Drabble based on the winning prompt for the Drabble Giveaway I held on Twitter (link): Wenrene immortals au where they can live together forever but something happens and they’re forced to leave each other.

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It all began with the protestant reformation. Joohyun wanted to go home, but Seungwan insisted on staying in Europe, following these interesting times of religious upheaval. Eventually, they parted ways, to meet in Chosun once Seungwan returned from her travels. After over 1000 years together, the separation seemed harmless, the years so easy to fly by for an immortal.

Delay after delay, distraction after distraction, it was almost a century before they met again. It was like looking into the surface of a pond. Even if the water was as still as death and the picture reflected on it perfectly, one couldn't help the feeling that something was off. That they weren't seeing the world as they knew it. Something had changed. They had changed.

They tried to ignore it at first, to give each other the time to slowly, gradually slip back into the spaces they had once occupied, to grow back into familiar shapes, ones that fit together like before. But it grew harder to ignore with each passing day and soon they were parting ways once more.

For nearly two centuries, this restless dance of avoidance continued. When they were together, they wrung their hands and shook their heads and turned their gazes away, the jarring shift between past and present throwing their entire existence off balance. When they were apart, they studied the world with dim eyes and blank minds, wandering aimlessly. They awoke from vague dreams, consumed by the fear that they’d shifted that final inch, that they would come home to find nothing but a stranger.

In the end, all the worrying was for nothing. Running or staying, trying or giving in, none of it mattered. The mistake had already been made and the rest was a matter of time.

One day, Joohyun woke up and saw Seungwan by her side, and Seungwan smiled but she didn’t recognize her smile. And Seungwan spoke, but she didn’t recognize her words. And Joohyun realized for the first time just how cruel it was to live forever.

That was when it ended.

Joohyun sits in a small Parisian café, with a cup of tea that she has left to cool down. She waits for Seungwan, who will soon be late. Not that a few minutes matter much to an immortal.

People like them can’t just break apart cleanly. Their lives, their memories are too intertwined for such a separation. They can acknowledge that their love, while never gone, no longer exists in a way that they can bear. They can accept that their past, while never forgotten, now holds too much baggage for them to carry on in the present. They can choose to never again exchange loving touches, loving glances, loving words.

But they’re the only ones of their kind. As much as it hurts, they’re the only ones who remember. So they can’t break apart. Memories bind them together like vines, dig into them with invisible thorns.

They meet once a decade. They exchange pleasantries. They know each other like nobody else on Earth and yet they are strangers.

They used to lie awake at night and count the stars. Remember all the centuries shared, await with bated breath the countless centuries ahead of them. Joohyun still lies there alone, but the sky doesn’t hold the same warmth. It stares back, cold and hostile.

Even the constellations have changed.

Seungwan is here now. She arrived in a hurry and apologized for her delay, a habit she's picked up from being around mortals for so long.

She's always been the outgoing one, happy to try new things. She complains - as much as Seungwan is capable of complaint - of the short timespans, the need to move before her lasting youth raises suspicion, the constant changing and shifting and hurrying. But with every meeting, she has new stories to tell, new friends to describe, new experiences to share.

Joohyun is always one step behind. While Seungwan walks the world with an open smile and open hands, Joohyun lingers by the door of immortality, cradling her wounded heart and willing it to heal.

Seeing Seungwan hurts. It reminds her of the love she has lost. It opens all the wounds that have slowly begun to close. But she can't bear to put an end to the routine.

Without these meetings, every 10 years, setting the pace of her life like the steady ticking of a metronome, there will be nothing protecting her from her fate. Without them, the vast expanse of forever will stretch before her, stark and unavoidable.

The sun is setting and Seungwan must go. She has a dinner with friends. While Joohyun is in town, she begins with hopeful eyes, and it's all Joohyun needs to know that she still doesn't understand. While Joohyun is in town, she says, they can meet, for lunch or dinner, for coffee or tea, just for a walk in the park. To really catch up. A decade passes in a flash for ones as old as them, but so much still happens in 10 years.

Yes, Joohyun agrees with a small nod, so much still happens. That's always been their problem, hasn't it?

Seungwan is gone and the sky is dark. Joohyun's second cup of tea is cold and almost empty. She will have to go soon, so the shop can close and its workers can go home.

Home. Home is a funny thing.

If you stay away for too long, you'll return home to find an unfamiliar land, full of unfamiliar people speaking an unfamiliar language. Just enough to spark recognition, to awaken a longing that you can never again satisfy.

Travel far enough and for long enough and you'll lose your home entirely.

The first humans were nomads, the history books say. They're filled with innacuracies and fabrications, but this much they didn't get wrong. The first humans were nomads. And what are Joohyun and Seungwan if not the first humans?

"Wow, I'm a little jealous." It's the waitress, a pretty young girl with a bright smile. Her words are light, with no hint of malice. "You look so relaxed, taking your time with that tea. That's not something a lot of people our age can do, we always have somewhere to be, someone to meet."

"Oh, not me," Joohyun replies in practiced French. She sets down her empty cup and slowly counts the coins in her purse. She offers them to the waitress, along with a polite smile. "I've got nothing but time."