With a deft hand, she crossed out another day in the calendar; seeing the red x’s over each date made her smile, the sight of them meant that she was one day closer to coming home. Next to the calendar on the corkboard, all those mementos -the polaroids, postcards, letters and little notes- were a reminder of the good times that were about to come.

Minji felt giddy at the mere thought that in less than 20 days, Siyeon was finally coming home for good.  

No more teary goodbyes at the airport, no more feeling like the time they spend together was not enough. They’d finally be living under the same roof, getting to finally be in each other’s atmosphere constantly without fearing their time together was running out and -if the ring on the back of Minji’s vanity was any indication- hopefully, it’d be the start of the rest of their lives together.

She liked to think about their love story as one that seems to be a movie, while Siyeon used to say that their meeting was written in the stars, that it had been meant to happen all along; Minji would always silence her with a kiss before she got into one of her cheesy tirades of how the powers that be knew that they were meant to be together and had orchestrated their encounter. 

It had went a little bit like this: 

One sunny day, Minji had noticed a letter in her mail from Lee Siyeon , she was puzzled of course because she had never met anyone with that name, much less someone who seemed to be living in a far away country. Intrigued, Minji opened the letter and read its contents; imagine her surprise when she found out that this Siyeon, whoever she might be, seemed to be writing to her parents, the previous owners of the house where she lived at.

It seemed like Siyeon didn’t know her parents hadn’t lived in this house for years, so Minji wrote back to her to inform her of the fact.

From then, they started their correspondence, both women intrigued by each other; little by little they talked about their dreams, their fears, their daily lives, everything and anything that came to their minds they shared with each other, no matter how menial it was.

When the time came for Siyeon to have a break from the military, Minji opened the doors to her house (and her heart) to the other woman. 

Both had feared that meeting in person would be awkward, they had been used to only writing to each other, with little postcards and polaroids here and there, that they didn’t know how they would handle finally being face to face.

Picking Siyeon from the airport had been nerve wracking for Minji, she was afraid that the other woman would take one look at her and be disappointed at what she saw.

Boy, had she been wrong.

Siyeon had confessed one night that as soon as she saw Minji she knew that they were meant to be, that her head skipped a beat and as cliche as it might sound, the world slowed down as soon as she set her eyes on the woman with the bright pink “Welcome home Siyeon” banner. 

Minji had teased Siyeon about it, saying that “Of course my beauty would be enough to stop the world from turning around” , trying to downplay the fact that her world too, had slowed down and angels had started singing when Siyeon had stood in front of her in all her glory.

Their first week together had been full of spending time with each other, Minji had taken a leave from work to show Siyeon around her favorite places and how much the town had changed since she had enlisted. While they seemed at ease with each other, they were also tentative, always feeling like they were on the verge of something more, but both were scared of taking the next step.

So Minji did the most logical thing ever: she got stupidly drunk and told Siyeon she was extremely in love with her, but was afraid the other didn’t feel the same. 

Siyeon had shut her up with a kiss, and the rest was history.

The letters to each other continued and Siyeon always came home to Minji when she could.

On one of her first visits, Siyeon took a picture of Minji while they were having a picnic in the park and had it printed a couple days later; when asked why, Siyeon simply shrugged.

And when it had been time to depart and go back to the war zone, while they were both saying their teary goodbyes at the airport, Siyeon had taken out Minji’s picture and placed her in the front left pocket of her uniform.

She took Minji’s hand in hers and placed it atop of it and said, “This way, I will always carry you in my heart”.

The picture never left Siyeon’s pocket, becoming a little tattered around the edges from the constant pulling in and out, seeing Siyeon so upset at the state of the picture, Minji had gifted her a small locket to keep it safe, they had carefully cut off the damaged parts of the picture and placed it there, sharing a kiss after it.

Of course it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, there where through their rough patches where the distant got to be a little bit too much for both of them, where the letters and the photos weren’t enough, where they just missed each other so much and felt an immeasurable amount of hurt and they wondered if they should stay together; they weren’t getting any younger, and sometimes Minji couldn’t handle how much she worried about Siyeon being on a warzone.

They had had a big fight about it once, hurtful things were said and doors were slammed, and for a moment they both thought “ this is it, this is how it ends” ; but the love they felt towards the other was bigger than the insecurities that plagued their minds, they had gone through so much for the past five years just to thrown in the towel.

After the teary apologies, and the whispers of love under the moonlight as they got lost in one another’s bodies, Siyeon had broken the comfortable silence they had found themselves into and said the words Minji had dreamed of hearing for years.

“Once I get back, I’m going to ask to be discharged. I want to start a future with you, I want us to get married and have mini me’s and mini you’s running around the house”.

Minji had started crying then and there, scaring Siyeon less, making her think that maybe she had read it all wrong. Minji had shut her up with a kiss and told her they were happy tears, because all she had been dreaming of since she had first picked Siyeon from the airport was spending their lives together and having a family of their own.

20 days , the countdown for Siyeon to finally be in her arms for good had finally started.

A knock on the door stopped Minji’s train of thought. 

Maybe it was the mailman, Lucas, who knew to knock on the door to personally deliver Siyeon’s letters to Minji; it wouldn’t surprise her, it had been a while since she had last received a letter from Siyeon, the other too busy with her last mission to write home.

Excited, she ran to the door and opened, her brows furrowed in confusion when she saw two women in uniform stoically standing on her porch.

“May I help you?”, Minji asked while carefully observing the women in front of her; they both seemed to be part of the military, if their pressed uniforms were any indication.

“Kim Minji?”, the shortest one of them spoke up, “I’m Lieutenant General Kim Bora and this is Captain Kim Yoohyeon, we’re from the Alpha DC Battalion”.

After hearing those words, Minji froze; and when Captain Kim, after seeing a nod from the Lieutenant- extended the flag she was holding in her hands towards her, Minji felt her whole world come to a standstill.

“We’re saddened to inform you that after a sudden attack on our base, Colonel Lee Siyeon has been declared as missing in action. We’re sorry for your loss…”

For Minji, everything went black.

Her head hurt and she couldn’t make sense of what was happening, Minji hoped she could finally wake up from this terrible nightmare but when she opened her eyes, and the sight of the two women greeted her, her whole world came crashing down.

Lieutenant Kim had said more things about how Siyeon had always been a brave soldier who never backed down from any challenge, who was always helping people in need and never seemed to shut up about her.

“She is... was my best friend”, Lieutenant Kim had told her, “I owe her my life”.

Minji just couldn’t stop crying, her heart was breaking into a million pieces, she refused to believe that Siyeon was gone.

And when she thought things couldn’t get worse, the Lieutenant had placed a black velvet box in front of her and a tattered piece of paper.

“These were the only things we could recover from her room after the attack, I think she would have wanted you to have it”. 

With shaky hands, Minji opened the box. The ring was beautiful.

“She, uh, made that for you. Convinced one of the locals to teach her how to make it, it took her a while but she was really proud of it”, the Lieutenant’s words, meant to be comforting, just kept making everything worse.

She looked at the tattered piece of paper and realized it was an unfinished letter, so she started reading, seemingly forgetting about the presence of the other two women in her living room.

Dear Minji,

By the time this letter gets to you, I’ll be there right next to you to read it over your shoulder and cringing at all the cheesy I’ve written. But well, I can’t help it. Ever since you came into my life I’ve become a fool so in love that I think the universe has gone mad with how much I talk about you. I think the universe is just jealous because I get to be the lucky one to be on the receiving end of your love, and the one who will spend the rest of their life with you. I can’t wait to finally be free of the military and start a life with you! I already have great plans for us in the future, I’ll finally be home to make all the renovations to the house we’ve been putting off, we can finally travel all over the world without a care in the world and settle down to start a family. 

I know the past years have been hard and I thank whoever is out there that has given us the chance to keep going on strong despite the highs and lows; ever since you responded to my first letter -that wasn’t even meant for you lol- you’ve changed my life for the better, you are the light of my life, the motor that keeps me going even in my darkest times, you’re just so you that you have made me be so me. Does that make sense? I hope it does. Sometimes I wonder how I can think straight when all I do is think about you. 

There are so many things I want to say to you, but I’ll start with the easiest one, the most known fact in the universe, our universe. 

As you read my next words, please imagine me touching the locket I always carry in my front left pocket, because you know I’ll always…

Minji can’t help but whisper the words that were cut off in the letter, knowing by heart what it was going to say, because it’s always something Siyeon always said in her letters or whenever they bid goodbye, “ ...carry you in my heart” .

so...siyeon is mia... that doesn't necessarily mean she is dead tho. will i write a sequel about this? probably, who knows.

hope you like it!!

also, gotta pat myself in the back cause i finally wrote a one shot for a ficfest instead of starting a new multichapter work haha

disclaimer: all mistakes are mine, english is not my first language.

you can also find me on
tw: @anothershipper
cc:/anothershipper
☕: /anothershipper