If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 77

Wild birds sat on the branches and babbled as if criticizing Chaehwa, who had ditched everyone else and monopolized Yirok. The spring outing was proposed by Chaho the previous day. He suggested how about taking a spring outing with the Haenangs since they got a vacation. It was a sorry thing to Chaho, but as soon as she heard the words ‘spring outing,’ another thought came to mind. She had wanted to go flower viewing alone with Yirok, for whom enduring the winter must have been difficult.

Thus, Chaehwa, who skipped out under the pretext of not feeling well, came out after eating breakfast and kidnapped Yirok. She ignored his words that he was busy because he was organizing his luggage. Because she was curious about Yirok, who was following closely while holding her hand, Chaehwa’s eyes felt as if they were attached to the back of her head.

Could it be said that playing at the flower hill, located opposite to where the Haenangs wanted to go, was not greed? However, before entering classes again and facing busy days, she wants to spend a leisurely time. Since he will soon respond to requests as a probationary Haenang, Yirok will be busy without even having time to blink. Taking into account Yirok who dislikes people, he was taciturn, not even knowing her heart for coming out as the two of them.

The place where each other’s hands were woven was a furnace on its own. Being hot, being ticklish, until fluttering on a spring day, they were doing it all. Holding his hand saying she would block his escape was good up to that point, but she deliberately missed the timing to let go.

“Let’s rest here for a moment.”

She tried to take him to the field where canola flowers bloomed, but stones and hills were traps. Fanning herself with her hand, she stood in the shade of a tree and looked at Yirok. Like a lamb that had lost its will to run away, Yirok stood quietly beside Chaehwa.

Yirok’s hair, which goes well with the street of the forest cast with shade, flutters in the gentle breeze. Yirok, who frequently closes his mouth like this, loved looking at the sky. If Chaehwa spoke, he would deny it coldly, though.

Yirok, with a face having much to think about, makes the person with him read his mood. Will he laugh at least if I make a silly joke, will he become comfortable at least if I play a trick, she was anxious to get rid of Yirok’s expressionless face. The blank eyes of Yirok, as if asking where the wind is blowing from, were like that. There is a single point. An expectation arises that if this side puts effort into just a single point, light will rise in his eyeballs.

The hand she was holding confidently gradually went down and was caught at the tips of Yirok’s fingers. Although they stand borrowing the shade of the tree together, Yirok’s heart looks as if it is in an isolated place. Chaehwa, who suddenly got annoyed, tried shaking his fingertips caught by her.

“Do you like spring?”

Since his hand was shaken back and forth, only then did Yirok share his gaze with her. Without even telling her to stop, Yirok, who was looking at Chaehwa, avoided her eyes flatly. The toe of his old sneaker, which looked like it would be seen down all four seasons, dug the ground.

“Not particularly… By the way, where are the other kids.”

“The other kids?”

“Given that it wouldn’t be that only you and I came.”

Yirok’s voice asking indifferently stimulated the listener’s curiosity. It would be good if he laughed loudly with a voice like hers. That’s why Chaehwa wanted to hold onto Yirok with words that were nothing special. Chaehwa’s mouth corners turned up because Yirok, who couldn’t imagine that the two of them came out, was funny.

“If you go over there, they are there. They are all gathered.”

At the words that the Haenangs were gathered, Yirok made a flatly displeased face. Chaehwa, knowing that the joke worked, held and dragged his hand.

“Let’s go quickly.”

“Listen to my words and go.”

“Huh?”

“It’s better that I don’t go.”

As if planted in the ground, Yirok thrust out one arm and said so. Even though the canola flower field, which is the destination, is there if they go just ten steps forward. Because she was about to turn back with the high ground right in front of her nose, her inside was aching. Chaehwa bit her tongue that had told a lie and shook Yirok’s hand frantically.

“Let’s go up to just right in front of there.”

“Since I watched the flowers to my heart’s content. Look at the rest with other people.”

“Among what you saw, where is a flower? While coming, there was only the sky, the ground, and me…”

While speaking while leaning her upper body while holding Yirok’s hand, Chaehwa stopped her tongue. The words already spilled are a matter that cannot be scooped back up. In the eyeballs of Yirok who was listening, the emotion she wished for so much was drawn. Fluster and absurdity, plus even the emotion that had been tickling the fingers of the two since a while ago, Yirok’s expression became colorful.

Because it was a heart that could not be left neglected for long, Chaehwa glossed over her words with a joke.

“Or am I the flower?”

However, it didn’t look like a very good move. Yirok, like a person whose secret was discovered, couldn’t keep his eyeballs still, then soon looked at Chaehwa resentfully. On the forest path mottled by the sunlight that entered aiming for the gaps between the tree leaves, Yirok said.

“You… did you drag me here to tease me?”

“No. This is my first time coming out flower viewing this year, with you, Yirok.”

No matter how much Yirok tried hard to trim himself with a blunt tone, it was after Chaehwa saw his red earlobe. If she looked into it long, Chaehwa thought herself would also copy that color. She comes not to be deceived by his crooked lips or cold eyes. Conversely, she came to see his lips being tormented, or the place that announces emotions with color. Perhaps Yirok was an easy person to know the more time they spent.

“Go together up to just right in front of there.”

“I…”

“There is no one. It’s a joke. I came alone with you, Yirok. I can just take a photo for you and enter quickly, right.”

When she released the fingertips she was holding, Yirok’s eyes shook severely. She feels like she knows the way to handle Yirok. If she went out strongly, the one who turned into an angry wave and swept over was Yirok. If she lowered her mouth corners pretending to be disappointed, the one who became quiet was also Yirok. When looking from the outside, the water current is noisy, but once entering, it was similar to the beneath of the water surface being quiet.

Walking while looking back, Chaehwa thrust out her cell phone to him. Yirok, who was only looking as if hesitating, or as if troubled, approached slowly and received that cell phone. Even if she takes photos, she won’t send them to him, but without knowing that, the innocent Yirok followed her and walked without suspicion.

“You can pull back to here behind.”

Chaehwa, confirming with her eyes the well-hooked Yirok, turned around and dashed into the canola flower field. When spring comes to Chugjangji, flowers that bloom in March and April outside bloomed from the beginning of the year and lasted a year. The meticulous grandmother had planted the flowers she likes around every vicinity of the Nanjubeol mansion. In a word, it was Chaehwa’s personal space.

Entering the flower field where yellow waves hit, Chaehwa looked back. Coming out from the shade of the tree, Yirok’s eyes, which frowned slightly, grew huge in an instant. At the reaction she wished for, Chaehwa opened both arms and laughed brightly. The gaze of Yirok, who stood at the entrance of the canola flower field, was deeply fallen into the yellow colors of spring.

“Come in quickly.”

However, Yirok failed to come in coolly and guarded the entrance of the flower field. He, who didn’t make eye contact with the gesturing Chaehwa, clenched his fist out of the blue. Like a person who got angry, strength entered his jaw and the rims of his eyes turned red. Chaehwa, who was about to sit in the flower field and share a conversation with Yirok, also stopped together. Stopping midway through waving her hand while standing in place, Chaehwa tilted her head.

“Why aren’t you coming in.”

Yirok, without a word, lifted the cell phone he received earlier. As if trying to take a photo, the cell phone camera direction was looking at Chaehwa. However, before even a few seconds passed, Yirok put down the cell phone. To a degree that could not be compared with when walking the forest path, his expression was dizzy.

“What’s wrong. Are you sick somewhere?”

As if there were poison in the canola flower field, Yirok took a step backward. Ignoring Chaehwa who was running while asking a question, Yirok placed the cell phone on the ground. And Chaehwa, who approached and looked at Yirok again, almost got her feet tangled.

“I hate flowers.”

Yirok’s face was that of a person who looked like he would cry if tapped lightly. If subjected to what kind of act, can a person’s color turn red up to the neck. Even in the voice saying he hates it, there was a trembling. Lowering the gaze that was looking at Chaehwa with difficulty, Yirok turned around and threw his feet into the shade of the tree.

Chaehwa, left lonely in the canola flower field, did not budge even at the wind that shook the hem of her skirt to tell her to look at it. She ended up catching it somehow. Even though she is placing the cell phone she treasures like life on the floor, it didn’t mind her.

Chaehwa’s cheeks and neck shifted to the exact same color as Yirok. It was a spring of a quite sightly spectacle where the person does not view the flowers, but the flowers view the person.

🌹₊ ⊹

I am thirsty. The sound of the clock hands turning is too loud. Although I blocked my ears with a pillow and tossed and turned dozens of times, sleep does not come. I don’t know how many times I repeated getting up and lying down. I wish sleep were something visible to the eye. I wish I could grab a handful of it and swallow it like medicine.

Lying down to sleep, it was an uncomfortable thing that my heart beat like a person who had just come after running.

As if I ate breakfast excessively, I skipped lunch and dinner, but the symptom did not get better. Rather, as it became evening being alone, yellow things were flickering in my eyes.

Although I try to erase that afterimage by pressing my eyelids with my fingers, it looked like my head recognized it properly. That brief interval while strolling the yellow flower field and looking back at him, that brief interval while lifting the cell phone to leave it as a photo, it was certain that the mischievous Chaehwa played a trick.

If not for that, there is no way my inside would be nauseous all day long and the sky would be yellow. Yirok sat on the edge of the bed and bowed his head helplessly. The moment the camera floated Chaehwa on the screen, my chest was causing trouble. What I ate in the morning failed to be digested.

Sitting was also not helpful to the symptom getting better, so just when I was about to lie down again. As if turning on a light in his complicated head, the outside of the window brightened. Turning my head, I saw the clock pointing to 11:00 PM. To think that the outside becomes bright at a time when they would have more than enough turned off the lights. Yirok walked to the window and withdrew the curtain.

The lights of the Nanjubeol mansion, which should have been a night of silence, were coming alive. The light of the lanterns leaking out from a distant place was what people made. The sound of the bell ringing, dong, dong, calmed Yirok’s heart hiccups at least.

Whether a precious guest came into the house, or a problem arose. Whether they picked today as the day, news was spreading to Yirok’s dormitory as well.

Knock, knock, knock, at the sound of knocking on the door, Yirok missed the curtain. Uniquely from other places, only Yirok’s door made a sound in the quiet dormitory hallway.

Knock, knock, knock, it was too polite to be a sound Shinwoo makes, and it was too persistent to be a sound other Haenangs make. Furthermore, to think that it knocks only on Yirok’s room door while other rooms are quiet.

The brightening outside and the ringing door, Yirok closed his mouth between them.