Shooting Star
Moonlight flowed over the rooftops like white silk, and from far away came the thin, lingering chorus of insects in the grass.
After listening to that melody for a moment, Cheongwol lifted her head and saw countless stars packed so densely across the summer night sky that it seemed to spill with light.
"Even when I lived in the mountains with Grandfather, I never saw a night with this many stars."
Cheongwol tightened her hand around Seomun Hwi’s, where he sat with a long robe draped over his shoulders.
Seomun Hwi looked down at their joined hands for a moment, then raised his gaze to the sky again.
"If we’re lucky, we may even see a shooting star."
"You mean one of those stars that falls from the sky? The kind where you’re supposed to make a wish the moment you see it, and it comes true."
"Yes. I’ve never properly managed to make one, though."
"Me neither. They always fell too quickly."
Cheongwol giggled and rose to her feet.
"Hwi."
Then she took a few steps forward, spread both arms wide, and looked back at him with a bright smile.
"I’m not really sure what that means."
At her playful gesture, the corner of Seomun Hwi’s mouth lifted in a faint smile.
Then Cheongwol stretched her arms above her shoulders as though she meant to gather up the night sky itself.
"Grandfather used to say that if a person has even this much happiness, they can live joyfully for their whole life."
Slowly lowering her hands, Cheongwol drew the line of her eyes into a soft curve.
"So he said to let everything you can’t hold inside slip away. Sorrow, too. Even happiness."
And yet, the one who had said such words had never truly let them go in the end.
Though she was smiling, deep sorrow lay in her eyes. Seomun Hwi stood and walked toward her at an unhurried pace.
Cheongwol remained where she was, waiting for him to come to her with the moonlight.
At last, the moment their toes touched.
A gentle breath of wind passed between them, brushing softly over the purple wildflowers that bloomed thick across the field.
"Ah..."
When the flowers stilled, Seomun Hwi exhaled lightly and parted his lips from hers.
Cheongwol’s faintly flushed cheeks stood out against her white jade skin, only making his aching yearning feel more urgent.
"Are you afraid?"
As though she already knew exactly what he was feeling, Cheongwol placed a hand over Seomun Hwi’s chest and asked.
What was the point of trying to hide it when his heart was beating this hard?
"I am."
Seomun Hwi lowered his eyes slightly and drew Cheongwol into his arms, his hand coming to rest at her shoulder.
"That I may fail to fulfill my duty, or disappoint those precious to me because of it. But more than anything..."
His trembling carried through the warmth between them and reached Cheongwol.
"What I fear most is not being able to see you again."
Jeok Hanseong’s forbidden medical art said that if even the slightest thing went wrong, there would be no way to undo it.
When he heard the suggestion that he accept such treatment, Seomun Hwi looked at Cheongwol at once.
If he failed to wake, Cheongwol would spend her entire life drowned in guilt.
And since the odds of success did not even rise above forty percent, refusing it was surely the right thing to do.
But when his lips could do nothing more than move soundlessly, unable to force the words out...
"I’ll accept it."
Cheongwol answered Jeok Hanseong in his place.
That moment felt unbearably long.
Unable to lift his head in embarrassment, Seomun Hwi could only watch as Cheongwol smiled and told him it was all right.
Just like now.
"It’s all right. If anything should go wrong..."
But this time, Cheongwol could not finish the sentence either.
Once again, Seomun Hwi’s lips came down over hers.
If only they could remain like this forever.
Starlight drifted quietly across the night sky, the chorus of insects cut off all at once, and silence wrapped itself around the two of them.
And in the midst of it, a single shooting star swept overhead, tracing a graceful arc through the dark.
Though neither of them managed to make a wish this time either, what did it matter?
They already held each other so completely that there was no room left for anything else.
Even if they had seen it, they would not have had the spare heart to hold the stars.
Under the beautiful night sky, on a summer evening when they hid their fear and clung to each other’s warmth.
No matter what lay ahead, neither of them would ever forget this moment.
In the early morning, when the moon had begun to wane and the sun was once again showing its face beyond the horizon.
Jeok Hanseong stared at the silver needles laid out before him and sank deep into thought.
Perhaps because he had spent the whole night without closing his eyes, he could feel his mind gradually growing hazy.
Left Guardian of the Four Evil Alliance.
The Divine Doctor of the Central Plains.
He had met countless hardships while living beneath those two identities, but never once had he wanted to turn away from something so badly.
Jeok Hanseong lowered his gaze to look at his right hand.
"..."
The fear he could not hide had taken form and shown itself plainly.
For him, of all people, to look so pitifully rattled when he should have remained the calmest of them all.
After swallowing dryly, he drew up the inner power sleeping in his dantian and sent it flowing through his meridians.
Warmth spread through his body and the trembling eased, but in one corner of his heart the pushed-aside fear still lurked, waiting for any chance to raise its head again.
"Hah..."
At last Jeok Hanseong let out a deep sigh and slowly got to his feet.
His body, stiff from the long night, gave a faint creak, but he ignored it and picked up the teapot on the table.
How had he ended up recommending a medical procedure that could cost someone their life?
If even the smallest mistake was made in the course of treatment, that burden would be carried by him and by those left behind.
He filled the cup nearly halfway with the cold tea that had long since gone still, the liquid beginning to murmur softly as it poured.
For an instant, a worry flickered that Dang Hyeongeuk might discover his identity, but he knew very well that what he was about to perform was not medicine, but a grand technique.
It was a forbidden art that the original leader of the Four Evil Alliance had once used for his adopted successor, the second leader, and which had never once shown itself to the world since.
Of course, it had been secretly refined and handed down over generations in Bi-ryong Pavilion, but even then it remained a realm only a handful of people could touch.
And now, after all this time, he was the one who had to unleash that forbidden art on a young righteous martial artist.
...I’ve long since passed sixty, and yet Heaven’s will is still impossible to read.
With a bitter laugh, he downed the tea.
The cold liquid wetted his mouth and sharpened his dulled mind just a little.
However much he turned it over in his head, there was no retreat now.
Jeok Hanseong opened the window and drew in a deep breath of the still-faint dawn air.
Then he sat cross-legged in the middle of the room, closed his eyes, and slowly began to raise his energy, starting a small heavenly circulation.
If he could not avoid it, then he would do as he always had and not hesitate.
Before long, the sun had climbed over the horizon and hung high in the sky, and only then did Jeok Hanseong’s closed eyelids slowly lift.
The suspicion and unease in his eyes were gone without a trace, replaced by nothing but resolute determination.
At the very moment the boundary between Jeok Hanseong the martial artist and Jeok Hanseong the physician began to blur, voices came from beyond the door.
"Divine Doctor, I’ve brought the young clan leader of the Seomun Clan."
"This is called the Silver Ink Soul Needle. I can say with confidence that there is no sacred object in the Central Plains that can compare to it."
Jeok Hanseong revealed the needles, each longer than a handspan, to everyone present.
Indeed, as though it deserved the title of a sacred object, the needles shimmered faintly as silver and ink-black light moved across them.
"It’s obvious at a glance that it’s a priceless item, but..."
Dang Hyeongeuk let the end of his sentence trail off, his brow tightening slightly.
Jeok Hanseong gave a faint, understanding smile and shook his head.
"Would I call it a sacred object if it weren’t worthy of the name? Set your worries aside for now. Before we begin the treatment, there are a few things I need to ask."
At his words, tension sharpened in the eyes of Namgung Cheon, Dang Hyeongeuk, and Seomun Hwi alike.
"First, young clan leader of the Seomun Clan."
"Yes."
"If even the slightest thing goes wrong, you could lose your life. Even if luck is on your side and you survive, you’ll live the rest of your days as a cripple. Do you truly have no regrets?"
Seomun Hwi bit down hard on his lower lip and swallowed.
"I will not regret it. Nor will I resent it."
At Seomun Hwi’s answer, filled with resolve, Jeok Hanseong nodded.
"I see."
After taking a short breath, he turned his gaze between Namgung Cheon and Dang Hyeongeuk in turn.
"And you? Will you not regret it either? They say it can be rebuilt, but no one knows how much inner power it will take."
"I have already made up my mind. It is fine."
"...It is not as though there is any other way."
Unlike Dang Hyeongeuk, Namgung Cheon looked displeased, but Jeok Hanseong could understand him.
In truth, even he had been thrown off balance by the sight of Cheongwol and Seomun Hwi.
Even if Cheongwol had become a woman because of the Sunflower Manual, her essence was still male, so how could she look as though she was in a romantic union with another man, let alone one of the same sex?
There was surely some effect from the fact that she had accumulated yin energy in her body from a young age, but it was still difficult to accept at a glance.
And if it was difficult for him, a complete outsider, then how much heavier must it be for a biological father who had suffered a lifetime of separation?
He had not yet heard much from Namgung Cheon himself, but even from the way he looked at Cheongwol, it was obvious the two were father and child.
...Should I be calling them father and daughter now?
When the frivolous thought drifted through his mind, he cleared his throat and collected himself.
"Then I’ll begin by explaining how the treatment will proceed."