[TW]: minor mentions of war and violence

They end up seeing people close to three in the morning. There’s a tavern somewhere close, so two guys drag a drunk man through the road, passing by the lake and disappearing behind the walls surrounding the villages. They turn the lanterns off. All villages in Sproutland are so close and small that there’s no distinction between neighborhoods and villages, but Grimwater has always been enclosed by those big walls, which make them easy to recognize. After all the disasters that hit their Kingdom, the administrative division stopped being a thing, except for the four lands, since they were too vast for one person to rule them all.

When they are sure no one else is coming, they sit on the docks, putting Joohyun down. She opens her eyes, looking around disoriented.

“Come on, sleepyhead,” Karina pushes her. “We are here.”

Karina starts stripping from her clothes, and Seungwan has to avert her gaze again, while Joohyun simply stares, used to .

“Hey, do you need help?” Joohyun stops with her shirt above her chest.

“Yes,” she says, and Seungwan spends another minute staring at the lake while Karina helps the princess undress. She wonders if the action is only uncomfortable for her and if she should start to offer her help to undress Joohyun too.

Karina helps Joohyun into the water and they start splashing each other like they are little kids. She looks at Joohyun and she looks way younger than them, even though she knows the princess is twenty-three, three years older than her. But still, she looks so young in the water that it makes her wonder how often she gets to play around. Probably not much.

“Wendy, come here,” Karina calls her, disappearing into the water.

Wendy strips from her clothes too, watching as Joohyun washes her clothes. The princess looks up, tilting her head while staring at Seungwan in just her underwear. Instead of covering herself, she jumps into the water, splashing water everywhere, including the bags on the docks. She stays underwater for as long as her lungs let her, wishing she could be anywhere else.

“It’s Seungwan,” she corrects her once she’s got to the surface again, breathing with difficulty.

The water is colder than she expected. She only hopes they won’t get sick.

“I’m Jimin.”

It’s a step towards trust, Seungwan thinks. She needs to trust them if she wants to be trusted. It seems fair enough.

“Nice to meet you.” Joohyun whispers, still holding one of the supports of the dock and hanging the clean clothes on it.

“Princess, come here you too.” Jimin smiles at her.

Joohyun shakes her head.

“I’m fine,” she grips the dock with more force.

Seungwan doesn’t miss the grip she has on it, swimming closer to her.

“Are you really okay?” she mutters, touching Joohyun’s uncovered shoulder. “It’s okay if you’re not, you know?”

“Yep,” Jimin says, floating on her back. “It would be understandable.”

Joohyun looks at the dark sky, a few stars twinkling.

“I’m just--” she exhales. “I’m scared.”

“We will--”

“You know this is not gonna end well for either of us.” Joohyun continues, playing with the water. “My fate was to die, but yours? You deserve a better ending. You deserve something better than this.”

She’s speaking from her heart, it’s obvious. Jimin keeps floating on her back, looking at the dim sky.

“There’s nothing better for me out there.” She speaks up before Seungwan can. “I’m all alone, just like you. In a sense, I feel I can finally stop feeling like this and help you along the way.”

“Feeling how?”

“Lonely.”

It strikes Joohyun that maybe they have nothing to lose either, that maybe they are sincere in their intentions, and she should have no doubts about Seungwan after all the girl has done for her, but she feels uneasy around her, not really sure what that means yet. She wants to believe a caring person like her that looks after her siblings couldn’t be completely bad. There’s good in her, and she hopes that goodness is what propels Seungwan to help her and not a twisted sense of vengeance.

“Also, I really like you.” Jimin continues, laughing when Joohyun gets red. “Now come here.”

Seungwan holds out her hand, inviting her to take it. Joohyun reaches for her, ending up hugging her because of her miscalculation.

“Just don’t let me go,” Joohyun says, hiding her face on Seungwan’s shoulder. “I don’t know how to swim.”

•••

“Did the other Kingdoms say something?”

“It seems that all of them are sticking with the treaty for now. But if they hear as much as we are involved, you know they will try to fight for this land.”

“Yes, I’m well aware of that.”

“So what do you suggest? We need to set the new ruler for now and try to negotiate with the rest of the lands to start up the exportation again.”

The woman huffs, leaning on the chair.

“We didn’t think this through.” She mutters. “We need to get control over the army before revealing ourselves as the real perpetrators behind the attack. Then the other lands will think twice before attacking us. Their only option will be to accept us as legitimate.”

“They will never accept it. Whoever controls Sproutland has the biggest army and no one would trust us to not attack their lands. A quarter of the army are Royal Guards and they are loyal to the Baes. The attack at the military base left only one-third of them alive after they surrendered.”

“But they think she’s dead. Isn’t that enough?”

“I don’t think it will be. People are rioting, Your Highness. Conditions are worse. We need to do something if we want to be taken seriously.”

“Then we need to find her before someone else does.” She says, pushing the girl towards the door. “And please, make sure these riots stop. You know how.”

The girl nods, disappearing behind the big doors.

•••

They stay more than thirty minutes in the water once they’ve adjusted to the temperature. Yet, it’s a very short time for the clothes to dry. Seungwan is glad she decided to grab a change for both of them, but Jimin wasn’t in the initial plan, so she doesn’t have anything to give her besides a hoodie. The doctor puts her wet pants back but exchanges the hoodie with Joohyun for her to be able to cover her face when the sun rises. Jimin puts her and Jooh