If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 27

Tomorrow’s weather is expected to be sunny, but there might be news of rain. A rainy day with dark clouds and the moon is a day one would rather avoid since it makes a Yogwi stronger. However, weather like overcast skies with rain clouds didn’t matter to Chaehwa at all. The weather had no effect on her ability to summon and command a Yogwi.

On the day before the pig hunt, the dinner table was laden with side dishes like stir-fried spicy pork, boiled pork slices, pork cutlet, cold pig’s trotters, and pork neck kimchi stew. On the ‘pig-hunting day’ itself, one could almost understand if the slaughtered pig’s resentment built up and turned it into a Yogwi.

“Young Miss. It’ll be a disaster if you go too far. You need to bathe to avoid any misfortune….”

“I know!”

“And you must wear clean clothes! You can’t fall!”

Yeonrye cried out forlornly at the back of Chaehwa, who wasn’t paying any attention to her nagging. While it was a characteristic of warriors to be fond of superstitions, Yeonrye’s case was severe. Perhaps because she had only ever seen and grown up with superstitions, she was reluctant to let Chaehwa go outside even when it just rained.

Chaehwa was tired of Yeonrye’s care, which started every time a pig-hunting day was scheduled and felt like she was being forcibly wrapped in a sack under the authority of her grandmother. It was something she had been doing since she was a mere seven years old. Chaehwa, who had a 100% win rate, sometimes felt that Yeonrye’s or her grandmother’s excessive worry was like a cheap play.

“Young Miss.”

“Hello.”

But this pig-hunting day was different. Receiving the lively morning greetings from her family, she hid what she had brought behind her back. The weight of the clumpy soil felt good in her palm.

It was more endearing and interesting than the pig-hunting day that was to take place tomorrow. Chaehwa’s smile brightened as she took steps towards the dormitory nestled in the pine nut forest.

In the Nanjubeol mansion, Chaehwa’s eyes and ears were planted in the form of birds and people. Among the news that flowed to the keen-eared Chaehwa was news of a flowerpot. News of a barren pot filled only with soil.

“There he is.”

Her feet tingled when she heard that Yirok might forget his breakfast but never forgot to water the pot she gave him in the morning. Since it was a pot chosen on impulse, its contents couldn’t possibly be healthy. It was pointless to pour a hundred days of devotion into a tin pot filled with nothing but dirt. Chaehwa was planning to take responsibility and plant a new flower sprout for him.

However, upon entering the pine nut tree path, Chaehwa had no choice but to watch her cute plan fail before her very eyes. It was an unexpected mutation. First, she saw Yirok standing by the first-floor window, watering the pot. It was the aforementioned pot. And in the pot, a small sprout that made her hands feel ashamed was growing.

Yirok, wearing a handmade shirt from the Nanjubeol dressing room, was making eye contact with the sprout. Had some unknown hybrid seed been in the pot? The shoddy care instructions of watering it once a day had somehow worked. As if it were a steel seed, it was growing vigorously even in the harsh winter environment. The replacement operation had thus met with failure before she could even make a move.

Chaehwa quickly hid the small pot she was holding behind a pine nut tree. Like a graceful young miss, she could have cleanly admitted defeat and left to take her bath. But Chaehwa’s choice was to remain in front of the pine nut tree, lingering with regret. She couldn’t take her eyes off Yirok, who looked as if he were trapped in a wooden frame.

Yirok, seen through the glass window, looked different from usual. Was it because the embroidered collar of his dress shirt suited him so well? Or was it because his smiling face while tending to the pot was unfamiliar? What was Yirok thinking as he carefully watered a weed whose name he didn’t even know?

The peaceful morning sunlight settled on the sprout and on him. Someone’s warm smile could change the season. Today, for Chaehwa, was not a lonely winter but a sweltering summer.

“Oh.”

Just then, Yirok, putting down the watering can, looked out the window. She was caught red-handed. Her feet wouldn’t move even after their eyes met and they recognized each other, and she was mortified. Yirok furrowed his brow, as if finding the statue-like Chaehwa, who seemed to be honoring the pine nut tree, strange.

After a moment of dizzying eye contact, Yirok disappeared from the first-floor window. He seemed to have gone back to his room. Instead of dwelling on the missed morning greeting, Chaehwa also thought of leaving.

She was about to run as if fleeing from an embarrassing situation. Just then, the dormitory door creaked open as if pushed by the wind, alluringly catching Chaehwa’s attention. She wasn’t in the mood for a friendly greeting with Yirok and struggled against it, but she stopped running.

Instead, she lifted her skirt that was wrapping around her ankles and went to the front of the dormitory. At the door she had arrived at, unable to resist temptation, there was no one to greet Chaehwa.

“Yirok. Come out.”

Wasn’t this the young Haenangs’ dormitory, an awkward place for the young master of Nanjubeol to open the door and enter in broad daylight? But when Yirok didn’t show even a sliver of his face, Chaehwa momentarily set aside her dignity. Scratching her head and looking around, she slipped her flower shoes into the dormitory just like a stray cat.

As she was admiring the pale yellow wallpaper that her grandmother had gone to great lengths to put up and the high staircase that went up to the fourth floor, she felt a hand. A hand that turned the spectating Chaehwa’s shoulder and pulled her back outside.

“Wh-what.”

She couldn’t resist even as she was pulled away as lightly as a dust ball. It wasn’t because of the firm hand. The strong scent of apricot soap barely stopped Chaehwa’s scream.

“Kim Yirok!”

Chaehwa, who had been snubbed at the door, turned around and slapped his hand away. Yirok, who was blocking the door with a cynical smile that made her wonder if the scene she just saw was a dream, spoke.

“Who was it, that Halmeom.”

“You mean Old Lady Yomyung?”

“She said, don’t let the young miss come in for three days. Wait a moment.”

She knew the entire household was frantic about her getting bad luck, but to think they would even block her from entering the dormitory. Besides, if he was going, he should go, and if not, then not; what was this about telling her to wait like she was some dog out for a walk?

Chaehwa expressed her dissatisfaction by kicking the dormitory entrance with her flower shoes. Thinking about it again, there was no need to listen to Yirok, who was clearly trying to tease her. The words about bad luck couldn’t stop the angered Chaehwa.

“Am I a dog….”

Chaehwa, who was about to make Yirok sit down and scold him harshly, was taken aback. When she pushed the door, she saw Yirok. Moreover, Yirok was calmly tying something to his shirt collar. Chaehwa’s brow furrowed on its own at the blue color of the talisman.

“What are you doing?”

“She told me to wear a talisman if I was going to meet you. That….”

“‘Old Lady Yomyung’.”

Yirok couldn’t even be bothered to remember the name of the person who had guided him on his first day. On the coat rack in the first-floor entrance hung as many talismans as there were residents in the dormitory. Her face grew hot watching Yirok tie the talisman like a necktie. No matter how much of an assignment it had been after three months, her grandmother’s overreaction was severe. Chaehwa shivered and opened the dormitory door to leave.

Under the name of overprotection, her grandmother, Old Lady Yomyung, and her nanny had all done something shameful. Treating her like a three-year-old who can’t control her bladder, then turning a blind eye. Her parents had died due to Maengmusa’s trickery, but that was an old story from more than 17 years ago. To hang talismans around the necks of the Haenangs she played with as friends. Watching Yirok casually putting on the talisman felt like a disgrace to the family.

“Why?”

“Aack!”

Chaehwa, who was suppressing her anger, jumped in surprise at the whispering voice. She quickly recovered from her frog-like posture, but her startled heart was still racing. The pork she ate in the morning must have been bad. Her solar plexus ached slightly when she saw Yirok leaning against the door.

“Yirok, you, why are you whispering in people’s ears and causing a ruckus.”

“I asked why you came, but you were just standing there with your mouth open…. So I bothered to ask again. Why?”

“I? Came? Where, here? Why? Let’s see? A walk?”

Chaehwa, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment, stepped backward. Using her frantically moving feet, Chaehwa tried to put as much distance between them as possible. But the farther away she got, the more Yirok’s face broke into a smile. She knew he was thinking how absurd this was, but pitifully, a smile was no help in a situation like this.

After continuing her ridiculous backward steps until she thought she had created a good deal of distance, Chaehwa pointed a finger at Yirok.

“That talisman has no effect. It’s just a piece of paper with words written on it.”

Yirok glanced at the talisman tied like a necktie, then looked back at Chaehwa. His eyes curved as he looked at Chaehwa, as if he had heard a funny joke.

“I know.”

“From now on… I-I’m going to be watching you.”

“You’re leaving?”

“Of course. Obviously. You don’t think I came here because I had business with you, do you?”

It was the worst behavior and a pathetic expression. Yirok, who had been watching Chaehwa’s clumsy one-woman show with his arms crossed, went inside. What was with that guy, who usually had a tongue laced with venom when bored, being so generous with his smiles today?

“Bye.”

And of all things, the wind had to carry his greeting to her. Bye, he said, and only after the door closed did Chaehwa clutch her chest.

To think that the sly Yirok would actually keep his word and say goodbye.

“Grandmother was right.”

It seemed her compatibility with Yirok wasn’t good. Her emotions couldn’t be suppressed, like a yawn or a hiccup. Her stomach churned as if she were crossing a shaky bridge in a downpour.

The indigestion that day only went away after she skipped lunch and dinner. It was an odd and untimely flowerpot commotion.