Bora ran as fast as her feet could take her, holding the child close to her chest. A series of bombs flew past her as a crowd of soldiers chased after her and the child. She needed to get to the plane and fast, she was running out of time.

With a stop and quick turn, she covered the child’s ears and screamed with all her might. The bombs stopped dead in their tracks and the soldiers flew back a few feet with the strength of that scream, even if they spent years surrounded by exploding bombs nothing could save them from that, quite literal, ear-shattering sound. The ymbryne knew that would eat most of her energy but it needed to be done, she gathered herself and ran to the plane on standby.

After slowly placing the child on the chair and strapping her in, Bora maneuvered the plane off the ground and into the red sky. She looked at the small child beside her and sighed in relief.

-x-

A head of black hair flew down the stairs with a high-pitch screaming chasing after.

“Hyejoo! Give me back my socks!” Jiwoo screamed at the younger child who had her socks in and running wildly around the house and into the garden. Even if she was bigger, Jiwoo couldn’t keep up with the small shape shifting girl. “Miss Kim! Hyejoo took my socks again!” She whined trying to get the woman helping Dahyun out of the mudpit’s attention.

Minji walked towards the child with another hanging by her ankle in the ymbryne’s left hand. She gave the little girl’s head a small pat and called for one of the older children in the home.

“Jihyo!” A brown-haired girl rushed over to the call. “Please take Dahyun to the bathroom and wash her off.” The older girl’s hair slowly shifted to red with purple hints here and there to show she was horrified but mostly angry at the younger’s state.

“How many times do I have to tell you to stop making mud puddles and diving into them?!” She grabbed Dahyun by her ankle just as Minji had held her while the girl started giggling as they walk away.

Minji watched the exchange in amusement until she felt a small tug on her skirt, Jiwoo looking up at her with teary eyes and a quivering bottom lip. She smiled and picked the little girl up, placing her at her hip. “Hyejoo! I’m gonna count to three and you better give Jiwoo unnie back her socks.”

A small growl can be heard behind the bushes in the distance, “one!” Minji started.

Then a whine, “two!”

And finally, a small hunched child comes out of the bushes, pink socks in and twigs in her hair. Hyejoo walked over as the ymbryne laid out her hand, the child looked at her with puppy dog eyes, to which she raised an eyebrow to.

The shape-shifter placed the socks on Minji’s hand before letting go, Jiwoo clapped her hands at the sight of her pink socks being handed to her. She nuzzled her nose in the woman’s hair before climbing down to stand beside her.

“Hyejoo, what did I say about stealing the unnie’s things?” The girl hung her head and quietly whispered.

“Don thteal unnie twings.”

“Mhm, so what do we say to Jiwoo unnie?”

“I thowy, Chu unnie. Hyejoo juth wan give Gowon gifth.” She looked back to the quiet girl clapping her hands as she watched Heejin and Hyunjin trying to wrestle Jeongyeon.

“Wan give Gowon gift?” Jiwoo asked, the younger only nodded shyly. “I help you!” She exclaimed, her excitement affecting not only Minji but also the usually lethargic girl in front of her.

“Weawy?” Hyejoo said excitedly but then realized her tone and returned to her stoic expression and said, “otay.”

The older of the two grabbed the other’s hand and dragged her into the house to do God knows what while telling Hyejoo that she wanted to give something to Sooyoung unnie too.

Minji looked at the children in the garden, some of the little ones were busy playing, some of them were going on walks with the older ones or helping them with their daily chores, some older kids reading or teaching the younger ones. She was happy that a lot of the children were already in their teenage years, although still greatly outnumbered by the small ones, they were able to help.

A knock at the front door knocks her out of her trance, she heard Nayeon, the eldest of the bunch, hurriedly rushing their guest into the common room. She followed suit.

“Bora? Bora, what happened?” She cupped her best friend’s face and examined her, she was covered in grime and smelled of smoke. “Where were you?” She asked again.

“I had to get this one.” She pointed at the child sleeping curled up on the couch.

“Where did you get her?” Minji moved on to check on the child.

“I caught wind that an orphanage in the city was experiencing weird power outages so I had to check it out and as I observed it was this kid, she was basically starved in there and was up the energy around her to keep herself alive unconsciously, I’m guessing that’s her peculiarity.” Bora explained.

“From when, Bora?”

“The war.”

“You went back in time?!” Minji shouted concerned, there was only one person who was allowed to do such a thing and the fact that Bora took this child from that timeline.

“I had to Minji! That orphanage was bombed and no one survived, I couldn’t just leave her there knowing full well she was one of us. I couldn’t fail her.” Bora’s voice trailed on as she remembered the horror she faced holding her children in her arms when the Hollows found and raided her loop.

“Miss Kim?” Small hands wrapped around Minji’s own and the pair of best friends look down to see little Gahyeon looking at them curiously.

“Yes, Gahyeon?” Minji asked squeezing the girl’s hand, urging her to ask what she wanted to.

“That girl hurt, leg ouchy.” A small finger pointed at the curled up girl on the couch.

“Oh, will you please help her then? She’s going to be a new friend of yours.” Minji smiles at the small girl who answered her with a big smile and an enthusiastic nodding of her head.

Gahyeon climbed onto the couch and touched the other girl’s leg, she sat there holding the injured leg, healing it slowly.

“Is otay fren, Gahyeonie help you, otay?”

Warmth spread across both ymbryne’s chest, looking at the wholesome scene. Minji then grabbed Bora’s hand and led her into the kitchen.

“You could’ve gotten hurt, Bora.” Minji sighed taking a towel, wetting it and cleaning Bora’s face of dirt.

The other woman took hold her wrist and kissed it slowly, “but I didn’t, you don’t have to worry about it.”

Once clean, they heat up some water for tea and sat in silence, Bora rubbing her thumb along Minji’s knuckles to comfort her.

Their moment of peace was interrupted constantly by the small children asking for their help but they could solve it quickly and settled back to their moment. Until it wasn’t a child who disturbed the silence but another knock at the door.

The door opened and Sana shouted to announce, “the Trinity are here.”

Minji and Bora jumped out of their seats to see the three eldest peculiars alive, thinking what the latter did might have affected events in the future or present. But the smile on the leader’s face told them otherwise but Minji was still inclined to ask, “did something happen? Why are you here?”

Confusion washed over Yoohyeon’s face when the ymbryne grabbed her collar, “what do you mean? We’re visiting.”

Minji doesn’t know whether her sigh was of relief or of frustration, “Bora went back in time and took a kid from during the war and took her here. Do you think something bad could happen because of it?”

The taller peculiar’s eyes widen at that and peaked over the wall to look where Minji was looking, a small girl sleeping with Gahyeon holding on to her leg. The lavender-haired little girl looked over at Yoohyeon and her face lit up, looking like she wanted nothing more but to run and give the older woman a big hug but she settled on giving her a small wave instead, pointing at the other girl’s leg to signal that she couldn’t really move right now. Yoohyeon nodded to say she understands.

“Handong.” The leader called, the blue-haired woman beside her stopped the raspberry attacks on little Chaeyoung’s face and stood upright passing the child to her blonde girlfriend. “We need to go check on the timeline.”

Minji fixed Yoohyeon’s clothes, “be careful and come back quickly.”

“If we won’t face any problems, I’ll be right back immediately.” She smiled lovingly at Minji, quickly realizing that some of the children were standing around, watching the whole thing. She cleared and nods at everyone. “Siyeon, keep guard.”

Yoohyeon and Handong leave the home and head to the entrance of the loop, they walk out immediately after now being in present day Seoul. Handong held on to her hand and teleported to the orphanage where Bora took the little girl, the building was now a small bakery. Yoohyeon closed her eyes and the world shifted but they did not jump back 70 years to the past but forward 3 years into the future. They didn’t need to know what happened in the past only if what Bora did changed the doomsday they saw, if taking that child from her timeline was a minor or major change to the way things would unfold.

When the youngest of the Trinity opened her eyes, she almost broke down to tears at the clear skies and peaceful surrounding before her. Handong felt the same. In their centuries of being alive, moving constantly to keep themselves safe ever since they were young, fighting to stay alive, taking so many lives as well, watching their families being burned to the ground, none of those ever scared them as much as the image of the end of the world they witnessed when they jumped to the future after Bora’s loop was raided. But now, because of the same woman’s desire to save the young peculiar, she saved the world from being reduced to ashes. Who was that kid and why was she the reason they would live?

They quickly rushed back to the present, nothing had changed and entered the loop once more. Their calm and collected personas forgotten and they just ran toward the house like children themselves, they burst through the door screaming Minji, Bora and Siyeon’s name, startling everyone in the common room. The three stood up thinking they were all in danger but big smiles greeted them instead. Yoohyeon rushed to hug Minji and Bora laughing to her heart’s content, in that moment Siyeon knew what they were celebrating for so she was the one who scooped her girlfriend into her arms and spun her around.

“What is happening? Why are you so happy?” Bora asked pulling away from Yoohyeon to look at her face.

“You did it! You saved the world! You stopped the doomsday!” Yoohyeon exclaimed loudly hugging the two confused women once more.

“What doomsday? And what do you mean me? How did that happen?”

“When your loop was raided, I was so mad at myself for not being able to protect your children and for not being there for you. I was running when I suddenly jumped a little too far into the future and the date was three years from the present. Everything was ruined, I jumped back and took those two with me. We circled the world trying to find out if anything was left but nothing, no one survived. Not even the loops.” Yoohyeon explained shocking both ymbrynes. “We didn’t go back in time, we jumped forward and everything was great. The world isn’t ending in three years, you did that when you saved that child from her timeline.”

The smaller ymbryne couldn’t process what Yoohyeon was saying, the information just came in all at once. Their small celebration was cut short when the young girl started stirring awake, her leg still on Gahyeon’s lap. Bora rushed to her moving her hair out of her face, giving her a small smile when her eyes opened slowly.

“Hello, little Yubin.”

“Bora unnie? Are we there yet?” Yubin rubbed her eyes and started to sit up when Gahyeon held her leg down and stopped her.

“Nooo, don move fren. Gahyeonie helping your ouchy.” The newcomer seemed to be surprised that this slightly smaller girl was talking to her.

“Friend?” She asks then groans slightly right after at the pain in her leg.

“Yes, you my friend. Miss Kim said you gon be my new friend.” Gahyeon replied not taking her eyes off of the older girl’s leg touching it here and there carefully as not to hurt her.

Yubin’s eyes started to sting, she had never had a friend before. She looked at Bora and the woman had such a lovely smile for her, “she my friend?” The ymbryne’s smile widened and she nodded slowly.

Minji’s heart warmed at the sight of her friend caring for the injured girl knowing how much she had missed caring for children of her own, how much it took for her not to get attached to the ones she dropped off in other loops. But Minji somehow had the feeling that this child would make Bora sit still for a while, out of harm’s way, here with her, helping her take care of the others.

“How about we have a little celebration? I think everyone deserves a good full dinner, don’t you?” Yoohyeon spoke not taking her own eyes off of Bora holding Yubin close to her as the child talked with Gahyeon. The black-haired ymbryne hummed in response and leaned on her, they stood still like that for a minute just watching Bora, at one point the other ymbryne looked over at them and gave them the most genuine smile they’d seen for a long time from her.

“I’ll tell the older girls to help me and Handong in the kitchen, you and Siyeon go help the younger ones wash up.” The couple beside them heard this and Handong quickly stood up to help Minji. Siyeon, on the other hand, wasn’t too happy with helping all the little ones wash up for dinner.

She sat on the floor with her legs outstretched like a little kid herself, “but Yerim is always splashing me when I help her and Yeojin always disappears.”

Yoohyeon laughed at her friend’s whining, “I’ll clean the naughty ones and you can have the nice ones.”

“Okay, deal!” Siyeon quickly stood up at the offer and started naming all the kids who wouldn’t stay still when she tries to help them wash up. The younger peculiar quickly regretted her decision but when she turned to Minji for help, the ymbryne was already turning away with her arm around Handong’s shoulder while they both laugh at her predicament.

A small hand patted her arm and she looked down at Mina giving her a small smile, “it’s alright, I’ll help.”

“Thank you, Mina.” She took the girl’s hand and together they gathered up the kids she needed to help.

“Gahyeon, sweetie. You can go wash up with Yoohyeon if you want.” Minji peeked from the kitchen to tell the lavender-haired little girl still sitting with her new friend.

“Can I wash with Yubin? Don wan leave her.” Gahyeon answered, clasping her hands together as if she were begging the ymbryne who swooned at the sight.

“Bora, think you can handle both of them, babe?” She asked her best friend who was already helping the newcomer off the chair.

“I got it!” Gahyeon jumped down when Bora answered and led the way to Minji’s room to use the bathroom there, as the other one would be filled with the other kids and two helpless adults trying to control them.

The dinner went on as smoothly as it could, the occasional food fights between Heejin and Hyunjin, Yeojin disappearing suddenly, Dahyun spilling her food on herself, Chaeyoung crawling under the table to the other end to sit beside Mina, Jeongyeon and Nayeon bickering, Jinsoul doing something out of the ordinary to gain everyone’s attention could be excused as it was a daily occurrence. Yubin ate her food quietly beside Gahyeon who was buzzing in her seat with excitement at the news of dessert.

The new girl had not been able to eat at a table like this with people who welcomed her like this. She had always been in the corner eating leftovers from the older kids in the orphanage, sometimes none at all, but she had a plate of her own this time. With more food to spare, she didn’t know how to act. The adults scattered around the table between children looked at her with an encouraging look to tell her it was alright.

They slowly and sneakily put more food on her plate when they noticed that she was almost out of food but was too shy to reach over for more herself. Yubin had a small smile on her face the whole meal especially since the younger girl beside her occasionally turned to her and would give her the biggest smile she’d ever seen.

After they ate the older girl’s cleaned up their plates while Handong took out the dessert, Yoohyeon stepped out onto the small cliff to enjoy the fresh air.

Two pairs of footsteps filled the air a few moments later, Bora sat to her left with two glasses of wine in hand, Minji on the right with one and a plate of chocolate cake. She’s offered one of the glasses of wine from Bora and she took it.

They sat in silence. Well, not so much due to Siyeon’s singing from inside the house, no complaints thought, she had a beautiful voice.

“The sunset here is beautiful.” Yoohyeon spoke all of a sudden.

Minji hums, “it is, but I’m sure you’ve seen way better ones.” The other ymbryne agreed.

The eldest peculiar laughed lightly, leaning forward, elbows on her thighs. “That’s the thing,” both Bora and Minji expected her to talk about the numerous sunsets she’d seen in their travels through time and space, so the melancholy in her voice surprised them. The smaller ymbryne s her hand to wrap around one of Yoohyeon’s arms and Minji’s rested on her shoulder. “I’ve seen so many beautiful sunsets all over the world at different times but something in me longs to see just one over and over again.”

Both women understood the other’s sentiment, it was hard not staying in one place for too long as not to jeopardize their own safety and the safety of the loops they visited. The hollows were always on their tail and no matter how long they’ve lived and trained their peculiarities, they can’t risk being cornered.

Minji and Bora both eye Yoohyeon slowly, the moonlight illuminating her features in the most beautiful of ways. Light dancing in her eyes and a small smile on her lips at the feeling of both women’s hands on her. They didn’t know what to say because they knew they wanted Yoohyeon to stay just as much as she wanted did. The older ymbryne caught Bora’s eyes, they share a silent agreement. After years of pushing and pulling back, of denying those deep desires the three of them shared, years of not knowing when they’ll be able to gather like this. It was that moment that they came to the conclusion that maybe hiding the feelings they all felt was stupid and unnecessary. They were clearly in love with each other so why were they holding back? Was it the fear of the uncertain? Was it being away for long periods of time? Was it their duties? Why did they have to deny the obvious for the sake of the unknown?

“It’s funny,” Yoohyeon’s voice pulled the ymbrynes out of their staring contest and their gazes of affection shifted to the woman between them. “Living for who knows how long, having the easiest means of travelling, the most peculiar of all peculiarities, getting to see the world in a blink of an eye but not having the only thing I want out of this life.”

Bora hummed and Minji asked, “wanting to settle down and watch one sunset for the rest of your life?”

A hearty laugh filled the air as Yoohyeon threw her head back laughing as if she was embarrassed, “nope.” She declared shaking her head.

Two perfectly shaped eyebrows arched confused at what just happened. “Then what do you want most in the world, Yooh?” Bora asked this time.

“It’s the most mundane thing yet it’s the hardest to accomplish.”

The eldest peculiar looked at both women’s eyes, they were filled with encouragement, they would not judge whatever she had to say, they wanted to hear it. Yoohyeon bit her lip nervously when two hands slid in to hold hers.

“What is it, love?” Minji urged.

Yoohyeon sighed. “A life with both of you. Helping you both take care of these children, waking up next to both of you, not being afraid of whether or not someone would find us. Just here with you.”

A gasp left both Minji and Bora’s mouth because Yoohyeon just put what they had been feeling into words, they wanted the same thing.

The tallest of the three hung her head low at the lack of a response, a slender hand came to lift it back up and she was met with a pair of lips coming in contact with hers. Bora looked lovingly as Minji kissed Yoohyeon, playing with the peculiar’s hand. When they pulled away, she didn’t give the woman enough time to breathe as she crashed their lips together as well, then kissing Minji right after.

“Wow.” Yoohyeon gasped as the ymbrynes made out right in front of her. The two giggled at her when they pulled apart.

“Wow indeed.” Minji laughed.

“We should have done that a long time ago.” Bora said leaning into Yoohyeon’s embrace, the other ymbryne agreed.

“I think we’ve always known we’d end up here.”

The blonde peculiar didn’t know whether she should be elated or concerned at the turn of events, she was scared at what this would mean for them.

“Yooh.” Minji started. “You might not be able to settle here for too long, you need to look after other loops and the other children, we are not ready to transfer everyone to one big place on a good day for a timeloop. But until then, you know we’ll always be here waiting for you, as we have been for so long now.”

Yoohyeon bit her lip again, she knew Minji meant it, that they would wait for her not matter how long she’d be gone. No matter what she needed to do, when things settle down she knew she’d be right back to where she always wanted to be. In both loves of her life’s arms.

“I love you. Both of you, so much. I think we’re way past not saying that, it’s been at least a few decades.” Yoohyeon laughed realizing the fact.

“We love you too, babe. And Minji is right, we’ll always be waiting for you.” Bora answered, she looked up and started caressing Yoohyeon’s neck placing a few kisses here and there. Something dark flashed in Minji’s eyes when she did this and Yoohyeon saw the shift in the older ymbryne’s face, her smile turning into a smirk.

“It’s getting a little cold, I think we need to take our own little party inside the house. Particularly a bedroom in the highest point of the house away from everyone else.” Minji’s voice had dropped a few octaves lower than usual and it sent a chill down both Bora and Yoohyeon’s spine.

The three of them quickly stood up, Minji took the taller woman’s hand while the small ymbryne was tucked under her arm. They walked quietly towards the house, Siyeon was now putting on a movie for the children to watch. Handong gave them a knowing glance as they quickly went upstairs. Things would never be the same again.