Chaewon sipped on her hot chocolate, resting her arms on the balustrade, eyes into the distance as she watched the ice blue lake surrounded by snow. It was cold, but she still felt warm – extra warm now actually.

Familiar arms hugged her by the waist, vanilla scent filling her lungs as Minjoo rested her chin on her shoulder. Chae smiled, resting her left hand on hers, fingers tracing the golden ring on her finger, feeling the little details engraved on the surface of it – their initials. Her smile grew into a foolish grin as she took her hand, lifting it to her lips to leave a kiss on the wedding ring.

“Good morning, Min.” She greeted softly, turning her head slightly to meet her gaze – bright dark chocolate orbs greeted her back, a smile on her eyes that were so full of love and happiness. Chaewon’s heart grew a little bigger with the view that was so much prettier than the ancient city they were visiting for their honeymoon. “It’s freaking cold, you should be inside! Why did you pick this place again?”

Minjoo only laughed at her words, hugging her a little tighter. It was indeed cold and she would have to run back inside soon if she didn’t want to catch a cold, but for now Chaewon’s warmth was enough for her. “Winter has always been our season and I just love how peacefully beautiful this place is.” She explained, glancing at the city below, orange roofs painted white by the snow. It calmed her, bringing only the good memories of their first meeting. “Also, having more excuses to cuddle gives it some extra points!”

It was Chaewon’s time to chuckle, leaving the mug aside to give her wife a proper hug. For her it really didn’t matter whether they were in a tropical paradise or at this cold city, she was just happy to have Minjoo with her – this time for good.

They were together for over seven years now, time enough to know almost everything about each other, to learn about their weakness and strengths, and to learn to love each other’s qualities and flaws, to be there through the good and bad times.

Chae still had to deal with her ‘clumsiness’ – she tried her best to avoid the ‘unlucky’ word now and it somehow made she feel better about it –, and some people still looked down on her for bearing a scar, however, having Min by her side made deal with it a little easier. Of course, Minjoo also had to face her fair share of problems, after all, isn’t life like this to everyone? Still, Chaewon made sure to provide her with the same support, which always included all the hugs, kisses and loving words that were just the right combination to heal her wounds.

“We’re married now, it’s pretty much my job to give you all the affection you need, whenever you want it.” Chaewon reminded, leaving a kiss on her lips to emphasize her words. If once she feared people’s opinions and how it could affect them, through the years she had learned that showing her love and care was the best thing she could do for the two of them and she wouldn’t let anyone stop her from doing so. “At least until we go back home and I have to deal with Yena calling me at random times because she found another bug in our game and the company is about to go under.” She sighed, but her tone was playful.

Working with her best friend was great, Yena deals with all the annoying clients, while Chaewon just takes care of the programing. They were still a small company, but the prospects were good and she was optimistic Yena wouldn’t make them go bankrupt in two weeks – she would check on her often, just in case. “And you will have to deal with Hyewon sending cryptic messages about her mystery girl.” Minjoo’s sister was still an enigma to Chaewon, the woman would travel around the word, looking for the girl she insisted was her soulmate, while recording food vlogs.

“I will remember those words. And you know I have a great memory!” She would make sure to claim all the affection she could get, albeit she was pretty sure Chaewon wouldn’t mind giving it. “Don’t worry about it, Yuri is there to keep an eye on Yena, and Hye…Is Hye, I guess she won’t ever stop, you know, being stubborn runs in the family.” Minjoo shook her head slightly, thinking about the last text she got from her sister – who was somewhere in Asia at the moment –, Hyewon never told her much, and all she could do was to wish her luck.  “We can always live as traveling photographers if they get too annoying.” Minjoo winked at her wife, muffling her chuckle with a sweet kiss.

As a photographer, she wouldn’t mind having her wife with her all the time, always visiting a new place, but she would have to content herself by doing it during this trip since once she was back home she would also have to take care of her own business – for now, however, she would rather to not think about it.

Deepening the kiss, she hugged Chae a little tighter, letting herself sink into the comfort of her embrace. Her heart skipped happily inside her chest – as always, it wanted to meet Chae’s and she didn’t mind allowing it to go. Warmth slowly spreading through her chest, making it light, only mint and strawberry filling her senses. It was such a familiar feeling now, but she would never tired of it.

Breaking the kiss, she rested her forehead on Chaewon’s, giving her a small, fond smile. “I love you.” She said softly, receiving another, shorter, kiss in return.

“I love you too, Min.” Chaewon was smiling too, a small curve on her lips, making the single line on top of it more evident.

At some point along the years she had lost the second line of the scar, it was at the time Chaewon was trying her best to get a job at a good company to develop her projects. She went to so many interviews, receiving all sort of job proposals thanks to her good grades and past works as an independent developer – only to get rejected as soon as they noticed the scar on her face. Seeing her girl try her best to deal with all the rejections keeping a smile on her face, slowly broke Minjoo’s heart, resulting in another missing part of the mark. Chaewon cried when she noticed it, guilty and worried, but this time she didn’t try to push her away, bringing her closer, allowing them to comfort each other.

Those were hard times, but things got better and Minjoo hoped it was for good.

Brushing her lips on the little scar that was barely visible now, she kissed her once more before asking. “Do you think it will ever disappear completely?”

Chaewon thought about the times when it was all she wanted, like she used to think it could change it all for the best – now it seemed just so foolish of her. Shaking her head in a negative, she stepped back, grabbing her wife by the hand to lead them back inside. “I hope it doesn’t.”

A/N: And that’s the ending. It was never meant as a soulmate AU, although it became something implicit in the story as I wrote, so I decided to keep it like this. This was a quick story, so I didn’t really focus on the lore much, although writing it was fun.

I’m sorry about any mistakes and if it just turned out clumsy. I hope you guys enjoyed this little story anyway.

Thanks for reading ‘To Reach You’ :)