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When Heejin awakes, there is a trickle of light from the sun streaming in through the cracked open bedroom window. As she rubs the sleep from her eyes with her right hand, her left automatically reaches out next to her, finding empty space where she is expecting to feel the pliable touch of another body. She grazes over the indent left in the mattress, all of the warmth seeped from the sheets and reckons that it’s been a while since Yerim awoke and rose from the bed.
Heejin stills, ears straining to hear outside the confines of the room. The faint vestiges of humming creep in from the gap in the window, letting her know that Yerim is just outside, attending to her plants as she sings sweet songs to help them grow. At that, she sighs, body softening and a smile growing across her face as the druid’s lilting melody, imbued with a touch of her magic, makes affection expand within her chest just as it makes Yerim’s precious plants bloom.
Eventually, Heejin feels the last remnants of drowsiness dissipate, the calm of the morning transitioning into restlessness. She heaves herself from the bed, making sure to fix the sheets and change out of her nightdress before exiting the small bedroom in the back of the cottage.
A fire is already blazing in the hearth. She can smell the stew that cooks upon the flames, the scent more prominent now that she’s fully awake, and she walks over to inspect it closely, finding that a bowl and spoon have been set out on a small table next to the cauldron. She smiles again, ladling the thick substance into her bowl before walking out of the front door.
Summer is here, Heejin can tell as she sits in a wooden rocking chair that looks out upon the forest. The trees dance in the wind, the breeze bringing with it the sticky heat of the warmer months. The birds chirp and twitter upon the branches as they flit between the trees. The bushes rustle as animals scurry from place to place.
The whole forest is alive, and Heejin feels safe within its embrace. She exhales and raises the bowl to her lips, slurping the hot broth and feeling the heat reach every part of her body as it goes down. She sighs, and with both the song of the forest and Yerim’s own melody reaching her ears, she sinks into her seat and feels content.
But then, a flutter of wings passes overhead and dips down to the side of the house where the garden is, and Yerim’s humming stops, the activity within the forest also coming to a halt in the same breath. Everything is silent. There’s a patter of footsteps, and then Yerim is there, jaw clenched as the bat on her shoulder chirps into one of her long, pointed ears.
Heejin rises from her seat immediately, setting the bowl down as the elf says, “Someone is coming.”
She doesn’t hesitate. Stepping back inside the threshold of the cottage, she snatches the sword, her sword, that she leaves by the doorway ever since they had that incident with the hunters. If this intruder is anything like that band of riotous heathens, then Heejin will need all of the protection she can get to send them away from this haven against the outside world. Their home. Her home.
She steps back out, her steel weapon shimmering in the light of day, the crossguard shaped like the wings of an angel, gleaming as she shifts the weight of the hilt in her palm. Yerim is waiting for her, the bat still nestled into her neck as she unsheathes the dagger at her waist and calls a spell to her open hand.
As they stand facing the trees, the eerie silence of the forest still bringing a chill down Heejin’s back, that’s when they hear it: the rustling. The stomping of a pair of heavy boots on the ground. The sounds get closer. Heejin raises her sword in a defensive position as Yerim prepares to call out a warning, and they wait until finally, their unwelcome guest is upon them.
Yerim yells out, “State your business here,” just as a metal-booted foot breaks through the thicket surrounding their house, but when a familiar face materializes out of the brush, the tip of Heejin’s sword hits the ground at the same moment that the elf beside her snuffs out the spell in her palm.
“Sooyoung?” Heejin whispers, not believing her eyes as her friend, her ex-party member, her sister-in-arms, stands before her.
The girl looks almost exactly as she did the last time Heejin saw her, years ago, as their band of adventurers went their separate ways. She’s older, obviously. Her hair still sits at her shoulders and her face is covered in dirt. Her chainmail armor is decorated with a few more dents and scrapes, and her trusty glaive that has cut down many a foe rises above her head from where it rests on her back, her rapier swinging around where it sits on her hip. The only distinct change in her friend’s appearance is that of a long, jagged, red scar that extends from above her eyebrow down to the corner of her lip, passing through her left eye.
Sooyoung stands there on the edge of the clearing with all the same poise and confidence that Heejin is familiar with, that unwavering cockiness that led them into and out of trouble more times than she can count, and does something Heejin does not expect.
She smiles.
“Heejin, Yerim. Long time no see. It’s good to see you both,” the older woman says. She raises her hands in a sign of surrender and steps forward slowly. “I’m not here to cause any trouble.”
The last part is definitely said more for Yerim’s benefit, and it seems to be effective. The elf sheathes her dagger. She murmurs something to the bat on her shoulder, and it flies off into the trees. As soon as it does, the noise around them continues as if an outsider hadn’t entered and torn apart the order so carefully set into the fabric of this ancient forest.
“You’re right. It has been a while,” Yerim responds, looking the gruff adventurer up and down. “You look–”
“Good?” Sooyoung interjects, the edge of her mouth rising up in an almost smirk.
“Different,” the elf finishes, eyes set upon the angry wound on the woman’s face.
“Thanks,” is all Sooyoung replies. Then, the woman’s eyes move to the only person that has yet to speak. The one whose sword still scratches into the dirt. “Heejin?”
It’s the call of her name, the sound of Sooyoung’s voice as her mouth melds around the syllables of a name that hasn’t passed her lips in years, that awakens Heejin. She blinks furiously, trying to discern if this is a dream, one she has yet to wake from as she lays in her and Yerim’s bed. But it’s not. She knows that this could not be a dream.
Because of all of the dreams she’s had of her reuniting with her oldest friend, none have had Sooyoung smiling at her. No, those dreams usually start and end with screaming, yelling, and the absolute desolation of her heart as Sooyoung’s last words to her echo in her mind.
You’ve betrayed us. I will never forgive you for this.
“Heejin?” Yerim whispers beside her, pulling her away from the nightmares of the past, and Heejin looks up. Her lover’s eyes are full of tenderness, and so she gives the elf a tight smile. It’s enough, so she nods and then grabs for the sword still clutched in Heejin’s hand, said woman letting the weapon go as the druid returns it to its post inside the house and remains there in a bid of privacy.
Sooyoung takes this as a sign of acceptance of her presence and moves forward, cautiously approaching Heejin like a hunter would a wounded animal. It’s slow, rough, a consequence of the last time they saw and spoke to each other.
But once Sooyoung reaches her friend, her second-in-command, the paladin whose devotion to all that is right and good led their group through the darkest of times, all of the charged energy dissolves, and she grasps Heejin’s forearm in her palm in a moment of camaraderie, holding tight as if she might slip through her fingers and vanish. Heejin clasps the older woman’s arm back just as hard, fingers digging into the tough metal of her armor.
“Jinnie,” Sooyoung says softly.
Heejin murmurs back, “Soo.”
The floodgates open with the mutters of their childhood nicknames, and then they are crushing each other in hugs so strong Heejin has the wind knocked out of her from the force of her friend’s armor smacking into her chest. Sooyoung whispers, “I missed you,” into Heejin’s ear, and tears are falling down her face.
“I missed you too,” she admits, and Heejin cries in her friend’s arms, Sooyoung soaking up all of her pain and guilt. When they pull apart, Heejin feels lighter, the heaviness of her heart having lifted, and she lets out a watery chuckle as she examines her friend’s face and body and declares, “You look like shit.”
Sooyoung laughs but she doesn’t reply. They stare at each other, until eventually, Heejin, who has had this question ready since she saw Sooyoung emerge from the bush thicket with new scars but the same attitude of their youth, asks, “What are you doing here, Soo?”
The older woman pauses. Her eyes darken with pain and fear. She inhales exhaustedly, the weight of something ominous splaying across her shoulders, and she says, “I need your help, Jinnie.”
—
They’re in the house now, Heejin in front of the hearth as Sooyoung sits in a chair on the other side of the room. Yerim has returned to her responsibilities, leaving them to speak privately only after giving her lover a look to let her know she’ll be there if she needs anything.
The younger woman paces, hand covering her mouth as her eyes flit between Sooyoung’s nonchalant position in the chair and the flames. She stops eventually, turning fully to her old friend, and says, “So let me see if I got this right? You’ve been framed for a crime that you didn’t commit by that corrupt lord we put in jail years ago, and now you’ve got a bounty on your head, half the kingdom out for your blood, and you want—no, need—all of us to help clear your name?”
Sooyoung nods. “Yep, that about covers it.”
Heejin scoffs. “This is insane. Insane,” she mutters under her breath, returning to her pacing.
“Please, Heejin,” the older woman pleads, standing up from her seat with resignation, “I wouldn’t have come if I wasn’t desperate.”
“Why here? You know I haven’t been,” she stops for a moment, looking around the room and seeing the quiet little life she’s adopted at the cost of adventuring, “You know I gave up fighting a long time ago.”
The older woman replies, stepping toward her ex-party member, “Skills like ours never really go away.”
“Okay, but why not go to one of the others first,” Heejin responds, “Why not Jinsol or Haseul or Jungeun or Hyeju? Why me?”
The fighte—because that’s what Sooyoung is, a warrior—reaches for Heejin’s arm and stops her crazed pacing with a tug. She replies calmly, “Because it had to be you.”
Heejin stares into her friend’s eyes, seeing the genuine respect there, something that wasn’t there at their parting, and freezes. The woman continues, saying, “I came to you because I knew if I could get you to agree to this that the others would come with no hesitation. It has to be all of us, and I knew that could only happen if I started with you.”
“That’s not–”
“It’s true. You know it is,” her friend continues, “I may be the one asking for this, but you’re the only one that has the power to bring us all back together.”
Heejin pauses, staring down at the hand curled around her wrist as bitterness that’s remained latent in her for years seeps out in droves. “Because I’m the one who broke us apart, right?” she whispers bitterly, spitting back the same venom that Sooyoung hurled at her once upon a time. She wrenches her arm out of the fighter’s hold with one swift tug, turning away to face the fire, her gaze reflecting that fiery blaze through her own anger.
“Heejin,” Sooyoung pleads, staying close even with her younger friend’s rebuff. She exhales heavily, stepping next to Heejin but not touching her, just staring into the flames as her friend does. Then, once the younger woman’s rage has dwindled like the inferno of the hearth, she lays a soft hand on Heejin’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry. For what I said back then. It wasn’t right for me to blame you for what happened. It was not your fault,” the older woman says softly. Heejin turns to look at her, finding guilt in her eyes that she’d never thought she’d see. “I shouldn’t have said any of that to you. I should have never made you feel guilty for wanting something different for your life. I shouldn’t have made you feel bad for choosing her.”
Heejin’s rage and resentment falter, her friend’s sincerity and apology decimating the animosity she’s built up over these years. Because, truthfully, she never expected this to happen. She never expected Sooyoung to apologize for the hateful things she spewed during the end of it all or to acknowledge the pain it caused. And maybe it’s because after years of suffering at the hands of this looming shadow of aching affliction, she has started to believe that Sooyoung was right.
It is difficult to admit, but there was a point when she started to believe Sooyoung’s words: that their group’s break-up was entirely predicated on her actions. How could she not start to think that when all she can remember is the girl she once considered her sister telling her that she betrayed her, that someone she once called family would curse her until the end of her days?
How could she ever think she wasn’t to blame when the choice she made to abandon her friends stares her back in the face as she wakes up in the bed she shares with Yerim every day?
That guilt has haunted her for a long time, but Sooyoung’s apology strips her of every single sin she thought was hers to bear. She feels infinitely lighter, like the pressure suffocating her every breath has finally been lifted from her chest and now resides upon both her and Sooyoung’s backs as they carry the weight together.
“I thought you would hate me forever,” Heejin whispers, not really believing that her absolution has finally arrived.
Sooyoung turns them both to face each other, both hands now securely placed on both her younger friend’s shoulders. Her eyes are watery with tears unshed after years of wanting to issue repentance, and she says, “I never hated you. I was just scared. Everything was changing and I…I didn’t want it to. What I said was never because I hated you. I loved–love you, Heejin.”
Heejin lets out a choked cry, aggressively wiping the tears from her cheeks. She gasps out, “I love you too. So, so much,” and then crushes the older woman in a hug.
They stay in each other’s arms. Until Sooyoung pulls back, and the reason she’s here can no longer be ignored in favor of their reconciliation. “Please, I need you, Jinnie. I may have been the one who called the shots and led us into battle, but the others followed you. They believed in you. When things were hard, when we all felt like we couldn’t go on, you led us through it.” She pauses, but there’s a new desperation then, as Sooyoung says, “Help me bring us back together. Please.”
“I..I,” Heejin stutters, beholding her friend’s despair. She wants to help Sooyoung, but she can’t bring herself to agree to this. She gave up fighting all those years ago because of the life she’s living now. She’s content here. With Yerim. And so, with the exact same reasoning she had years ago when she chose to leave their group, she says, “I can’t, Sooyoung. I’m…I’m happy here. I can’t just leave. I can’t.”
The older woman sighs, closes her eyes for a second, and then opens them with a soft, melancholy smile. “I knew that was what you would say,” she says tenderly as if she truly did expect this result, which is only fair.
Because Heejin and Sooyoung have always been in sync. In battle, when they were pressed up against each other’s backs as enemies surrounded them on all sides, Heejin could feel Sooyoung shift her weight between her feet and know exactly which way she was going to move next. And in turn, Sooyoung could hear the way Heejin’s plated armor would clank together as she raised her shield and know precisely where the younger woman would strike. They know each other almost better than anyone. At least that was the case until Yerim.
But Sooyoung has learned her lesson now: that Heejin is weak in all things when it comes to the elven druid that stole her heart. So she knew coming into her journey into this forest that Heejin would say no. And yet she came here anyway.
“I’m sorry. I really am,” Heejin murmurs.
Sooyoung’s eyes soften. “It’s okay. I…I get it.”
With understanding following between them, Heejin exhales gratefully. She says, “You can stay here as long as you need.”
The older woman replies, “I really should get going. I don’t want to impose,” cautious and tentative.
“Please,” Heejin implores, grabbing her friend’s hands this time to hold on for a bit longer, “Just for the night at the very least.”
Her words are measured, but the unspoken truth remains. Stay, if just for a little while, so that I can cry about losing you again tomorrow, she begs, and Sooyoung can only answer its call.
“Okay. Okay. Just for tonight.”
—
Yerim puts the two women right to work.
They spend the entire morning out in the garden, assisting the druid as she imbues the herbs with her loving touch. She tasks the two friends with digging so that she can set a new bunch of crops into the rich soil, the eve of summer bringing along with it a new growing cycle and new plants that she must nurture into existence. Heejin, used to the physical labor and more than happy to be of service to her lover, voices nary a complaint about their position, which is fine considering Sooyoung complains enough for the both of them.
It isn’t until the sun has risen high into the sky, beaming down on the back of their necks, that Yerim releases the two from their servitude and suggests that maybe Heejin show Sooyoung the natural springs that are barely a mile away, tucked into a secret alcove. One look at each other and the two are off, trekking through the undergrowth until the trickling sound of water over rocks twinkles in their ears.
They burst through the brush, and Sooyoung gapes in awe at the rushing water that falls into a wide, deep pool, the misty spray shimmering as the sun shines upon it. She looks to her younger friend, mesmerized by the beauty of this place, and Heejin smiles back before stripping and bolting for the water, Sooyoung just barely following behind after having recovered from her amazement and struggling to shuck off the worn pants and shirt the couple lent her so she wouldn’t overheat in her armor while working out in the yard.
They swim for hours, long enough that Yerim eventually makes an appearance at the edge of the pool, observing the pair as they shove water into each other’s faces and take turns diving in from the top of the waterfall, and to Heejin it feels like she’s a kid again. It’s like she’s been transported back to their shared youth, of better and easier times. And with one look at Sooyoung, seeing the mirth and happiness in her eyes right before she pushes Heejin into the water, she knows the older woman feels it too.
Eventually, Yerim calls them both in with the promise of food, and after the manual labor they did that morning and the long hours spent swimming, the two women are more than obliged to silence the grumbling of their stomachs. The druid casts a spell upon them, drying their bodies with one quick flick of her wrist, and they leave.
The walk back to the cottage is quick, the sun starting to draw lower in the sky and casting them all in a hazy, golden glow. As Yerim settles into the kitchen to prepare their meal, smacking Heejin out of the space as her lover offers her help, a warning in her eyes should she try to come back, the two old friends sit across from each other by the fire, talking about the older woman’s recent adventures and reminiscing about their past as the druid cutting up vegetables watches on with an adoring smile.
Later, as dusk comes over their little home and Heejin and Sooyoung have scarfed down their meal with uninhibited gusto, the three women gather by the hearth, and Sooyoung, who is cradling a cup of tea to her chest, says, “I think I get it now. Why you like living out here so much.”
Heejin and Yerim, who are snuggled into each other’s sides on the floor, the elf’s hand laid sweetly in her lover’s lap, look at their guest across from them.
Sooyoung continues, “It’s peaceful. I feel at peace out here, which I don’t think I’ve felt in a while.”
Heejin hums, distinctly familiar with the tranquility this place provides. She can remember the first time she felt it all those years ago, and it has only grown stronger every day since. But now that Sooyoung understands that feeling, understands why Heejin left in the first place and why she is hesitant to leave this forest now, she feels a joy beyond what this place has provided her, and so she snuggles further into Yerim’s side and places a hand on top of the one on her leg.
“Okay,” Sooyoung says, groaning as she stands from the floor, “I think it’s time for me to rest. I need to leave early tomorrow.”
“Of course,” Heejin replies, standing as well and then pulling Yerim up with her, “Let me get you some blankets.”
The older woman shrugs the offer off, but Heejin is insistent. And so as Yerim retreats into their room, the former paladin grabs a few blankets from a chest against the wall and hands them over to her friend, the woman having already laid out a sleeping pack on the floor by the fire.
As Heejin moves to the bedroom slowly, to prolong this moment with her ex-party member, she says, “Let me know if you need anything. We’ll be right in here.”
Sooyoung smiles warmly. “Thank you. For all of this.”
Heejin grins back, a slightly melancholic yet still tender thing. “Good night, Soo.”
“Night, Jinnie.”
The younger woman closes the door to the bedroom, Yerim already dressed for sleep and untucking the blankets to slip underneath them and embrace their warmth. Heejin undresses, slipping her white nightdress back over her head and then sliding under the covers. With one snap of her fingers, Yerim snuffs out all of the lit candles with a spell, and they cuddle together, the druid laying across Heejin’s chest and the woman’s arms wrapped around her.
Sleep seems to find Yerim easily, but Heejin remains wide awake. She looks around the room, the soft light of the moon now filtering in through the window, and she sighs, feeling restlessness rise in her. So she carefully unravels herself from Yerim, moving quietly so as not to wake the elf up, and then sits on the edge of the bed, body facing the night.
She would think that after reuniting with Sooyoung and mending their broken relationship she’d be out cold by now, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Heejin feels none of that bone-deep drowsiness. She feels…amped, full of adrenaline, but also plagued by worry and uneasiness. It crawls under her skin, pervading her mind and body, and she knows sleep will not come, so she stares out the window, hearing the trees sway in the wind and the chirping of crickets and cicadas.
Then, there is a rustling behind her, and a hand caresses her shoulder. “What troubles you, my love?”
Heejin sighs, the soothing quality of Yerim’s voice doing nothing to pacify the heaviness in her. She doesn’t turn, not even when the druid’s arms drape across her, the other woman’s chest pressing against her back and her chin resting on her shoulder. She whispers, “I don’t know.”
But Yerim, knowing her as she does, simply states, “I think I do,” and squeezes her once before saying, “You want to go. With Sooyoung.”
And really, Heejin would be more surprised that Yerim overheard their conversation if the elf wasn’t an all-powerful, mighty druid who has lived hundreds of years. But still, she studders, turning around now as Yerim lets go of her and denying it with a, “No, no. That’s…I don’t want to–”
Yerim’s eyes are earnest as she says, “I know you feel confined here at times, and this would help that. Help you.”
Heejin’s words almost get stuck in her throat, feeling completely transparent under her lover’s gaze, but she keeps going, dismissing the idea by saying, “That’s not true. I’m–I am content here.”
“Heejin,” Yerim demands, grabbing her lover’s hands and joining them together, “It is okay to feel trapped and restless. To want excitement and adventure that this place cannot provide. I know you miss it.”
“I don–”
“You do,” the druid says adamantly, “I know you do because when we fought those hunters, when you cut them down as if it was as easy as breathing, you got a look that I haven’t seen since you and your friends stumbled upon this place, injured and broken. You were glowing. It’s as if you were electrified. Because you had finally found your way back into the heat of it all. It is also why you sneak out of bed late at night when you think I am asleep to practice your sword forms. You crave it, I know you do, so why won’t you let yourself do this?”
Frozen under her lover’s gaze and at being caught in her late-night sessions, Heejin, who has ignored her deepest desires for too long, feels the shackles of denial lift from her around her heart at her lover’s observance of her truest feelings, and finally being absolved of this burden, chokes out, “Because I don’t want to lose you too.”
That makes Yerim pause, and sobs start to rack Heejin’s chest. The elf doesn’t hesitate then, pulling the woman into her and trying to calm her by stroking the back of her head tenderly. The woman gasps out, “I lost my family when I chose to put down my sword. If I were to revoke that now, who’s to say I won’t lose you as well? What if I never come back? What if I leave you forever? What if I d–”
Yerim moves backward and grasps Heejin’s cheeks in her palms. “No. You won’t. You will never lose me. And you haven’t lost your friends,” the druid declares, thumbs wiping the tears from her lover’s face, “Sooyoung is here, Heejin. She is here because needs you by her side, just as you have been by mine for all these years. It is time for you to return to them because I will not allow your devotion to me to keep hurting you like this.”
“But if I leave it will hurt you,” the woman weeps.
“What hurts is to see you struggling as you are now,” Yerim states, “Listen to me. I have lived for centuries and will continue to live for many more, but you do not have that luxury, Heejin. You cannot waste time limiting yourself as you have been, only for you to resent me for it in the years to come. You must live, and you cannot do that by forcing yourself to remain here when you need to go.”
The woman sniffles, the druid’s impassioned speech calming her down. Still, she murmurs woefully, “I don’t want to abandon you.”
Yerim’s mouth upturns at the corner slightly, amused by her lover’s adamant refusal to leave her side. But then with a more serious tone, she says, “Then promise me you won’t, and that vow will become truth, just as how your pledge to all that is good remains even after your years away from the battlefield. Promise me you’ll return home, and I’ll be waiting here for you.”
Heejin gazes at the druid for a moment. The belief in her eyes, the understanding and compassion in her voice, the love and adoration in her touch, leave her awestruck. But more than that, it makes her realize that Yerim is right. She has to leave so that she can come back and truly appreciate what she has here. She has to leave so that her love for Yerim remains untainted and unfettered.
She has to leave. So that this place, this person, can always be called her home.
Heejin cups the hands on her cheek, sucking back the last of her tears, and nods. She moves backward, sliding from the bed and pulling Yerim with her so that the elf’s legs are dangling off the side. Then, kneeling on the ground, hands gripping her lover’s, she makes an oath just as powerful as the one she made when she became a paladin, when she vowed to fight injustice and uphold righteousness, virtue, and order for the good of the world.
She says, “I swear to you, Yerim, that I will return home so that I may love and cherish you. I swear with everything I have that I will not abandon you. I swear to fight relentlessly, to use all of my strength, so that I may see you again, and live out the rest of my life with you. All of this I swear to you until my last dying breath.”
Then, rising from the ground, Heejin leans in and seals her vow with a kiss to Yerim’s lips, one which the druid returns. They remain in each other’s arms long after it has ended, and then move back onto the bed, hearts melded into one as they both begin to dream of the day when Heejin shall return.
—
The next morning arrives much too quickly, and by the time the forest and its creatures have just started to wake up, Heejin and Sooyoung are already packed and ready to go, bags full of supplies, armor on, and weapons by their sides. Heejin’s steel paladin armor shines in the early sun, and with the way it glints off her back, Yerim swears she looks like an angel, wings of light spread out in a cosmic spectacle.
Heejin is double-checking her ruck pack, Sooyoung looking at a crude map that she has procured while standing just off to the side, so the druid sidles up to her lover’s friend and grabs her arm gently, whispering, “Please, bring her home to me.”
Sooyoung nods seriously and replies, “You have my word.”
Yerim lets go, satisfied even more so with both of the woman’s pledges, and steps back to the front of the cottage. Heejin finishes her inspection then, and rises, catching Yerim’s eye and smiling before walking over. She reaches for the druid’s hands and squeezes, saying, “We’ll be back. I promise.”
“I know you will,” Yerim states, and then pulls the woman in. She whispers into her ear, “I love you.”
Heejin whispers back, “I love you too,” and then pulls back to place one last kiss upon the elf’s lips. Even when it’s done, their devotion remains, foreheads pressed together and eyes shut tight, until the paladin regretfully rips herself away so that she may seek the part of her that is missing. She grabs her sword and shield and her pack and steps next to her friend.
“Are you ready?” she asks.
Sooyoung nods. “Are you?”
With one look around the cottage and the forest she calls home, Heejin replies, “Yeah. I am. Let’s go.”
The two friends move in tandem, stepping through the thicket with one last wave at the druid behind them, and a new adventure waiting to begin.
—
Summer turns into autumn. Autumn turns into winter. Through it all, Yerim waits, until one day she no longer has to.
She’s wrapped up in front of the fire, warm mug in her hands as snow falls in a soft swirl outside, blanketing the forest floor and trees until nothing but the white powder can be seen, when her bat companion swoops into the cottage and chirps in her pointed ear. She rises, preparing herself for the possible battle she is about to face, and steps outside, dagger unsheathed and spell in hand, just like all those months ago.
She waits at the front of the house, the cold stinging her nose and the tips of her ears the longer she stands there, until the intruders arrive, shaking the bush thicket clear of snow as an eerily familiar metal-booted foot steps through. And in a stroke of deja-vu, Sooyoung’s face appears to her, causing her to snuff out her spell and lower her dagger as she once did many moons ago.
“Sooyoung,” she murmurs, standing stock still as the woman presents herself, face covered in grime and armor dented even more, but no more weary than that. The human smiles as she proceeds forward, and that’s when some more familiar faces step into view, ones that Yerim hasn’t seen in many years.
Because trailing behind their leader is Haseul and Jinsol, both older and wiser than the last time Yerim saw them, the two humans having aged gracefully in their years away, followed by Jungeun and Hyeju, the tiefling and half-orc respectively looking battle-worn and weary, faces and bodies scarred from their time without their party members. They all crowd further into the clearing, eyes scanning the place as recognition and remembrance dawn upon them. They all greet Yerim with kind eyes, nodding at her respectfully, but then suddenly unfamiliar faces are streaming through the opening in the thicket.
A half-elf dressed in thin robes, a cat-like shifter with a hooded cloak, a satyr with a wooden staff, a halfling clutching a lute, and a fairy with a bow in hand all assemble in the clearing behind the adventurers. Yerim scans over them all, noting their faces and the awe in their eyes, and looks to Sooyoung, earning a, “We might have picked up a few more friends along the way,” to which Yerim nods.
She takes stock of all of the arrivals, suddenly freezing when she realizes there is one person she hasn’t caught sight of, the one person she has been waiting for all these months. Her knees almost buckle, but she keeps herself upright barely, holding on to her emotions just long enough to implore Sooyoung with a, “No, no. She–”
There’s a rustling of branches. Yerim whips toward the sound, the bush moving until she spots her. The half of her heart that has been missing for months. The inspiration for all the adoring songs she sings to the plants in her care. The love of her long, eternal life.
Heejin enters the clearing, worn and weary and sporting a new scar of her own, a still healing wound that cuts across her face and through her right eye, hidden partially underneath an eyepatch. Her uncovered eye drags across the floor until it rises, spotting Yerim and brightening immediately. Yerim gasps, hand coming to cover her mouth, and the paladin smiles, dropping her sword and shield in favor of rushing toward the druid, where she is met halfway.
“You’re here,” Yerim whispers reverently, and the paladin kneels, grasping her lover’s hands.
Then, as their hearts are reunited, Heejin’s vow becomes reality as she revels in the druid’s presence and worships at the altar of her feet, and the paladin says, “No, I’m home.”