging relent.

( Definitely to Wheein’s chagrin, who would usually end up shouting, “Unnie please just feed Moonbyul! You both are disturbing the customers, really!” )

The three of them spent some nights together drinking, taking advantage of the quiet lull of the tavern if it was a slow night. On some nights, a fourth person would join, a fellow militia member called Hyejin, or Hwasa, as the girl had been given the nickname within the people she trained with. Moonbyul had been the one to introduce Hyejin to the group on one of the evenings where she came to get her dinner, and the drinking they did hours later consolidated the newfound friendship between the four of them. This routine soon became familiar to them.

That is, until one night where Hwasa and Moonbyul were uncharacteristically silent as they swirled their makgeolli around in their wooden mugs. Wheein and Yongsun were suspicious and did their best to get answer out of the other two, but to no avail. It was only at the end of the night that Moonbyul put her mug down and cast a sidelong glance to Hwasa before turning to face the puzzled two. Sighing, she said, “Hyejin and I better turn in soon. We’re getting deployed tomorrow.”

Gasps came from the other two, slightly stunned as Hyejin and Moonbyul stood up from their seats, beginning to make a move to leave. Wheein nudged Yongsun to shake her out of it and gestured to Moonbyul’s retreating form before yelling out to the leaving ladies that “they’d better stay safe or else”.

Yongsun, on the other hand, hurried her way over to Moonbyul, insisting to walk the taller girl home. It was a silent one, but the sense of things being unsaid was present, almost like a blanket settling over the two. It was only when the pair arrived at the forge did Moonbyul turned to face Yongsun and brought their hands together. With a deep breath, Moonbyul started, her voice low with nervous energy as she stared into Yongsun’s expectant eyes.

“I… don’t know what will happen over the next few days. I doubt that anything bad will happen, since it’s a small scale bandit problem that we have been assigned to deal with. But just in case anything happens, I don’t want to live with any regrets, you know? So…. I just want to let you know that I care for you. A lot. And I’m really sorry for suddenly dumping onto you like this, but could you please consider this? Consider us?”

Yongsun could only quickly pull Moonbyul in an embrace, hiding her face in the crook of the other’s neck in sheer embarrassment. Yongsun wondered if Moonbyul could feel how fast her heart was thumping.

“Silly Byul, how can I give you an answer like this? What if you don’t come back. You can’t just drop a bomb like this on a lady you know?” Yongsun’s hands tightened behind Moonbyul’s waist as she muttered. The taller hair girl chuckled as she ran her hands down the other’s brown locks.

“I’ll come back. I promised, didn’t I?”

Yongsun hummed as she nodded, refusing to move from her position. The two of them stayed there for a while, wondering what the future might bring them.

It was only weeks later that they saw each other again. Yongsun was serving customers at the counter as a hooded figure sauntered in, confidently taking a seat at the counter. To Yongsun, the person seemed familiar, yet she couldn’t put a finger to it.

“Could the pretty lady get this war hero a nice free meal, perhaps?” The figure lifted their head, showing a familiar greasy smile and Yongsun almost dropped the mug that she was wiping down in shock. Said mug was almost thrown at Moonbyul in excitement, but Yongsun managed to restrain herself and settled with turning out from behind the counter to give the other girl an enthusiastic hug. As they separated from their embrace, Yongsun tutted as she examined Moonbyul’s face before bringing them to a kiss, not caring of their surroundings. Only when they separated did Solar continued with a wistful smile.

“Took you long enough to come back to me.”

A warm smile broke through Moonbyul’s face as she responded, “But I came back in the end, didn’t I? I keep my promises, after all.”

The four of them went back to their usual routine, with Hyejin returning at the same time that Moonbyul did. This time, their stories that they shared at night diversified with more shenanigans pertaining to weird tavern customers or the things that Hyejin and Moonbyul had to deal with whilst deployed.

Sometimes the military ladies had to go off for their missions, but they always came back safe and sound a few days, or even a few weeks later. As time went by, Yongsun's worries subsided into just a dull longing in Moonbyul’s absence.

One day, Hyejin came back into the tavern alone, her eyes refusing to meet the expectant gazes of Wheein or Yongsun. She could not, as she choked out.

“She’s…. she’s not coming back.”

It was on that day where Kim Yongsun’s felt that she was living in a nightmare as she cursed the gods and fate for subjecting her to such a cruel fate of her own. Little did she know that her very sadness and agony had moved the Goddess of Fate above, a feat rarely accomplished. An undeserving ending, the Goddess had felt, and soon she reweaved the threads that bind the lovers.

And it was this life that started the entire cycle.