Drawing Without Releasing -1
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
Thunderous applause poured down upon Master Myeongjin the moment he finished the final performance. Some of the children, having already heard that the prayer assembly was over, wore long faces; Hyeok Gi-rin hurried over to soothe them.
I approached the masters as well.
“You’ve worked hard, Masters.”
“Heh heh heh… Hard work? You’re the one who’s been grinding day and night. You’re the one who deserves the praise.”
Proud smiles sat on every master’s face—the quiet satisfaction of having pulled something off, of having cleared a difficult hurdle.
From their point of view, it was more than earned.
“Somehow… it feels like I’ve burned with real passion for the first time in ages.”
“Aye. It does… truly a long time.”
The others murmured agreement. As members of the Jeomchang Sect, and as old men, they must have felt something particular. With wistful eyes they watched their disciples’ lively backs as the young ones returned to their quarters.
Looking at that scene, I thought, This isn’t right.
The masters stroking their beards with gentle smiles, the disciples bright and cheerful, and even Heukmyo casually mixed in among them—if this were a movie, the subtitle would have rolled across the screen right then.
Why does it already feel like the ending? We’re only halfway through the month.
I needed to shift the mood a little.
“How was it?”
“How was what?”
“Spending time with the children.”
“Hmm…”
Each master put on a thoughtful expression. I hadn’t really been waiting for an answer, so I pressed straight on.
“Children are immediate, aren’t they?”
They nodded.
“Because the masters changed, the children immediately grew close and started following you.”
“True enough.”
Through the prayer assemblies the masters and the children had grown close at remarkable speed. Yet even without the assemblies, if the masters had treated the children the way they did now, the same closeness would have come—only more slowly.
“We’ve only fastened the first button. The distance has merely closed a little. On the first day the masters said it was enough just to let the children run free. That was because you were watching from far away.”
The masters had sincerely wanted to care for the children well, of course. But many veils had stood in the way: the masters’ own conviction that they must govern the children strictly as elders; the children’s awe of high-level martial artists; the awkwardness of having no common ground. Real obstacles had been plentiful.
“When I first began staying at the Jeomchang Sect, the masters were watching the children from farther away than I—an outsider—ever did. So of course I knew the children better than you did.”
“Hmm…”
“That may well be true.”
Gravity settled in their eyes. Watching that light, I nodded inwardly. Each of them must already have felt, without quite naming it, the many things that came with closing the distance.
“Now the masters are closer to the children than I am. From here on, you must see for yourselves.”
What I can teach is technique, not education.
Truthfully, even if I had never interfered, the children of the Jeomchang Sect would have grown up fine. The masters were sincere toward their disciples, and sincerity always finds its way through. Look at how Hyeok Gi-rin had grown, how even Yeo Il-ye—who once burned with hatred—had carved the teachings of Jeomchang into her body. What more needed saying?
But an adult’s way of doing things can only be understood once one has become an adult.
What choice is there? A child cannot become an adult, so the adult must learn to read a child’s heart. I only supply the means to approach the children; reading their hearts is the masters’ work.
“Mm.”
Magic tricks had never been the solution. They were merely the vehicle that let us reach the problem. The masters had now drawn near the children; from this point they would face the real difficulties.
I was setting the tone and speaking this way precisely so they would understand that clearly.
Had I spoken too strongly? Dark clouds had gathered on every master’s face.
“Hoo… Difficult. Just learning the techniques already makes these old bones ache, and now you say this is only the beginning.”
“Come now, what kind of weak talk is that! Hadn’t we already steeled ourselves for this?”
“He’s right. We never intended to solve everything with only his help, did we?”
“Hoo… If only we could show some results before we set foot on the path of transformation…”
Cold sweat slid down my back. This was not the atmosphere I had wanted… Over the nearly two-week journey the masters had simply never shown it, but they must have been pushed close to their limits.
Only now did I realize how extreme the emotional toll of the past eleven days must have been.
Even in competition programs, how many contestants fail to master their nerves and act strangely, or break down in tears under the stress?
Eleven days of learning something the evening before and performing it the next day, over and over. I had merely handed out assignments and calmly trained my own martial arts, but the masters still had their daily duties. Completing those duties, snatching practice time in the gaps, and having the results evaluated every single day for nearly two weeks…
…This was my fault. I had just cracked the whip on masters who were already burned nearly white; that final blow seemed to make them crumble into ash.
Their shoulders had dropped at least two or three inches, and even their beards looked wilted!
“Ah—no! Masters! Haven’t you already worked so hard to make the children happy? The children’s smiles—aren’t those the most precious thing of all?”
“Heh heh… That is true, yet…”
“It is fortunate the children enjoyed themselves, of course…”
The atmosphere had shattered in an instant!
Cold sweat began racing down my spine.
“Masters, you have done more than enough until now. There is no need to look so disappointed. Your actions themselves must have been a lesson to the disciples!”
They regarded me with lukewarm eyes. Fine—starting now I would dump a parade of praise on them and try to restore even a little of their mental strength.
“When the disciples see masters striving this hard for the children’s sake, what will they think? Won’t they be moved by that passion for the children—that is, for the disciples—and feel even more inclined to follow you?”
“Ahem. We did put in a fair bit of effort, didn’t we…?”
“Aye. For old bodies to have come this far, we did well.”
Come to think of it, I had praised the children for doing well, yet I had never once praised the masters for doing well. I had hammered into them that children are people too, yet it seemed I myself had not been treating the masters as people.
Having to soothe sulking elders whose average age I estimated at sixty or seventy made me a little dizzy, but first I had to soothe them and think later.
Just then Heukmyo and Hyeok Gi-rin returned after seeing the children off. Catching my frantic hand signals, the two of them quickened their steps.
“Hero Hyeok Gi-rin! Lately, what’s the masters’ reputation among the disciples?!”
“Pardon?”
Whether she understood my desperate eye-blink or not, Hyeok Gi-rin opened her mouth with an uncertain expression.
“Naturally only positive talk about the masters can come out. There are a few disciples a little startled by the sudden change, of course.”
“Ahem.”
“Kh-hm-hm…”
Those throat-clearings were the satisfied kind.
“Right, Heukmyo—how does it look to you?”
“Hmm.”
Heukmyo glanced once between me and the masters, let out a little nasal sound as if she had grasped the situation, and said,
“Watching you actively try to draw close to the children was truly lovely. As a judge, I kept admiring that effort in my heart the whole time.”
“Ahem!”
“Now there’s a young lady who knows a thing or two!”
A beauty’s praise makes even a whale dance, age be damned. Watching the masters struggle to keep their rising mouth-corners in check, I let out a breath of relief.
All right—finish with one impressive-sounding line, rally their spirits, and from tomorrow switch from assignment performances to lectures on theory and application.
“The masters’ actions and efforts held value in themselves. When teaching archery it is said that the gentleman draws the bow but does not release the arrow. Even if he only draws the string, so long as his attitude and conduct match the proper Way, a capable person will grasp how to shoot the arrow.”
I took my gaze from the masters, stretched a hand toward the direction the disciples had vanished, and turned my eyes that way.
“The disciples of the Jeomchang Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects, may truly be called capable people. Simply by showing your effort and passion you have already drawn the string; therefore the disciples of Jeomchang must likewise have understood the masters’ intent and will, and of their own accord learned how to shoot the arrow.”
Khh, I nailed it. I absolutely nailed it.
I had packaged it prettily, but nothing in it was wrong. When the masters display that kind of downward love, the disciples will crawl even if they never meant to! Even a disciple who had never cared much about fraternal affection among martial siblings could not help being influenced by the attitude the masters were showing now.
“Therefore, if the masters continue to show the posture of diligently learning, the disciples will emulate that posture of learning as well, and it will exert a positive influence upon the entire sect.”
“Beginning tomorrow, rather than assignments I will lecture on the principles of why these hand techniques can deceive people, and on the practical application of those movements. It will be a process of understanding with the head and cultivating application, rather than simple imitation.”
“It may prove even harder for the masters than what you have done so far. Applying new knowledge and new theory is never easy.”
I said that much and then checked the atmosphere behind me. Why was no one saying anything? Had the brief praise earlier not been enough to take effect? That couldn’t be.
Before I fully turned, I rolled my eyes just enough to gauge Heukmyo and Hyeok Gi-rin. Both of them were staring fixedly toward the masters as if nails had been driven into their eyes.
“Masters?”
Sensing that something had gone wrong, I swallowed dryly and turned around.
The masters, too, were all holding their breath, staring at one person.
Master Un-jong.
Master Un-jong stood with half-lidded eyes that trembled without cease. His lips were slightly parted, his whole body unnaturally rigid.
This was exactly like—no. It was not “like.”
Master Un-jong had entered a state of enlightenment.
“Oh…”
The words I had spoken moments earlier flashed past like lightning. Right—that was it.
As I had said before, I was an ordinary person. An ordinary office worker who had ordinary-ly played one game for ten years as a veteran, and on days off ordinary-ly watched YouTube.
Where would someone like me have heard such a splendid line about a gentleman and a bow?
Where else? From the enlightenment database, of course.
The gentleman draws the bow but does not release the arrow;
it is as if he leaps.
He stands in the middle of the Way,
and those who are able follow him.
“Nangin Ho…?”
Hyeok Gi-rin murmured as if entranced. She knew full well that I had once granted enlightenment to Yeo Il-ye. And now I had granted it to Master Un-jong as well.
One by one the masters, accepting the sudden reality that a fellow elder had attained enlightenment, turned their gazes upon me.
And there I stood, receiving every one of those stares while cold sweat poured down my back.
In front of the Guest Hall, only silence remained.