Let's Just Eat Already
They arrived at the house of the Dan clan.
"The place is unchanged."
The house and the land around it had changed a great deal. Even so, she could tell that this was where the Dan clan still lived and breathed.
"And yet how few the people are."
"At present, there is no one around here but my family and Mr. Phantom."
Dan Miryu scratched his cheek, as if embarrassed.
"Hmm..."
Was my reading entirely off?
It had not come to the annihilation of the clan, but they had clearly suffered a heavy blow. For the whole neighborhood to have grown this bleak...
"A shame. It used to bustle so."
Being here, the memories rose one after another. Over there, where no house stood now, there had been an open lot, and children had run and played. The path into the mountain had been the road they took to gather firewood. Rather than walls closing every side, the place had lain open, and it had felt something like a park.
"Haha..."
Dan Miryu gave an awkward laugh.
"Forgive me. I did not mean to weigh on you with it."
"Not at all. Rather, I am grateful that you remember."
She had committed a discourtesy she had never intended.
"I should like to see the house of the present clan head."
"It is humble, but allow me to show you in."
They went inside.
"Honey, we're home."
"You're back already?"
A woman was inside, preparing the meal. With an apron tied and a bright smile on her face, she was the very model of a wife who had kept a house all her life.
She has had blood on her hands.
The smell of blood clung to the woman's body. Faint, but it was there.
Mistress of the Dan clan. Her life was never going to be an ordinary one.
"A pleasure to meet you, Teacher. I'm Mi Soryeong."
The woman, Mi Soryeong, bowed her head.
"Well met. I am Hong Yumin."
She returned the greeting.
"Please wait just a little. I'll have the meal ready."
"You have my thanks."
Mi Soryeong went to the kitchen.
"Please, sit over there."
"Hm."
She took a seat at the table. The Mask and Dan Miryu sat across from her. Soup hissed as it came to a boil, and against that sound she spoke.
"So. What is this talk of my playing teacher?"
"It means exactly what it sounds like."
The Mask took hold of the mood.
"What?"
"Please become the master of Mr. Dan Miryu's son."
"Mm..."
She had heard as much on the way, and yet.
"You permitted this?"
Dan Miryu nodded.
"Yes. I heard Mr. Phantom's proposal, and I accepted."
"Hnn..."
She could not follow his thinking. Even granting some tie to his ancestors, she was in truth a perfect stranger, and he meant to make her master to his own child?
"What of me did you trust, to settle on such a thing? I cannot understand it."
"At first I worried over it a great deal myself. But Mr. Phantom said there was no one but you, Teacher."
"Why?"
"Because of my son's ability."
An ability. What manner of ability could drive a man to this?
"Is there some trouble with the boy?"
"I believe it would be better if you saw for yourself."
Dan Miryu begged their patience a moment.
"May I bring my son in?"
"You may."
"Thank you."
The moment Dan Miryu stepped out, she fixed the Mask with a glare.
"What are you thinking?"
"Hm? I'm not thinking anything."
"I am in no mood to be played with."
Her brow drew tight.
"Was this your intent from the start?"
"I only recommended the person best suited to it."
"And was my will anywhere in that?"
Of course it was not. That was why he had brought her here as though the matter were already decided.
"You're free to refuse."
"...You do make it sound fine."
If he had told her from the beginning, she might at least have turned it over. Had she expected too much of him? An ache opened in a corner of her chest.
"Very well. If that is how you would have it, then I refuse this instant."
"Without even seeing him?"
That air of his, as if none of it mattered in the least, scraped at her.
"Whatever is wrong with a child, it is for the parents to resolve. Not for me."
Her words sharpened.
"I don't know. I see it differently."
She went still.
From the Mask came a presence that did not belong. It was the same feeling she had caught in the car, and again the first time they met: dark, sticky, something that lived and yet was not among the living. The Mask's eyes grew deep.
"Miss Hong Yumin. There are things in this world that can't be avoided."
The Mask tapped the table with a finger. At once the dust lying upon it gathered to a single point and drew letters.
"We call that fate."
"You'll know the moment you see him."
The Mask pronounced it as Heaven itself might have passed sentence.
"That fate is real."
"...What nonsense is this."
Drivel. What gave him the right to be so certain? Did he fancy himself Heaven? To speak of fate before her, of all people.
"Mark me. You will not die an easy death."
The words came boiling up out of her rage.
"We're here."
The Mask let it pass as if it were nothing. Before she could give her fury a voice, footsteps sounded in the hall.
"You brought a tutor?"
"Yes. This may be the one who teaches you your power."
"...Really?"
As though pulled, her gaze turned toward the hall. The anger of a moment before melted clean away.
Who is coming?
Dan Miryu came into view, and a boy appeared behind him.
"Teacher. This is my son, Dan Chuyeon."
"Hello. I'm Dan Chuyeon."
A handsome boy offered the greeting.
"........."
Looking at the boy, she could find no words.
What... is this child.
How was he holding nature inside him? It filled him past brimming and spilled over, and yet it did not shatter. It held in harmony. One wrong step and it was a cliff sheer as the abyss, and still he governed that nature as if it were only natural. It was a madder thing than walking a tightrope upon a single finger. How in the world was this child still alive?
"...?"
"Teacher?"
Without thinking, she drew near and looked closely.
"Yes. Now I see why you recommended me."
And the fate the Mask had spoken of, as well. If not her, there could exist no one fit to teach this child.
"I will teach him."
"Truly?"
Dan Miryu's eyes flew wide.
"Yes."
Fate whispered: however she might try to flee, she would be bound to this child, one way or another. Her eyes met the boy's.
"Ah... hello."
The boy greeted her, shy and fumbling. Beneath that unripe freshness she felt a vast power.
"I only wished to see your face, and so you were brought. I have matters to discuss with your father. Will you go back?"
"Ah, all right."
Embarrassed, the boy scurried away.
"Hoo."
She returned to the table and sat.
"All good, then?"
The Mask asked it, smug.
"Tsk. I shall humor you this once."
She had the feeling she was the one being toyed with, but there was no help for it. A bond already appointed had been tied. Ignore it, and she could not weather the backlash that would follow.
"Thank you, Teacher."
"It was a thing that had to come to pass."
She pressed a finger to her philtrum. Tangled up with the Mask, there would not be a quiet day.
"Bring the child again, later."
"I will."
Dan Miryu brushed a hand over his chest, plainly relieved.
"I'm glad the talk went well."
Damned man.
"Now there's only the last problem left."
"What problem do you mean?"
Dan Miryu tilted his head.
"What problem could it be."
A chill. The Mask's pupils shrank, then widened.
"Wouldn't it be the matter of Hong Yumin?"
"You—"
The Mask grinned.
"If he's to be taught properly, the annoying parts are better cleared away quickly."
As if he had been waiting for precisely this moment, the Mask drew the snare tight around her.
"Don't look at me like that."
"You overstep...!"
A low rumble spread out from the table. She kept it from reaching the kitchen, but it was more than enough to reach the two of them. Dan Miryu's face went hard.
"If you're not careful, the table's going to break."
"Can you not read the moment?"
It was a breath from bloodshed, and the Mask was utterly calm.
"Miss Hong Yumin."
"With that filthy mouth, you dare to speak my—"
"I told you before."
Ghk!
Her breath locked. She could not open her mouth. Sweat poured from her brow like a waterfall. Time slowed. The world around her darkened. In that dark, a white mask opened its mouth.
The paint of the white mask peeled, the way human skin sloughs away. Muscle and vein lay bare beneath, and breath showed in the air. Then the mask was gone. Where it had been, there was something.
Something spoke—
WORD, WORD, WORD, WORD, WORD, WOOOOOORD——!!!!!
"Settle it while it can still be settled."
"Remember."
"That you cannot escape."
"Hah—!"
Time came back.
What happened?
"Teacher, are you all right?"
Dan Miryu, setting dishes upon the table, asked it with worry.
"Ah. Nothing happened."
What had there been?
"Oh. The food's coming out. Doesn't this look good?"
The Mask—no, the young man who had taken the mask off—said it, bright with anticipation.
"Mr. Phantom, when did you take your mask off?"
"Just now. More to the point, it's a proper feast again today."
"Heh. It'll taste even better."
Mi Soryeong, her apron undone, took her seat.
"Ooh. Grander than what the Mask brought."
"Miss Hong Yumin... after all the trouble I went to for you..."
"What are you talking about?"
Her tongue had slipped.
"It is nothing. More than that, I wish to eat at once."
Before a banquet such as even a king had never been served, her eyes went round and round. The table was crowded with dishes that shone like gold.
"Please, eat first."
At Mi Soryeong's words, she nodded.
"Then I will eat well."
She lifted her spoon and took the soup. A sharp, savory heat of soybean-paste broth filled her mouth.
"Delicious!"
One mouthful was not enough. She ate, and ate again.
"A flavor out of a dream!"
"Heh. Thank you."
The meal began together with Mi Soryeong's smile.
"Teacher, you're sweating a great deal."
"Hm?"
At Dan Miryu's words she passed a hand over her brow.
"When did I come to sweat like this?"
Why so much?
"I must have been too taken up with the eating."
"It was that good?"
Mi Soryeong laughed, pleased.
"The finest taste of my life."
"Heh. Thank you."
As she ate, a corner of her mind itched.
I feel as though I have forgotten something...
Faint as a dream. A dream... had it been one? Or had she forgotten it from the very start? No matter.
Let them just eat.