If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 84

There was a past when he believed he could eat what he wanted to eat, go where he wanted to go, turn his head away if he didn’t want to see, and control his body exactly as he wished.

A night where the fog secretly rolled in and covered the moon was an appropriate time to summon a ghost. Is it not a time to face a ghost when one must not be distracted for even a single moment? However, Chaehwa’s heart, which was sold to a spring day, focused on a place different from its master’s intent.

It wasn’t unusual to judge compatibility with a ghost as if meeting a marriage match. Ghosts, who fundamentally disliked mingling with people, were cunning and selfish creatures. Since a long time had passed since they died, wasn’t that stubbornness of not crossing the threshold of the underworld extraordinary?

Moreover, the ‘Saunryeong’ that Yirok wanted didn’t possess snake scales just for style. It was a ghost that possessed a snake’s wisdom and a wicked hunting instinct simultaneously. It was famous for draining dry those who contracted with it, so it would be difficult for a training Haenang to handle.

“Yirok-ah…”

But she just sat there looking at Yirok, who had his eyes pinned to the book, as if he were a lump of gold. She couldn’t bring herself to coldly reject Yirok when he said he wanted to do it. If anything happened, she could just go in to rescue him. With an easygoing mindset, Chaehwa admired Yirok, who was deeply engrossed in the ghost registry, without paying a single penny.

Yirok likes reading books. Just as Chaehwa defined her way of exploring the world through videos and travel books, Yirok had defined his through reading. In Yirok’s quarters, which she had happened to stop by and secretly peeked into, there was a small bookshelf. Seeing that he had packed books in until that damn bookshelf was absolutely bursting, many thoughts had crossed her mind.

Within the narrow Nanjubeol, Yirok expands his world in Yirok’s own way. She liked that he was a man who did not stop even when confined within the walls. She liked that he was a man who didn’t tell her only the words she wanted to hear. She liked that he was a man who overlooked her feet crossing the line. The color of his hand turning the pages and the movement of his eyes focusing were also good. Since Yirok was a person for whom it was hard to find anything bad, which was his flaw, Chaehwa picked a belated quarrel.

“Are you not going to let me sleep? It’s going to end with you just looking at books all day long.”

With the blunt toe of her flower shoe, she subtly pushed Yirok’s hand. The ghost registry is not a book that can be read all in one day. Even if an expert looked at it, it was a book that required three days. She succeeded in hijacking the gaze of Yirok, who had said he would flip through it just a little bit. Yirok, who had completely become a reading ghost, opened the page where Saunryeong was written and held it out to Chaehwa.

“Then let’s begin.”

At his tone, which thoroughly seemed to view her as a class teacher, her heart pouted her lips. Chaehwa pressed firmly on the part where Saunryeong’s name was written with her index finger, transferring her spiritual energy. It was as soon as she gathered the energy of heaven drifting in the burial grounds at the tip of her finger and transferred it to the book. Saunryeong’s name glowed in gold, and text was being written on the line below. The ghost registry was not just any random book; the soul of the creator dwelt within it.

“This is like an address. It’s the address of the place where the ghost is right now. If you attempt a spiritual connection, the ghost can respond or refuse. If it’s refused, your head might hurt a little, so keep that in mind. Once the connection is made, your body will fall asleep for a moment. Because I’ll be guarding you from the side… go on.”

Ghosts were often in places that a human could not physically go to with a fragile body. Therefore, when a person who wants to contract with a ghost places their hand on the address and concentrates, their spirit moves, splitting into paths of rejection and invitation. This was an easier method than summoning them to the abyss to form a contract, but first, awakening the ghost registry was difficult. Unless, that is, one was an expert of Chaehwa’s caliber. Would Yirok even know what kind of benefit he was receiving?

Having finished the brief explanation, Chaehwa crossed her arms, thinking he would probably be rejected at the very beginning. Because Saunryeong was not a ghost that was meek like a day-old puppy. Because she knew the ghost’s temperament, she could tell him to give it a try with a light heart.

Yirok, who inhaled the scent of the incense candle deeply, prepares to touch Saunryeong’s name. Because his disappointed figure was vivid in her mind, Chaehwa laid out a safety net in advance.

“Soon you’ll see the other kids failing and getting rejected a lot. It’s an unavoidable thing for a training Haenang, so don’t harbor too much bitterness.”

“…’The other kids’?”

Yirok, who had already placed his hand on Saunryeong’s name, stared at Chaehwa with dark eyes. Her heart grew cold at his chilly expression, as if an evil soul possessed him.

“What do you mean, the other kids.”

“…Huh?”

“Was this not private tutoring for me alone?”

It wasn’t that, but rather that from now on, whenever there was training, he would get to see scenes of the other kids’ failures. She ought to scold Yirok for straying down another path when even concentrating wouldn’t be enough. Harboring alternative thoughts, Chaehwa deliberately averted her gaze.

“No, well… because it’s not like I can play favorites with only Yirok.”

“I’m not doing it.”

Then, as soon as the words ended, Yirok, who pulled his hand away from the book, picked up the ghost registry as if he would leave right away. He was a fellow who would burn down the whole house if teased twice. Chaehwa grabbed the hem of Yirok’s clothes as he tried to stand up and pulled him down with a groan.

“I’ll do it only for you, only for you, Yirok.”

How cold the gaze of Yirok looking down with eyes of suspicion was. Chaehwa didn’t know what to call this chilling yet joyful sensation. Yirok, as if he also disliked going empty-handed, sat down and opened the book without a word. Though she ended up repeating the same thing twice, Chaehwa smirked with delight.

“Do you like it that I don’t teach other people?”

“I like it.”

Yirok, whom she thought would just end up with flushed ears from embarrassment again, answered blankly and placed his palm on the book. Since it was a blank comment, it was a matter of taking it blankly. However, she saw that Yirok’s arm was trembling slightly as he spoke. His eyelashes shook coyly.

“Because I’m an outsider, my learning is slower than the other kids. I don’t want to fail to understand like a fool by myself. I don’t want to be slow in progress either…. Got it?”

Yirok’s words, which he added as if making an excuse on purpose, deepened Chaehwa’s smile.

“Yeah…”

“Don’t teach the other kids.”

The eyes of Yirok, who firmly kept Chaehwa in check once more, closed. Upon placing his hand on the address, his spirit was quickly taken away. Chaehwa caught his sliding body as if embracing him. Dropping his face right onto her small shoulder, Yirok carefully caught his breath. At most, Saunryeong would kick him out in one minute. However, Chaehwa, wishing that it would exceed one minute, did something she wouldn’t normally dream of doing.

Carefully rubbing her lips against Yirok’s hair, she caught his scent. The soap smell of Yirok, who washes himself diligently, defeated the incense candle.

His gradually quickening breathing spreads all over the top of Yirok’s head as he sleeps leaning on Chaehwa’s shoulder. Chaehwa’s eyes, fulfilling her private desires, stealthily closed along with his.

The two tangled together companionably, as if fallen asleep in one bed. In her subconscious, Chaehwa infused energy into Yirok’s body with her hand. It was done as if gathering him into her nest, out of a heart that hoped he wouldn’t hurt much even if he were rejected.

As if touched by that heart, heaven also generously grants today’s moonlight. The night of sharing feelings without a word was tilting like that.

🌹₊ ⊹

Emerging from the dark corridor of the spirit, light covered his eyelids. Yirok opened his eyes with the feeling of being held by a warm sun, but he was sitting at the edge of a cliff. Was it because his body was left behind and only his spirit crossed over? It was a place where the whole world looked foggy.

He looks down from a cliff whose height cannot even be gauged. After looking around the place surrounded by clouds, Yirok soon discovered an anomaly.

In a place surrounded entirely by the same white clouds, only one showed a unique movement. Moving from side to side like a clock pendulum, the one approaching was wearing a white scholar’s robe. Snake eyes torn into triangles scanned him entirely from bottom to top. The feeling of being searched was not good, but since it was a place of facing a ghost for the first time excluding the water earthworm, Yirok remained quiet.

The ghost encountered in a land of only cliffs and clouds, a place where a yin energy flowed that did not look like a place where humans live, was neither human nor snake. Saunryeong, whose appearance seemed born from a forbidden experiment mixing two species, approached the front of the cliff riding upon the clouds. Looking at the person who had come to contract for the first time in ten years, Saunryeong asked unenthusiastically.

[For what matter have you come all the way here.]

At the tone that was more polite than expected, Yirok’s thoughts grew long. Saunryeong, whom he thought would give him the cold shoulder as soon as they saw his face, kept Yirok within his golden pupils and did not blink even once.

[If you desire a contract, would you draw blood from your palm and let me taste it?]

Because he thought sweet, smooth talk would be required to form a contract with a ghost, Yirok hesitated. Saunryeong drew a dagger from his sleeve and threw it up onto the cliff. Rolling while getting covered in black dust, it fell beside Yirok. Saunryeong narrowed his thin eyes and laughed wickedly.

[Hurry.]

Just as humans cannot trust ghosts, ghosts cannot trust humans either. A contract is something done when there is mutual trust. Thinking of it as a simple condition, Yirok gripped the dagger. As if testing him, a purple liquid was smeared on that dagger. At a glance, it was like poison. As if growing even more excited, Saunryeong’s voice grew louder. This was the point where spiritual warriors shrank from contracting with Saunryeong. While the warrior hesitated, it was Saunryeong’s tactic to propose a favorable condition instead of having them taste blood.

It was when Saunryeong covered his mouth and was about to enter his second objective. A human’s fishy smell of blood spreads far and wide into his domain, which he had been maintaining so that it gleamed. Losing his smile, Saunryeong stared blankly at Yirok, who had abruptly drawn blood from his palm.

A contractor who was just as expressionless as Saunryeong shows his cut palm. A bit of strength entered the shoulders of Saunryeong, who had stopped his words and thoughts together.