The Fountain

Description

Irene and Seulgi's love for one another has only one flaw:

Seulgi can live forever, and Irene is mortal.


"Youth may be beautiful, but it's not all there is to life. Everything changes."


 

They meet at University, and they fall in love almost instantly.

It's a burgeoning love, the sort of teenage romance that neither can ignore and neither can ever get enough of. And they do love each other. They do. But Seulgi harbours a secret that is impossible to tell.

She's immortal.

She's lived for eighty years.

In the long summers of their relationship, Irene comes to realise that Seulgi is telling the truth. Seulgi has always been telling the truth. And suddenly, they come face to face with the prospect of something much worse: Seulgi will live to watch Irene grow old and weary, and there is nothing she can do about it.

For Irene, all she wishes is to remember. To cherish each moment they spend together, each and every second, from their first until their very last. Until her very last. And all Seulgi wants to do is forget.

The Fountain is a harrowing tale of love, life, and mortality, written for the Shoes of a Unicorn Writing Contest.


▶ ▶ The Fountain Official Playlist ◀ ◀


Foreword

Author's Notes

Yeah, I think I'm addicted to writing, lol. But when you're done with uni, and work's really easy, and your social life is really boring because summer's too hot to do anything, what else can I do but write? And now that my manuscript's been handed over for line edits, I figured there's nothing better than writing a bunch of AFF stuff. Sooo, even though I've already got a story on the go (Under the Neon Sun, here) I figured I'd start another. And yes, I'll be updating both of them in the future! :) Nothing's getting abandoned.

Note on content etc:

This story will be strange, in that it's not really like anything I've done before. It's not as darkly violent or brutal as The Longest Night, Babel, or Darkest Before Dawn, but it won't have the same comedy//fluff as Stargirl or I Don't Know You but Would You Like Some Coffee? It's somewhere in between. It's going to have a whole lot of angst and depressing romance, because that's the theme, really. So don't expect anything else, because you won't find it here :P

I'll probably end up writing a couple fluffy one-shots for my One-Shot Collection to make up for it, lol.

Anyways, in the meantime, enjoy!


If you haven't read any of my other stories yet, you can find them here:

 

 

Huge thanks to the We Got Fired Graphics Shop for the great poster and background, they do some amazing work! You can catch them below:

Comments

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suaviter27 #1
Chapter 23: Thank you so much for this!
Juxptier
87 streak #2
Chapter 23: Why can’t I stop crying, like genuinely crying as if I was her </3!
fagchaewon #3
Chapter 23: man this is literally my fave seulrene fic like no doubt. i never thought that a fictional story like this will leave a hole yet a special place in my heart. like it's heartbreaking because seulgi was all alone again but beautiful at the same time cuz irene got the chance to spend her life with the person she loved the most. like everytime i read this, it never fails to bring tears in my eyes.
Kavabeann #4
great story, crying my eyes out
Laayy_15 #5
Chapter 23: I'm crying, very hard, I can't stop crying. You did a great job author-nim
ariane143_nget
#6
Chapter 23: It hurts.. I could feel it.. and I really love your stories.. Really great..
Universe12345
#7
Chapter 23: Okay. So where do I begin? <br />
It's not anything that I expected it to be. <br />
It started off as a normal love story. It's as normal as it could get. And then it really wasn't. It's none of that. Or maybe it is. <br />
<br />
Despair, anxiety, sadness, a lot of sadness. That's what I felt throughout the whole read. There are times where I thought I should be feeling giddy, but I can't. Like from the very beginning there's already a countdown timer ticking for the two. <br />
<br />
When Seulgi started taking her walks and Irene's starting to ask her what's wrong it was so painful to imagine Irene pleading with her eyes that Seulgi tell her the truth. But it hurts even more that Seulgi can't. Not because she doesn't love herm but because she do. So very much. <br />
<br />
And then when Seulgi left her. When Irene called to her and told her "I love you" I've seen those three words so much what with all the stories I've read from this website but never had it felt so heavy to read those three words when Irene said it that time. With so much desperation, with so much pain. I can imagine how it sounded and how she looked that time and it hurts when I try to imagine what it feels like. How she looked like. <br />
<br />
When they finally got back together I felt relieved. When Irene proposed i cried. I don't know if it's because of happiness or of sadness, maybe because of both. I felt so happy because they're finally getting what they want, which is each other, but it felt unbearably sad at the same time, I don't know why, I can't explain why but it felt really really sad. <br />
<br />
And then there comes the second half. Whenever she's looking at Irene, observing how she looks, how she changed, I can't help but cry. The feeling of something you love slowly drifting away, gradually fading away to time, and the feeling of helplessness because there's nothing you can do, but worst of all, you're not doing it with her, because while she's fading away, you're not. You're there to see it all happen. There for all time. Until she's gone. And the time after that. And the guilt. The feeling of stealing something she deserved. The right to grow old with someone who would do it with her. Who can do it with her.<br />
<br />
Irene proposing, them moving to a house together, them telling each other to be open with each other, When she's imagining everything happening in reverse, them undoing everything they did, her walks, her looking at irene, her crying alone, her imagining one time what it would feel like to going home without Irene being there anymore, her asking irene to go somewhere that would make irene the happiest, irene telling her she's already where she's the happiest. It felt everything was a desperate endeavor to escape the situation they're in, but there's no escaping it. Forever has always been depicted as something beautiful when the word was used in correlation to love, but never have I thought of it sounding as sad as this. <br />
<br />
This was a lot more philosophical than i expected it to be, and I could not agree more with the points made, the future will never come, tomorrow will become today and if you dont live to enjoy today you will regret yesterday. <br />
<br />
That life is a holiday, with death and the afterlife being the "home" and it's useless and detrimentak to think about it while on a holiday because it just ruins the holiday, it dampens the feeling, the happiness, the relaxation that holidays bring. <br />
<br />
And that we always have a purpose. Everyone has one. You have to look for one. And you'll definitely find one when you look for it. And when you had one before and you lost it, you just have to find one again. <br />
<br />
I don't know how much I teared up througj the whole thing, sometimes I didn't know I'm already crying. It's painful. Her imagining Irene being in her youth again. Those moments always get me. <br />
<br />
If I ever find the one, I'd tell her I love her everyday. I may not be timeless like Seulgi is, but I'm afraid that the time might come that I'm still here and she's not anymore and I can't tell it to her and I don't want to regret not telling it her. I don't know why but it just suddenly came to me after reading this. Because here I realised I can't always be with her.<br />
<br />
I'm glad that after months of hesitating I finally come around to read this. It's sad AF. I'll probably need to watch those fluffy seulrene videos again to get some reprieve or maybe read Seoul City Vice again but not tonight, I want to bask on the feeling of sadness this one gave me. Thank you so much Tez. Thank you.
Universe12345
#8
Chapter 1: it. I'm reading this!

Man just from the first chapter I'm already having glances of what's to come. And it makes me shiver. It's just the beginning but I'm already feeling her longing, her regrets.

I don't know if I'm ready for this one but it. I only live once.