Seoul University — — 2020

“Taeyong…” Haeun giggled as he pressed her against the wall of her apartment building, sprinkling kisses all over her face, wherever her his mouth could reach. It was like her heart was finally opened and everything she had kept inside was tumbling out of it. Elation.

There was no feeling better than this. 

Better than Taeyong’s body against hers, his warm fingers against her skin and his smile against . 

She dared the universe to find something to rival this beauty.

After kissing and crying on the sidewalk, they had raced back to her place, unable to keep their hands off each other. It felt unreal to have her in his hands after so long, with so much uncertainty of whether this moment would ever be possible. “You’re here.”

“I know.” She whispered, tears in her eyes, “How is this happening? How is this real? I thought…I thought you’d never remember me.”

He shook his head, his nose brushing hers, “I don’t know. I can't believe this. But I don’t want to question it, I'm just so happy that it happened.”

She shivered at the deep roll of his voice and curled her fingers into his shirt, pulling him close, “I missed you so much.”

“Me too, sunflower. So ing much. I’m sorry.” He purred, kissing her, “I’m sorry I didn’t remember, I’m so sorry I hurt you, my love. Barely 48 hours and I was out of my mind missing you, I don’t know how you did handle this for months. Gods, I want to give you the world and all the planets.” 

She shook her head, tears slipping out of her eyes, “No. Don’t say sorry.”

“It was all my fault.” He whispered, his eyes glassy. “I made that stupid ing deal with the shaman and I lost you. I gave you up. I don't deserve you after that. I was so selfish. I don’t know how I’m ever going to make up for i—“

“Sshh. None of that.” She soothed, slipping her arms around his waist, “You already explained everything. You did it for Jaehyun, your best friend. I'm so in awe of your soul. I don’t care that you did it. I don’t care about any of it, I’m just so happy you’re here now. I love you so much.” 

He cupped her cheek, tilting her head back so he could breathe into , “Why don’t we go upstairs and I’ll make up for all the missed days?”

Her eyes sparkled, “Yeah?”

“Anything for you, sunflower. Absolutely anything. I’m never letting you go.”

Her smile faltered, her face falling and he was quick to catch the shift, “What’s wrong?”

“What if this doesn’t last? I have no idea why I forgot everything about who you were yesterday. Hell, I have no idea why suddenly, after so long, we both remember. It’s so erratic.” She muttered, this was what terrified her the most. She felt so out of control and the thought of him slipping through her fingers again was too much to bear.  

He gulped, his own heart-crushing with the same fears. The thought of the shaman’s curse hung over his head. If he was supposed to have given Haeun up, traded her for Jaehyun’s freedom, why was he allowed to hold her now? “I wish I knew the answer, sunflower. I don’t. I promise to protect you. I swear I will.”

Haeun leaned her head on his chest, pressing her face against his shirt and cried in a mix of relief and anxiety, “I love you.”

He rocked her side to side, helpless, “I love you too, always. No matter what happens in the future, no matter what that curse does to us, you will always find me. We will always end up back to each other and I will always fight for you.”  

“Promise?” She breathed out. 

He nodded sharply and kissed her deeply before running his nose along her cheek until he could bring his lips to her ear, “Promise.”

She shivered at the tone and felt her previous worries melt into a feeling that she laid dormant for far too long. Leaning her head back, she tucked herself under his chin so she could press her lips against the base of his throat, “Now, what were you saying about finding ways to make up for my poor broken little heart?”

-----

She was sure that the security camera in the elevator got an eye full of the two of them when their hands snuck into places they shouldn’t the minute the doors shut behind them. 

But she really couldn’t give less of a . 

“You’re going to get yourself evicted at this rate.” Taeyong moaned against as her hand slid past his belt. 

Haeun pulled back with a love drunk smile, watching his face completely go slack at the way her hand moved. It was glorious, like a golden halo was glowing behind him. He was breathtaking, and it made her want to spend the rest of her life making him look like this. 

“Good.” She mused, panting as if the onslaught was happening to her and not to the boy currently leaning his head back against the wall of her hallway outside her apartment door, his skin dewy with sweat. “Gives me an excuse to find a place for us to move into together.”

A violent shiver ran through him with a broken moan before he slouched forward, head landing on her shoulder, and gave her neck a soft nip, “Sunflower, you need to warn me before you say something like that.” 

She laughed, her hand slowing, “Talking about a future together turns you on that much?”

“If you start talking about marriage I might actually lose it right here, in your hallway, where I’m almost positive your neighbor is watching through their peephole.” He rasped. 

She muffled her laugh by pressing a sweet kiss to the top of his head and slowly pulling her hand out of his pants. He lifted his head, pupils blown wide and lips wet, “You’re so ing pretty. So beautiful. 100 reincarnations and you only look better. The only one for me. my life.”

She swayed on her feet, her lips split into a beaming smile, “My room?”

“Please.”

She scrambled for her keys as he buckled his belt back. His fingers curled around her waist as he towered behind her until she finally managed to get the key in the measly lock to let them both in.

“Haeun? Taeyong?” Mark asked, eyes wide, a bottle of milk in his hands.

They stumbled in, panting, hair messed and eyes glazed, “H-Hey, Mark.”

“Wh—“

Taeyong stormed over to him, pulling out his wallet and keys. He emptied his wallet out, handing Mark a handful of bills and his house keys, “Here’s dinner money, you can stay in my room and use whatever you want, , you can take whatever you want from my room. It’s yours to keep, just don’t come back until tomorrow afternoon. Late afternoon.” 

“Wait, what’s going on?” He asked as Taeyong shoved Mark’s backpack into his hands. 

Haeun ran into his bedroom and came back with a bunch of random clothes and a toothbrush before dumping in them in his arms, “Taeyong remembers, so do I. Now you need to leave.”

“Oh my god! Are you serious? This is real? I can’t believe this! But how? How is this possible? Just yeste—“

“Mark, we can talk about this later, please leave.” Haeun pressed, her eyes desperate. 

Mark’s face twisted, “Oh god, you guys are so gross. Fine, fine, I’m leaving.”

Haeun bit down her excited squeal and pulled Taeyong’s hand, dragging him to her room. 

“Wait until I leave! Don’t touch each other until I’m off this floor!”

-----

“Oh my god, did Haeun finally let you join NCT?” Jaehyun teased when he found Mark in the frat kitchen eating a banana with his backpack on his lap.

Mark snorted, “No, Haeun and Taeyong are at our apartment and I’m pretty sure they’re going at it like rabbits like they always do so I was temporarily kicked out.”

Jaehyun slammed his mug against the counter, his eyes wide, “Wait, what do you mean?”

“They remember. Oh my god, I completely forgot. I remember too, Jaehyun. I have no idea what happened or why Haeun and I's memory lapsed, but we both remembered today and apparently so did Taeyong.” He said with a bright smile. "Everything's been restored. It's all back to normal. Finally."

Jaehyun’s face, on the other hand, was void of any excitement and instead was contorted in a look of confusion, “That doesn’t make any sense. They were cursed to be apart. How are they both remembering when they’re fated not to?”

Mark gaped at the older boy, “Wait…what curse?”

-----

When the sound of the front door shutting echoed through the apartment, Haeun turned to Taeyong who was watching her from the edge of her bed while running a hand through his hair.

“You don’t understand how much I want you.”

Despite the rampant longing running through her body, she stayed by her bedroom door, just soaking him in. “Bet it’s not as much as I want you. I had to watch you be you for months and not do anything about it.”

Taeyong leaned back on one hand and spread his legs, “Okay, sunflower.”

She blinked in confusion until a slow smile curled up his lips.

“Then do something about it now.”

Her breath iced out in her lungs at his prompt and in a second she was stood in between his legs, cupping his face so that she could tilt her head and kiss him. If she was his sunflower, he was her sun. She always felt herself basking in his warmth, and he was always warm. Sometimes looking at him was blinding, like the rays would bleed through his pores. 

He gripped the back of her thigh with one hand and arched into her, kissing her back just as fervently, his tongue swiping against her lips. 

“I was so scared you would never remember.” She whispered, opening for his tongue to slip in and slowly trace every inch of her. 

Her fingers raked through his hair, anchoring him against her. He keened against her before kissing down her cheek and against the crook of her neck. 

“Could never stay away from you for too long, my pretty sunflower.” He whispered, “Thought I was going to die without you. Felt empty. My soul was missing because it was with you."

He barely pressed a few kisses before she was dragging him back to . A teasing smirk flattened across his mouth at her insistence and let her lead him. It sent heat surging and pooling in the base of her stomach and he slowly laid back against her sheets with her on him. 

"Don't wanna give it back." She whispered. "How else are you supposed to find me?"

He smiled against , nipping at her lip, "Gods, I love you so much."

Taeyong leaned up to help Haeun’s hasty hands pull his denim jacket and toss it aside. He let her roll his shirt up over his neck before dropping back down. Haeun hovered over him, her hands mapping his chest, her fingers tracing the dragon tattoo that was on his bone. 

He flinched at the gentle touch before smiling. She tilted her head and grinned slyly, rocking into his hips in a way that had his breath hitching, “You know the first day we met? By the Royal pool?”

“Mmm.” He hummed, his own fingers sliding under her shirt.

She shivered before regaining her senses, “Saw you take your robe off, could never get that image out of my head.”

“Gods.” He groaned, “Remember our first time ever? In the woods. , nothing made sense except you that night.”

Joseon Dynasty — — 1893

Taeyong finished setting up their tent and wiped the sweat off his brow, surveying his handiwork before looking over at Haeun. 

She was stood by his horse, using a brush to comb out its mane. This was another one of the many journeys they had recently begun taking with each other. They had gone on longer voyages on boats to more foreign lands but this one was closer by but still far enough from their Kingdom. 

They were situated in a lush forest with a fire crackling, the stars glittering overhead, and their burning company. 

The last few years of their relationship had bloomed into something that made its home in his body and was a cure to any pain or fatigue. There was something about watching Haeun’s face glow when she spoke about her travels or the blush when she’d hear his adorations that made him slightly immortal.

He walked over to where she stood, sliding an arm around her waist and pressing a soft kiss to the side of her head, “He looks good, sunflower.”

Pleased with her work, she crossed her arms, inspecting his horse’s glorious locks before turning to him, “Be serious, who has better hair, me or him?”

Taeyong grinned and kissed her neck, “The horse, my love.”

“Despicable.” She snorted with a laugh. 

He chuckled, “Do you want to start cooking the fish?”

She hummed, “Can we sit by the fire for a little bit, first?”

“Of course.” He cooed, leading them to the tree stump that acted as a bench. 

Haeun pulled off her cloak, draping it over the stump before basking in the tender heat, “Thank you for bringing me here, by the way. It’s beautiful.”

He ran the tips of his fingers down her spine, “I stumbled on it when I was coming back from that Princess’s Kingdom. The one that Jaehyun was going to marry.”

She fell silent and he cursed himself for bringing it up, knowing that all these years later, it was still a sore spot. Over the course of their relationship, he had considered telling her about what actually happened at the palace, but every time he decided on telling her, he’d become a coward. 

He couldn’t bring himself to tell her the truth, to admit that he was willing to trade her, their relationship, for Jaehyun’s happiness. Even if it wasn’t a real trade, even if nothing was going to happen to them or her, she’d probably be hurt. Hurt that he’d jinx their relationship like that. The symbol of him willing to trade away their love would upset her. And he was too selfish to do that. 

She deserved so much