Pond
As the sound of birds chirping outside the window drifted in on the morning air, Seomun Hwi’s eyelids slowly lifted.
Ever since he had clawed his way back from the brink of death and regained his senses, his days had been almost offensively monotonous.
He did nothing but lie in bed all day, alternating between staring at the ceiling and looking out the window, then sleeping again once the sun set.
If Ak Seo-ah had not offered him even the thinnest shred of hope, he might well have lost his mind by now.
Thinking that, he blinked once—and immediately heard familiar footsteps approaching.
“Hwi, did you sleep well?”
At the sound of the door sliding open, he pushed himself upright and turned his head. Im Cheongwol came to his side, carrying breakfast on a tray with her own hands.
“...Did I not tell you to stop coming?”
When Seomun Hwi’s expression clearly showed his displeasure, Cheongwol set the tray down with a bitter look and sat on the edge of the bed.
“If our places were reversed, you’d have come to see me every day too, wouldn’t you?”
“...”
Unable to answer, he hesitated. Cheongwol gave a faint smile and lifted a spoonful of rice porridge.
It was steaming hot, so she blew on it carefully a couple of times to cool it before he could burn the roof of his mouth.
“Here.”
She held the spoon out to him, but Seomun Hwi jerked his head aside.
“I have no appetite. Take it away.”
“You have to eat something. You can’t take herbal medicine on an empty stomach. It’ll tear up your insides.”
“I’ll handle that myself.”
For some reason, he was even more stubborn than usual today. Cheongwol’s face hardened too, and she set the bowl down with a sharp clack.
“If you really don’t want to eat it, then forget it.”
Her angry voice made his chest ache, but he only bit his lip and said nothing.
Cheongwol had said she had something she absolutely had to do, and needed to leave.
Yet instead of helping her, he had become little more than a cripple.
At this rate, he would only become a burden that clung to her ankles out of pity.
He despised the thought of becoming such a pathetic sight, and had steeled himself to push her away harshly if necessary—when, all at once...
“Hwi.”
Cheongwol had slid in close beside him without him noticing, and whispered his name right by his ear.
He startled, but before he could recover, a soft touch covered his lips, and he found himself parting them without meaning to.
“Mm...”
The moment she created a gap, Cheongwol’s tongue slipped inside as if it had been waiting for the chance, lightly teasing his own.
Her movements were awkward beyond belief, but that clumsy inexperience only made her all the more difficult to resist.
“Ah.”
At last, unable to hold back, Seomun Hwi pulled her narrow waist into his arms, and Cheongwol trembled faintly.
How long did they taste each other’s breath like that?
When a slight sting suddenly brushed the tip of his tongue, Cheongwol was looking at him with a teasing glint quite unlike her usual self.
“You’re so obvious.”
“...What?”
“I can tell everything just by looking at your face, you know what you’re thinking.”
Her hand slowly slid down the arm he had wrapped around her waist.
“So don’t say things you don’t mean.”
Her expression was one of complete understanding, and a short sigh slipped from his lips.
“Cheongwol. This isn’t something to take so emotionally...”
He tried to say more, but could not bring himself to finish the thought.
Her knee had come down with his weight behind it and pressed hard into his thigh.
“If I say don’t, then don’t. Whatever you say, I’m not leaving you like this.”
“...Wait—”
The moment he tried to move his hand, Cheongwol was one step faster and caught his wrist.
“Answer me first.”
The pain grew worse, and Seomun Hwi had no choice but to nod, half by force.
He was not pleased with the answer, since it had clearly been wrung from him, but Cheongwol finally lifted her knee and wrapped both arms tightly around his neck.
“Don’t worry. I’ll find a way to return you to your original self, no matter what it takes.”
---
Once the medicine took effect and Seomun Hwi fell asleep again, Cheongwol carefully transferred the empty bowl back onto the tray and carried it outside.
She had noticed, to some extent, that he felt guilty—but she had not expected him to try so openly to push her away.
For now, she had managed to turn his heart around by sheer force, but as the days went by, even that would become difficult.
At worst, just having her nearby might end up hurting him.
Wasn’t that how martial artists were, in the end?
“Huu...”
She let out a deep sigh and was just about to move when—
“You must be quite close to the young clan leader of the Seomun Clan. You’re certainly taking great care of him.”
An unpleasant male voice stopped Cheongwol in her tracks.
She looked up. The man responsible for putting Seomun Hwi in such a state, Namgung Cheon, was watching her.
He was also the head of the Namgung Clan, and while she might not understand him, Seomun Hwi still treated him with proper respect. She could not simply ignore him.
“Yes.”
But she wanted nothing to do with him, even for a moment longer, so she gave a perfunctory answer without meeting his eyes and tried to pass by.
What an outrageous man.
Even if it had all begun from a misunderstanding, if you had reduced someone to that condition, the least you could do was apologize.
And on top of that, knowing full well that she was Seomun Hwi’s friend, he was still addressing her as if nothing had happened?
She had only quickened her pace with a stiff face for a short while before he stopped her again.
“Miss.”
She turned reluctantly. Namgung Cheon approached and took something from inside his robes, placing it in her hand.
“This is...”
It was the keepsake of her mother that had been handed to her by So Gayul.
A flower-shaped jade ornament, clear and green as water.
She had thought it would be impossible to get back, since they said it held the mysteries of Dang family martial arts.
“Never give lightly to others what you must guard with your life. And do not think less of it merely because you keep it close to your chest. Otherwise...”
Namgung Cheon could not finish the sentence, and gave a wry smile instead.
“That was presumptuous of me.”
The way he turned away after saying that looked so desolate it was almost painful to see.
“Have you ever...”
Cheongwol heard herself ask before she could stop it.
Looking back, there had been more than one strange thing about him.
The fact that, even while rushing after them, he never once infused his sword with inner power to strike.
The fact that he had called her his son after she had become a woman.
And most decisively, the fact that he had unleashed a killing blow on the Seomun Clan’s young leader for that son, without the slightest hesitation.
From all of that, Cheongwol could be fairly certain.
Namgung Cheon had once suffered the agony of losing a child, and because of it, his mind was no longer entirely whole.
Look at him.
Even now, beyond those sorrowful eyes, he was looking at someone other than her.
After a long stretch of heavy silence, an unexpected reply came from Namgung Cheon’s mouth.
“...Just for a moment. Would you walk with me, just for a little while?”
---
Whether by design or by coincidence, the place Namgung Cheon led her to was the pond she had once walked beside with Seomun Hwi.
Back then, she had been unable to contain her admiration for the elegant lotus blossoms and the clear water so shallow she could even see the pebbles on the bottom.
But now, with Seomun Hwi lying in bed, a gloomy feeling rose in her once more.
Whether he noticed it or not, Namgung Cheon stared at the lotus flowers floating in the middle of the pond as though he had lost his soul.
“...I couldn’t protect it either.”
At the abrupt remark, Cheongwol blinked once, and he continued.
“This pond was a place my wife cherished deeply.”
The conversation had become more difficult to bear than she had expected, and Cheongwol bit her lower lip lightly.
“...I’m sorry.”
Namgung Cheon gave a faint smile and shook his head.
“Why should you be sorry?”
As he lifted an arm and pointed somewhere, Cheongwol naturally followed his gaze.
There, unlike the other flowers, stood a single lotus blossom, pale as snow.
“I once stole it from the family estate in secret, hoping to win my wife’s heart. When my father found out, he scolded me so severely.”
As Namgung Cheon’s eyes drifted through the past, Cheongwol let go of a little of the resentment she had felt toward him.
When she set aside the grand title of head of the Namgung Clan, the truth became plain enough.
He too had simply lost someone precious, grieved, and wandered astray.
“That makes sense.”
“Hmm?”
“You said it was a flower you gave your wife, didn’t you? After the wedding, she would have come to the Namgung Clan Estate, so the flower would have been left all alone in the Dang family home. It would’ve been awkward to ask you to bring it back again.”
At Cheongwol’s words, Namgung Cheon’s lips curled upward.
“My wife said exactly the same thing. She told me that, if she’d known, it would have been better to just leave that flower at the Namgung Clan Estate and look at it there. Do you know what I answered her every time?”
“What did you say?”
Cheongwol asked, smiling a little herself.
“I told her that someday, when we had a child, we would come back together and look at the flowers.”
While Cheongwol searched in vain for something to say, Namgung Cheon tipped his face toward the sky, his expression strangely lighter.
Garyeong. It took me a while, but our son has come here looking for you. Did you perhaps send him to us? If so, I’m grateful. I’m sure you’re watching over us from wherever you are.
As his beloved’s face seemed to surface across the vast blue heavens, hot tears slipped down Namgung Cheon’s cheeks.
Since he had not expected it himself, he turned away in great embarrassment, intending to wipe them away—only for Cheongwol to speak first.
“I’m sure she is.”
Her face had gone soft with emotion as she consoled him.
“Whenever something is hard for me too, I believe my grandfather is watching over me from the sky.”
The man who took you from me, and the one who harmed your mother.
You call him your grandfather so casually.
And yet... perhaps that is for the best.
It means you were never made to suffer his cruelty.
Namgung Cheon wanted, in that instant, to reveal the truth about Im Yuguang—yet if he forced his son to shoulder one unbearable burden after another, his mind might truly shatter.
So he swallowed down the feelings he had held back for more than twenty years and nodded.
“I am certain she would have.”
---