If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 59

As if it hated the approaching year-end, winter expressed its final struggle through rain. Though it wasn’t the long, heavy rain of a monsoon, it was the worst time for housekeepers who liked to hang their laundry outside. Only Chaehwa, unaffected by the weather, skipped around the mansion holding her favorite red umbrella. When bored, she’d tuck the umbrella handle between her neck and shoulder and tap on her phone screen.

「Yirororok where are you?」

For the past few days, Yirok had been busy going in and out. It would be fine to officially declare him fully recovered, but neither Yirok nor Chaehwa wanted that. It was better for Yirok to stay in the guest room, close to her own quarters, rather than the dorms.

Ting.

At the reply that arrived without much delay, Chaehwa’s footsteps stopped in front of a puddle.

「I’m busy, so you don’t have to come today」

Chaehwa was about to type a defiant reply but deleted the short sentence she had written.

Wasn’t it a publicly known fact that she had her own eyes and ears planted in the Nanjubeol mansion? Chaehwa did not hesitate to use the abilities she was given.

According to Shinwoo, he had made a basketball bet with Yirok over getting a single room. The path extending behind the dorms, turning left at the pine forest path, led to an open space good for playing badminton. It was said that one of the previous matriarchs had installed a basketball hoop and a badminton net to play with her husband. The energetic male Haenangs would often occupy the open space with a basketball on sunny days.

As Chaehwa’s red umbrella, carried by her brisk steps, flipped inside out in the wind, a scene that could not be taken lightly unfolded. It was right after she realized that the small dot moving around the basketball court was Yirok.

“That fool…”

Chaehwa’s gaze followed the running Yirok all the way to the right, then suddenly moved to the left. Yirok, running around in the rain with a body that seemed just about recovered, had started a new life with the basketball and the court. During the day, he studied math with the notes Chaehwa brought him, and at night, he studied the basketball.

Yirok’s body lifts slightly as he throws the ball into the hoop, then settles back down. The cheerful sound of the basketball passing through the net mingled with the sound of the rain.

As her red umbrella tilted in the wind and rain, something caught Chaehwa’s eye. Yirok, holding the basketball in his large hand, smiled in the rain. He was smiling. Smiling as if to celebrate a goal he had just made on impulse.

His hair was a mess from the rain, and his only jumper had lost its shape. But among all the unremarkable things, his smile was as precious as gold. The shape of his lips, which usually just curved into a smirk, looked like a crescent moon.

Thump, thump.

In time with the sound of the ball hitting the ground, Chaehwa’s heart began to protest. When Chaehwa touched her chest in surprise, it was hot, as if it wouldn’t be extinguished even by the rain. When Yirok flew towards the hoop again, Chaehwa closed her view with her umbrella.

The umbrella, patterned with camellia blossoms, fled from the court like a boat on a current. Chaehwa, running until the hem of her skirt was soaked in rainwater, only stopped and caught her breath when she reached the front of her quarters.

The ember in her heart, which the rain could not extinguish, began to make its voice heard. Even though she had run so far away, it tried to paint that smile in her mind. Unable to enter her quarters, Chaehwa’s phone rang like fate as she folded and unfolded her umbrella. A light came on in her message box, which was always dark. Her rain-soaked finger carefully pressed the message box.

「Sleep well」

The first text message to ever come first from him, who never replied. Chaehwa’s cheeks flushed at the gentle greeting, and she skipped replying and turned off her phone.

No matter how she thought about it, this was something the age of eighteen could not handle.

🌹₊ ⊹

Yirok, who woke up early and washed from head to toe, opened the window to check the weather. A rainless day. He threw a smile at the brightly shining sunlight and closed the window.

Before he knew it, there were only two days left until the day Shinwoo had promised. Unable to neglect his practice, Yirok devoted all his time to basketball, except for the time he spent eating breakfast and lunch. The morning was spent at the basketball court. He would be sure to return for lunch to receive his meal from Yeonrye, copy the notes Chaehwa had delivered into his own notebook, and then return to the basketball court to spend the night.

Today too, as Yirok was about to leave his room early, he ran into Yeonrye who was bringing his breakfast tray. Goodness gracious, he bowed his head and apologized to the startled Yeonrye who stepped back.

“My, my, where are you going without even eating breakfast.”

“For basketball…”

“Are you skipping breakfast? The young lady won’t like that. Why would you worry the young lady over something like that, you just worry her.”

Yirok, who happened to have something to ask, hid the basketball behind his back at the words ‘young lady’ and took a step closer to Yeonrye. Yeonrye, who was setting the tray with breakfast on the table, opened her eyes wide in surprise at the sudden shadow that fell over her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Um…”

Since they only ever exchanged greetings when he received the tray, it was awkward to initiate a conversation. He was terrible at talking, other than picking fights. Yirok looked straight into Yeonrye’s face, which was a mixture of bewilderment and curiosity, and asked.

“The young lady, I mean, Chaehwa.”

“Oh, yes.”

“If someone were to steal something like a lock of her hair. I was wondering who would be the most likely person.”

“My… the young lady’s hair?”

“Yes.”

Yeonrye, who waved her hands as if she had heard the strangest thing, soon brushed off the awkward atmosphere with a laugh.

“The young lady is very sensitive. She only lets me comb her hair. If anyone even comes near, she notices right away like a baby kitten. Oh my… you must be worried she’ll be harmed by some strange Yogwi.”

Yeonrye, tearing up a little as she laughed, repeatedly hit Yirok’s shoulder and said ‘there’s no need to worry’ dozens of times. Finally escaping from Yeonrye’s words, which were wrapping the earth in love for the young lady, praising how great she was, how wonderful she was, he came outside.

He could put others on the list of suspects, but there was a 99 percent chance it wasn’t Yeonrye. Because she was her nanny, and practically her mother, Yeonrye’s rose-colored glasses were second to none.

Yirok channeled the rising miscellaneous thoughts into the ball and sent it flying again today. The thing he wanted to do most right now was to beat Shinwoo. It wasn’t because he coveted the single room or the reward Shinwoo had mentioned. Yirok didn’t even know what a Narye ceremony was.

He just wanted to delay Shinwoo’s steps toward Chaehwa, even for a day, or two. He wanted to impose sanctions, even if it was just through a basketball game. He wanted to be a stumbling block that blocked his path.

Yirok threw the basketball until his wrist ached, not even realizing that evening was approaching. Only when sweat trickled down his wrist and the ball started to slip did he think to check the time. The winter sun politely closed its business of light and fell behind the mountain ridge. The smell of dinner being cooked covered the diligently spreading twilight.

Yirok, who was bouncing the ball in place while the sunset passed, suddenly noticed a scene that felt out of place. On the bench at the end of the court, the stone stairs connected behind it, under a bundle of a blue, round jumper, Chaehwa was asleep.

Yirok, confusing fantasy and reality, walked over and quieted his footsteps in front of her soft breathing. To think the precious young lady was asleep, oblivious to the winter cold, relying on a single jumper. Yirok tucked the basketball to his side and knelt down on his aching knee. The childish young lady, whenever he didn’t hear from her, would always come find him boisterously and knead and mess with his mind.

His mind was already a jumble, but the dough Chaehwa made was a different feeling. He watched to his heart’s content as the last rays of the sunset draped over the curve of Chaehwa’s face, and gathered at her stubborn lips. This was not a time for side glances like in class. He looked at Chaehwa for a long time, with a heart that felt two eyes were not enough. Then he remembered Yeonrye’s fib. That the young lady was sensitive like a baby kitten and would wake up if anyone so much as touched her.

Yirok’s finger, embarking on an experiment, cautiously stole a portion of Chaehwa’s brownish hair. Even when he wound the stray strand around his finger like a kite string, Chaehwa did not wake up. Yirok, who greedily wound it a few more times, did not open his mouth, not even by mistake. It felt like if he opened his mouth, the emotions he would have to clear away in the evening would leak out.

“That was a lie.”

What did she mean the young lady was so sensitive she would wake up? Chaehwa wouldn’t even know if he brought kitchen scissors right now and cut it. Yirok’s heart ached because the young lady, who bloomed laughter wherever she went, was so dull. His heart had felt like it would break, and had been hurt before, but this was the first time it had ached with a chill.

It felt like putting his foot in a frozen river, oblivious to getting frostbite.

And when Yirok unwound the hair from his finger, Chaehwa opened her eyes. A gentle greeting resided in her bark-colored eyes. The thumping that should have been in his chest moved to his head.

Thump, thump.

The pounding sound felt like it would tear his eardrums.

“When did you get here? Are you done?”

His throat tight, Yirok shook his head instead of answering.