XI

Yongsun learns that the blonde doctor had to replace her wife’s chin and jaw with steel, her bottom lip covered by cold hard metal. Yongsun tenses as she tries not to feel; this is a digression, an illusion, this is not a beginning, not an end, but a distraction meant to eat away at her core and worry her.

This is what falling feels like, Yongsun reckons as she watches the ground spin, she sways, trying to stay upright, and places a hand on the doorframe to regain her balance. She takes a step forwards, determined to reach the nurse’s tent in hopes of being able to get rid of her headache.

She does not make it far before she crashes into a wall. A hand wraps around her arm trying to hold her upright. Yongsun tries to push away because she recognises the person’s uniform: it is a soldier, and Yongsun has sworn to never touch one.

The soldier does not let go of her and makes sure that she reaches the nurse’s tent safely. The soldier’s grip is firm on her arm, Yongsun lifts her head, catching a glimpse of the soldier’s face, it is a woman with her lips drawn into a thin line, a frown evident on her face. The woman’s features do not matter to Yongsun when she realises that the soldier is not ‘decorated’. Yongsun groans, knowing they will most likely meet again under different circumstances.