Not Yet
"Are you feeling unwell?" Dan Miryu asked over breakfast.
"Mmph?"
Cheeks bulging with food, Hong Yumin tipped her head, then swallowed.
"What do you mean?"
"Your color looks poor..."
"It is nothing. I had a nightmare, that is all."
She said it as if it hardly mattered.
"I see..."
Dan Miryu caught Mi Soryeong's eye.
"If anything's bothering you, just say so. We'll help however we can."
"It is not so serious as that." Hong Yumin smiled, faint and easy. "Anyone may suffer a nightmare now and then, may they not?"
"Yes..."
The worry did not leave Mi Soryeong's eyes.
"More to the point, I mean to teach the boy myself today." Hong Yumin turned the talk aside at once.
"Today?"
"Is there some problem?"
Dan Miryu scratched his cheek, looking awkward.
"The child is supposed to go to school today..."
"Ah..."
She had not thought of that.
"When can he be back?"
"Hard to say." Dan Miryu looked to his wife. "Do you know?"
"One second." Mi Soryeong tapped at her phone. "Oh! Today's the last-day ceremony before break."
"Then he might return soon?"
"But he'll want to play with his friends..."
Mi Soryeong looked pained. Telling him he couldn't see his friends would be too cruel.
"Hmm..."
"Tomorrow will do."
"Will that really be all right?"
"Did you not say it was vacation? There will be time enough."
At that, color came back into Mi Soryeong's face.
"Then why not stay the night again today?"
"Today as well?"
"It's better than going back and forth."
"Even so, two days would be an imposition, would it not?"
"Imposing? Not even a little."
"Hmm..."
Hong Yumin glanced at Dan Miryu as if at a loss. Trouble sat on his face, but sweat poured off him in a waterfall, and he forced the look into a smile.
"No problem at all. Stay as long as you like, until you're satisfied."
Living under her thumb...
Husbands were the same in every age. Hong Yumin sighed.
"I will teach him tomorrow, and then I will go."
"Can't you stay just a little longer?" Mi Soryeong clung to her.
"I cannot."
"Just one more day."
"Enough."
"Aww..."
Mi Soryeong shrank in on herself. Dan Miryu cleared his throat.
"You shouldn't keep her too long."
"I know..."
She looked genuinely sorry to let it go.
"Hmm. Soryeong."
"Yes?"
"That... what was it. I wish to see one of those things they call a movie. Would you watch it with me?"
Mi Soryeong brightened all at once.
"Of course! I've got all the time in the world!"
"Then it is settled."
Hong Yumin met Dan Miryu's eyes.
Thank you.
See to your wife.
The glance was brief. The two of them went back to their meal, and so the day passed.
"Nngh..."
Hong Yumin pushed herself up, a hand pressed to her head.
Damn it. Again.
The nightmare had come back, the same as before. An unpleasant voice, thick with resentment, still seemed to circle at her ear.
This is real.
She forced down the heat rising in her gut.
"Hoo. Hoo."
She struck her chest lightly, set her breathing in order, and turned her eyes to the window.
"Night..."
Dawn, without a cloud in it.
"The moon..."
It was waxing. All at once she remembered what Akho had said.
The full moon is coming.
"Do not be bewitched."
A shallow trick, meant only to scramble the mind. In her life the moon had waxed and waned hundreds of times. This would be no different. It would pass, as such things always did.
"Good. She did not wake."
Mi Soryeong was deep asleep.
"Yes. That is enough."
She could not lay a burden on a friend who was living happily.
"I will not be able to stay long."
Hong Yumin stroked her.
"Mmm..."
"You..."
Smiling, Hong Yumin lay back down. Another day of running from it slipped past.
"At last we meet face to face."
Hong Yumin looked at the disciple she would begin teaching today.
"Hello." Dan Chuyeon bowed his head.
"Well met. I am Hong Yumin."
She nodded in return.
"Chuyeon, you have to do well!"
"Ah. Mom..."
His cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.
"Ashamed because your mother is watching?"
"N-no..."
"Hopeless."
Hong Yumin laughed under her breath.
"Before the lesson begins, I shall show you my ability."
She stamped the earth. The ground rose and shaped itself into a chair and a table.
"Ah! The yard!"
Someone cried out in dismay. She ignored it.
"Whoa... You really are a superhuman..."
Dan Chuyeon's eyes shone.
"If this much amazes you, I shall be disappointed."
She snapped her fingers.
"Waaah!"
"Haha. Did I startle you?"
A robe of wind wrapped Dan Chuyeon, and he shot high into the air.
"P-put me down!"
"Quite the coward, for a boy."
Crack. Boom!
"Aaaah! Shit!"
Flame burst in front of his face.
"Swearing will do you no good."
A sorry child deserved a punishment.
"I have not even shown you all of it."
"Ah! Cold!"
Splash! Water born in midair soaked him through.
"Wh-what tree just—!"
A tree erupted from nowhere and tickled him.
"Stop, please! I'm sorry!"
Lightning spun him in circles, and Dan Chuyeon screamed.
"Shall I bring you down?"
"Yes! Put me down! Hurry!"
At the tear-soaked cry, Hong Yumin lowered him.
"Well? Do you understand?"
Drenched like a drowned rat, his face suddenly years older, Dan Chuyeon said, "I understand I feel like I'm going to die..."
"Such a fuss."
She dried him with a breath of wind.
"Sit."
"...Yes."
Thoroughly cowed, Dan Chuyeon sat in the chair shaped from earth.
"As you have seen, I can wield many abilities."
A wooden cup formed on the table. Water rose to fill it.
"...Yes. I felt it in my bones."
"Smooth that face. One would think you had survived some calamity."
He was still thoroughly deflated, and Hong Yumin clicked her tongue.
"The lessons ahead will be harsher than this."
"What?!"
Dan Chuyeon's eyes went round.
"Did you think a lesson in powers would be simple?"
"N-no. But I'm still a student..."
"It is all being done with permission."
Betrayed, Dan Chuyeon looked at Mi Soryeong.
"Hang in there. You've got to get as strong as your dad."
"Dad's impossible..."
He grumbled.
"Why do you think it cannot be done?"
"Huh? Well, Dad is, um..."
He trailed off.
"She already knows. It's fine."
At Mi Soryeong's word, Dan Chuyeon spoke without holding back.
"He's the strongest superhuman in Korea."
"Hmm. So you do know."
Hong Yumin was surprised. How far that knowledge went, she could not say, but the honest eyes believed Dan Miryu was strong.
"How much do you know?"
"I heard that when I grow up, I'll take on the role of Guardian. And that I'll become someone important in Korea..."
He knew it only in outline.
"Well. It is not wrong."
"Really?"
They told him only recently, then.
"Was it a few days ago?"
"My husband and I talked it over with him before we asked you to be his teacher."
"Had he refused, it would have been a disaster."
"Which is why you have to stay with him a long time."
"Very well."
Blinking through their back-and-forth, Dan Chuyeon asked, carefully, "Now that I think of it... about how old are you?"
"Child, why would you ask a thing like that?!"
"Let it be. Hardly worth the fuss at this point."
She waved Mi Soryeong off.
"Curious about my age?"
"Yes... You look so young."
"Young, and short on sense. Is that it?"
"...That's not it."
Pure curiosity. Hong Yumin answered her well-mannered disciple.
"I saw both world wars."
"What?"
"I saw a general sweep the Japanese from the sea."
"What...?"
"I saw a prince dance a sword dance."
"What?!"
"I saw that prince's father found a nation."
"Th-then how old are you, exactly...?"
Hong Yumin flicked him on the forehead.
Thwack!
"Ow!"
"What good is wondering at a woman's age?"
"You were joking?"
"No."
"What?!"
Dan Chuyeon turned a stunned look on Mi Soryeong. His eyes asked whether any of it was true.
"There are people like Captain Earth, so... probably?"
She hadn't known either. A sweat broke on her.
"Age is of no consequence whatsoever."
Hong Yumin set a hand against Dan Chuyeon's chest.
"What matters is that I am teaching you, and what your ability is."
"My ability?"
He looked as if he did not understand.
"My power isn't anything special..."
"You have simply not awakened to it."
She drew upon the empty air.
"You must know what it is you possess."
Nature, the thing the world was made of. Dan Chuyeon, who carried that nature's power within him. Every kind of it unfolded in the picture.
"You hold nature within you."
He stared, spellbound.
"No talent in this world will surpass yours."
That was why she, who communed with nature, could be the one to teach him.
"If you can command nature completely—"
Hong Yumin looked at him, feeling the inside of him answer her.
"On this earth, you have no equal."
Dan Chuyeon blinked, stunned.
"Then let us begin the lesson."
When the lesson ended, Dan Chuyeon was soaked through with sweat.
"Hah. Hah."
"We will stop here." Hong Yumin dusted off her hands.
"You all right, Chuyeon? Come on, let's go in and get you washed up."
"Yes..."
Limp as a corpse, he went into the house leaning on Mi Soryeong.
"There is much to look forward to."
The talent was inborn, as if Heaven itself had granted it.
"A fine sight."
"Only now do you crawl out?"
Hong Yumin squinted at the voice beside her.
"Yes. I was bored, so I was watching."
Phantom said it without a trace of shame.
"Had you spoken and watched openly, no one would have said a word."
"I have my reasons."
"Reasons, my ass."
Looking at him, Hong Yumin missed her long pipe.
"How is Dan Chuyeon?"
"A pleasure to teach. Will that satisfy you?"
"It has to be more than that."
Phantom looked her full in the face.
"Tsk. Do not ask."
"Understood."
Unable to bear it any longer, Hong Yumin set the long pipe between her lips.
"But are you all right?"
"All right how?"
"Hasn't your sleep been restless?"
She flinched.
"I sleep perfectly well. Quite comfortably."
"Your hand is shaking."
Hong Yumin looked down without meaning to. It was trembling, ever so faintly.
"That is no concern of—"
Thump.
"Hk—!"
She clutched at her heart.
"Kkh—ghk—!"
She could not even scream. She only curled in on herself.
Thump.
"Cough!"
Blood climbed her throat, and she spat it out. Where it fell, the grass died, dissolving under it.
"Sooner than I thought."
"Damn... it..."
Hong Yumin understood. The time had come. She caught a fistful of Phantom's trousers.
"Did you... know?"
"No. I only knew it was something that would happen someday."
She dragged in a breath. Barely standing on both legs, she looked up at the sky.
"The full moon..."
Phantom looked at her.
"You have to go. Before it is any later."
"......"
Hong Yumin bit down on her lip.
Why is this happening.
So soon. Even this soon.
You mean to tear my happiness from me no matter what!
"...Follow."
She turned her back.
"You'll leave without a word?"
"...Today was the day I was going back, anyway."
"I wonder about that..."
Phantom looked toward Mi Soryeong, who had come out into the yard.
"This is going to be difficult."
"Tsk!"
Mi Soryeong's face was puzzled, but she felt that the air had turned.
"Mr. Phantom? Miss Hong Yumin? Why are the two of you..."
"Soryeong, go inside. I will be leaving shortly."
"This soon?!"
Startled, Mi Soryeong came closer.
"No, stay a little longer."
I wanted to stay longer, too.
"Did I not say I would leave today? Understand."
"It's night, so leaving early tomorrow morning would be..."
A strange smell reached her, and Mi Soryeong looked down. Dark red blood was soaking the grass.
"Yumin?"
"...I owe you a great deal. I am going."
Hong Yumin turned her back.
"Something's wrong! Where are you going!"
She squeezed her eyes shut.
"I am going home! Will you bar me even from that!"
"That's not it! Something happened!"
"It did not!"
"Yumin!!!"
Hong Yumin set her foot down. In an instant she was beyond the edge of the housing complex.
"This will do."
Go back. Home.