Chapter 51
The young lady said nothing for a moment. She looked like someone who couldn’t understand what I had just said.
However, before long, her face hardened. Her cold voice rang out.
“Don’t say such ridiculous things.”
“My lady.”
“Stop talking…!”
But the young lady couldn’t continue.
Because the voices of people could be heard from far away.
“……”
The young lady tightly pressed her lips together and glared at me. Then she gestured for me to follow and started walking ahead. I followed behind her without saying anything.
We went deeper into the mountain.
The sound of water that had been faintly audible gradually grew louder. Before long, a massive waterfall appeared before us.
The fiercely cascading waterfall swallowed up every other sound around it. It was loud enough that it seemed as though we wouldn’t be able to hear each other even if we talked. The young lady knew that as well and began looking for somewhere nearby to hide.
Fortunately, there was a rock covered in thick grass, and we went behind it. Then we faced each other and remained silent for a while.
In the end, I was the first to speak.
“We can’t keep running away like this forever.”
“……”
“You saw it too, my lady. There are far too many enemies. They’ve completely blocked all the paths leading down from the mountain… If we stay here like this, we’ll be caught soon.”
“……”
“It would be better if one of us drew their attention. I’ll pretend to be you. If I put on the dubong and cover my face with a veil, no one will realize it’s me. In the meantime, you can escape by going down the mountain…”
“If I escape, what about you?”
“What?”
The young lady’s voice trembled.
“Can you escape?”
“……”
“If you pretend to be me, can you survive?”
“……”
“No. You can’t survive, can you? You’re telling me to escape alone because you don’t think you’ll be able to survive. You want me to live by sacrificing your own life!”
“My lady…”
“I, I…”
The young lady bit her lip. Her stiffened face looked angry, but in a way, she also looked terrified.
The young lady struggled to continue.
“I’ve already lost too much. My home, the people, even my parents… I have nothing left now, and you’re telling me to give up on you too? And even push you off a cliff so that I can live?”
“……”
“I absolutely can’t. No, I won’t. Do you think I could go on living normally after doing something like that? If you die, I’ll die with you. If you die, then I…”
“I’m not going to die, though.”
“What?”
The young lady stared at me in bewilderment. I simply gave her a wide grin.
“When did I ever say I was going to die? I just meant that we’d escape separately and buy some time. Think about it rationally. Who’s faster, you or me?”
“……”
“And why would I die? I’m absolutely not going to die. There are still so many things I haven’t gotten to do yet. I haven’t even gotten to spend money as much as I want, or wear nice clothes, or eat delicious food. I’ve never even gone anywhere for fun…”
“……”
“I can’t die until I’ve done all of those things. I promised Aso, you know. We promised we’d live while doing everything we wanted to do. I also promised Mother that I’d live well…”
“……”
“Most of all…”
I looked at the young lady, who seemed strangely dazed. I suddenly felt embarrassed for some reason, so I hesitated before mumbling quietly.
“You said you’d stay by my side.”
The young lady’s eyes widened.
“You said it before, my lady. That you wouldn’t leave me alone. That you’d become my family…”
“……”
“I didn’t say anything at the time, but I was really happy. I’d always felt like I was living without ever being able to settle down anywhere, but then I felt like I’d finally found where I belonged. Now that I know what that feels like, how could I leave?”
“……”
“I can’t leave. No, I won’t leave. Even if you tell me to go now, I’ll stubbornly stick by your side. It’ll be too late to regret it afterward anyway. So…”
I raised my hand and took the young lady’s hand. At some point, her hand had begun trembling violently.
“Please trust me.”
“……”
“I’ll never leave you.”
“……”
“I’ll definitely come back. No matter what happens, even if it takes quite a long time. I’ll somehow make my way back to your side.”
“……”
“Until then… can you wait for me?”
The young lady didn’t answer my question. But I knew.
I knew she’d agreed, because the young lady lowered her head and tightly clasped my hand in return. At the same time, a single tear rolled down her pale cheek. I couldn’t offer her any words of comfort and simply held her hand.
In the end, we exchanged clothes.
‘It’s small.’
The young lady’s clothes were roomy enough around the body, but the sleeves and hem were strangely short. On top of that, wearing such fine clothes on my face somehow made me look particularly awkward.
There was a chance I could be discovered if I wasn’t careful, but it seemed like it would be fine if I put on the veil and pulled the dubong down deeply.
As I awkwardly looked down at the skirt I hadn’t worn in a long time, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘Should I tell her now?’
That I was actually a woman.
But right now, I was the one volunteering to act as bait in the young lady’s place. If she found out that I was a woman, she might try to stop me again.
There was no time for that anymore. Perhaps it would be less burdensome for the young lady if she continued to think of me as a boy.
‘I don’t want her to feel guilty for no reason…’
Rustle.
Just then, the young lady walked out from the other side.
She was wearing my shabby clothes. With her hair tied up in a single bundle and dressed in oversized men’s clothing, she looked ordinary at first glance, but there was no hiding that noble air about her face.
Still, she couldn’t exactly walk around suspiciously wearing a veil. I bent down, scooped up a handful of mud with both hands, and approached the young lady, smearing it across her face.
“Seriously, anyone else would look like a beggar on the side of the road in worn-out clothes, but how do you still look so noble even dressed like this? Your face is power. Pure power.”
“You…”
“When I leave, hide for a while and then come out.”
“……”
“I’ll try to buy as much time as possible. While I’m doing that, run in the opposite direction from me. You absolutely have to survive. That way, I’ll have somewhere to return to. Now that everything’s ready…”
“Wait.”
The young lady suddenly grabbed me. She seemed to hesitate for a moment before taking something out from inside her clothes.
A money pouch… and a pair of hairpins.
The jade hairpin had a lotus flower made of gemstones attached to its tip, with a fish swimming beneath it. There was another hairpin of a similar shape, mirrored symmetrically.
The young lady held out one of the hairpins to me and said,
“Take it.”
“What is this?”
“…A keepsake from my mother.”
Before I could even react, the young lady continued calmly.
“She treasured them dearly until the day she died. After I grew up, Father returned them to me. He told me to cherish them because there was only one pair like this in the world.”
“……”
“Since there’s only one pair… they’ll make a good token. You said you’d come back, but you might be delayed. I need to make sure I can recognize you…”
Indeed, but could anyone possibly fail to recognize this face?
But the young lady was right as well. There was nothing we could be certain of about what would happen from here on out, and in the worst case, we might truly be unable to meet for a very long time.
In that case, I’d need that token. A token that would allow her to recognize me even if I appeared as a woman.
“…I’ll definitely return it to you.”
I carefully accepted the hairpin.
Only after putting the hairpin and money pouch inside my clothes was I more or less ready to leave. Even then, the young lady simply stood there in one place, watching me. Unable to bring myself to take a step, I hesitated. I was just about to say some kind of farewell when…
“Really.”
A trembling voice suddenly reached me.
“You’re not… going to die, right?”
“……”
“You’ll definitely come back, right?”
I quietly looked at the young lady before impulsively saying,
“If you don’t believe me, should I swear an oath?”
Then I raised the three fingers of my right hand, pointing toward the heavens, the earth, and myself.
“This unworthy Seo Dan swears here. No matter what happens, I will return to my lady’s side. Though we were not born on the same day, we will definitely survive and die on the same day and at the same hour together!”
“……”
“…My lady.”
I smiled brightly.
“I’ll miss you a lot.”
The young lady drew in a breath.
Her large eyes trembled slightly and grew moist. But the tears did not fall. She merely bit her lip before forcing a smile and replying,
“…Don’t take too long.”
I nodded.
Only after covering my face with the veil and pulling the dubong deeply over my head did I raise my head. I took the young lady’s face into my eyes one last time.
It was a face I wouldn’t be able to see for a while. Perhaps I wouldn’t be able to see it for a very long time. I would miss her terribly. But it was all right. We weren’t parting forever. We would definitely meet again…
‘Please wait just a little.’
Keeping the words I couldn’t bring myself to say in my heart, I turned around. Then I slowly began moving forward.
One step, two steps. My pace quickened. Before I knew it, I was running as fast as I could.
The last face I saw flickered in my vision.
Was that beloved face soaked in tears, or was it not?
‘I absolutely, absolutely must…’
In the quiet mountains, only the sound of my footsteps echoed.
That became my last memory of the young lady.
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