As True as a Dream Chapter 65

The material circumstances may have been sufficient, but the emotional ones were not?

 

Hae-Joo thought about the fact that Yi Ho was the only one left in the Ban clan.

 

He might be easy-going, skilled, competent, and capable of anything, but he might not be good at giving and receiving emotions.

 

Hae-Joo pursed her lips.

 

She wanted to tell him what it means to love someone.

 

But will he just accept that he defines other people’s feelings for himself? Or even like them?

 

Hae-Joo was in denial.

 

More importantly, he had to recognize these feelings for himself, not have them forced upon him.

 

“…Okay, okay.”

 

Hae-Joo cleared her throat and stared at Yi Ho.

 

“So you’ll still kiss me if you want to, even though we’re not really engaged?”

 

“I hope so.”

 

Yi Ho laughed raspingly and pushed himself off the pillar he’d been leaning against, as if amused by her question.

 

Her heart pounded in her chest as he stared at her like a predator eyeing its prey.

 

The color of his eyes made her dizzy.

 

Meanwhile, Yi Ho, who had descended from the great hall, had come up to her, folded his arms across his chest, and tilted his upper body at an angle toward her.

 

Her eyes widened and she clasped her hands over his face as he approached.

 

Then a dark look of displeasure crossed Yi Ho’s face.

 

Hae-Joo didn’t want to drag their relationship down this slippery, ambiguous path.

 

“I’ll give you time to think!”

 

Hae-Joo gently removed her hand, which had been covering her mouth and cheeks rather roughly, and stepped back to put some distance between them.

 

“I’ll give you time to think, and when you… when you feel like you can’t live without me, then we can talk again, but until then, let’s not do this. I-I’ll take it, no matter how much you like me.”

 

The last words were almost spoken to herself.

 

She couldn’t tell him to his face that she liked him, so her voice got lower and lower.

 

“…Then take your medicine and lie down, I’m going to Uncle Jige’s.”

 

Hae-Joo looked at his chest and spat quickly, then turned and walked out the door without a second thought.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Yi Ho was left alone in the courtyard with a dazed face.

 

“What, don’t do it or wait?”

 

One moment he didn’t understand what Hae-Joo had said and the next he didn’t want to be convinced.

 

His face quickly turned pale.

 

“How can he like me?”

 

He is no fool.

 

If he didn’t know what she was asking, he couldn’t know.

 

He’s been around for over four hundred years.

 

Just because he hasn’t experienced it firsthand doesn’t mean he doesn’t know.

 

A series of scenes flashed through his mind.

 

Young lovers exchanging glances and feeling embarrassed.

 

A young man and a young woman, madly in love for the first time in their lives, unable to hold on to each other.

 

A married couple, leaning on each other’s shoulders through life’s hardships.

 

And an old couple growing old together until their black hair turns gray.

 

This is probably what Hae-Joo wants to “like”.

 

To put it bluntly, he definitely liked her.

 

No other human woman had ever made him care so much about her, to want to touch her and to fulfill her annoying requests.

 

But if you asked him if he liked her “like that”, it was impossible.

 

He’d never been loved in his life, never loved anyone, not even himself.

 

He was too much of a man and not enough of a fox.

 

He was always despised, scorned, and treated as an impure object by both humans and youkai.

 

If he couldn’t even like himself, how could he ever like anyone else?

 

He wanted to be cared for, he wanted to be noticed, he wanted to be appreciated.

 

But what does that have to do with feeling liked?

 

He was just greedy for the feelings he could get from her.

 

‘What does it matter if I like her? I don’t have to like her to have intimate contact with her, do I? No, she was the first to say she liked it. And now she’s pushing me away? Are you kidding me?’

 

The more he thought about it, the angrier Yi Ho became.

 

Somehow, the heat that threatened to melt his insides didn’t seem so annoying anymore.

 

Yi Ho’s eyes glittered dangerously as he watched Hae-Joo walk away.

 

He knew she was beautiful.

 

No, he couldn’t help but know it.

 

Until now it had never been a pleasure, only a source of annoyance, but not anymore.

 

He knows that Hae-Joo is often stunned or mesmerized by his appearance.

 

“You’re going to put up with that? Is that even possible?”

 

For the first time, Yi Ho wants to use his looks to mesmerize someone.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Hae-Joo and Yi Ho left Sogok Village.

 

They thought they would stay a little longer, but things changed.

 

“Son-in-law, come back with Hae-Joo the next time you’re free and we’ll kill a pig and have a wedding feast for you!”

 

“That’s a good idea, Hae-Joo, take care of yourself, and after you get married, you have to control your temper and listen to the groom, so you’ll be loved!”

 

“Thank you for your kind words. I’ll make sure to come back when I can.”

 

As the villagers waved goodbye, Yi Ho smiled and tried to take Hae-joo’s hand.

 

But Hae-joo quickly raised her arm, casually avoiding his hand and eagerly greeting her neighbors.

 

She felt Yi Ho’s cold gaze on her, but she remained silent and pretended not to notice.

 

After going to Uncle Jige’s house yesterday, Hae-Joo changed her attitude towards Yi Ho.

 

Unlike before, she was stern and polite, toeing the line like a subordinate treats a boss.

 

She liked him, but that didn’t mean she was drunk with emotion and would give him her liver, lungs, and anything else he asked for.

 

She didn’t want to blur the lines like that under the guise of a fake fiancé.

 

She wanted him to like her and give her the respect she deserved, as much as she took him seriously and appreciated him.

 

She wanted there to be something solid, something real and grounded between them.

 

She had less than Yi Ho, less education, and even less good looks, but that was no reason to lower herself.

 

She always wanted to live well and didn’t want to make herself unhappy.

 

For this reason, there had been a strange nervous battle between her and Yi Ho since yesterday.

 

“Give me your hand, I’ll take you.”

 

As the villagers watched, Yi Ho climbed onto the donkey cart first and offered to help her up, giving her the look of a loving and doting fiancé.

 

Hae-Joo smiled and placed the bag she was carrying in his hands.

 

Then she grabbed the railing next to the cart and quickly climbed in.

 

Soon the cart was on its way to Gongju City and the villagers were out of sight.

 

“Like I said yesterday, we’ll find a place called the Jiao’am Inn when we get to the city.”

 

Hae-Joo tried her best to ignore his displeasure and concentrate on the task at hand.

 

Apart from his and her nerves, the most important thing now was to find Guishan Dao as soon as possible.

 

The information he had received from Uncle Jige had already been relayed to Yi Ho yesterday.

 

At that time, Qi Fang’s acquaintance was staying at the Jiao’am Inn in Gongju City, and Uncle Jige had only heard stories.

 

“That acquaintance was a friend of your father’s who worked with him for a long time in Jingsheng. I never saw the man myself, but the night after the shaman’s visit, I saw a car parked in front of your house. A man came out of your house carrying the painting box. I think there was someone in the back seat, but it was too far away and too dark to be sure. That’s all I saw.

Uncle Jige, trying to remember as much as she can about what happened, asks again about the disfigurement eight years ago.”

 

She doesn’t know how Yi Ho lives with the painting.

 

He won’t say much more than that, saying she’ll know when she finds it.

 

But given the horrors of that year, she can’t take him at his word.

 

Part of me wanted to find the shaman who had done the good eight years ago, but she had to give up.

 

According to Uncle Jige, the shaman died just a few days after the good deed.

 

“Because he tried to harm the painting, the shaman was killed by the painting.”

 

Uncle Jige’s complexion turned black as charcoal as he remembered the horrors of that day once again.

 

Hae-Joo still seemed to be lost in a fog.

 

But she had to admit, eight years ago, with her father and that shaman and her own fever and the devastation of the entire Sogok village, it wasn’t all so absurd after all.

 

‘Let’s say the black snake in the painting harmed people, as the shaman said. But how could a snake in a painting kill a person?’