If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 67

Juhee, who was glancing at her wristwatch, saw a person emerge from a door in mid-air and gave an order to her driver.

“Lower the window.”

The driver, who had been acting unpleasant the entire way, was provided by the Bansi family. It was a different level of treatment compared to when she first went down to the Nanjubeol family, when they hadn’t even provided a single car. Yirok, who had been mistreated as an outsider, had done an excellent job as a spy. Although she couldn’t know what was happening inside Nanjubeol, she could sense that Sarira was very pleased.

Juhee, who was drinking high-end champagne, stuck her tipsy hand out the window. She snapped her fingers at Yirok, who had fallen from the air like a young lamb.

“Over here.”

The young man standing in the rural fields was, as always, surreal. Then again, a blank expression was better than the sight of him playing like a boy and girl of the same age with Chaehwa in Nanjubeol.

Yirok, who got his bearings from the sound of the finger snap, slowly walked over. Contrary to his appearance, his clothes were simple, and his bag was simple. When the car door opened, he hugged his bag and sat in the seat farthest from Juhee.

Anticipating that the journey would also be awful, Juhee gave a bitter smile.

“It’s been a while. You look much better.”

The arrogant driver started the car without any introductory words. The champagne glass shook, spilling a little of the drink on the back of her hand. Juhee clicked her tongue as if annoyed by the rough driving manners.

“Nice car, isn’t it? It was provided by Sarira. To make it easier for you to come.”

Even when she tried to talk to him, Yirok closed his eyes as if he had decided to ignore her completely. It was amusing to be ignored in the same way as when he had come by train. Juhee, who had roughly put down her glass, crossed her legs and called him.

“Yirok Kim. I dislike you just as much, you know. But let’s talk, as fellow spies. We have something in common now.”

Realizing that he couldn’t go quietly to the Chukjangji of the Bansi family, Yirok opened his eyes. In that time, he had grown, his shoulders had become sturdy, and he had learned to look with cunning eyes. But before she could even admire his growth, Yirok ruined the moment with a sigh.

“Don’t sigh. You ignorant little brat.”

“What should I do?”

“What?”

“Should I be a fellow spy, or an ignorant little brat? I don’t know which will make your journey more comfortable.”

When she poked and prodded at those empty eyes she disliked, those cold eyes would come out. Neither suited Juhee’s taste, but she couldn’t lose the upper hand, so she put on a relaxed smile.

“Being fellow spies is better. Tell me about Chaehwa on the way. You must know her well.”

“Chaehwa.”

Yirok covered his lips with his fingers and chuckled as if something were so funny. And it was just enough to be annoying and ambiguous to point out. It was when she was grinding her teeth, about to tell him he would get slapped if he didn’t stop laughing right away. Yirok stopped laughing on his own and looked at Juhee as if he were seeing something interesting.

“In Nanjubeol, it was ‘Young lady, young lady’… I thought half your tongue was cut off. Does one’s personality change when the environment changes? You’re calling her name like you’re calling a neighborhood dog.”

“Hey. Yirok Kim.”

“You said you betrayed because you wanted to kill someone, you definitely told me. As if you had some great background, as if you had no choice but to betray… Then act accordingly. At the very least, it’s not right to get drunk and gossip about an eighteen-year-old.”

The ‘huh, huh’ sounds that came from Juhee’s chest couldn’t form into any words. The driver, on the contrary, was covering his nose and barely holding back his laughter. Yirok, as if he didn’t want to deal with her anymore, rested his forehead against the window. Juhee, however, realized that the difficult-to-handle opponent had returned as a crazy bastard. How sharp must his tongue have become after entering Nanjubeol.

Juhee suppressed her emotions like an adult and massaged the bridge of her nose. The corner of Yirok’s mouth, whose eyes met hers, twisted crookedly and a laugh escaped.

“That was the little brat version just now.”

“What?”

So he was saying that he had tried being an ignorant little brat, as if to defy her words to treat him as a spy. Feeling a sense of defeat, Juhee’s hand trembled slightly and she turned her gaze to the window. Yirok also, as if playing along, became engrossed in the window. A country road she didn’t want to travel three times, Juhee tried to forget, but Yirok’s words cut her heart like a blade.

What do you know.

This was the best defense Juhee could muster. Biting her well-shaped lips, Juhee repeated those words like a madwoman throughout the journey. Only then did she feel desperate, like a person who was alive.

🌹₊ ⊹

After seeing the charming tiled roof of Nanjubeol’s Chukjangji, ‘Yeon and Mangul,’ returning to the Bansi family’s Chukjangji, ‘Roots of a Dead Tree,’ felt like a day’s work had been wasted. The butler Halmeom only took care of Juhee from the Baekyeong Family and brought her to Sarira. Thinking it was for the best, Yirok returned to his place without anyone’s guidance.

He opened the door to his small lodging, liberated from noise as there were no neighbors, and put down his bag. The winters of the Bansi family were particularly bone-chilling. Closing the door, Yirok lay down on the bare floor.

The chest of drawers, the pile of blankets and pillows, and even the shabby small dining table had remained true to their original state, to the point of being tiresome. As if he had just woken from a long dream, Yirok couldn’t believe the things he had experienced in Nanjubeol.

Only after fumbling in his pocket and feeling the presence of his phone did his anxiety lessen. Yirok took out his phone, which was messing with his mind, and opened the screen.

He had learned how to use the camera after watching Chaehwa a few times. Even if that hadn’t been the case, Yirok was a quick learner of anything.

Yirok could smile at the picture of Chaehwa that filled the phone screen. A pretty young lady with the eyes of a startled rabbit, wrapped in a silk fur coat. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was not a dream.

As if unaware of the cold floor, Yirok turned off his phone and fell into a deep sleep.

It was a sorry thing to say to Chaehwa, but he missed Nanjubeol.

The year-end, winter, were things he wished would pass quickly.

🌹₊ ⊹

The year-end ritual begins with a static feeling to appease the lonely and harsh spirits. A large fire is lit to soothe the dead souls, and a neat table setting is prepared and offered to the ancestors of Nanjubeol. Then, they spend time waiting for the new year with their family, playing games like archery or tuho. There was a superstition among the warriors that if the Narye ceremony on New Year’s Eve was carried out safely, that year would be a year full of blessings and laughter.

The warriors, who descended from Ungnyeo, created traditions by mixing knowledge brought from the outside world. It developed with a different feel from the Narye ceremonies held in the old courts, and today it has become a festival where they wear masks of the twelve zodiac animals and play to drive out Yogwi.

One of the highlights of the festival was choosing a winner by competing to see whose mask was the most beautiful, grotesque, and elaborate. Chaehwa, who was in charge of the rat this year, was in the middle of painting diligently with paint on her nose. She was being extremely careful as she was making it with great care. But her concentration was not in line with her heart, and the overpainting was messy.

“Take a little rest, young lady.”

Yeonrye put down a bundle of snacks and opened the window to let the breeze in. Chaehwa, who was sitting blankly in front of the small dining table and looking at the branches of the plum tree, suddenly asked.

“When the flowers are in full bloom, everyone will come back to Nanjubeol, right?”

“Of course.”

“Somehow, it’s not fun these days. And there’s no contact from the people who left.”

“That’s because everyone is busy meeting their families. There are people who see their families only once a year.”

“Family….”

Chaehwa took her phone out of her lucky pouch and just stared at it. I wonder if the person who has had no contact since leaving is also living happily.

Chaehwa pushed the mask far away, got up, and went to the window. She sat on the wooden windowsill and fully appreciated the winter of the Chukjangji, which she would not be able to see again for four years.

“That tree was planted by your great-grandmother in the year the young lady Seonjeong was born. So that she would always live nobly like the plum tree.”

Although she had heard it so many times that her ears were ringing, Chaehwa listened silently because she knew Yeonrye’s heart, which missed her mother, Seonjeong.

“I’ve only seen my mother in pictures. But I think I know what kind of person my mother was. Everyone likes her. They miss her.”

“You look just like her, young lady.”

Although she resembled her mother, Seonjeong, in appearance, Chaehwa thought that what was inside her must resemble her father. Because her path was too different from her mother, who was as noble as a plum tree.

“I don’t think so. It’s because you see what you want to see, Yeonrye.”

“Well, that’s true. The young lady is a little bit more of a tomboy.”

As Yeonrye, who had collected the laundry, left, Chaehwa watched the world with a smileless face.

Nothing changed even when she took her eyes off the plum tree and looked at her phone. She was disappointed and resentful of the texts that didn’t come. Doesn’t it seem like Chaehwa herself and nobility are unreachable parallel lines?

“Just you wait until you come back.”

Chaehwa’s mood improved as she came up with a cunning plan for revenge. It was just difficult that the Haenang who had left home kept appearing before her eyes all day.