If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 11

The wind chime hung last year swayed with the breeze that had wound its way through the back mountain valley. The winter wind and sun fought without an inch of concession, so the snow in the yard had only half-melted. The kitchen matron, saying the weather had warmed up, began to hang the laundry outside. Walking under the magnificent sight of white blankets billowing and dancing, Chaehwa played an upbeat dance song. Her grandmother had sent word two days ago that she was returning, and the ever-watchful Granny Yomyung had secretly handed her the hidden cell phone.

Once her grandmother, who suspected her granddaughter’s phone addiction, arrived, she wouldn’t be able to play so freely. Today, her heart was as full as a New Year’s dumpling with the thought of lying on her stomach on the warm bedroom floor and playing on her phone.

She skipped class with the excuse of a headache and went straight to the kitchen to get a bowl of corn puffs. After she beat the next level of <Star Knight>, which she hadn’t finished last time, she would watch a romantic movie. Just as her flower shoes were about to reach the sky at the thought of enjoying a rare moment of peace…

“You again?”

Chaehwa, who was running with the bowl of corn puffs, stopped dead in her tracks at the sound of the voice. She had run right into Yirok, who, like her, was coming out of the kitchen holding a stolen slice of bread. But unable to understand the meaning of the abrupt “You again?” Chaehwa shoveled a handful of sweet corn puffs into her mouth and said,

“What about me?”

“My shoes.”

This was truly a case of a crow flying by just as a pear falls. Yirok, on his way out of the kitchen, looked back and forth between the empty stone step where his shoes had been and Chaehwa. It was true she had been gleefully tormenting him for the past few days, but the matter of the shoes was truly unfair. When she shook her head ‘no,’ Yirok squinted one eye as if looking at a deadbeat.

“Bring them.”

“I don’t have them. I told you I didn’t do it!”

“Hah… you really know how to wear a person out.”

“The heavens will be angry. I’m telling you, it really wasn’t me! Why is he blaming an innocent person?”

The great Chaehwa stealing a pair of sneakers was like hearing a nine-tailed fox had become a vegetarian. Hiding his eraser, stepping on his foot, not giving him a pen, telling the other haenangs not to talk to him—she had done all that, but she was innocent of the shoe crime. Besides, the main event for today was corn puffs and a lovely private date with her cell phone.

But Yirok, who had stepped down from the stone step in his black socks, seemed determined to ruin that day. Sensing a crisis, Chaehwa turned to flee from Yirok, who was closing the distance with his long-legged strides.

“Kim Yirok! Let me down! How dare you…!”

However, Yirok, who had walked onto the snow in his socks, used one arm to effortlessly lift Chaehwa. In that brief moment, Chaehwa, slung over his shoulder like a sack of rice, beat his back in surrender.

“Are you insane? I told you it wasn’t me!”

Yirok silently grabbed the flailing Chaehwa’s ankle. With a businesslike touch, he separated Chaehwa’s flower shoes and beoseon socks, creating a divided family. His task complete, Yirok dropped Chaehwa onto the snowfield without a second thought.

“Ah! Cold!”

Meeting the snow with her beoseon-clad feet, Chaehwa hopped around like a child who desperately needed to pee. It was the first time in her life she had received such treatment, and she was utterly terrified. Then she saw him. Yirok, stuffing his feet into her kidnapped flower shoes. Seeing the heels of her precious flower shoes getting crushed, Chaehwa’s jaw dropped.

“Don’t crush the heels!”

“Bring me my shoes.”

“I told you it wasn’t me.”

So unfairly accused, her spit flew and a transparent wetness welled up in her eyes. But Yirok, having been on the receiving end before, chewed on his bread and told her to stop lying.

“Bring my shoes. I’m going to wear these until you do.”

“Those, those are my favorites.”

“Mine were my fucking favorites, too. They were the only pair I had.”

At his gaze, which branded her a shoe thief, Chaehwa’s nose turned red. I should have stopped teasing him. Kim Yirok’s exterior was clean, but his heart was as worn out as a building slated for demolition. To think she would become the girl who cried wolf just trying to brighten her own boring day.

“Wait a minute!”

Before she could even stammer out an explanation, Yirok disappeared coolly, holding the bread like a magpie. Time was short. To save her dying flower shoes, she absolutely needed Yirok’s sneakers.

She ducked her head to see if they had fallen behind the stone step, wondered if another haenang had stolen them, and searched the kitchen shoe rack as if looking for lice. But every hand she was dealt was a bluff, and every place she went was a bust. After 10 minutes, fed up with everything, Chaehwa sat on the edge of the kitchen entrance and rubbed her frozen feet.

“Young Lady. Do your feet hurt?”

“No, my shoes are gone….”

Someone walking down the path next to the kitchen greeted her warmly. Chaehwa stopped her tattling because of the black sneakers in the kitchen matron’s hand. Judging by the size and worn-out look, the sneakers belonged to Kim Yirok. Chaehwa immediately stepped onto the stone step, launched herself into the air, and snatched the sneakers from the matron’s hand.

“Oh my, oh my!”

“This! This! This belongs to that Yirok kid, right?”

“I accidentally spilled some gochujang on them, so I was just going to wash them quickly….”

“See this. I told you I was innocent! That punk, that kid, just you wait right there.”

“Me?”

“No!”

Chaehwa shoved her feet into Yirok’s sneakers, which didn’t fit, and plunged into the snowy path. The sneakers, with their extra space, slipped off and on, repeatedly scraping her heels. Just you wait, just you wait, she repeated the words, which were somewhere between a vow and a curse, over and over again.

“Kim Yirok!”

After a frantic search, the shoe thief was caught without much difficulty. He too was wearing shoes that didn’t fit. Leaning against a wall, Yirok was discovered looking down at the flower shoes that were as small as his palm. Forgetting that her shoes had been stolen, Chaehwa called out to him, joyful at having finally found him.

“Yirok! You punk!”

Chaehwa’s way of speaking, having grown up surrounded by her grandmother and matrons, was unique, but that was none of Yirok’s concern. It was a manner of speech that only came out when she was excited, one that Chaehwa was usually embarrassed by, but that too was none of Yirok’s concern.

It was just that Yirok found it funny, seeing Chaehwa running like a goose in sneakers that were too big and loose. The combination of a silk skirt and worn-out sneakers made his anger from 10 minutes ago a thing of the past. Her running speed was that of a snail, but her form was impressive. She was like a puppy that the village elders took turns feeding.

“This, look at this! I didn’t steal them, see? How could you make someone feel so wronged that they can’t even eat their corn puffs?”

Yirok placed the flower shoes in front of Chaehwa’s ridiculous sneakers as she caught her breath. The shoes, with their dainty decorations and small size, were ones Yirok couldn’t walk far in. Moreover, the heels had shown signs of being damaged, so he had started to repair them himself. By kneading them with his hands, he had restored their shape to some extent. And fortunately, it seemed Chaehwa had no interest in the flower shoes right now.

“Hurry up and apologize to me so we can put this incident to rest.”

“Apologize for what?”

“For ‘what’?”

Chaehwa’s tirade grew longer as she fumed, calling him a ‘shameless and petty shoe thief.’ In the middle of being berated, Yirok bent his knees. Then, he plucked Chaehwa’s foot, which had no intention of returning the sneaker, as if pulling a radish. Of course, Chaehwa was too busy chattering away to point out the rude gesture.

“The kitchen matron spilled gochujang on them, so she was just going to wipe them clean for a moment. This must not be the only misunderstanding you have about me, is it? Huh?”

“Left foot.”

“It would have been more comfortable for both of us if you had accepted my goodwill as goodwill. And what did you say?”

“Lift your left foot.”

“Ah, left foot.”

When she absentmindedly lifted her left foot, the flower shoe, its heel now a tiny bit misshapen, was returned. Chaehwa’s whining lecture slowly dissolved as she looked at the black-socked foot that had stepped onto the snow. To sacrifice his own foot to put on the shoes of the girl who cried wolf. Only then did the flower shoes, now fitting snugly on her left and right feet, come into view.

“So… why did you just take someone else’s shoes and wear them like that, without even hearing the circumstances.”

And then he just drags his own shoes over with his foot and shoves them on carelessly. He was truly an incomprehensible person.

“Leaving.”

It meant he was leaving now, so she should stop jabbering to herself. The back of him as he left was cold, as if the kindness of putting on her flower shoes for her had been a momentary whim. Chaehwa, who had followed him as soon as he took a step, had to stop. Yirok, anticipating she would follow, had stopped, turned around, and extended his arm. Then, with a firm finger, he flicked Chaehwa on the forehead.

“Ah!”

“I told you not to follow me. Are you a child?”

Pushed by the insulting words and the hand that shoved her forehead, she was backed into a corner. She clutched her forehead and seethed behind the back of Yirok, who was dragging his sneakers like slippers.

“If you don’t apologize for swearing at me, you’ll really get what’s coming to….”

Cursing is only satisfying when there’s someone to listen, someone who will be affected. Where could she go to complain about this situation where the roles of the master’s young lady and a haenang were reversed? In that short time, the stubborn back of the one who wouldn’t listen had already disappeared down the path to the dorms.

“I will live to see the day you say ‘thank you’ to my face.”

However, contrary to her vow, the misunderstanding between Chaehwa and Yirok continued to pile up like dust on a windowsill. When they ran into each other again not even half a day later, Yirok had recoiled as if he’d seen a talking rat and brushed past her.

Am I really that awful that he shudders at the mere sight of me?

No matter how she tried to take the situation cheerfully, how could being treated like a stalker or a germ be okay? When she thought about it, the shoe incident wasn’t that unpleasant of an experience. The touch was formal and emotionless, but it wasn’t completely devoid of a positive signal. If she looked hard enough, she could see one faintly. Stealing her shoes and then putting them on for her- that was the prickly Yirok’s own way of showing interest.

Chaehwa, who interpreted that as a sign of improving relations, had even sworn to the heavens, however briefly, that she would stop being mean. But the next day, and the day after that, Yirok walked around with his face openly scrunched up in disgust. Nowhere in that expression could she find a ‘positively’ improved relationship.

Therefore, Chaehwa was mortifyingly embarrassed. Hadn’t she forgiven Yirok, been moved by him, and made a huge fuss all by herself? His frosty expression and unkind words gathered into a lump and sat on top of Chaehwa’s head. It was a weight more than enough to rob her of her peaceful night’s sleep.

This won’t do.

Finally, after staying awake with her eyes open until 3 AM, Chaehwa kicked off her blanket, got up, and turned off the humidifier. She was drenched in sweat, but her eyes were clearer than yesterday when she had been searching for positivity.

Starting tomorrow, I won’t give you a single thought. The sound of her grinding her molars replaced her dawn prayers that day.