If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 46

What awakened Yirok these days wasn’t the sound of Shinwoo’s alarm clock. The vibration of his phone whimpered from his bedside, waking Yirok from his sleep. Yirok fumbled for his phone and turned off the alarm. It was a feature Chaehwa had taught him the day before yesterday. The method for setting the phone’s alarm was relatively simple, but in return, Yirok had to help her with math problems 4 through 8. It wasn’t a bad trade. He no longer had to rely on Shinwoo’s alarm clock.

「Meditate when you wake up! Don’t forget!」

By the time he had washed up in the bathroom and was about to iron his clothes, a nagging text arrived from Chaehwa, who had overslept and just woken up. Yirok stopped ironing and replied with a broad smile on his face.

「And are you?」

Even the sparrows and magpies knew that the Young Miss who stressed the importance of morning meditation was the biggest sleepyhead in all of Nanjubeol. A message from Chaehwa arrived in less than a minute, as if she had replied the moment she saw his.

「I’m a model student ㅡ,,ㅡ you’re a remedial student, duhh. Help me with the math test later」

Yirok closed his phone, amused by the Young Miss who had given up on studying and was only improving her cheating skills. His own smile reflected in the black screen felt unfamiliar. Around the time he was finishing up the cuffs of his pants, Shinwoo, having just washed up, returned to the room and made a racket tidying his desk. Although they weren’t looking at each other, they could feel an unusual tension in the air. Yirok turned off the iron and draped the ironed pants over his arm.

He wanted to get dressed quickly and head to class. But just as Yirok turned to pass by, Shinwoo stuck out his foot. Yirok, who almost tripped and fell, stared at Shinwoo with a blank expression. Then, Shinwoo, with an unusually friendly smile, leaned against the desk and spoke.

“It’s nice to see you getting along with the Young Miss. I heard she got you that phone, too.”

“Shinwoo.”

“Yeah?”

“Just a second.”

“Why… Ah!”

It was only human nature to repay kindness with double the kindness when someone started a fight with a friendly smile. Yirok mercilessly stomped on Shinwoo’s vulnerably placed foot. He ground his heel into it with force, then stepped back refreshingly.

“Now, talk.”

“Ha. You’re crazy.”

He was about to nod a goodbye to Shinwoo, whose eyes had widened in disbelief.

But the habits of one who cowardly reveals their true nature don’t just disappear. As he opened the door to leave, a cold warning came from behind.

“I’ll put up with it until the end of this year. But starting next year, things will get a little difficult for you, too.”

The realization that the year wasn’t even over yet made Yirok laugh. Holding the door he was about to exit, Yirok raised his middle finger. He waved it at Shinwoo’s face, which was as sharp as the point of a needle, and then walked out into the hallway.

But his mood had already been ruined right at the start of the morning. Yirok swallowed a sigh as he walked down the stairs. Even a sigh felt like a waste. He didn’t know if he’d be alive until next year, or in what way Sarira would harm Chaehwa next year.

Feeling pathetic for smiling so happily as if he were innocent, Yirok desperately craved a utility knife. It felt like his heart would feel better if he could just make a clean cut across his arm.

He slowly descended the stairs, thinking of a certain indifferent Young Miss who had taken away even his beloved utility knife.

🌹₊ ⊹

When you gather the slowly passing days, a whole year has gone by before you know it. That isn’t just a characteristic of Nanjubeol. It could be called a characteristic of Chukjangji, where one doesn’t need to look at a calendar to get through a season. And Chaho, from that damned, unchanging Chukjangji, had heard the words “useless for being born a man” so much they were etched into his bones.

It was customary for a woman to carry on the line of a warrior family, and a man could only hope to be sent to Haenang to become another family’s son-in-law or a respectable Haenang. At least the Nanjubeol family had class and didn’t discriminate between male and female Haenangs. But honestly, that was a result Shinwoo and Chaho had achieved through effort; it hadn’t changed the overall structure of the warrior world.

Even if the other female Haenangs were below standard, the adults’ expectations for them were higher. Chaho and Shinwoo were treated as breeding studs to be sold off at a good price someday, or as potential sons-in-law.

Shinwoo, with his great ambition, seemed to have other plans, but Chaho had no other dreams. His was a life where he would have no regrets even if he grew old and died as the respectable Haenang the elders wished for.

Except for one thing.

Chaho, who had skipped lunch and gotten a slice of bread from the kitchen, waited for someone by the stone wall path. He was imitating someone who survived on bread for all three meals.

“Hey.”

The wait was more than worth it. Juhee, who hadn’t seen Chaho because she was walking with her head down, stopped with a start. The half-wit who couldn’t even properly fasten her coat in the winter was the object of his one-sided love.

“Why are you carrying that around? You won’t be able to give it to him anyway.”

Juhee wasn’t being bullied; she chose to be an outcast. One could call that the words of a cowardly bystander, but it was the truth. He had been rejected by Juhee several times when he tried to approach her. He knew, intellectually, that Juhee needed time. Although he felt she was being too harsh on him, a childhood friend, he tried to respect her wishes as a person.

Ever since Juhee failed to exorcise the demon that had entered her body and began sharing a body with it, their relationship was not what it was in their childhood. It was Juhee who had cast him aside like a dried anchovy for soup stock when he tried to talk to her. And she had no idea the kind of ascetic patience he was practicing, to be giggling with that damn outsider male. To think she carried around fruit sent from her family, eagerly waiting for the day she could give it to the outsider. This was a betrayal, a knife in his back.

Chaho slowly pushed himself off the wall and walked towards Juhee. In Juhee’s arms were some well-shaped tangerines. Chaho nonchalantly stole a tangerine from her.

“Looks tasty. I’ll enjoy it. My lunch was meager anyway.”

“…You don’t like tangerines.”

Chaho’s hand, which had been peeling the tangerine, gradually slowed. Was it three years since he’d last heard Juhee’s voice? The last time was when she had cried and begged him not to come any closer. Chaho quickly erased the wounded look from his face and smiled vilely.

“So what? It’s a waste for me to eat it? You’re going to give them all to that outsider?”

“He… doesn’t have anything to eat. I’m worried.”

“Why are you worried about him?”

If Juhee had said something like, Because he’s pitiful, or, My mom told me to be nice to outsiders, Chaho’s heart would have felt a tiny bit better. But the words that came from a blushing Juhee were entirely different.

“He’s the first.”

“…The first what?”

It was then that he noticed Juhee’s bangs, which she had been busy using to cover her eyes, were a little shorter. He was at the point where he wanted to grab her by the collar and ask what on earth had happened to make her change so much. As Chaho’s mood soured and he was about to ask a sharp question, Juhee smiled shyly and held her tangerine basket, ready to back away.

“To not be scared even after seeing Yeonrye… he’s the first.”

He had planned to grind his teeth, tear her apart, and pour out all his resentful feelings. But Chaho could only stare at Juhee as if he had no mouth. Unaware that the tangerine in his hand had burst, Chaho clenched his fist.

That day was an accident.

[Such a promiscuous little thing. You think Juhee would like you? Shall I tell you about your lonely future? You pitiful son of the Yuhwa family.]

He had believed Juhee would be fine after the ritual. He had gone to see her in secret, but the demon, borrowing Juhee’s body, spoke to him. ‘Yeonrye,’ the demon with the pet name he and Juhee had given it, telling her not to be afraid.

He had only avoided her for a few days because he didn’t want to hear Yeonrye’s spiteful curses. But even if he downplayed it as a few days, would the responsibility for abandoning Juhee disappear?

Chaho could have easily endured the weight of his sin. If only it weren’t for that conceited outsider, if only Juhee’s cheeks hadn’t turned beet red, if only she hadn’t been wandering around at lunchtime to give away a basket of tangerines.

And the opportunity to repay the outsider for the humiliation of his one-sided love came to Chaho sooner than he thought.

“Hey.”

A shadow approached Chaho as he stood dazedly by the stone wall, wiping tangerine juice from his hand. It was Shinwoo, suffering from a one-sided love no less than his own. He must have lost his appetite too, as he had skipped lunch. It was a pity for the family members who lived in the kitchen day and night. How many of them were already wandering around without eating?

“What. Did the Young Miss ditch you to hang out with that outsider again?”

“Chaho.”

“Yeah.”

“Wanna play ball for the first time in a while?”

The flames of revenge sparked in Shinwoo’s eyes. He knew Shinwoo wasn’t in his right mind when it came to the Young Miss, but this time, he wanted to join in on that irrationality.

If they shared a common enemy, wasn’t it okay to do something bad together just once?

“Playing ball sounds good.”

At Chaho’s reply, Shinwoo’s smile returned as if he knew he would say that.

This was, so to speak, the jealousy of men. A very petty and childish jealousy. So, thinking nothing serious would happen, Chaho thought of it lightly.

Very, very lightly.