If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 74

The flower shoes, brushed with excitement like rolling candy in starch, leaped over a puddle. Today, amidst the commotion here and there because the Naryesik was to be held in the evening, Chaehwa’s gaze constantly looked over the wall, seeking an opportunity. In the Naryesik, those who received the Twelve Earthly Deities masks dance in proper order, and the other beast masks respond. Chaehwa, who took the role of the rat this time, had to dance as the first runner once the bonfire rose and the song began.

It would not do for Chaehwa, who should be busy, to be just lingering near the main gate. The blue skirt that Yeonrye had painstakingly ironed all night long was fluttering in front of the popular-less main gate. Even while moving busily, her feet, which stopped whenever she heard the sound of the main gate shaking, were frivolous. It was difficult to view this as purely Chaehwa’s fault. There was the fault of Yirok, who left after leaving words of unique concern that being sick does not suit Chaehwa.

The thought that she felt sorry for playing sick came naturally. When Yirok talked as if complaining, asking why she hadn’t called during that time, her answer became faster. After hanging up the call that day, sleep wouldn’t come. Pressing the cell phone against her chest, she spent the whole night making eye contact with the moon. When she recalled Yirok lowering his voice as if disappointed, her heart pounded as if it were trying to escape.

It was already a time by which Yirok should have arrived and more. With the text message saying he was departing as the last one, she somehow hated to send a urging text message to Yirok, who was without news. Like a steadfast woman, she wanted to meet him in front of the main gate, but Chaehwa’s feet became increasingly busier. In front of the wall, she skipped, and she also climbed onto a stone by wedging her flower shoes into it. Even so, it wasn’t that she could see the outside, and she only startled the person who came to look for the young lady.

“Young lady.”

At the touch gripping her waist, Chaehwa turned her head and looked at the person who called her. Shinwoo, holding a cat mask in his hand, was gripping her from behind.

“Uh, uh.”

“I’ll lower you down.”

“Okay.”

Of all things, even if caught, she ended up caught by Shinwoo. The son-in-law material her grandmother desired, Shinwoo’s own heart, what they lived burying beneath their awareness was becoming Chaehwa’s reality at some point. Touching the ground and facing Shinwoo, Chaehwa felt a feeling different from before. Shinwoo was a good friend and not a Haenang, but a partner fixed by her grandmother in the far future. And there was no way Shinwoo would reject her. A gaze hotter than the setting sun poured onto Chaehwa’s face. However, her own heart, which wanted to unfold a parasol to avoid that sunlight, was hotter, much hotter.

“Why do you look like that, young lady?”

“Shinwoo. As for you…”

The question ‘Do you truly want to do this thing called marriage with me?’ caught in her throat. However, it felt like she was causing smoke and making a mess when the person who would give the rice cake wasn’t even thinking about it. Also, what would she do if Shinwoo promptly answered yes? That she didn’t even want to think about the marriage problem was Chaehwa’s true heart. Furthermore, since she doesn’t feel like getting entangled with Shinwoo as man and woman, it’s a problem.

In the end, she showed an awkward smile to Shinwoo, who was waiting for her words with sparkling eyes.

“Grandmother told you to find out where I am, right?”

Whether he noticed that she shifted clumsily with other awkward words, Shinwoo’s expression changed. Looking at the firmly closed main gate and the sunset announcing with its whole body that evening had come, he asks indifferently.

“Yes. But you aren’t waiting for someone here, right?”

“Me? Who would I be waiting for…”

“I heard Yirok is coming.”

As if suggesting they shouldn’t beat around the bush over what they clearly know about each other, Shinwoo’s last words were quite cynical. The flowing of such awkward and cold air in the relationship between Chaehwa and Shinwoo had been severe these days. Especially, should I say Shinwoo’s attitude became difficult since Yirok appeared. There was an atmosphere in the current Shinwoo where she couldn’t lean comfortably like the days when they were immature.

“Because he hasn’t come after saying he would come, I’m worried. Could an accident have happened on the way…”

What she said jokingly rather made Chaehwa’s own heart flinch. She ended up imagining Yirok collapsed in a car from a traffic accident. As Chaehwa’s complexion turned dark, Shinwoo’s silent sigh grew long. A gaze so chilly that it was unbelievable that he was looking at his beloved young lady was a bonus.

“Why do you worry about that, young lady?”

Chaehwa, who was glancing beyond the wall, looked at Shinwoo with eyes that doubted her ears. Shinwoo, holding the cat mask, stayed blunt as if he had no intention of reversing the words he spat out. As their gazes mixed, the one flustered was Chaehwa. Shinwoo’s emotions, revealed in a way she couldn’t pretend not to know since last time, were thoroughly uncomfortable.

“Then don’t you worry, Shinwoo? He’s a Haenang, the same age…”

“I don’t.”

At Shinwoo’s true heart that came out without a single shred of hesitation, Chaehwa only blinked her eyes. Whether he lost kindness as he aged, Shinwoo’s razor-sharp answer was absurd. Shinwoo, who used to only watch her mood out of fear of being disliked, did he sink into the ground or soar into the sky? Some grouch was acting as Shinwoo. At the point when Chaehwa, who came to her senses, was about to say a few words again, Shinwoo wore the cat mask and bowed his head deeply.

“If Yirok doesn’t come by 10 minutes from now, come quickly. Everyone is waiting.”

“That… of course I will go so as not to be late.”

“And young lady. My mother might come to Nanjubeol before long.”

“Your mother?”

“Yes.”

While only Shinwoo’s eyeballs were visible, hidden by the mask, Chaehwa understood in a flash what that intense gaze was saying. What on earth is the talk to be held between the landlords of families with fully-grown children? At Shinwoo’s words confident in marriage, Chaehwa’s hands and feet felt numb as if blood wasn’t circulating. It felt like a different enemy had arisen, other than grandmother, other than the household.

After Shinwoo’s back view, which looked lighthearted, disappeared from her sight, the main gate that wouldn’t open was resentful. It’s a heart that would be untangled if Yirok opened that door right now and entered, but reality wasn’t that kind.

“Slug-like thing.”

Looking at the flowers that were just bright without knowing the heart of the trapped person, Chaehwa also turned her back. The blue skirt fluttering as if pouting felt somehow pitiful.

🌹₊ ⊹

A wind lantern with a talisman hung for warding off evil shook pathetically. Whether the Naryesik had started, the sound of merry drums was heard from far away. Yirok lifted his chopsticks and purposely dropped the sticky food of unknown identity. Losing interest in eating and opening the door, Yirok sat on the veranda and looked up at the stars.

Returning to Nanjubeol was three hours ago. Yirok, who had an interview with the landlord simultaneously with his arrival, received a mission to draw out bad luck with an evil-warding talisman for about ten hours.

“Don’t think too half-heartedly of it. It’s a matter that arose because Chaehwa threw a tantrum and received you ahead of time.”

The landlord was wearing a hanbok engraved with a turtle pattern, as if participating in the Naryesik she had only heard about. Because he focused on the landlord’s benevolent expression, he understood the meaning of the words somewhat slowly. Although she is packaging it with affectionate words putting Chaehwa forward, how many years is it that Yirok has eaten the bread of awareness? The atmosphere of the landlord, who doesn’t particularly welcome outsiders, was not difficult to read.

And for Yirok, who had to be with the evil-warding talisman during the roughly ten hours of time, strangely, his mood was on the side of not being bad. The moment he opened the door of the guest room, came out, and faced the flower Chaehwa boasted about with a photo, he knew. A flower with a figure fitting for spring had bloomed, there was nothing missing in the guest room, and tomorrow, the meddlesome Chaehwa would poke through his day. Ten hours was a very short wait for Yirok.

However, Yirok’s cell phone, which rang instantly while he was spending time leisurely appreciating the evening stars and flowers, made him change his mind. Thinking it would obviously be Chaehwa and opening the cell phone, Yirok’s eyes narrowed at the rather long text message. The content of that text message, in which a crying emoticon entered together, was very simple and clear.

「I am sick and collapsed without even being able to eat porridge, so where and what are you doing??? ㅠㅠㅠ」

The sound of the drums thumping and waking him from sleep was merry because he thought Chaehwa would enjoy this splendid night. How glad that cheeky young lady would be, running around. However, as soon as he learned that Chaehwa failed to belong, Yirok’s eyebrows distorted. The gaze that was looking at the stars or flowers naturally turned in the direction where Chaehwa’s room was located.

To what extent is she sick that she can’t even play and is trapped in her room? Although there was an order not to contact Chaehwa until the evil-warding time ended, Yirok’s heart was already outside the veranda. Yirok’s eyeballs, which looked at the talisman shaking in the spring breeze for the last time, gradually stopped moving.

If what is blocked by a measly talisman like that is bad luck, his life would have escaped from Sarira long ago. Yirok, who rose with a smirk, hit the evil-warding talisman with his palm for no reason as he passed by. Yirok’s footsteps, after quickly adjusting his sneakers, easily left the guest room.

If Chaehwa had fallen asleep, the fact that he couldn’t see her was self-evident. Even so, Yirok’s steps were rapid, like leaving a house on fire. That was a stride that even the spring breeze could not block.