If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 24

A day to catch the pig had been set. When a request came to Nanjubeol from the outside, the outing date, also known as the ‘pig-catching day,’ was passed on to the haenangs. The term originated from using the request fee to catch a pig and feed the whole village, and so to speak, the haenangs were the knife-wielders who slit the pig’s throat.

The other day, as soon as the jiju delivered the news that the ‘pig-catching day’ had arrived, the apprentice haenangs went for night prayers. They would go out at 9 p.m. and offer their prayers sincerely until the lights-out bell rang. Since this outing was their first ‘pig-catching,’ weren’t they all excited at the thought of tasting the forbidden outside world?

But just as they were about to set off with their shared lanterns, the dormitory door opened as if on cue. The one who had broken the mood and entered was Yirok, freshly released from the yeongju.

Shinwoo particularly remembered his gaze as he looked at the entire group of haenangs as if interrogating them. Holding a peculiar flowerpot, he made eye contact with the haenangs as if he had some other intention.

It was somehow different from his previous gloomy, sarcastic self. In the end, Shinwoo, unable to concentrate on the night prayers, excused himself and returned early to the dormitory, to the room where Yirok had returned.

Yirok, back in the dorm, seemed to have washed up, with a towel around his neck and wearing a light short-sleeved t-shirt. He was watering the flowerpot with a blue toothbrush cup. Shinwoo, who had entered carefully and closed the door, pretended to be passing by and observed his features.

Had he gotten a little taller? His face, which was already annoyingly handsome, was particularly vibrant today. He was in the middle of taking his arms out of his outerwear, thinking of a pleasant greeting.

“Shinwoo.”

Confronted with Yirok’s words without any warm-up, Shinwoo’s lips just quivered ungracefully. The task of watering with the toothbrush cup seemed to be over, and he looked slightly tired.

“Did you call me?”

“I need a place that’s not cold but gets good sunlight… this, is it okay to grow it in the room?”

He briefly wondered if Yirok’s flowerpot, which he showed off as if boasting while saying ‘this,’ was a high-level provocation. The combination of Nanjubeol’s official punk and a flowerpot was, after all, incongruous. Shinwoo erased his reluctant thoughts and replied kindly.

“Um, how about the first-floor window then? It’s not that I don’t want you to grow it in the room… I just think the first floor will be more convenient for watering.”

Despite his unconvincing words, Yirok didn’t argue. He parted with the flowerpot, put the toothbrush cup back, and went to his bed. It was a sorry thing to say to Yirok, who was resting comfortably as if he were at his hometown, but Shinwoo saw today as a chance to peel back his onion-like layers. Licking his dry lips, he slowly began.

“Yirok. I have something I’m curious about.”

“…”

“Did you get along well with the Young Miss?”

“Who?”

Yirok’s eyes, as he asked back in a hoarse voice, were half-closed. His disheveled hair from lying face down covered Yirok’s eyes. Facing Yirok, who was pressing his face into the pillow as if to suffocate himself, Shinwoo gave up on unbuttoning his shirt.

“The Young Miss. Young Miss Chaehwa.”

“What was the question.”

“I asked if you got along well. With the Young Miss.”

Yirok then brushed back his annoying hair and shook his head. As his eyes curved as if reminiscing about his past days with the Young Miss, Shinwoo, who was watching, suddenly felt his mood sour and asked.

“You must have made up with the Young Miss for the yeongju to be released, right?”

Yirok, who had been lying down as if about to fall asleep, lifted his face completely as if he had changed his mind. In the end, Shinwoo couldn’t take off his shirt and plopped down on the bed. It was to match his eye level with Yirok, who was lying down.

“Don’t do that with the Young Miss again. The pig-catching day is soon. The Young Miss’s condition can’t get bad.”

Again, when the other person spoke, he just watched as if writing down expenses in a ledger. Shinwoo probably wasn’t the only one who found that gaze, which only the one on the receiving end wouldn’t know, to be unpleasant. Not only was the inscrutable gaze annoying, but thinking of the Young Miss who had suffered for over a fortnight, he wanted to play a trick on him, even if it meant doing something he wouldn’t normally do. Just as he expected an attack, Yirok opened his mouth. His words were slow, so Shinwoo couldn’t miss them.

“Shinwoo. We’re still roommates.”

“…”

“In front of me, and behind my back, you only take one side.”

“This isn’t taking sides…”

“What did you say on the first day. Right… that’s it. You said to come find you if I had any problems.”

“Yirok.”

“But if I did go to you, I would have been beaten to a pulp. Unlike what you say… you’re, how should I put it, not trustworthy.”

Shinwoo’s ears turned red as if his true intentions had been exposed, and he gave an answer. Fortunately, his voice came out as steady as before.

“Kim Yirok. Listen to me first. It would be different between a haenang and a haenang. A haenang and the Young Miss are in a master-servant relationship. Furthermore, the Young Miss is not an ordinary person. If you don’t know that difference, you’ll just keep getting taken advantage of.”

“No. You just think you have to be taken advantage of. Honestly, that’s more comfortable for you too, isn’t it? I’m a bastard with nothing, and I’m not from some great family. I know.”

“I’m not like that…”

“Wait. It’s annoying, so let’s stop talking.”

“What?”

“I knew you were a coward from the beginning… let’s just sleep.”

Even as Yirok blew out the candle with a puff of his breath, he held Shinwoo’s gaze until the end. In the room blanketed by darkness, Shinwoo was trying to sort out his complicated thoughts. As if to mock Shinwoo, who had briefly been taken in thinking Yirok had changed, he had returned, upgraded in a bad way.

Shinwoo, taking a step back, changed into his slippers and shot up from his seat. A wave of heat washed over him as he gathered his toiletries with the intention of using the first-floor bathroom.

“You’re receiving special treatment from the Young Miss because you’re an outsider. You’re different from us. We all feel sorry for ignoring and ostracizing you. That’s why no one objected when you said you would come tomorrow.”

Somehow knowing that Chaho had said he’d burn his fingers if he came, Yirok had abruptly announced his attendance. The general consensus was that he wouldn’t come, that there was no need to even ask, but Yirok had meekly replied, ‘I’ll go.’ Everyone was surprised, but the most surprised of all was Shinwoo. Yirok’s gaze had a different texture than before, and he wondered if he had been intimidated by the Young Miss’s aura.

“Anyway, I was sorry for being a coward.”

Wanting to return that sarcastic tone just once, Shinwoo pushed himself. But by not giving a reply, Yirok simply insulted him. Slamming the door shut, Shinwoo walked down the hallway with anger-laced steps.

Punk bastard.

A swear word he had never used in his life clung to his tongue like honey. As he went down the stairs as if in a race, Shinwoo recalled the scene that had kept him awake for days. The Young Miss frolicking in the winter pond, and Yirok, stuck to her like her closest shadow. The unpleasant memory he had vomited up during his dawn prayers made him nauseous again.

Yirok was indeed a punk bastard not worth dealing with. That day, Shinwoo stopped trying to peel the onion-like layers of Yirok.

🌹₊ ⊹

Handwriting, more than one might think, was a good indicator of a person. Not everyone with a kind personality had neat handwriting, but the feeling one got from the handwriting could sometimes represent the person.

The roundish script, the tone—was it more likely to be a woman than a man? He didn’t know.

There were four female haenangs staying in the same dormitory. He had met three of them before the sleeping grass incident. The remaining one, he had seen in passing, but he couldn’t remember her features in detail.

Yirok designated the first-floor windowsill as the flowerpot’s spot and watered it every morning. He wasn’t growing it with the expectation of harvesting flowers or fruits. He just liked the act of pouring water into the pot itself. This was his own, independent hobby, unrelated to Chaehwa.

Yirok placed the pot, now moist with water, in a sunny spot. Standing by the wide-open first-floor window, he saw four haenangs walking like deer through the pine nut forest. They were the female haenangs, dressed in neat sky-blue shirts and blue skirts.

“Let’s go faster.”

“The sikhye is going to be delicious.”

Three of them were roaring with laughter, waving broken branches like conductor’s batons, but one was walking far apart like a beaten handmaiden. Yirok, not knowing what the relationship between the four was, fixed his gaze on the one following behind.

But just as Yirok, unable to find any particular peculiarities, was putting away the borrowed watering can, the female haenang who had been singing about the crock sikhye dropped one of her belongings. Naturally, the haenang following behind picked up the belonging, which appeared to be a mirror. Perhaps they called for her to come get it, as the three in front stopped and looked back.

“It’s fine.”

Instead of being grateful for having her item found, the girl who had dropped the mirror brushed her hands as if in a fit. Then, after whispering amongst themselves, one, two, three, they ran off. The remaining haenang walked over as if looking for the dormitory trash can and saw Yirok standing behind the window.

Yirok, who had put down the watering can, saw the startled eyes of the haenang with shaggy bangs. Bangs so thick they covered her eyelids, long hair that reached her waist—the woman, with an appearance that could easily be mistaken for a ghost, fumbled in front of the trash can.

When Yirok didn’t look away, the woman took an awkward step and turned around. Yirok’s eyes, which had been following her steps as she looked only at the ground, sparkled for a moment.

The insider who returned the red envelope. The girl who doesn’t belong and is an outcast in Nanjubeol.