Don't Jump!! (2)
"So even though there are still four months left, you're already on your way to Hanyang?"
"That's right."
"Just how badly do you have to get lost to have set out half a year ago…?"
"……Looking at the fact that two months have passed and I'm still here, don't you get the idea?"
"Ah."
I spent a while chatting with Cheong about this and that. It seemed we'd have to wait about another hour for the water to recede, so with time to kill, she asked me all sorts of questions, and I answered them readily enough. Of course, I threw a few questions her way as well, to confirm some information.
"So fishing is your livelihood."
"To be precise, I harvest everything the sea provides, fish included."
"A haenyeo, then, for all practical purposes?"
"That's right. Wait—you know what a haenyeo is? Even though you've never seen the ocean before?"
"……It's not that I lack knowledge. I simply lack swimming ability."
"Aha…"
"You didn't think I was some fool heading off to take the civil service exam without even knowing what a haenyeo is, did you?"
"A fool? How can you speak of yourself that way? ……Not a fool—a scholar."
"……Isn't that essentially the same thing?"
"Pfft! Ahaha!"
Cheong had, how should I put it, a truly bright personality. Even though I was a scholar, she didn't treat me with careful deference. She teased me freely, as if we were friends.
This is better, honestly.
Since I still didn't think of myself as anything special, I often felt restless when village folk showed me respect just for being a scholar. But Cheong treated me comfortably without any of that, and my own heart felt lighter for it.
"Then I suppose you learned to swim while working at sea? Even at a glance, you seem extraordinarily skilled."
Noticing I was praising her, Cheong's shoulders rose ever so slightly.
"I can swim as far as the nearby islands. And diving—I can manage about one shikgyeong without any trouble."
"……One shikgyeong?"
One shikgyeong—that would be about thirty minutes in modern terms. Good lord, was it really possible to dive for thirty minutes?
I think the maximum dive time in my previous life was around twenty minutes.
……Perhaps Cheong had some secret of birth as well.
In the original story, did she reach the Dragon Palace on her own swimming ability…?
As I pondered this seriously, Cheong tilted her head down to look at me.
"Hmm? What is it?"
"No, what were you thinking about so suddenly?"
"I was so impressed by your swimming ability that I found myself imagining all sorts of things."
"Imagining?"
"Things like—you could swim from Hanyang all the way to Jeju Island, or dive down to the Dragon Palace…"
"Is there anything you won't say to a woman?!"
Well, she was the one who asked… Still, thanks to this, I'd learned quite a bit. Most notably, a difference from the original: Cheong's swimming ability.
"Right—come to think of it, has anyone come to visit you or your father recently?"
"Visitors? Not particularly…"
"That's a relief, then."
"Is something the matter?"
I asked Cheong that because of the original story. I didn't know the original in great detail, but I could still piece together a fair amount. The simplest and most important point was why the Public Offering Rice of 300 Seok was needed.
If they need to prepare 300 seok, that means they have to give it to someone. I don't know who that someone is, but given that Cheong hasn't fallen into despair yet, no one has visited and proposed the 300 seok yet.
In the end, everything began with having to offer 300 seok of Public Offering Rice. If I could just prevent that, Cheong would never throw herself into Indangsu.
……Of course, the important thing was this: if she never threw herself into Indangsu, then naturally Sim Bongsa's eyes would never be healed, and Cheong's happy ending would vanish. Looking at the result alone, following the original was correct. But if you considered the process?
In a situation where many parts of the original might already have changed, Sim Cheong could suffer tremendous pain—or even die. Just as Kongji had been tormented by a monster disguised as Patji.
"Scholar?"
"……Because I had a strange dream. A dream that I should be wary of visitors. I asked you just in case."
"A dream that you should be wary of visitors…?"
"I wander without a home to receive guests in, so it didn't seem like it was my dream."
"I see…"
Cheong fell into thought for a while after hearing about my dream. Of course, I had never had any such dream. After we talked for some time, the seawater slowly began to recede.
"We can get out now. As for swimming…"
"I'll do my best."
"……Ugh. Grab onto that bundle. I'll tow you."
"Please do."
And so Cheong and I managed to escape the cave safely.
"Well then, I'll be on my way."
"What? Where are you going at this hour of night?"
"Where else? I need to find a place to stay for a bit. I was thinking of the inn."
"You plan to wake the innkeeper at this late hour?"
"Well, receiving guests is their job, so how else would I—"
"J-just—! Spend tonight at our house. It's humble, but…"
"……? Would that be all right?"
"You saved my father. I think offering that much is only proper."
"Hmm, but whether your father would permit it…"
"Oh, honestly—for a man, why are you so cautious? Father already gave his full permission, so hurry up and come."
What was with that almost angry reaction? But since she was offering a room, there was no reason to refuse. Still, I didn't want to be in her debt, so I ought to pay it back somehow…
"Then I'll pay one night's lodging."
"Excuse me? Did you not hear me say I'd repay the kindness just a moment ago…?"
"I heard you. But I think I'll feel more at ease if I pay something."
"What kind of…"
"If you won't take it, I'll go to the inn. I'll have to bang a gong to wake the dozing innkeeper."
Cheong made a face of pure disbelief at that. Then she sighed and held out her hand. I promptly placed one night's lodging fee in her palm and said with a smile,
"I'll be in your care, host."
"Haa… Follow me."
I'd been there earlier, but Sim Cheong's house was nothing to write home about even with the kindest of words. Compared to Kongji's place especially, it looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Aside from the kitchen, there were only two rooms, and even those had walls and doors so worn that getting through summer and winter must have been terribly hard.
"Please use this room. I'll sleep with Father."
"Isn't this your room?"
I'd assumed I'd be given Sim Bongsa's room, but Cheong was lending me her own. She quietly pointed toward Sim Bongsa's room.
—Krrroooork! Krrk! Kerk! Kerk!!
"……At that volume, isn't that less snoring and more not being able to breathe?"
"Pretty much. Anyway, Father is sleeping, so I can't lend you that room, can I?"
"Even so…"
And honestly, with snoring that loud, I wasn't sure Cheong—who'd just come back from hard work—would be able to sleep properly either. It was worse than either my previous life's father or this life's.
"I'll just sleep in that room."
"Then Father might wake up, recognize you, and faint dead away."
"Wouldn't that be the same if you went in? I've built up some resistance thanks to my own father, so I'll go in."
"Argh, just go to sleep quietly!"
"Why are you getting angry when I'm trying to yield? You've been like this since earlier."
After going back and forth for a while, Cheong and I eventually…
"…D-don't cross this line."
"……I can't guarantee it, but I'll do my best."
…agreed to sleep together in her room. I don't even know how we got there. At some point it turned into a battle of pride, and something like a "you scared?" exchange led us to this.
"Are you really all right with this?"
"H-hmph. Compared to being attacked by sharks or giant whales underwater, this is nothing."
Well, of course it was nothing compared to shark or whale attacks… Still, I couldn't accept the blanket on top of everything else, so I lay on the bare floor covered only with my somewhat dried outer robe.
"Won't you be cold? The dawn wind by the sea is quite chilly."
"It shouldn't be cold enough for a man to shiver. I'm fine."
"……Hmph. Then I'll use it alone."
With that, Cheong pulled over a blanket that was thicker than I'd expected. For a moment, looking at its thickness, I wondered if it really was that cold. But who was I? Was I not a wild scholar who slept on the bare ground in the mountains, with nothing but broken branches to keep the bugs out? A little dawn sea breeze was no problem at all.
"H-hurrgh."
It was freezing! The wind wasn't a typhoon, yet it came howling through the countless holes in the paper window screens! As I finally shivered and clutched my robe tight, a sigh came from beside me.
"Aigoo… Where did that man who said he wouldn't shiver go?"
"H-he fled to the mountains to escape the wind."
At my all-but-surrender, Cheong let out a soft laugh. Then she wriggled and flipped the edge of the blanket over toward me.
"I'm lending it because you look like a little duckling left alone after losing its mother."
"Thank you."
And so, thanks to Cheong's kindness, I made it safely through the dawn. Around the time the eastern sky began to lighten, I left the room and said goodbye to Cheong.
"Well then, I'll go secure a room at the inn."
"…The room must have been quite uncomfortable."
"Hmm? No, that's not it. I was more worried you'd be uncomfortable…"
"How many days do you plan to stay?"
I hadn't decided yet. Because I didn't know how things would unfold.
"If you're only staying a few days, and if it wasn't uncomfortable—you could stay in my room."
"……Really?"
I was surprised, but more than that, I felt suspicious. Even granting that I'd saved her father, why was she trying so hard to be kind?
Is there something I don't know?
But it wasn't a bad offer for me either. I needed to stay close if I wanted to watch how the original story played out, whenever that might be.
"Then I'll take you up on that."
"……! B-but! I'm not lending you the blanket today, so keep that in mind!"
"Then I'll have to buy a blanket."
I needed to buy various things at the market anyway. After parting with Cheong, I headed to the village market. While looking around for a blanket, I overheard the villagers talking.
"Hey, did you hear? Word is a merchant caravan is coming to the village soon!"
"A merchant caravan? What's going on?"
"Seems the merchants ahead of them had an accident while traveling by ship. So they're stopping by to rest for a bit."
……Merchants?