If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 102

I learned this time that a reputation can crumble even from a single small pebble. Recovering his health and going out to class was to no avail; the young lady wouldn’t even make eye contact with him. Shinwoo’s gaze clung pitifully, without a shred of pride, to the young lady’s red hair ribbon. Even when he asked for her to spare him some time, only a cold response returned to him.

Though a person’s heart is said to be fickle, the young lady was really going too far. He had come around to understanding that Yirok, the outsider who rolled in, had pushed out him, the established one. It was also his fault that he lost his mind at the sight of their kiss and made a mistake in the hwanchō. However, giving away his position as her fiancé, which was like his very lifeline, to some random person was a different matter.

“Shinwoo, you should understand.”

“…Understand?”

His heart had been pounding ever since the landowner passed along the word that he would treat him to delicious tea today. His ears weren’t decorations, so how could he not have heard the rumors about the new fiancé? Even so, telling himself no way, no way, he had awaited the verdict. Becoming the son-in-law of Nanjubeol was his one and only wish. Given the expectations of the elders from both families, there was no way things would change over a single threat from the young lady.

“At the latest, everyone will gather around the end of this year to devise measures against Maengmusa, and we must settle Chaehwa’s engagement before then. No matter how you look at it, the head of Jeongmusa is our Chaehwa, so how would it look if she isn’t even engaged?”

“But… surely last time, didn’t you tell me to prepare?”

She seemed determined to strip him of his status as fiancé before she would be satisfied. His lips moved before he even had time to consider whether it was impolite or not. A cold gaze descended upon Shinwoo, who was raising objections instead of complying without complaint.

As if disliking Shinwoo for brimming with tears, the landowner took the teacup away from his lips and spoke.

“Then tell me. Why is it that the returned Chaehwa is sweet to everyone except you? Jangsi and Yeonrye told me everything about what happened in the hwanchō. Yeonrye said she was a pigeon, and Jangsi a puppy. But what about you?”

“…….”

“See that. Nobody speaks about you. The story about Yirok was told by Chaehwa herself when she was talking about her own experience. That he got hurt while protecting Chaehwa in that dream… and was delayed because of that. Isn’t it strange? Getting hurt. As far as I know, the only ones who disappeared from the department store were the people of our family. Was there an attack?”

While the landowner’s sharp observations continued, Shinwoo could not add a single word. Rather than ten excuses, Shinwoo’s silence spoke the truth of the situation. The suspicious parts, the things Chaehwa wanted to bury and move past, they were simply settling it by replacing the fiancé without any need to dig up the truth.

“Tell me. So that I can take your side, so that I can turn Chaehwa’s heart around. Speak the truth with your own mouth. What were you inside the hwanchō, and what was the reason Yirok haenang got hurt?”

Shinwoo couldn’t even drink the tea he liked and kept his eyes fixed strictly on the ground. Without pressing him further to drink, the landowner passed a suitable amount of afternoon time before sending him out. With a vacant expression as if he had been kicked out empty-handed, Shinwoo could not even put on his sneakers after leaving the landowner’s residence. Sitting on the stepping stone with his head bowed as if performing a memorial service, the one who came to find Shinwoo was none other than his childhood friend.

“I wondered where you went. Are you still doing this here?”

It was Chaho, who reportedly couldn’t eat or sleep properly for the three months when the young lady, his close friend, and the girl he unrequitedly loved had all vanished. Indeed, hadn’t he been busy sticking by Shinwoo’s side lately as soon as he woke up, acting as a bodyguard? Now that a new fiancé had appeared, Shinwoo had become a ball that might bounce anywhere. Looking after Shinwoo so he wouldn’t fall into a deeper abyss, Chaho’s face darkened.

“Hurry up, let’s go eat dinner. Everyone’s walking on eggshells around you and can’t even eat. The fiancé thing, later….”

“Where is Jangsi?”

“What?”

“Jangsi.”

“…Why Jangsi?”

Shinwoo, who had been sitting with his sneakers beside him like he was holding a memorial, glared with wild eyes as he asked. Chaho, who had run until his feet sweated to find his friend whom he hadn’t heard from, held his tongue at the ominous feeling.

“What. Why him?”

“Where is he.”

“Why Jangsi.”

“Forget it. I’ll find him.”

“Hey!”

Shinwoo, facing the crisis of losing his status as fiancé, was no longer the Shinwoo of old. Shinwoo, whose strengths used to be his gentle and intellectual nature, now refused to talk to anyone. The family members, who used to bloom with laughter every day after the missing haenang and the young lady returned, were lately only walking on eggshells around Shinwoo.

“Where are you going?”

“Forget it. Even if I ask you, you won’t tell me anyway.”

“Hey!”

It was useless to stop Shinwoo, who was walking away without even putting on his sneakers. Shinwoo, who had lived thinking that becoming the son-in-law of Nanjubeol was the greatest position of his life, looked virtually betrayed. Bloodlust surged in his brown eyes, which had lost their brilliance. Watching his back as he ran off undeterred by his friend’s dissuasion, Chaho bit his fingernails.

“At this rate… something bad might happen to Jangsi.”

Chasing after him and grabbing Shinwoo’s wrist was something only an amateur would do. Changing his mind, Chaho sprinted toward the residence where the young lady was. Only the moon would know which of the two would arrive faster.

🌹₊ ⊹

“Stop….”

Saying it while knowing it wouldn’t work was nothing more than throwing a tantrum. It was the inner pathway of the residence, locked tight through the middle gate so that no one except Yeonrye came and went. In a place lush with only trees and flowers, Chaehwa had her lips stolen. She hadn’t called him here for this, but it wasn’t a completely unexpected event either. Even in the fist pushing against his rock-hard shoulders, there was hardly any anger. Closing his eyes as if swallowing something delicious, Yirok brought his lips against hers once more.

“Hey….”

To kiss in a place where they used to play land-grabbing games since they were little kids. It was a embarrassment embarrassing enough to make her faint. Had she not checked on Yeonrye sleeping soundly with snoring sounds beforehand, her heart would have shrunk to the size of a bean. Yirok, who had called her saying he had something to tell her, grabbed her wrist the moment he arrived.

As if he had scouted out an empty spot in the morning, didn’t he lock the middle gate shut and kiss her? The man who used to be taciturn as if carrying the weight of the world was like an unleashed beast. It was even more outrageous that he told her to say so if she disliked it. Was that something to say while blocking lips with lips?

“I said, stop it already.”

“I don’t want to.”

“…My lips hurt.”

He seemed to have forgotten even the time to go eat dinner, focusing solely on kissing. It wasn’t something to brag about, but the man brought in as her fiancé was living in the main house. It was her grandmother, not her, who had brought him in, yet she was the only one enduring his vent of anger. Falling away upon hearing that it hurt, Yirok didn’t let it slide carelessly. Rolling his thumb over her rose-red lips, he inspected them meticulously. It wasn’t the behavior of a man who had just been impudently crashing his lips against hers.

Chaehwa didn’t dislike his behavior of resolving his jealousy through her lips. To the extent that she wanted to report his double life to the family members who were full of praise for him being mature.

“Why do you keep kissing me like this? Huh? I… I should give permission first.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course. You really need to watch movies with me or something. In those, you know, they do it all after getting permission.”

She was unsatisfied with her own plight, trapped in Yirok’s arms and yielding only her lips. She was also unsatisfied with Yirok, who skipped saying he liked her and only exploited her lips. It seemed like it would hurt him to say things like he missed her or that she was pretty.

A pine tree-solid gaze remained tied to Chaehwa’s lips as she pulled her head back. Feeling as though the moon floating in the sky was covering its lips and laughing, Chaehwa’s cheeks burned hot. Even so, she couldn’t bring herself to brush away his thumb, which kept fiddling with her lips.

“So… aren’t you going to say anything?”

A kiss too insignificant to be called a kiss in that instant cut Chaehwa off. Even the sound of the peck was light and bashful. She had mistakenly thought she was the only one going wild while Yirok remained nonchalant. But when she opened her eyes wide, she saw Yirok’s face, flushed just as much as hers. With his lips rashly attached, Yirok spoke.

“Will you give permission?”

“…Is this, right now, asking for permission?”

“Do you dislike me?”

It wasn’t a question asking if she disliked the kiss, but if she disliked him. Blinking her eyes, Chaehwa couldn’t scold him for his rash words and actions. Rather, she was at the point of enjoying this moment of committing a bad deed behind her grandmother’s back like a game. Truthfully, she liked Yirok. She liked that he grabbed her wrist and kissed her the moment he crossed the middle gate of the residence. She only hated Yirok’s attitude of acting as if saying he liked her was forbidden.

“I like it…. You can do it.”

“Should I receive tomorrow’s in advance too?”

“You’re going to do it tomorrow too?”

“Yeah.”

At his firm answer, she merely swallowed her saliva hard. Demanding only her lips without asking a single thing about the engagement. Her heart, beating fast because she liked such a rogue-like man, was utterly foolish. Chaehwa shut her eyes tightly as a sign that was no different from permission.

“You’re going to do it… more, right?”

It felt as though his ticklish laughter passed into the ears of the tense Chaehwa. A kiss, softer than at first, was just settling onto her lips. Thump, thump, thump, a knocking sound out of place with the atmosphere was shaking the middle gate.

“Young Lady!”

Realizing it was Chaho’s voice, the two whose lips separated exchanged bewildered glances. The buzzkilling thump, thump, thump sound wrinkled Yirok’s eyebrows. In any case, that Chaho fellow had never been of any help in his life.