If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 89

Perhaps because the land assumed to be the north met with a majestic mountain range, a bone-chilling wind blew from all directions. She gradually came to realize how arrogant it had been to think she could somehow hold out with just the hem of a thin coat. On top of that, her leather shoes were constantly slipping and sliding on the icy surface. While Yirok, dressed in his military uniform, buried the bodies under the snow out of concern for the tracking parties that would follow, Chaehwa trembled uncontrollably.

Yirok, whose memory of the figure he had integrated into was relatively clear, had obtained a shovel from somewhere and was digging into the snowfield. As he expressionlessly buried the bodies while mentioning that a tracking party would come, he seemed like the very textbook definition of a cold-blooded soldier.

Yirok said he had been living with that group he killed since a week ago. He added that thanks to borrowing the body of a Japanese soldier, he didn’t feel any major issues in terms of language or handling firearms.

The greatest danger of vision grass was, just as in Yirok’s experience, ‘time’. If one sniffed the scent of vision grass and spent a month’s time inside the illusion, a year might have passed in the outside world. They needed to find the flaw in the vision grass and get out without dilly-dallying. Chaehwa, who was losing the battle against the cold let alone the vision grass, chattered her teeth.

She wanted to step forward and help even if only with words, but Yoshie’s attire looked like something that would only suit a city. She was in a position where she was wasting her physical strength just fighting against the biting wind blowing over the ice. The solution to breaking the vision grass was a battle against time. Watching Yirok, who looked completely like a soldier after a mere week, Chaehwa gently shook her head.

“I’m done.”

Yirok, who spent an hour burying five bodies, threw the shovel away and turned around. Dusting the snow off his palms, Yirok took off his stifling military cap. Chaehwa, who looked across at that familiar face, suddenly muttered that it was a relief his face was the same as the outside world, otherwise she might have almost been shot to death by the gun Yirok fired.

“Are you cold?”

Seeing Chaehwa’s state as she trembled like a bird caught in winter rain, Yirok knitted his brows. He must be finding her pathetic, seeing how she had leaped in as if she could save a dozen people, only to be helplessly trembling at a bit of cold like this. Her pride wounded, Chaehwa tightly pursed her lips and drew her coat close.

“I asked if you’re cold. Why aren’t you answering…”

“I’m not cold.”

She hadn’t come here to display the traits of a greenhouse-grown flower and look to be treated well. She had a hunch that once they crossed the ice, a clue to breaking the illusion would appear. The situation would improve if they could just get into a place that would block the wind. Until then, she was in the middle of vowing that she wouldn’t make a weak sound even if her neck were to break. At the heavy weight coming up over her shoulders, her head turned upward.

Because Yirok wrapped his thick military overcoat around Chaehwa’s shoulders, his own attire became light. Slipping her arms in halfheartedly, she waited until Yirok finished buttoning it up.

“What about you, Yirok?”

The question came out because she was worried, not because she was angry. As her frozen body thawed, her cheeks flushed to a rustic hue. Chaehwa tightly grabbed his unresponding arm and asked again.

“Are you going to freeze to death, Yirok?”

“I took one from a dead person.”

Yirok, who answered neatly and quickly, truly walked to the back and retrieved a blood-stained overcoat. It seemed he had intended to yield the overcoat to her from the very start. Their preparations to face the winter complete, the two breathed out white mist and looked at the distant mountains. Yirok spoke as he pulled at the leather gloves on his hands.

“My mission was to capture you alive. After that, it was to strip you of your wealth once you were captured.”

“Where was I on my way to?”

“It must have been across the river. Though I don’t know what’s over there.”

Since she had thought about having to cross the frozen river from the moment she opened her eyes, it probably wasn’t entirely wrong. Solve the problem of the vision grass with swift decisiveness. Her agonizing over it finished, Chaehwa confidently held out one hand.

“These shoes are slippery… and I feel like I might get frostbite. Hold my hand and walk with me.”

To Yirok, it was a meeting after a week, but to her, it was a face seen before even a single day had passed. Right before jumping down, she had clearly told him to go back. Considering she had said that, it was merely embarrassing that she was receiving such great help from Yirok.

When the fit of the coat that was just right for Yirok passed over to Chaehwa, a span of a hand still remained even after covering the back of her hand. The long sleeves of the military overcoat fluttered in the wind. She purposely swung her sleeves harder to be funny, but the corners of Yirok’s mouth didn’t move an inch. Instead, he stared blankly at the hand held out to him before slowly raising his indifferent gaze.

“How are you going to cross the river in those shoes?”

“Should I fly then?”

“Get on my back.”

“What? Who…”

Yirok, who took down the gun slung over his shoulder, bent his knees without hesitation. The progress was too fast. Pressing her cheek against the overcoat sleeve, Chaehwa took a step backward on the slippery ice.

“I, I’m heavy.”

“It felt like there were several tracking parties. They are frantic to catch you. If you don’t get on… you’ll get caught.”

Yirok, who lowered his posture, slightly turned his head and spoke words that subtly threatened her. It was something even a three-year-old wouldn’t be scared of, but Chaehwa had gained her justification. As she stealthily climbed onto Yirok’s back while murmuring as if discontented, the corners of his mouth soared up to the heavens.

As soon as she leaned over and placed her hands on his shoulders, Yirok stood up stably. Pretending it was an accident, Chaehwa rested her cheek against his broad back and stole a listen to his heartbeat. Unlike his heartless face which lacked any personal feelings, his heartbeat was honest.

The back of Yirok’s head, dressed in an unfamiliar attire as if acting out a period drama, was lovely. The leather gloves supporting her thighs firmly so she wouldn’t shake were neat. Perhaps to avoid slipping on the ice, his stride was prudent. The white mountain range surrounding them, the raging blizzard, and the endless ice no matter how far they went made her focus only on him. It felt as if Yirok was the only one in the world who possessed color and drew breath. Chaehwa fiercely rubbed her cheek against him with peace of mind, as if he belonged to her.

Five people from her household had disappeared, so her grandmother would be having a hard time. A week, or maybe a month might have passed. The whereabouts of Shinwoo, Yeonrye, and Jangsi might not be found until they broke this vision grass. Even though a time for every man for himself had come, it was a stroke of luck to have met Yirok. To think Yirok entered as the very soldier who had to catch her. Therefore, Chaehwa didn’t find the bad situation to be entirely bad.

“Yirok, is it hard?”

A cold wind blew harshly just then, intercepting half of Chaehwa’s voice. Yirok, who endured the wind by lowering his head, didn’t stay still during that time and hoisted Chaehwa’s body straight up. Yirok, who hurried his steps only after the wind died down, gave a low answer.

“It’s not hard. Take a nap or something.”

“Killing people just like that… even if it’s a world inside a vision grass, it must be hard for you. If only I had been a heavily muscled mister.”

“Ha.”

Whether he imagined her appearance having turned into a mister with a pack of abs on his stomach, Yirok laughed calmly. At least during the moment she heard Yirok’s laughter, the fierce wind of the winter mountain wasn’t scary. If she closed her eyes, the scene where Yirok fired his gun without faltering was drawn in that pitch-black world. Yet if she opened her eyes, his reddened ears came into view. Since she only saw Yirok whether she closed or opened her eyes, Chaehwa felt a false heat.

“But this isn’t really killing people… It must all be inside someone’s memory. The one who plunged us into the vision grass…”

Though they were words brought up to comfort him, Yirok didn’t make any reply. Only around the time when it was judged they had passed the middle of the river did he deliver a very slow response.

“While being here for a week, I couldn’t tell whether I was Kim Yirok or that Japanese soldier they talk about. I got confused.”

Where was there just one or two people who became addicted to a fabricated world, offering their souls to a vision grass user, and even offering their physical bodies? Because of that, unless one was an experienced haenang, contracting with a vision grass user was generally discouraged.

“That’s how it is. If I stay here long too, I’ll mistake myself for that woman, Yoshikyung or whatever. We have to get out before then…”

“It’ll be fine.”

“What do you mean fine? While walking on the ice with me in the dead of winter.”

Yirok let his words drift into the wind while maintaining a steady walking speed.

“Seeing you, I can distinguish which is reality and which is a lie. It was like that the moment I saw you. If you get confused, I can look at you, and you can look at me.”

“…That’s true. If I look at you, Yirok, there’s no way to get confused.”

“There isn’t.”

The information Yirok had obtained while spending a few days with the Japanese army was roughly like this. The only daughter of a wealthy family whose Japanese name was Yoshie and Korean name was Park Hyeon—that was her. Someone had informed on them while they were selling their father’s farmlands to provide independence funds. And a significant amount of the money sent to be used as independence funds had strangely flowed into Japan instead.

They said that due to the betrayal of the Park family who had pledged loyalty to Japan, an order had dropped to arrest Hyeon. At the thought that she would have been helplessly stripped of her wealth and dragged to a torture room if caught, her body shuddered.

The quick-witted Yirok didn’t miss even the brief moment Chaehwa shivered, applying force to his arms to press her even closer to his back. Chaehwa’s heart was able to avoid freezing thanks to that. To think it was the memory of a person dropped into an era rampant with blood and betrayal. It felt as if the grudge dwelling in the memory was washing over her like a raging torrent.

“Probably this person died wrongfully. That grudge must have looked attractive to the blind warriors. This time, the same thing must not be repeated. I will change the ending, create a rift in the vision grass, and break it.”

By rambling on to her sole comrade, Yirok, Chaehwa relieved her own tension. Yirok, whom she met in the illusion world, became a good conversational partner without talking back. As if he knew Chaehwa bore a heavy responsibility, just slightly nodding his head was all he did.

“Yirok, you mustn’t disappear. Don’t go anywhere either. Stick right by my side. Got it? That way I can protect you.”

Though in a way, Chaehwa, who had received nothing but help ever since they met, looked like someone who was all talk. Sure enough, Yirok answered calmly without putting on airs.

“Are you not cold?”

“Not cold at all. This is super warm.”

And while she was at it, using it as an excuse, Chaehwa pressed and rubbed her cheek against his warm back to her heart’s content. If not at a time like this, when else would Yirok lending his back be common? Being carried on the back of the taciturn Yirok and crossing the river, she wished this time would be longer by exactly ten more minutes, no more, no less. Exactly ten minutes.

“I’ll wake you when we arrive, so sleep. You… are very noisy.”

“If you sleep in a cold place, your mouth will twist and you’ll die, Yirok.”

Even if Yirok spoke that way, and even if Chaehwa flared her eyes, in the end, the two obtained what they wanted. Before long, Chaehwa fell fast asleep while rubbing her cheek against her dependable comrade’s back, and Yirok’s heart beat fast so he didn’t know the cold.

The frozen river was long and heartless, but to the two, it was a sweet path for a stroll. Like that, there were days when a spring-like heart defeated the winter wind.