Idiot Senior -1
“Are you... really sure about this?”
“Yeah.”
Thump. Thump.
Black Cat felt her heart pounding so hard it hurt.
“Really, truly sure? Dokui’s diagnosis could be wrong, you know.”
“Even so, it’s fine. I want to see your face right now.”
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Black Cat still hesitated. Was it truly, truly all right? Her life had not been long, yet it had been her entire lifetime. Not a single person had ever resisted the bewitching power of this face and these eyes.
She liked the Ho Cheon-an of this moment. Yes—she liked him. Only now, in this instant, did the feelings she held for him become clear.
What had begun as nothing more than an amusing thread of fate had gradually worked its way into her heart, until he already occupied its deepest place.
The one who had taught her the joy of being together. She admitted it now: her heart was already soaked through with that joy.
And so the fear only grew sharper. If she removed the face veil and deactivated Shadow Image Qi Gong... would the Ho Cheon-an of this moment vanish forever?
Yet equal to that fear was a burning impulse.
Black Cat had never once thought of this appearance as something to be proud of. She had only ever found it heavy. This face and this demonic allure were far too special, and to keep from being devoured by that specialness she had sometimes suffered and sometimes struggled simply to live.
She wanted to show this face to Ho Cheon-an. She wanted to watch his expression flood with wonder and astonishment at the sight of it.
The impulse to flaunt this appearance, this beauty, this charm before him.
Fear and impulse. Caught between those opposing thoughts, she could do nothing—until Ho Cheon-an had already stepped right up to her.
“It’s all right.”
He looked her straight in the eye as he spoke.
“Trust me.”
A word the men who approached her always tossed out at least once. Trust. Only today did Black Cat feel as though she finally understood the weight that word carried. What had always seemed endlessly hollow and light now settled heavy in her chest.
Slowly, she released the circulation of Shadow Image Qi Gong. She pushed every strand of energy back into her dantian so that none would flow along her meridians.
Her entire form came into clear view. Unlike usual, she had been wearing a hat with a face veil, so her slender neck was fully exposed.
Ho Cheon-an realized that the mysterious fragrance he sometimes caught from her was the influence of her Taeeumjitche. The moment her figure grew distinct, that scent suddenly bloomed thick around them.
The thought lasted only a moment before the graceful, deer-like line of her neck seized his gaze. Even as he admired that silhouette, he noticed the way her throat moved hard with a swallow—proof that she was still wound tight with tension.
He waited in silence.
Confirming that his eyes had not clouded over, Black Cat felt her heart hammering as she slowly raised a hand to her hat.
The terror that those eyes might suddenly turn murky. And at the same time, the hope that they would widen and fill with admiration. The simple nervousness of showing him her bare face for the first time. Even the wild fantasy that he might look at her and be disappointed.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Inside Black Cat’s head, the sound of her heartbeat mixed with countless thoughts, worries, and imaginings into complete chaos.
Tuk.
She pulled the hat off and squeezed her eyes shut.
“Oh.”
Ho Cheon-an saw Black Cat’s face for the first time. An involuntary sound of admiration slipped out of him. From that elegant neckline the clean jawline fell without a single harsh angle—so perfectly that he thought tears would look impossibly beautiful if they ever traced its path.
Above it, lips vivid in both color and texture. Her cheeks, flushed peach from excitement, caught his eye.
His gaze traveled past the straight bridge of her nose and settled on her closed eyes. Even with the long lashes and the faint crease of tension between her brows, the sight still pulled a person’s eyes and would not let them go.
Black Cat’s eyes slowly opened.
Ho Cheon-an felt the image etching itself into his mind with deliberate slowness. Those clear, pure eyes revealing themselves—truly the finishing touch that brought the dragon to life. Every feature had been beautiful when examined alone, yet only when they joined those star-filled, sparkling pupils did the whole become one.
As if the grass, the wind, the very sky were holding their breath.
He simply looked at her. Without even the thought that he ought to say something, he was caught for a single moment by her beauty.
And for the first time—finally—Ho Cheon-an’s eyes met Black Cat’s. She gazed into his, and he gazed into hers.
A single instant of meeting. Then both of them, without exception, looked away. It had been only a brief collision of gazes, yet Black Cat’s face had already turned bright red long ago.
“Ahem. That... you’re beautiful.”
“Th-thank you.”
“See? I don’t know if ‘fine’ is the right word for this, but none of the disasters you were imagining are happening.”
“...Ah.”
Black Cat felt joy seeping through the embarrassment his praise brought her. Truly. At last she had someone she could be with. Someone she could like—and someone whom even the power of her Taeeumjitche could not touch.
Tears spilled of their own accord.
Watching her, Ho Cheon-an thought: he had imagined that tears sliding down that graceful jawline would be breathtakingly beautiful, and the scene before him was exactly as beautiful as he had pictured—yet he did not feel particularly happy about it.
“I’m sorry. Hic. Thank you... I’m sorry...”
Black Cat simply cried, pouring out unrefined emotion. Looking at her, Ho Cheon-an gave a bitter smile. The face was that of a peerless beauty... yet the inside was still just Black Cat.
“We had a promise, didn’t we?”
She wiped her tears and nodded. They had said that once they found a fortuitous opportunity, they would share it together no matter what.
“I’ve started thinking that alone isn’t enough anymore.”
Black Cat felt her tears cut off at once. Not only the tears—her breath and her heart seemed to stop as well.
Was this... that?
Without even room left to blush, she simply held her breath.
“I’ve only just reached First-rate, and you’re nearly Super-Peak Realm, but...”
Black Cat thought: realm? That doesn’t matter. Really, truly? This suddenly? The moment he sees my face he charges straight ahead? She swallowed hard.
She was genuinely happy. Truly happy, and yet... wasn’t it still too abrupt? People needed time to prepare their hearts...
“We can still walk the path together, right?”
Ho Cheon-an held out his hand. The instant she saw it, heat flooded her face. That hand. If she took that hand, she and Ho Cheon-an would...
“Let’s become masters together!”
...not become lovers? Black Cat looked up at him without meaning to.
His eyes burned with firm resolve and passion.
“Just sharing a fortuitous opportunity isn’t enough! We’ll become true comrades. We’ll polish each other and raise our realms!”
Black Cat scowled before she could stop herself. What on earth was he talking about? The atmosphere up until a second ago hadn’t been like this at all.
Something began to bubble and boil inside her.
“Of course I’ve still got plenty of problems left to solve, and there’s no telling how far I can climb... but I’ll be useful enough. Even the Tang Family gave me decent recognition on the theoretical side.”
“...Senior.”
Just a moment ago, hadn’t this been the kind of atmosphere where you take someone’s hand and whisper about forever? Trust my heart, take my hand, whisper, then stretch out an arm to pull me into an embrace, meet each other’s eyes, and then faces draw closer...
Black Cat shook her head hard, flinging the fantasy away. Even so, that had gone too far.
“I’ll overcome my own problems, and you’ll become a master of the Transformation Realm. Finding an assassination qi gong that has reached Transformation is a hard problem, sure, but it’s not impossible. On top of that, Elder Dokui told me earlier that I have resistance to bewitchment. If we make use of that...”
Black Cat folded her arms and stared coldly at Ho Cheon-an as he poured out his fervent speech. Sensing her gaze, he cleared his throat mid-flight of imagination.
“Someday we’ll have to be with other people, too.”
Her eyes went wide at his words. Be with other people... For Black Cat, who in her loneliness had desperately longed for even a single person who could ease that solitude, it was a story she had never once imagined.
“Hmm. Right. You remember what I said about Tang Ryeo-a? Once we’ve climbed higher and cleaned up our qi gong, let’s go talk with Tang Do-gyeong about that time and see Ryeo-a too. The kid’s so bright-eyed and cute. I even left her magic-trick homework. If she’s been practicing hard, she should be pretty impressive by then.”
Ho Cheon-an chattered on about this and that. Listening to him, Black Cat imagined herself inside those scenes. The joy of many people together that he spoke of so passionately still felt beyond her grasp, and in her imagination the only person still standing beside her was Ho Cheon-an—yet there were things she could picture even so.
Walking the streets naturally and meeting each other’s eyes. Ho Cheon-an flinching under her glare. Him smiling back when he saw her face lit with joy.
Whether people were present or not—simply facing each other without concealment and laughing freely. A picture of roaming the world without ever having to worry about bewitching anyone.
“So let’s give it our best.”
He held out his hand again. Black Cat felt something different from before filling her chest. It was not as hot or fierce as earlier, yet it was an emotion she had never felt in her life.
She had not fully recognized it, but that emotion was clearly trust.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t trust you, Senior.”
She gave a bitter smile as she recalled the Tang Do-gyeong incident. She had thought of Ho Cheon-an as nothing more than Second-rate, something that would vanish like foam the moment it was exposed to the world’s storms.
Someone far greater than me.
Yet he had resolved matters in ways she had never anticipated, and he was someone who could draw pictures she had never even imagined.
“I’ll trust you from now on.”
Black Cat felt that if she were with him, she truly could reach the Transformation Realm. Reach it, learn new martial arts, and finally control her Great Yin energy cleanly enough to face people with bare eyes.
As she took Ho Cheon-an’s hand, she thought:
Well, even so, what’s annoying is still annoying. Making a person’s heart pound like that and then just moving on like this simply isn’t right.
She stuck out her tongue and said,
“You idiot senior who doesn’t even know a woman’s heart. Looking forward to working with you.”