a/n: inspired by the movie eternal sunshine of the spotless mind but also highly recommend watching taeyeon’s wdicy mv to set the scene a little! 
also my apologies, i missed christmas by a mile but i hope you enjoy this anyway and pretend it’s still xmas season 

there might be some time skips so pay attention to the dates before each scene! 

now playing: wish tree - red velvet
"the second wish is to always be together"

07:10 pm 
december 23, 2023

the fairy lights twinkled on the christmas tree in timely patterns, casting a gentle glow over the corner of the house where the scent of freshly baked gingerbread lingered and the chatter of voices filled the air. 

joohyun smiled at something someone said that made the other two people beside her chuckle. she had already forgotten the names of the people she was standing with and she casted a quick look over her shoulder towards the kitchen. 

“so joohyun, any christmas day plans?” 

joohyun quickly looked back at them, blanking momentarily before recovering. “nothing that special.” she answered. “i’ll visit my parents' home in daegu but that’s about it.” she said. 

“ah! that reminds me i still need to do last minute gift shopping.” the woman beside joohyun exclaimed. joohyun remembered her name being byulyi - or maybe that was the name of the other woman standing across from her? she wasn’t too sure. it was easy to get them all mixed up when she had only met them for the first time tonight. 

“joohyun!” more than one voice called her name from behind and she turned around, eyebrows raised in surprise. “come here!” 

she saw wendy, the host of tonight’s christmas party, beckon her over excitedly. standing next to her was a sheepish-looking seulgi holding two cups refilled with fruit punch. 

confused, joohyun excused herself from her little group and walked closer to the other small group gathered near the doorway to the kitchen. “what’s going on?” she asked, giving seulgi an amused smile. 

“get under there.” wendy gave joohyun’s arm a light tug, making her get closer to her girlfriend and seulgi blushed. 

joohyun glanced up to see the mistletoe hanging above them from the doorway and now everything made a lot more sense. she laughed, looking at the others standing around them who were waiting expectantly. 

“they insisted...” seulgi said. 

“it’s okay.” joohyun replied. 

“kiss! kiss! kiss!” wendy started a chant, making the rest join in. 

joohyun giggled at the silliness of it all and at the blush dusting across seulgi’s cute cheeks as she leaned up to plant a soft kiss on her lips. 

“aw, you call that a real kiss?” 

“guys…” seulgi groaned, shooting her friends a threatening glare (attempted). 

usually joohyun shied away from public displays of affection, but tonight the warm buzz inside her from the alcohol and the joyful emotions brought by the christmas spirit made her care a lot less about her usual concerns. 

putting her hands on either side of seulgi’s face, she kissed her again and this time seulgi was able to kiss her back. she tasted like peppermint candy canes and the softness of her lips made joohyun feel like she was melting like fresh winter snow under the warm sun.

~

09:34 pm 
december 23, 2023 

“so, tell us the story of how you met!” 

“ah, well…” seulgi glanced at joohyun who was sitting glued to her side on the couch, their hands intertwined on seulgi’s lap. “do you want me to… okay.” she grinned when joohyun answered with just her eyes. 

“it was in september, during the chuseok holiday.” seulgi said, looking at her coworkers and friends that were sitting around them in the living room. 

as the night progressed, most of the attendees had left and only the friends closer to wendy and seulgi remained, which allowed for more intimate conversations to be shared. 

“i really wanted to take a break from everything so i went on a solo camping trip for one night.” seulgi continued. 

“ah!” seulgi flinched backwards when the wind blew the flame from her blowtorch towards her. she stared miserably at her failed campfire that she couldn’t set aflame no matter how hard she tried. her water bottle had leaked in the back of her car earlier and dampened the entire bag of firewood, making it impossible to start a fire. 

a strong gust of wind blew across the campsite and seulgi shivered, arms wrapping tightly around herself even though she was already wearing a puffer jacket. she didn’t realize it would be this cold tonight, and she also didn’t foresee herself being campfire-less. 

as she started to wonder whether this was all a mistake and whether she should’ve ignored the voice in her head that nagged her to do something spontaneous and ‘healing’, she heard a real voice call out to her. 

“excuse me…” 

the voice was so soft that it almost got lost in the wind and seulgi quickly turned to find the source of the voice. next to where she had set up her tent, there was a young woman sitting underneath a cozy tarp and she had a brightly burning campfire in front of her. 

seulgi stared at her cluelessly because now she wasn’t sure if she had misheard or imagined that the woman spoke to her. 

the woman looked up at seulgi with innocent and kind eyes, “do you need help with your fire?” she asked. 

“i don’t think it will light.” seulgi admitted sheepishly. “the wood got wet.” she explained. 

“oh.” she said, eyes darting behind seulgi and looking around briefly before landing back on her. “are you here by yourself?” she asked.

seulgi nodded. 

her camping neighbor looked deep in thought before she spoke again, “it is cold tonight. you can sit by my campfire if you’d like.” 

“oh, i wouldn’t want to intrude.” seulgi said, as tempting as it was to be closer to some warmth. 

a small smile formed on her face and she shook her head. “it wouldn’t be. i am here alone too.” 

seulgi was a bit surprised by that because she wouldn’t expect a beautiful woman like her to be out here by herself. 

“joohyun.” she introduced herself, extending her hand as seulgi sat down beside her. 

“seulgi.”

“your hands are cold. here.” she pressed a green hot pack into seulgi’s hand, insisting for her to take it. 

“thank you.” seulgi felt a shy smile play on her lips and her ears felt warmer as she averted her gaze from joohyun’s kind and attentive eyes. 

“have you eaten yet?” 

“no, i was going to cook after the fire started but…” seulgi trailed off. 

“you can cook your food here or you can have some of mine, i made too much.” joohyun said, gesturing to the side of the table where there was delicious looking steak and roasted vegetables.

seulgi ended up sharing the snacks and hot cocoa she had brought because she felt bad for only taking joohyun’s offers, despite the other’s insistence that it was fine. 

while they sipped their drinks in front of the fire, seulgi asked joohyun whether she camped alone often, since she seemed well prepared. 

“actually, no.” joohyun replied. “it’s my first time but i just felt like doing something different by myself. it felt like something i had to try.” she said pensively, gazing out into the night sky. 

seulgi nodded, “me too.” she said. “i felt like if i was able to do this, i would feel better.” she said honestly, remembering the strange mood she had felt this week where it felt like she was missing something in her life. 

“then, do you feel better?” joohyun asked, looking at her and although seulgi hadn’t told her much tonight, she felt like joohyun just understood her without needing explanations. 

seulgi stared at her new friend for a moment longer, letting the faint crackle of the campfire fill the silence between them. “yeah, i do.” she said, and joohyun smiled with a twinkle in her eyes. 

“me too.” 

“and after that, i just… well, i just knew that she was the person i wanted to be with.” seulgi said in a softer, shyer voice, turning to look at joohyun while the room erupted into a chorus of ‘awws’. 

joohyun blushed, burying her face into seulgi’s knitted sweater as she hit her arm weakly. 

“wait, so this is your first christmas together! that’s so exciting.” hyojung said, clasping her hands together.

“you two are the cutest.” wendy said with a proud smile on her face as she leaned her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder, hugging sooyoung’s arm tighter. “and everyone in the office has definitely noticed seulgi being so much happier these days.” 

“hey, stop embarrassing me.” seulgi uttered, smiling bashfully and joohyun just looked at her with an adoring smile. “maybe hyojung should tell us about her mystery person.” she quickly diverted the attention to her coworker who they all suspected was starting to see someone but kept it very hidden. it worked like a charm and everyone started to interrogate her instead, making seulgi breathe out a sigh of relief. 

“you left out the part where you cried because a centipede almost touched you.” joohyun said to seulgi while everyone else was distracted. 

“shh.” seulgi put a finger to her lips, making joohyun smile widely in amusement. “that wasn’t my proudest moment.” she said. 

“it was very cute.” 

“i’m glad you think so. i really thought i had ruined my chances with you after that.” seulgi said, making joohyun laugh. 

laughter from the group brought their attention back to the story currently being told by byulyi and joohyun snuggled closer to seulgi, feeling warm and content by her side while surrounded by friendly people seulgi worked with and wanted her to meet. 

despite their relationship still being in the earlier stages, seulgi didn’t hesitate to ask joohyun to join her friend’s christmas party and joohyun felt honored that seulgi wanted to introduce her to her friends. ‘they’ve all heard a lot about you already and have been wanting to meet you’ seulgi had said. she remembered feeling a bit nervous, mainly because she didn’t have many friends herself and socializing didn't come entirely easy to her. but she trusted that seulgi’s acquaintances would all be just as kind and friendly as her, and she was right. 

“oh right, where is jisoo?” seulgi asked, looking around the room. “she didn’t come tonight?” 

joohyun looked around as well even though she had no idea who jisoo was. 

wendy shook her head, “she did the procedure yesterday.” she said, garnering a quiet gasp from hyojung and grim nods from the others.

“ah…” seulgi said in understanding, leaning back into the couch. joohyun blinked, looking around at them and wondering if she was on the same page as everyone. 

“i mean, it’s probably for the better.” byulyi offered some optimism. “the poor girl had been really affected by it.” 

wendy nodded in agreement, “i think it will be more beneficial for her to forget about him entirely. otherwise she’ll keep being affected by everything that reminds her of him.” 

“and they were together for a while too weren’t they?” hyojung asked as the others all nodded, murmuring agreements. 

based on their words, joohyun was able to fit the pieces together and deduce that the procedure wendy spoke of was the memory erasing procedure provided by a company called lacuna. it was revolutionary technology that allowed for selective memory removal and became mainly commercialized for erasing memories and associations of ex-partners. 

it was a smart marketing strategy from their end, targeting the broken-hearted, depressed individuals who were often most easily swayed into undergoing the procedure to escape the pain and hurt they were experiencing. 

when it first started out over 10 years ago, it was very controversial, but over the years it had become normalized, less frowned upon, and even more common for an average citizen to have at least done it once. 

“hey, someone finish this wine.” wendy said, bringing the topic back to the party. “and then we should play a game.” 

while the rest of them passed the wine around, joohyun looked at seulgi, catching her attention and seulgi gazed back with adoring eyes and a warm smile. the dim lighting from the fireplace and fairy light decorations reflected like stars in her brown eyes and seulgi tilted her head slightly. 

“what?” she whispered, still smiling.

joohyun raised one hand up in front of her own eye, using her thumb and forefinger to imitate pressing the shutter button of a camera. 

seulgi’s smile grew wider at that gesture and joohyun returned to her comfortable position leaning against her. it was their little action that joohyun first started doing a month ago whenever there was a moment with seulgi that she found beautiful. to them, the gesture meant ‘i want to remember this moment with you forever’. 

and joohyun wanted to keep her imaginary photograph of seulgi in this warm setting forever. stored and locked away securely in her heart for the rest of time. 

~

11:49 pm 
december 23 2023 

snow fell softly onto the empty streets, coating everything in a fresh layer of white as the moon gleamed high in the night sky. 

it was safe and warm inside joohyun’s apartment, even more so under her thick blankets where she was cuddled up with seulgi with the lights out and curtains open. the matching knitted sweaters that they wore to the party had been discarded on the floor earlier in the night when they returned in high spirits. 

the small christmas tree in the corner of the apartment twinkled with the lights and decorations that the two had put up a few days ago. of the hanging ornaments, two were hand drawn by them using a diy home kit seulgi found at the shops. seulgi had painted a bear on hers and joohyun painted a bunny, the two animals they had assigned to each other due to the resemblance. 

“i liked sooyoung.” joohyun murmured, enjoying the feeling of seulgi’s hands running through her hair in soothing motions while they talked about the party. “how long has she been with wendy?”

“i think almost 3 or 4 years.” seulgi replied, gazing out of the window to watch the snow falling steadily outside. “but they knew each other since university.” 

“that is a long time. no wonder they seem so comfortable together. almost like they’re married.” joohyun commented, making seulgi chuckle. 

“i won’t be surprised if they do soon. they’re perfect for each other.” she said and she felt joohyun nod. they fell into comfortable silence, listening to the faint sounds of the occasional vehicle driving down the street and the sound of each others’ breathing in the quiet room. 

“and what happened with your other friend? jisoo?” joohyun asked after a while. 

“ah, she broke up with her boyfriend a month ago and it really hurt her. she was like an entirely different person, we’d never seen her so unhappy before.” seulgi said. “i know she had been thinking about the procedure for a while but i didn’t know until tonight that she had decided to do it.” 

“it wouldn’t have been an easy decision to make.” joohyun murmured. 

“do you think you would ever do it?” seulgi asked. 

joohyun couldn’t imagine it. it hurt to even think about forgetting seulgi and forgetting all the sweet memories they had created together. 

“i can’t imagine losing all those memories of a person just like that. would your memory just be blank? i’m not sure how it works, but probably not. i like holding onto past memories and looking back on things.” 

“but what if it’s really painful to have those memories?” seulgi proposed. 

joohyun’s brows furrowed in concentration as she tried to imagine being in that state of mind. she’d never had a painful break up before so she couldn’t draw on experience to help her imagine the sorts of emotions she would feel. 

“would you? erase your memories if the break up was painful?” joohyun asked her instead of answering. 

“no.” seulgi replied with a shake of her head. “because i think you need memories whether good or bad to help you develop as a person and learn more about yourself and others. every break up teaches you something, you know? so if you just forget it ever happened, then you’re never learning.” 

joohyun lifted her head from seulgi’s chest, looking at her with eyes full of wonder. “that’s true.” she said. “i didnt even think about that.” 

seulgi smiled, brushing joohyun’s long hair back to tuck behind her ear. “but i don't think we need to worry about any of this.” 

a smile formed on joohyun’s face, “you’re that confident?” she teased. 

“we watched the first snow together.” seulgi said, reminding joohyun of that day which also marked their first kiss. “so we’re definitely staying together for a long time.” 

joohyun laughed softly, nodding. “you are right.” she also felt confident that she would be spending many more christmases with seulgi despite their relationship still being in the early stages.

she reached out to caress seulgi’s face, smiling fondly at her. “i know we only met this year, but i feel like i’ve known you my whole life.” she said. “it was so comfortable being with you even from the beginning.” 

“i felt the same.” seulgi replied with an equally smitten smile. “i think that's what it means to find your person. or you’re just my soulmate. or maybe in a different life or parallel universe, we were together too.” 

“do you believe in that? parallel universes.” joohyun asked, amused by the thought. 

“sure, we never know right?” seulgi said. “there could be other us’es out there. i wonder if they are also together or not…” she trailed off in deep thought.

joohyun giggled, leaning forward to kiss her softly. “i think they are.” she said, answering seulgi’s thoughts for her. 

seulgi looked at her with eyes filled with affection. “good.” she whispered as she reached to hold joohyun by the side of her face and pulled her in for a deeper and longer kiss. 

“enough talking?” joohyun asked with a smirk between kisses. 

“enough talking.” seulgi agreed, pulling the blankets over them. 

~

01:21 pm 
december 24 2023 

“it’s cold.” joohyun uttered, shivering as they walked down the street. she was clutching a hot pack in one hand while holding seulgi’s hand with her other and keeping them inside seulgi’s coat pocket for warmth. 

“look, it’s starting to snow.” seulgi said with an excited look in her eyes. 

as much as joohyun disliked the cold, she really liked the snow and she was always mesmerized watching it drift down from the sky. 

“let’s play a game.” seulgi said, an idea popping into her head when she saw joohyun tilting her head up to look at the sky. “we both try to catch a snowflake with our mouth and if one of us does, the other person has to kiss them before it melts or they lose.”

joohyun looked at her before a laugh escaped her, “what is this… is this your flirting strategy?” 

“try it.” seulgi said, looking up at the sky and sticking her tongue out. 

joohyun giggled, “you look funny.” she said. 

seulgi made a sound of exclamation, looking at joohyun because a snowflake had landed perfectly on her tongue. joohyun hesitated because she was unsure what the game instructions were regarding the type of kiss.

“oh it melted!” seulgi said, feeling the coldness of the ice on her tongue. “you lost.” 

“wait, i wasn’t ready.” joohyun protested. 

seulgi was amused at joohyun’s seriousness for the game and soon they were both occupied with trying to catch a snowflake, often missing because of the wind making the snowflak