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Minji is the daughter of the Firelord.
She’s skilled in firebending, extremely skilled. Her uncle Iroh taught her everything she needed to know and trained her along with her lovely but annoying brother, Minsuk.
Everyone bows their head when they pass by her and she is always seem with a firm and intimidating expression. She gets tempered, blue flames seething out when she’s angry.
But outside the royal palace, she’s the soft and kind Minji to Yoohyeon, the Avatar.
Yoohyeon’s always smiling, likes messing around, and is clumsy. She always fails to keep a straight face for anything. Though, she’s quite strong, a master of every element, learning firebending from the Princess herself.
Minji likes to call Yoohyeon, an anchor. A reminder that she doesn’t always have to be perfect and strict and that she can be a bit laid back and free.
How they met? At a bank of water.
The Avatar was practicing her water bending skills at the area, in much concentration. Waves of water were forming and slashes like a mere sword were hit against the trees around her.
The said bank was also Minji’s sense of escape. A place she would go to when Uncle Iroh wasn’t available.
When Minji got to the bank, she found Yoohyeon training and hid behind one of the huge trees around the area. She watched in awe as the blonde calmly swayed the waters left to right. It wasn’t until Yoohyeon turned around and their eyes caught. The Princess was sure that her heart hadn’t ever beat that fast. (When she locked eyes with Yoohyeon, her heart beat faster than it did when she got in the biggest trouble she had ever did with her mother.)
Minji ran away due to the unusual and unfamiliar feeling she felt in her chest and stomach. Part of her wished she stayed and asked for the girl’s name.
Of course, Uncle Iroh realized what was going on with his niece and quickly asked her what was going on. To which Minji responded I don’t know, Uncle.~
Uncle Iroh assured her that everything was going to be okay. (He didn’t tell her that Minsuk saw her enter the palace with the most obvious red cheeks he had ever seen. )
Minji decided to go back to the bank a few days later, she figured that the blonde wouldn’t be at the area a different day and time but was proved wrong when she saw the Avatar sitting on the sand in front of the waters.
Her heart felt like it was close to exploding at this point but she didn’t let her fear get the best of her this time around.
“I’ve been waiting for you everyday.” The blonde lowly whispered, turning her head slightly to look at Minji.
Then, Minji finally got to take in the beauty of the Avatar’s mature features. Which made her even more nervous now that she knew that the pretty girl was looking right at her.
Blushing, Minji took the chance to walk toward the girl, sitting beside her on the sand. “I was scared, I’m sorry.”
The girl simply smiled, her eyes disappearing due to her huge smile. It was cute, a feature Minji found endearing.
They exchanged names and from there on, Minji was no longer afraid.
They soon became best of friends, Yoohyeon introducing the princess to her other friends that soon became her friends. Who treated her normally despite being the next in line of the throne.
Then Minji knew what it was like not to have such a huge weight on her shoulders.
Yoohyeon turns to the girl in her arms tiredly. “What are you thinking about, love?” The blonde asks her in concern.
Minji laughs at the tired drawl in the younger girl’s voice and nuzzles her nose against the blonde’s, taking in the smell of vanilla that puts Minji in a trance.
“How much better my life has become ever since I met you.” Minji responds with no hesitation and it makes Yoohyeon chuckle.
When Yoohyeon finally opens her eyes again,the raven pauses in giving her eskimo kisses. “Really?”
Minji nods with a smile brighter than the sun itself.
“I’m glad you have Uncle Iroh in your life. I thank him everyday for convincing you to go back to the bank.” Yoohyeon presses a kiss onto the girl’s forehead.
When did Minji fall in love?
She has to think it was the first time Yoohyeon met her eyes. So, yes, it was unbelievable at first to say it was love at first sight. (But Minji thinks it was true, the first time she felt butterflies in her stomach.)
The blonde has even made her life at the palace better in some way. Minji often finds herself smiling at the thought of Yoohyeon. Her younger brother told her it was mouth retching at times seeing his older sister smile a little too much. But the raven couldn’t help it. Not when Yoohyeon makes her feel like the luckiest girl in the world.
“You keep staring at that letter like it’s the key to all happiness.” Minsuk tells her, fixing up his robe in the mirror.
"Hush, Minsuk."
Maybe it was the key to all happiness.
Gahyeon is all to well having too much fun splashing water at Yoohyeon.
They managed to all stay at a beach house, away from their homes, away from the Palace. It was peaceful, Minji being content with watching the people she loved have fun.
Minsuk begged Minji to let him come along and surprisingly, he got along well with her friends and Yoohyeon especially. (He assured Minji Yoohyeon had passed the test and was worthy enough for her. “Kim Minsuk, what did you do?!”)
Siyeon and Handong were cooking some food in the kitchen, preferably not wanting to get wet. Yubin was painting by the dockside and Bora was helping Gahyeon defeat Yoohyeon in their little water fight.
Minji is pretty sure it’s the first time she was truly happy, the fire kingdom citizens won’t hesitate to notice her change of demeanor when she gets back.
She makes sure to send her uncle a letter to ensure him that the two were okay. She wouldn’t want to deal with a months due of work.
Soon after, Yoohyeon takes Minji out to enjoy to countless options of street food. Cold air brushes against their cheeks and Yoohyeon takes the chance to stuff their interlocked fingers in her coat’s pocket. The action makes both of them blush, she can’t help but smile.
“What do you want to try first?” Yoohyeon asks her, speaking loud enough for them only to hear.
There’s many people in the area, Minji makes sure to keep the younger close so they wouldn’t be pulled away from eachother.
She hums in response to Yoohyeon’s question, eyes scanning at the many choices. “I’m not sure, there’s so many options.”
So, Yoohyeon brings them to a random stall, the smell of tteokbokki entering their nostrils delightfully. The raven grabs a cup, hands the man a few coins, which he happily accepts before telling them to enjoy their treat.
The firebender takes a bite, her body hopping up and down at how good it was. She then offers a bite to the younger girl (Yoohyeon takes a more bigger bite than she did) and ends up giggling when the cheese drips down the airbender’s mouth messily.
After cleaning up the cheese, Minji’s eyes trace to a plate of Ddakkochi. She tugs the blonde toward the stall and instantly hands the vendor a few coins. The vendor bows her head, handing Minji the plate of Ddakkochi.
They find a table to sit at and Yoohyeon tells the raven that she would be back with more food.
The sun is slowly setting, beautiful arrays of color painting the sky. It makes Minji think, if she could ever able to be as calm as the sunset, quiet and able.
People walk pass on the streets, enjoying their food and laughing around with the people they loved the most. Everything was peaceful, nothing but laughter, smiles, and chatter filling the air.
Yoohyeon trots back with more food (a lot of bags, she means), which Minji can’t help but think if she needs help with all the balancing the air bender was doing. The blonde assures her that she had everyone under control—though almost dropping the bags onto the floor with one wrong gush of air.
(The other bags are for their friends.)
1 in 2 times does Minji ever get jealous.
Having people all over her was simple. She’s stunning (Yoohyeon made sure to remind her everyday.), has a nice personality outside the palace and overall everyone loves her.
She’s had her parents choose out a bunch of options for her, but she was never really interested. Meaning, she would get bored everything she had to go through trials to see who caught her eye. And truthfully, Minji didn’t find anyone interesting. Sure they had looks but some of them had awful personality. The firebender knew because most of them were her in classes.
Eventually, they gave up, leaving Minji alone. From there on, the raven never had the thought of falling in love.
“Yoohyeon, do you want to go watch the earth rumble together?” Chayun, a water bender asks her.
The raven’s eyes narrows as she watches the waterbender place her hand between his two hands and covers them. He looks up at Yoohyeon, a pleading look on his face. It’s fascinating how a tall guy managed to make himself seem small in Yoohyeon’s eyes.
Bora, beside her is enjoying the view. Maybe because Minji’s ears are actually fuming, which Bora feels the hot air around her.
Awkwardly, Yoohyeon lets out a chuckle and slides his hands off her’s, scratching her head. “Sorry, I was going to watch it with my friends.” Yoohyeon tries to seem apologetic, but Minji knew that tone from anywhere.
The look on Chayun’s face slightly falters. “That’s okay, we could still sit next to eachother!”
Minji feels a hand slide into hers, tightly intertwining their fingers and the action calms the firebender down. Now, the waterbender’s smile had fully disappeared. She can’t help the smirk that tugs on her lips when Yoohyeon moves closer.
“It’s fine, I want to sit next to Minji. I don’t think the others would mind sitting next to you though.”
Bingo, Minji 1, Chayun 0.
She doesn’t miss the scowl on Chayun’s face when he walks back into his house.
She shouldn’t have brought Yoohyeon to her classes. One reason being was that she was stealing her teacher’s favorite spot which was her spot (but teachers could had more than one favorite student, right.)
Mr. Roh asked the blonde how she was able to master the firebending element in such little time. Yoohyeon secretly points to the girl beside her and the teacher laughs.
“Yoohyeon, why don’t you sit with us at lunch?” Mia leans close to the airbender.
Jaeyoung and Eunjin nod excitedly in agreement.
Yoohyeon doesn’t answer because she’s already being dragged toward the table.
Minji sees the others blabber around from her table, Yoohyeon even joining in on their conversations. She sees the blonde laugh and show her dimples. Everyday Yoohyeon sits with them, is another feature Minji had already seen since.
“Minji, you stare at their table everyday. Yoohyeon’s just making friends, she’ll be fine.” Siyeon assured her, pushing the raven’s shoulders to face back to her table.
It’s not like the firebender doesn’t trust Yoohyeon. It’s just that water benders like to flirt. A lot. Every waterbender she’s crossed have all tried flirting with Yoohyeon and herself (besides Bora and Gahyeon.).
In fact, there were waterbenders who would join the table to be able to talk to Yoohyeon. Of course, Minji can’t control it considering how gorgeous the blonde always looked.
It was also very frustrating how easy Yoohyeon was able to read her because as soon as Minji gave her a look from the other table, the airbender made the move to excuse her self to pull the raven outside.
A pout is evident on Minji’s face, the raven everything she could to avoid the airbender’s eyes.
“Minji.” The warning is straightforward, but tints of pleading hits the firebender in the right spot that she finally trails her eyes until their eyes meet.
Yoohyeon’s eyes are glassy and the firebender starts panicking, reaching to wipe the stray tears that begin falling down the blonde’s pretty cheeks.
Cold air takes up most of Minji’s oxygen, her lungs feeling slightly dry. “Why are you crying?”
Yoohyeon wipes the tears from her eyes in a rush, as if to cover the fact that she was crying. And it didn’t work quite well as Yoohyeon’s cheeks and eyes were faintly red.
The blonde hiccups. “I don’t want to ever hurt you.” A sentence that sends Minji toward a switch of direction and claws at her throat.
Minji feels bad for not telling Yoohyeon how she felt. Especially when all the younger has done was show her real self to her.
Brushing the stray hairs that fall loose on Yoohyeon’s face, Minji lightly smiles, taking time to take in all of the airbender’s beauty. Then, she cups her cheeks, Yoohyeon’s lips squishing cutely that she can’t hold in the laugh that reaches from her tummy.
Finally, she places multiple pecks onto the blonde’s lips, giggling when Yoohyeon starts to whine because Minji won’t give her the chance to kiss back.
Stepping back from Yoohyeon, she wiggles her eyebrows and begins running. The snow makes it a bit harder to run but Minji still runs to escape Yoohyeon’s grasp.
It doesn’t last long because now they’re on the ground, arms wrapping around eachother in the snow. Fits of giggles burst out between the two that they don’t even realize how cold it actually was.
“Caught you.” Yoohyeon says, leaning in to take the firebender’s lips in her’s.
Minji doesn’t fight the smile that makes way to her lips.
She’s not quite sure why her mother asked for her to bring whoever she was seeing. And it makes Minji confused because she knows her uncle wouldn’t say anything, Minsuk minds his business too much to say anything.
“We’ll just have dinner together, nothing much.”
Panic sinks in her stomach at whether or not they’ll like Yoohyeon or understand that she’s the Avatar, constant worries that flood her mind.
When she tells Yoohyeon, the girl doesn’t seem at much worried at all. Instead, she takes the time to reassure the firebender, telling her that everything would be all right.
The firebender wears something presentable, a black dress that cuts just below her knees. The hairdresser curls the tips of her hair that they give a bouncy look.
Yoohyeon comes in through a different entrance with a blue dress that cuts above her knees as well. The airbender is stunning that it makes Minji breathless.
She leans in to give the blonde a greeting kiss, a tint of vanilla embracing her.
Although, before Minji could even pull back, Yoohyeon cups her jaw, tilting her chin up. She engulfs the raven’s lips fully, butterflies in Minji’s stomach erupting all at once. It’s a feeling that simply makes her feel calm, forget about all the bad things that take up her mind, being the next in line of the fire kingdom’s throne.
Yoohyeon pulls away slowly and something tell her that they both didn’t want to put an end to the short moment. “We still have to go to the dinner, remember?” The airbender strokes her cheek with her thumb and Minji doesn’t want anything but to lean into her touch.
Her touch puts all her worries to rest.
She’s not sure if she’s the daughter of the firelord or if Yoohyeon is.
To Minji’s surprise, her father liked Yoohyeon a lot. He was even impressed with her firebending skills, pulling out techniques that he’s seen other firebenders struggle with.
Yoohyeon enjoys the food, sweeping the plate with not a single ounce of vegetables left on it.
Her father tells them that the day was coming to an end and that he would have to tend to his duties beforehand.
She sees the firelord pull Yoohyeon to the side, a hand on her shoulder. The airbender smiles at whatever her father says before bowing and turning to walk back to Minji.
A hand extends toward Minji which she doesn’t hesitate to take, letting Yoohyeon pull her out of the exquisite room.
"I want to take you somewhere.” Yoohyeon whispers only for them two to hear.
That somewhere? A place Minji thinks is where she’ll like to experience forever.