No, I Sleep Better Alone.
While Cho Youngbin and Cheonghyeon savored their long-awaited reunion, Soyul, having finished her dinner with Myeonghwa, made her way back to the Snow Plum Pavilion.
"Was the food to your liking, Unnie?"
"Yeah, it was good. I'm not a picky eater to begin with—though I do like trying new things."
In truth, Mount Hua's cooking had been quite decent. She had eaten her fill of the cleanly prepared vegetable dishes and fresh, steaming rice, worked her way through the fruit pressed into her hands for dessert piece by piece, and now walked back with her stomach pleasantly full and her mood considerably lifted. The bath she'd taken on the way helped too—her whole body felt loose and refreshed.
Myeonghwa had whined and begged to bathe together, but Soyul had refused outright. She wasn't yet ready to see another woman's bare body besides her own.
"Unnie, how much do you train? How does anyone become a Peak-realm master at your age? Couldn't you take just one look at my martial arts? Lately I feel like I've run into such an enormous wall."
A torrent of questions came pouring out all at once, but Soyul, in high spirits, answered each one readily.
"You're right on the verge of Peak yourself, aren't you? What's so fascinating about it?"
"Ah, but I've been stuck at this point for quite a while now. Sometimes I wonder if I'm thinking about something the wrong way entirely. It's all rather confusing."
Just as Soyul had said, Myeonghwa had been lingering in the late stage of First-Rate for some time. That was still fast by the standards of an average disciple of a great sect—yet set beside Soyul, she couldn't help but pale in comparison.
"It's the kind of problem time will solve, but... hmm."
Soyul hesitated, weighing whether to say what was on her mind. In her own case, it had taken less than a month to smash through the wall between First-Rate and Peak, but she already knew that was not a talent that transferred to just anyone. Even a mediocre talent—no, even a brilliantly gifted one—could mark time in place for years with the wrong way of thinking.
I could give her advice, but I'm not a disciple of Mount Hua. Is it really proper for me to teach her?
The truth was that Myeonghwa coming to Soyul like this wasn't natural by any common convention, either. How many Peak masters did a great sect like Mount Hua boast? It was a sect that held Transcendent Peak masters—and even a master of Hwagyeong. For one of its own disciples to seek guidance from a nameless martial artist was, in itself, a slight against the sect's dignity.
But having witnessed how the Sect Leader had treated Soyul earlier, Myeonghwa presumably didn't see her as an outsider at all—and being fellow women, she'd probably felt a little freer to ask. That was Soyul's read on it, anyway.
"Have you tried asking the Elders or your martial uncles and aunts?"
"I have asked, but... how do I put it? They explain things in a way that's far too difficult? And even when I try to untangle what they mean, it doesn't seem to fit me. I asked a few times and eventually gave up."
"Mm. Although, come to think of it, I'm not a Mount Hua disciple. Is it really all right for me to go telling you do this, do that? I feel like I'd only be stirring up trouble for myself..."
"Ah, Unnie~!"
"Oh—we're here."
Chatting away as she followed Myeonghwa along, Soyul arrived before she knew it at her lodgings: the Snow Plum Pavilion.
"So where do I sleep?"
"Just follow me."
Myeonghwa led her into a room far too spacious for a single occupant and gestured for Soyul to go on in. Then, the moment Soyul stepped inside, she followed her in and shut the door behind them.
"...?"
Baffled, Soyul had no choice but to ask.
"Why are you coming in?"
"Hm? What do you mean, why? To sleep with you, silly. Bathing together might be uncomfortable, but sleeping together is perfectly fine, right?"
Faced with the innocent, utterly unembarrassed look on Myeonghwa's face, Soyul lost her words.
"No. I sleep better alone. And look, there are plenty of rooms—why insist on sharing?"
"Do you have any idea how lonely I've been, being the only female disciple on all of Mount Hua?"
"Huh? What does that even mean? There are hundreds of disciples here."
"But no women! What woman in her right mind would come to a Daoist temple on top of a dull old mountain like this?"
"You did."
"I'm the exception! Anyway! We're sleeping together. And you're teaching me martial arts too."
At this point in her life, Soyul would honestly have been more comfortable sharing a bed with a man. She had never once slept beside a woman, and just imagining it made her feel awkward and self-conscious—yet no proper refusal came to mind.
This was Mount Hua, and this hall was the residence of Mount Hua's female disciple. Soyul was a guest here; the sect's female disciple was, in truth, its master. Even so, if Soyul put her foot down, Myeonghwa would surely withdraw—but with her mood still riding high from the delicious meal, and with Myeonghwa having volunteered as her guide and worked so hard on her behalf, Soyul couldn't quite bring herself to do it.
"Haaah... fine. We'll sleep together. Sleep."
"Hehe. Thank you, Unnie."
You'd have thought she'd just been handed a treasure—her face was lit up with sheer delight as she dashed off to her own quarters and came straight back with her bedding. But then—
Thump—
Soyul, sprawled across her bed, watched Myeonghwa toss a wooden pillow onto it and asked, bewildered.
"Huh? Why are you coming over here?"
"You said we'd sleep together?"
"I never said sleeping this close? Look, there are plenty of beds here—three more, in fact. Why come to mine?"
"Oh, don't be shy. We're both girls, what's the fuss? And I'll give you a massage too!"
"Hey... hey! I said go over there!"
If one of the Demonic Cult's strike squads had come charging after her, Soyul was confident she could have brought out her true strength and blown every last one of them to bits. But a woman burrowing stubbornly into the space at her side like this? There was no defense for it. Push her away gently and she simply wormed her way back in; shove her hard and she might actually get hurt. For Soyul it was an unprecedented situation in every respect, and before long her whole body had gone stiff. Myeonghwa wedged herself through that gap in her guard and chattered on.
"Aigoo, our poor Unnie must have been exhausted, climbing all the way up Mount Hua today. Everyone struggles their first time up here, you know! And for women, it's the feet that suffer most! If I don't work all this out for you, you'll be sore tomorrow. Oh my—how are even your feet this pretty?"
"Hey... hey! Let go—don't touch!"
Soyul jolted in alarm, but Myeonghwa had already laid Soyul's small, white feet across her lap and begun kneading them in earnest.
"Good heavens, good heavens. How can feet be this lovely without a speck of dust on them?"
This, too, was the power of her rebirth. Soyul's feet glowed faintly pink over skin as white and delicate as porcelain; their tops were smooth and glossy, the toes small and neatly aligned, each tip as tiny and exquisite as a plum blossom bud dabbed down by the careful tip of a brush.
Myeonghwa's eyes went round as admiration poured out of her.
"Unnie, you truly are the most beautiful woman under heaven. How can anyone be this adorable?"
A compliment of a kind she had never once heard in her life turned Soyul's face scarlet.
"I told you to quit it, you crazy woman!"
Cursed at by someone she'd known barely a day, Myeonghwa didn't so much as blink.
"Ah, sorry~ But Unnie, that's just unfair, you know. Anyone who saw them would think you'd never once set foot on the ground your whole life!"
Myeonghwa's fingertips pressed softly into Soyul's heel, then stroked cautiously along toward her toes. There wasn't a single rough or callused spot anywhere. The skin was soft and warm, and the pink blooming over it was vivid to the point of being uncanny.
As she kneaded deep into the soles, Soyul flinched briefly at the rush of relief—a sensation entirely new to her. Watching that, Myeonghwa smiled a slow, sly smile.
"See? See, Unnie? I told you I'm really good at massages! Hehe. I'll keep massaging you, and in return you'll teach me some martial arts later, deal? No take-backs?"
"Mmm..."
Myeonghwa really was skilled at it—and Soyul had never known that having someone tend to her feet could feel this good. She quieted within moments, and before she knew it her eyes had drifted shut. And so she failed entirely to notice the strange heat, the faintly unsettling hunger, smoldering in Myeonghwa's eyes.
Oh my... what do I do. These are... these are the feet I've dreamed of all my life. Just touching them makes me shiver... haa...
When Myeonghwa pressed feather-light at the tips of Soyul's toes, Soyul twitched—and watching her do it, Myeonghwa quietly licked her lips.
Ah... I can't stand it. Truly.
From her earliest childhood, Myeonghwa had shown an excessive obsession with beautiful women's feet, and once her parents understood what her tastes were, they fretted themselves sick—convinced that if things went on like this, their daughter would never so much as marry, and would only end up pointed at and whispered about as a madwoman. Unable to find any solution, they finally resolved to send her off to a Daoist sect—and among all of them they chose Mount Hua, the one with the fewest female disciples. No—with none at all.
The entrance examination confirmed she had real talent for the martial arts, and so Myeonghwa came to live out her life as a disciple of Mount Hua. But no matter how much she learned of the Dao, no matter how far her martial arts progressed, her obsession with beautiful feet never faded—it only deepened with time.
Yet with no real opportunity to leave Mount Hua ever presenting itself, she had been seriously weighing a midnight escape—and right at that moment, Soyul and Cho Jawun had come to visit the mountain. The Elders and the Sect Leader had been moved to tears; she had even witnessed the Sect Leader take a blow from Soyul's hand. None of it registered in Myeonghwa's eyes. The only thing she could picture, every time Soyul moved, were the small feet inside those shoes, glimpsed for the briefest instant.
And so she had fought tooth and nail to attach herself to Soyul—which was how she had ended up exactly here. And the moment she saw feet more perfect than she had ever imagined—far, far more perfect—Myeonghwa was engulfed by a sense of fulfillment so overwhelming she thought her chest might burst.
Draped in that strange, feverish heat and excitement, Myeonghwa spoke in a voice gone thick and honeyed.
"Unnie~ I'll give you a massage every single day, from now on. That's okay, right? You like it, right?"
Had Soyul answered no right then, she might well have been knocked out cold by a chop to the back of the head. But Soyul herself was comfortable and drowsy, and she nodded her permission without a second thought. Well, it wasn't as if Myeonghwa was asking her to do anything—the girl was volunteering to take the tedious chore off her hands. What harm could there possibly be?
"Mmm... sure..."
At that answer, something burst open inside Myeonghwa. This euphoria. This rapture. And the permission to keep feeling exactly this, on and on, from now on.
"Ah, this is wonderful. What do I even do..."
"Hm?"
"Ah—nothing, Unnie. Hehe."
And so Myeonghwa went on devotedly kneading, stroking, and caressing Soyul's feet. Long after Soyul had drifted off to sleep, the massage continued on through the night.
"Mmm... what? When did I fall asleep?"
Sunlight warmed her face, and Soyul scrunched her eyes against it. She had no memory of falling asleep—and something felt off. As if someone were still touching her feet...
"Wah!"
Startled to find Myeonghwa—bloodshot-eyed—still kneading away at her feet, Soyul yanked them back at once.
"Uh... Unnie? What? What's wrong?"
It was Soyul who was dumbfounded by the sight of Myeonghwa looking half out of her mind.
What on earth happened to this girl overnight?
"Hey... are you okay? What's the matter with you? Were you really at this all night? I said..."
"Ah... well..."
I can't look strange here. If I do, there might never be another chance.
Only then did some semblance of sense return, and Myeonghwa's mind spun rapidly.
"Ah...! W-well, you did say you'd give me clues to the Peak-realm martial arts. Could I really not manage one little night of massage for that? Ehehe..."
"What...? No—of course I'll teach you. But you didn't have to go this far... I mean, honestly. I don't even know how to apologize."
Watching Soyul grow flustered and apologetic, Myeonghwa judged that her ploy—dressing her obsession up as sheer desperation to learn—had worked.
"Hehe... it's fine. This is nothing at all, for the chance to learn Peak-realm martial arts. I'll do even more. Even more."
"No. That's enough."
"...Huh?"
"I said that's enough. You need to sleep. The state you're in right now—"
"NO!! No!!!! NoNoNo I'msorryI'msorrypleasedon'tdothis pleasepleaseletmekeepmassagingyouletmetouchthemplease!!"
"...Huh?"
Looking at Myeonghwa, half her wits apparently gone from the sleepless night, Soyul clicked her tongue inwardly.
Really, who knew her obsession with the martial arts ran this deep. To go to all this trouble just to lay hands on a single insight. She'll reach the higher realms before long.
Mistaking even this deranged spectacle for pure hunger for the martial path, Soyul quietly loosed a thread of finger-wind and pressed the sleep acupoints in Myeonghwa's body.
"Urkh... n—"
Myeonghwa, who had looked ready to sink to her knees, crumpled into a deep sleep. Soyul settled her comfortably onto a bed and stepped outside alone. She had meant to ask Myeonghwa where True Person Cheongsu's quarters were, but she'd just put the girl to sleep—which meant she no longer had the faintest idea where to go, and would have to find someone to ask.
The moment she stepped out of the Snow Plum Pavilion, a familiar figure came into view, pacing back and forth before the door. Soyul's eyes curved into crescents of their own accord as she waved.
"Oh—Jawun! Sleep well? What brings you here so early in the morning?"
"Ahem. 'Morning'? The sun rose a good two hours ago."
"That's morning enough for me."
Cho Jawun gazed in silence at Soyul's usual offhand answer—then drew something from inside his robe. At the sight of it, Soyul's eyes went wide.
"Huh? What's this?"