these far and starlit shores

So this year I actually wrote something for Yuletide! I was trawling Dear Yuletide Writer letters, as I do wistfully every year with varying degrees of intent, and I came across shati's prompt,

Farfetched, but if you offered both Capital Scandal and Sungkyunkwan Scandal and feel like writing Cha Song Joo and Gu Yong Ha hanging out and people-watching together, I would not expect you to justify the crossover at all. AT ALL.

Naturally, because I'm incapable of actually writing to prompts, I immediatedly started to wonder, how would you justify that crossover? Then Cha Song Joo and Gu Yong Ha started talking to each other, and then it was all over, and I was doomed to writing Step by step on the flowers placed before you. It also spawned a Yong Ha-and-Jae Shin coda, because I can never resist writing double-layered conversations when I get a chance to, After and Before. (Actually, this was also supposed to have a brief Cha Song Joo-and-Cho Seon coda as well, which would even make the title meaningful instead of "oh look I was pulled out of a hat at the last minute", but I completely ran out of time as you can totally tell. Oh well!)

innerbrat was remarkably cheerful about being contacted out of the blue by a stranger on Christmas Eve to rush-beta an unfinished fic: thank you very much again!

Since I know most of the people on my flist aren't familiar with either fandom, ( I recommend them both! )