Epilogue - The King Eternal Monarch (TKEM)

3 Years Later

Sunlight was streaming through the curtains of the modern hotel that they were staying at, when Jeong Tae-eul started opening her eyes as she lay in bed, clutching the warm comforter to cover her body. The weekend is almost over, she tells herself. Gon is still asleep on his side with his free arm gently embracing her, and her bare back against his chest.

They've been exploring new worlds every weekend for more than two years now and each time, has been a different experience. It's been exciting to go on these adventures with Gon. They've formed habits and rituals, and make a good team like any other couple who have spent two years together in a relationship. The only difference is that unlike other couples, their dates consisted of going through portals of time and space.

They were approaching the 3 year anniversary of their first meeting at Gwanghwamun Square and Tae-eul was thinking of a gift to give to Gon. During their first year, she cooked a really special dinner—which was a challenge since she was not as good of a home cook as Lee Gon, who is quite capable of preparing gourmet food for himself. Last year, she put together a cheesy album of a few memorable places they've been to so far, taken secretly with her phone camera. But as this third year was stretching out, there was something that Tae-eul wanted to ask Gon but was afraid of what it would mean for them.

There was no doubt in her mind that they were meant for each other and deeply in love. But she was starting to feel like it was time to look forward to more than just their weekend time-travelling adventures. Tae-eul doesn't have a lot of female friends in the Republic of Korea to confide in except for Nari and her colleagues at work to talk about what she felt. Besides, how could she open up anyway about her Secret boyfriend from a parallel world? But for once, she wished she could share her thoughts with someone who could understand—other than Lee Gon—so she could make sense of her rising self-doubt if moving between worlds on the weekends was going to be good enough for her... forever.

Her mind has started to frequently drift to the thought of children too. She thought about Eun Sop's siblings who by now are in elementary school, and wondered about motherhood itself and the idea of becoming the Queen of Corea. It would be nice to hold a baby or two of her own. She was now in her early thirties, a period when many modern women her age were starting to settle down and have families with their significant others. In the past two years, she pushed these thoughts of future possibilities away from her mind, partly because she thought that she didn't need those experiences to be happy with the love of her life; but also partly because she felt it was futile to want more than what the universe could give them. Wasn't she supposed to be perfectly satisfied with balancing her career as a Detective in the Violent Crimes Division in the Republic of Korea and just be his girlfriend on the weekends, free from the responsibilities and intrusiveness that would fall on her lap as Lee Gon's Queen?

Tae-eul admits quietly to herself that she's beginning to resist the limits of her present reality; but at the same time, she's also worried about the high price of leaving everything behind and possibly causing unintended consequences in the wake of her departure. She thought about whether Gon could reasonably pull strings to create a believable background story about her to satisfy what would be a massive public curiosity—and scrutiny--about Corea's Future Queen. But most of all, she thought about how leaving her father alone in order to be with the love of her life, would be too steep of a sacrifice. That guilt weighed far more on her mind than taking on the duties of a Queen. Who would take care of her father as he grew older? He was only in his early 60's.

Tae-eul started feeling a little sad when she realized the scale of the invisible wall that separated her and Gon. Her thoughts were interrupted a few moments later when he was starting to wake up. Gon nuzzled his face in Tae-eul's hair. He gave her a hug from the back and kissed the back of her head, before he pulled her closer to him. "Good morning," Gon said in a muffled voice with his eyes still closed. Tae-eul, awakened too by his familiar kiss, set aside her thoughts for now about the future and let this Sunday morning linger a bit more.