Some people may not believe in fate, but it is there, waiting for us. From the moment that Gaeul first laid eyes upon Jiah, the entire trajectory of her life had been changed. Some things are meant to be. Life has a strangeness to it at times that we as humans may not fully understand, but our deepest animal insticts can sense when fate is near, and we react to it.

It had been several years since Gaeul came to terms with her homouality. She was out and proud to be herself, regardless of the opinions of others. It hadn't always been that way, though. She grew up afraid not only of herself, but of the judgements of those around her, and the threat of eternal damnation. Gaeul had been a good Christian girl most of her childhood, even going so far as to attend additional church services and bible studies of her own accord outside of the church she attended with her family. She spent much of her time reading written accounts of missionaries who had traveled to foreign lands to preach and help locals in war torn third world countries, and her dream was to become one of them when she grew up. Gaeul was very sheltered in some ways, very unaware of how the world truly was at that age. It would take years of living in cities like Los Angeles, London, and Seoul, away from the narrowminded ignorance of her small hometown, before she would truly begin to understand what words like colonization and proselytization meant. Growing up in an environment that she would now consider near cult like in nature, she hadn't thought of those things as being bad. She hadn't realized that missionaries often only helped those in need if they were able to fit conversion tactics into their actions, rather than just doing good deeds because they genuinely cared about the well being of others. Christian missionaries brought diseases to uncontacted tribes, discriminatory beliefs to places that previously never held them, and any number of other negative side affects of their mission.

It's crazy how things can change over the years, how people can change. Those that she grew up admiring she now condemned, and the people that she was taught to condemn were now her friends and her community.

"Gaeul, wake up!" a voice called out, causing Gaeul to jolt out of sleep immediately. She could so easily sleep through things like alarms, tv, and music but if someone happened to call her name it was like pushing the power on button on a computer. She'd instantly wake up in an almost robotic manner.

She sat up slowly, her eyes heavy from lack of sleep, and groaned softly. It had only been 2 hours since she'd finally nodded off, so she wasn't anywhere near ready to wake up. She didn't really have a choice in the moment though. Life had been difficult in recent times, and very often she'd end up awake all night working. Her roommate wanted the whole household to be on the same sleeping schedule though so rather than let a fight start she just got up, exhausted as she may be, and began getting ready for the day.

The only thing keeping her going at that point was the thought of seeing her again. Jiah. She couldn't stop thinking about her. Throughout all the misery that had taken place in her life, the thought of everything finally being ok and seeing Jiah again kept her going. She was everything that Gaeul ever wanted.

Regardless of how hard it is, i'll fix every mistake i've made.