As True as a Dream Chapter 85

“I went to a soup restaurant near the main street.”

 

A soup restaurant… near the entrance to the main street?

 

Hae-Joo’s mouth twitched at the sight she couldn’t ignore.

 

There was only one thing on her mind at that moment.

 

“Do you… do you know the name of the soup restaurant?”

 

“It’s Mrs. Na.”

 

Hae-Joo’s lips twitched as she asked.

 

Hongo looked at her in confusion and asked her back.

 

“Do you know the owner of the soup restaurant?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Hae-Joo managed to answer, trying to ignore the tightness in her throat.

 

Then she looked at Yi Ho, who had remained silent the whole time.

 

“When I came back from Gongju, I told you that there was someone who could help me find my father’s acquaintance, remember?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“That person is Mrs. Na, the owner of the soup restaurant, my father’s… friend, that’s right. Uh… that day when we arrived at Gyeongseong Station, you said you had a place for me to go?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Yi Ho answered bluntly, as if trying to calm her tumbling emotions.

 

“After breaking up with the boss, I went to Mrs. Na’s soup restaurant on Bonjeongtong Street. I wanted to find Guishan Dao quickly. I asked her to find a man named Chul-sae who had visited my father eight years earlier and had taken the painting with him. Luckily, Mrs. Na said that she knew the man and that she’d look for him. But…”

 

She looked at Yi Ho and talked about the events of the day.

 

Then Yi Ho lifted the tip of his right lip in a pout.

 

“I guess she didn’t want you to look for their wandering friend. Your father’s friend that is.”

 

Hae-Joo bit her lower lip hard, still in disbelief at this turn of events, and then let out a weak sob.

 

“…No, I guess I shouldn’t have gone looking for him.”

 

It was Mrs. Na, not Mao Saito, who had kidnapped her and tried to bury her alive.

 

Mrs. Na was the only one who could share her memories with her father, who had moved from Gongju to Gyeongseong after her father’s death.

 

‘Why?’

 

Hae-Joo felt deeply betrayed by Mrs. Na’s attitude toward her after all these years.

 

She had only asked Mrs. Na to find her father’s acquaintance, a migratory bird named Chul-sae, who had asked for the Guishan Dao eight years ago.

 

But Mrs. Na was too afraid to speak up and turn away, so she made a terrifying move to stop her.

 

As Hae-Joo rolled her eyes in disbelief, she suddenly remembered Mrs. Na’s slightly different demeanor that day.

 

“The migratory bird? Why are you looking for him?”

 

“Why do you have to find him? There’s nothing I don’t know about the time he lived in Gyeongseong.”

 

“When he stayed in Gongju? Did he ever visit your father? Did you see him? What was he like?”

 

When she mentioned the story of Kim Sang-jin’s migratory bird, she kept asking why she was looking for him, whether she had seen him, and whether she remembered him.

 

 

In the short time that Hae-Joo has been in contact with her, just over a year, she has never been a person of many words when it comes to the act of buying and selling information.

 

She sells the information she wants and gets paid for it.

 

That was it.

 

At the time, she was puzzled, but she thought it was just a matter of sympathy for the old story.

 

But now she realized that Mrs. Na was really bothered by her search for Kim Sang-jin.

 

And why was that? It meant that Mrs. Na probably knew something about what happened back then.

 

‘Why else would she be so nosy?’

 

On second thought, it was almost as if she was trying to find out what she knew.

 

“But the night after the shaman’s visit, I saw a car parked in front of your house… I think there was someone in the back seat, but it was too far away and dark to be sure.”

 

Hae-Joo remembered Uncle Jige’s words from eight years ago when he told her what he and his wife had seen outside their thatched hut the night after the shaman’s visit.

 

‘Was it Mrs. Na sitting in the back seat? Why Mrs. Na?’

 

Just then, she felt a slight chill on her right wrist as she stood there, dazed.

 

When she regained her senses, she looked up at Yi Ho standing in front of her.

 

Her eyelids dropped and he brushed his thumb lightly across the inside of her wrist.

 

“Yep. You’re better.”

 

“What?”

 

‘Better? Better at what?’

 

Hae-Joo followed his gaze down to her wrist and opened her mouth slightly.

 

“Did you… put the medicine back on?”

 

Hae-Joo remembered the “expensive and precious medicine” in the celadon bottle that Yi Ho had brought her whenever she was injured.

 

“Sooner or later, you’ll use it all up.”

 

Yi Ho’s voice was playful, and Hae-Joo’s lips curled into a broad smile.

 

“…A waste. We can just use the red ones.”

 

“No. I don’t want to do that.”

 

“Then don’t bruise me for using up the medicine.”

 

“I don’t like that either.”

 

Yi Ho grinned and grabbed her chin, tilting her neck at an angle.

 

It was as if he wanted to see if the wound had healed.

 

She’d looked in the mirror sometime yesterday and recognized the marks on her neck, wrists and forehead.

 

None of them were serious enough to make her feel uncomfortable.

 

They were the kind of wounds that would scab over, fall off, and grow new skin after a few days.

 

Seeing Yi Ho’s concern for a wound she hadn’t even considered, her heart sank like a wet cotton ball.

 

“Is it better?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Yi Ho replied calmly, then suddenly pinched her nose between his index and middle fingers and shook it slightly.

 

Her eyes widened at his unexpectedly friendly gesture and she turned to where Hongo had been standing a moment ago.

 

There was no sign of Hongo anywhere in the study.

 

“Uh, Master Hongo…?”

 

“He’s gone. What were you thinking that you didn’t even notice that he was gone?”

 

He asked, but his face didn’t seem to need an answer.

 

It was as if he knew what was going on in her head without her having to say it.

 

“Isn’t it a good thing you didn’t have to look far?”

 

“What? Ah…”

 

Hae-Joo, who had reflexively echoed Yi Ho’s words, laughed weakly.

 

It was good that she didn’t have to go around in circles to find Kim Sang-jin.

 

Mrs. Na would know the answer.

 

With her rambling words, Yi Ho had already gotten the picture.

 

He clucked his tongue inwardly at the surprising depth of insight she sometimes displayed.

 

“Right, I won’t have to look far… I guess I’ll just have to get her to talk.”

 

Hae-Joo let out an involuntary sigh and Yi Ho grinned.

 

“I thought you were going to run away?”

 

“They sent those men because I’m too scared to ask about Kim Sang-jin. I’ll go alone and see what happens. I have to make a plan.”

 

“Make a plan for what?”

 

Yi Ho asked lazily, tilting his head, and Hae-Joo frowned and scratched her forehead.

 

All she could do was roll her eyes a little and use the little dexterity she’d learned from Yangbu.

 

She couldn’t afford to hire men like the ones from yesterday and she didn’t know where to find them.

 

‘So what am I supposed to do?’

 

She was just trying to survive and make a living, and she hadn’t expected this kind of intrigue and violence to come into her life.

 

While she was thinking, a long, delicate hand suddenly grabbed her chin and lifted it gently.

 

Then Yi Ho’s lips crashed lightly against hers.

 

She only realized it when he bit her face back.

 

Hae-Joo blinked nervously and looked at Yi Ho’s beautiful face in the distance.

 

“You don’t need a plan, just go when you want to go.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I am your plan.”

 

Dazed by the incomprehensibility of his words, Hae-Joo soon burst out laughing.

 

She remembered what Yi Ho had said to her when they went to Mao Saito’s birthday party.

 

He had said that he would be her support.

 

Now he said that he had her back.

 

“…I see. And actually, you’re the one who needs Guishan Dao, right? You should help me.”

 

Yi Ho narrowed his eyes at their playful exchange and smiled.

 

“Yes. But it’s not just about the Guishan Dao.”

 

Yi Ho tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and gently pinched her earlobe.

 

“You are my lady, do you believe me?”

 

When Hae-Joo still blinked, Yi Ho added.

 

“It’s just that I don’t want you to be betrayed like this, and I don’t want you to feel resentful. Don’t look away and don’t be a coward. You don’t have to, because you have me.”

 

Yi Ho’s unexpected words left me stunned.