Clock strikes upon the hour
And the sun begins to fade
Still enough time to figure out
How to chase my blues away
I've done alright up to now
It's the light of day that shows me how
And when the night falls, loneliness calls

+

There’s the unmistakable sound of feet scurrying quickly down the hallway and Jisu braces herself for the shouting that would come after. “Yuna get back here!” There’s a flurry of giggles that rushes up from behind her as Jisu feels something collide with her thigh and quickly Yuna wedges herself between the cupboard and her legs. She hugs her tightly and chuckles.

“Are you making it hard for your Mum again, Yuna?” Jisu looks down and smiles as the five year old looks up at her with the widest eyes.

Yeji huffs as she walks into the kitchen with her hands on her hip. “I thought you said you were going to put her to bed, it’s already half past nine and we need to be up early tomorrow morning,” Jisu grumbles immediately at the sight of her wife.

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do for the past half an hour?” Yeji sighs as she inches closer to them. She finally looks down at the little menace hiding behind Jisu. “I’m going to get you now!” Yeji says with a playful lilt. Swiftly Yeji scoops Yuna off the ground and tosses her into the air as Jisu clutches her chest.

“Don’t drop our child, Hwang Yeji!” she hisses as Yuna lands back safely in Yeji’s arms, both of them looking at Jisu with the roundest of eyes before Yuna tries to wriggle from Yeji’s grip again but Yeji traps her in her arms. “Can you just put her to bed… it’s late...” Jisu sighs and Yeji can hear the irritation in her voice so she doesn’t argue that it’s literally what she had been trying to do for the past thirty minutes.

“Come on kid, it’s time for bed, no more playing…”

“But I’m not tired!” Yuna whines and settles down, wrapping her arm around Yeji’s neck and clinging to her like a monkey as they walk back to Yuna’s room down the hallway.

“But I am,” Yeji frowns, “How about you pick a book and I’ll read you a story?”

“Mummy Jisu has a nicer reading voice…”

“Hey! But I do better character voices!”

“I heard that Hwang Yeji!” Jisu shouts from the kitchen and they both giggle from being caught. As Yeji places Yuna down on her pink bed and tucks her into her barbie bed sheets she walks over to the bookshelf and scans her eyes across. “What about Where the Wild Things are?” Yeji’s finger hovers over the spine as she looks to Yuna for approval.

“I want a fairytale tonight!” she says with the widest of eyes.

“Ok, which princess?”

There’s a moment of silence as Yuna places her index finger to her chin whilst she pondered hard about which story she wanted to hear. “Princess Julia!” Yuna shouts and Yeji snorts.

“I don’t think there’s a princess out there name Princess Julia…” Yeji leans against the shelf and places a finger to her temple.

“Yes, it’s Mummy Jisu. She told me she was a Princess once and her name was Julia!”

“Did she now?” Yeji crosses her arms

“Then she met a H-hwang-ja.”

“Hwang-ja?” Yeji ponders for a moment before she laughs, “You mean wangja? A prince?”

“No-no, she specifically said Hwang-ja. Hwang-ja Yeji!” Yuna flashes all her pearly whites and perks up.

Yeji tries her best to suppress a manic laughter, of course Jisu did. “And what did she tell you?”

“Nuh-ah! You’re not cheating. You’re supposed to be telling me a story!” Yuna shuffles sideways as Yeji scoots into bed beside her.

“Alright, and what do you want to hear about?”

“I want to hear about Hwang-ja Yeji saving Princess Julia from the sneeze bag and how you asked her to dance with you.”

“Sneeze bag?” Yeji repeats and giggles and Yuna just looks back at her wide-eyed and excited. She’s certain that if there’s one time to correct your child this wasn’t it. “That story?” she scratches her head, “It was the story of when we first met.”

“I know! Quickly tell me!” Yuna was getting rowdy again and Yeji quickly starts.

“Once upon a time, Princess Lia found herself at a ball alone…”

+

10 years ago

They meet at a wedding.

It was one of those things where Yeji wasn’t entirely sure if she was interested in going. She hadn’t found a date or anyone to bring and she wasn’t ready for the incessant probing that the aunties were going to do like asking her when they’d be attending her wedding. To make matters worse, her mother just told her that she’s seated at a singles table.

It felt like a target being placed on her back for everyone to see. The lonely singles table.

She weaves her way around the tables after being led by one of the bridesmaids to her seat. There seem to be others already at the table, in fact Yeji notes a few people talking already and more specifically a male with his arm draped over the woman beside him already. She’s begging in her mind to not be seated beside them. When they arrive at the table the bridesmaid gestures for her to take a seat. She reads the nameplate where her name was written in lovely calligraphy. “Hwang Yeji,” the bridesmaid taps on the seat and Yeji thanks her.

As luck would have it, she's stuck next to the couple she had seen earlier when the girl quickly pushes out of her chair and gets up. “Yeji-ah! It’s been so long!” she stands up from her seat and pulls Yeji into an embrace.

Yeji’s hands hover awkwardly over her back, “Hey…”

Yeji has never met this girl in her entire life.

“Please play along,” she whispers in her ear as she breaks away and takes a seat. She has her back faced towards the male who seems to be a bit flustered. “So how have you been? What have you been doing?”

It takes her a second to register the questions. “I’m f-fine… just work…”

“Right! Where are you at now?”

“Still at the JYP firm…”

“JYP Firm! They’re big, I’m so happy for you Yeji,” she says and reaches over for her hand.

“What abou