9:43 a.m. Seoul Jongno Police Station

They didn't see that coming. The men of Violent Crimes Division Squad 3.

They greeted each other like usual when Jeong Tae-eul arrived at the station. They saw her walk up to Chief Park and pulled him aside to speak privately but didn't think much of it.

Everyone had, however, caught wind of her regular weekend trips and was curious about the extra two vacation days she decided to take at the last minute. Detective Shim Hyeong-sa was trying to come up with something clever to tease her about it.

They are surprised to see her leave their squad room after she finished with the Chief. And nobody is prepared for the announcement of her resignation. Lieutenant Jeong Tae-eul has been part of the squad for as long as most could remember. She has always been one of them.

"What happened?"

"Why did she quit?"

"Did you try asking her to stay?"

"Maybe you should have recommended her for promotion!"

Question upon question, Park Moon-sik is always the one to interrogate and not the one being interrogated. "Ya, Lieutenant Jeong Tae-eul will tell you herself. She is coming back in a few minutes."

...

She had figured there was no good way to explain her decision. But she wanted her squad to at least see she had a good reason for it.

Outside the Seoul Jongno Police Station, Lee Gon sat waiting inside her car. He was prepared to support her any way he could and was glad she had asked him to accompany her to work.

He got out of the car when he saw her coming toward him. "Time to go meet your team?" He reached for her hand and she just nodded.

…

All eyes are on her and the man holding her hand when they walk into the squad room.

"I would like everyone to meet my fiancé. I resigned this morning because I'm getting married." Slightly embarrassed by the attention, she introduces him.

He bows and says warmly, "It's nice to meet you. My name is Lee Gon."

Now the entire squad wants to know who this tall, fine looking man with a commanding presence is.

Ahead of their trip back to the Republic, Tae-eul and Lee Gon had concocted a cover story for her to tell her colleagues and friends. The man she is marrying is a mathematician and he runs his family's investment firm based in London, England. The Asian markets have been his firm's focus the last couple of years due to its interest in the high tech sector. He has been living in Japan but made frequent trips to South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan for business. They met when he got lost in Seoul on his first trip. Since he has now established bases in various East Asian countries, he needs to return to the United Kingdom full-time. She would move with him and they would have their wedding there. Despite its necessity, Tae-eul still loathes lying to her friends and they made sure their story would be largely shades of the truth.

"So now we know where you go every weekend. I'm right to think you're up to something." Chief Park says rather proud of himself. "Why do you have to leave so quickly? We should all go out for a meal to celebrate."

"We will come back to visit after I settle down." Jeong Tae-eul tries to avoid delving into the details.

Lee Gon offers to help but she prefers to pack up her personal belongings on her own. He knows she needs space so he says his goodbye to her team and tells her he would wait in the car.

She actually has only a few personal items to take with her. But she lingers around her desk to reminisce about both her old and her new memories of her squad. And one particular person comes to mind. Nothing felt right since Kang Shin-jae disappeared along with the erased timeline twenty-six months ago – the station, the squad, the job all felt so foreign without the person she had known since high school. She has had to pretend one of the people she trusts the most never existed. In a strange way, Jeong Tae-eul is a little relieved she no longer needs to maintain her façade at work.

Would Shin-jae have tried to stop her from quitting if he were here? The very last time they spoke, he did try to stop her from leaving. That was when she realized she had been the clueless one and Lee Gon might have been right all along. Her mind was made up then, and her mind is made up now.

"Your boyfriend is so good looking!" Jangmi appears suddenly and pulls her out of her reverie. "I wouldn't want him out of my sight either, if I were you."

"Do you want to date him too?" She retorts jokingly.

Despite the well-meaning teasing and the repeated once-over they gave Lee Gon, her squad is genuinely happy for her.

"Well, I'm done here." Tae-eul says as she returns to the Chief her weapons, the handcuffs and her final paperwork. Then she takes her badge off from around her neck one last time. The item that has somehow been predestined to change her life - she holds on to it a little longer before handing it back.

"You all are the best and I'll miss every one of you."

Jangmi jumps up and gives her the biggest bear hug. She wipes a tear that escaped when they break apart and she bows to Chief Park one last time before leaving their squad room.

And just like that, another chapter in the Republic closes.

...

Lee Gon has time to ponder, as he sits patiently waiting for her to finish up at the police station.

The last few days have certainly been a whirlwind and the pace wouldn't slow down for at least a few more days. It's all very exciting but he starts to worry if Tae-eul feels bombarded.

She is the one to move across universes.

She is the one leaving people, places and things she loves behind.

She is the one who must start a new life.

If there were a way for them to trade places, he wouldn't hesitate.

Even though she has reassured him repeatedly how convinced she is, the gravity of her choice is not lost on him.

Just like how it wasn't lost on him the first time.

The night he finally found her, he didn't go back to the kingdom. They stayed together.

He didn't leave the next day either. He couldn't.

Couldn't tear himself away from her.

Couldn't believe she actually remembered everything about them.

He was sure, even if he could find her, she wouldn't recognize him – once he changed the past, their two worlds would flow differently and she would have lived without knowing him.

To say he was relieved was a gross understatement. It was his lifeline. He wanted to know how but she wanted to skip that part, said it wasn't important.

He had his theory though, based on his own experience with Jo Yeong.

Then she told him. The next day in their hotel room, when the thought of him leaving her was too painful for the both of them.

The night had fallen once again and he would have to return to the kingdom when the sun would rise next. She had put her arms around him, but he squeezed her so tight not even air could pass through.

He didn't want to let go. He didn't want to be alone. He didn't want to risk them again.

He sobbed out loud.

She had been crying too. She didn't want him to leave any more than he did. She didn't want to be without him. And she didn't want him to be alone again.

"I went… I was the one." She choked out the words.

"What are you telling me? Where did you go?" He wiped both his tears and hers. His heart was pounding, he didn't want to be right.

"Lee Lim. I was the one who took his half of the Manpasikjeok and I went with him to the obelisks.

I knew you wanted to stop Lee Lim before he could cross our two worlds. I figured out what you had planned with Shin-jae to take Lee Lim inside the portal when you needed him to be.

I begged Shin-jae to give me the Manpasikjeok and to let me go with Lee Lim instead."

"And because you were inside the portal when time reset, you didn't lose your memory." His voice barely above a whisper, Lee Gon had just confirmed what he had feared.

"I guess so. I fainted when everything inside that portal started to disappear and I woke up not far from the bamboo forest, near the phone booth."

"I never wanted you near Lee Lim or his gate. It was too dangerous." His heart ached from knowing she had risked her life for him. "I was able to carry out my plan because I thought you were safe in your world. Why did you go?"

She lifted one hand to stroke the side of his face. "I couldn't bear to stay. I made the choice to leave my world to follow you. I was scared. If things didn't turn out the way you had hoped, you would be stuck inside the in-between place by yourself. I was afraid you'd be lonely. And that, more than anything, would kill me."

"I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to you inside that portal, you know." He sighed and pulled her in again. He didn't want to consider that possibility.

"You see… it was the same for me. I had thought about it. If the worst happened and you died the night of the treason, I would finish the job for you and kill Lee Lim myself. I didn't care what would happen to me.

But if somehow you didn't succeed and ended up in the in-between place for eternity, I wanted to be there with you.

I'd rather go where you were, than lived in my world without you. I had my mind made up and I was ready to leave for good before I went through the gate."

Before he met her, when he wished he wouldn't be alone, when he yearned to find the owner of the police badge, he didn't in his wildest dream think he would be granted a soulmate to heal all his broken parts.

"You were so brave and you saved us." She didn't turn out to be the one who saved the eight-year-old him that night. But she did turn out to be his saviour.

"If I had it my way, you would never have been there. But now, seeing you, being with you, I'm just so grateful to God, or fate, that nothing between us is lost." Lee Gon couldn't be more in awe of her. "Now that I have found my way back, I will always come to you. You had said you only wanted to live in the present, so let's make that every weekend. We would do our jobs during the week, and then every Friday evening, I would wait for you at the gate. We would spend every weekend together, and do all the things we have skipped, no matter what."

And they did.

The weekends were glorious… only never quite enough.

He has, more and more, thought about asking her to move to the Kingdom – but he didn't want to make her sacrifice more than she already has.

He has also seriously considered passing the throne to one of Uncle Buyeong's grandchildren, so he could live in the Republic with her. But he has had to worry about the ripple effect on Lee Ji-hun, and his duty to protect the secret of the Manpasikjeok.

And once again, she has decided to be brave. She has decided to sacrifice for their future. And he would always be indebted to her.

...

Jeong Tae-eul knows what she is walking away from, what she will miss – chasing down culprits in the streets of Seoul, huddling with her squad to solve a case, and keeping people in the city safe.

But she also knows what she is walking toward – the man she would do anything for, in any and all universes.

She is surprised to find herself more at ease with her departure than she'd thought she would. She is actually rather relieved to be done with the burden of straddling their two worlds. She feels strangely excited about being able to focus her energy on settling into her new life. She is happy to not have to say goodbye to him every Monday morning before driving to the station.

"I'm ready to go." She says to Lee Gon when she gets inside the car.

He takes her hand and rubs his thumb across the back of it. "Are you alright?"

"I am. I really am." She smiles at him. "More than I think I would be."

...

Notes:

While this chapter was set up as Tael-eul's final day at the police station, the flashback is the pivot in this story.

The reason I had no doubt Jeong Tae-eul was going to become Queen of Corea, even though it wasn't shown on screen, was because of all the foreshadowing in the episodes. And none more clear than her action in ep15. JTE said goodbye to her world when she decided to go with Lee Lim inside the portal. She knew that was part of the package of loving Lee Gon. She said she couldn't bear to be alone in her world while he was alone in his.

The reset in ep16 might have thrown our couple for a loop since the urgency and the threat were gone, and they needed time to do all the things they skipped. But eventually, they would come back to why she left the first time - her fear of Lee Gon having to be alone by himself and her need to be with him.

I wanted to draw the parallel with her choice in ep15 to leave through Lee Gon's flashback. Some viewers think he never found out how JTE didn't lose her memory because she wanted to skip that part when they were first reunited. Certainly, it wasn't important to talk about at that moment - but I believe she did eventually tell him. There was no reason for her to hide it from him. Just like I'm sure he would have told her everything that happened the night of the treason and everything that happened after.

Tell me what you think, ask me anything - I always appreciate comments or questions.