Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Childhood Friend (9)
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I knew how the Jin Family would turn out in the future ahead, so I also knew the day would come when I'd have to part ways with this little kid.
Since parting was inevitable, from the moment I met her, I'd sworn to myself not to get attached, calling her my training hall pass or whatever excuse I could muster.
But the human heart doesn't bend to our will so easily, and before I knew it, her boundless energy and warmth had breached the high walls around my heart.
In this household that refused to see me as a person just because I was born a boy, she was the only one who treated me like Yang Woo-bin, a real human being. She was my one spark of life in all of this.
Maybe that's why.
"...Huh."
When the little kid delivered the news of our parting in a voice heavy with suppressed sobs, a sudden emptiness hit me so hard my my voice faltered.
This was the first shock I'd felt since birth—since the day Yang Ga-jeong had asked if there was anything wrong with me.
"Ugh, uwu... I, I don't wanna go. I don't wanna leave you, Woo-bin...!"
But staying silent would only make her cry harder, so I forced my mouth open.
"Hoo. Little kid."
"Ugh, y-yeah?"
"Well, um. Y'see... Uh..."
I'd had words I wanted to say to her on the day we parted, but hearing the news so abruptly made them hard to spit out.
Where to even start? How to comfort her properly? My head swirled with too many thoughts until it went completely blank.
"Woo-bin...?"
Having called her over only to fumble my words, she called my name with a teary pout.
It was the first time I'd shown her such an awkward, clumsy side—the kind only a thirteen-year-old kid like me could muster.
Embarrassed to let her see me floundering like this, I averted my eyes, and that's when the clock on the wall caught my gaze.
"Ah, right."
In that moment, a perfect way came to mind—one that would let me comfort her while delivering the words I'd prepared.
I shifted my gaze from the clock back to her and looked her straight in the eye.
"Tonight, meet me at the training hall. Just like always."
"H-Huh?"
"C'mon, let's go. We've gotta make the most of today, same as ever."
"W-Wait, Woo-bin...! UwA!? Don't pull...!"
"For now, your face is a total mess, kid. Go wash up in the bathroom."
I grabbed the wrist of the little kid, who didn't want to leave, and dragged her out of the room. After shoving her into the bathroom to wash her tear-stained and disheveled face, I headed straight to the study where the wet nurse was.
Night suited us better than morning ever did.
※
'What the heck...? Today's supposed to be our last day together. Tomorrow morning, I have to go home. Doesn't Woo-bin feel sad about parting with me? I don't want to leave him. I want to stay with him forever...'
Jin Se-jeong stared at the faint mark left on her wrist from where Yang Woo-bin had grabbed her, her lower lip jutting out in a pout.
She knew full well the Yang Family's schedule left him no room to slack off, but knowing something in her head and accepting it in her heart were worlds apart.
Jin Se-jeong, a kid right on the cusp of puberty who followed her feelings over reason, spent the day feeling resentful and neglected at Yang Woo-bin's behavior.
'I cried my eyes out because I hate the idea of leaving him... but Woo-bin didn't even shed a tear... Does he not even think of me as a friend?'
Resentment was a heavy emotion, one that drew in every negative feeling around it if left unchecked, swelling bigger and bigger.
'We spent every single day together for three years, laughing, playing, sweating buckets. I thought we'd grown so close... Was it just me?'
The shock from that morning's news—that she had to go home tomorrow—had shattered her rational thinking. Her emotional floodgates had burst wide open.
'Did Woo-bin not enjoy being with me? Did he just see me as some training hall pass he used to get in?'
And just like that, the resentment in Jin Se-jeong's heart ballooned in an instant.
'...Is this really how it ends?'
By the time their promised night arrived, her eyes were dark as the a hollow, abyssal void, without a single glint of light.
"Oh, you're here? Let's head in."
Once darkened, her gaze didn't brighten even upon seeing Yang Woo-bin.
She knew she couldn't escape the parting looming ahead, so she'd resigned herself to it, fortifying her heart against further hurt.
"..."
"I've thought a lot about what to say, how to say goodbye. Ever since the day we met, I knew this day would come someday."
Yang Woo-bin entered the training hall, turning his back to Jin Se-jeong as he always did, heading for the weapon rack.
Once he grabbed a wooden sword from there and handed it over, their spar would begin.
After three years of daily repetition without fail, Jin Se-jeong knew exactly how he'd move.
But tonight was different.
"I didn't expect it to be so sudden, so when you told me this morning, I panicked hard. Forgot every word I'd prepared."
What Yang Woo-bin pulled from the rack wasn't a wooden sword, but two real blades—true weapons in every sense.
'Why real swords instead of wooden ones? And two of them?'
Jin Se-jeong could barely hear his words.
She'd shut the doors to her heart to avoid more pain from the breakup.
But her eyes were sharp, catching every move, so she reacted to him drawing two real swords.
"So I thought some more, and this seemed like the best way for us."
The question sparked by his unusual actions dissolved when he gripped one sword in his hand and offered the other to her.
"I'll deliver everything I want to say, everything I need to say—with this sword."
Yang Woo-bin was challenging Jin Se-jeong to a real sword duel.
"...What?"
A duel with real swords? When even a final spar felt too short to resolve their bond? Pointing dangerous weapons at each other on the eve of parting?
Even with her heart sealed shut in resignation, this was so blunt it pierced through her defenses.
Facing a friend leaving with real swords? It was as good as saying he was cutting ties. Jin Se-jeong gritted her teeth.
"Take it first. Then we'll talk."
"..."
Thwack!
Jin Se-jeong snatched the hilt from his hand like a hawk, glaring at him with fierce eyes.
She looked just like she had on their first day, stirring a faint, nostalgic smile from Yang Woo-bin.
But to Jin Se-jeong, already steeped in despair and resignation, that smile looked like mockery. She gripped her sword tight and assumed her stance in silence.
'Fine, if this is how you want to end it. Got it. Woo-bin... no, Yang Woo-bin. If that's your choice, I'll shut my heart too.'
Thirteen years old. The the turbulent threshold of adolescence.
An age where you could make your best friend in a day or turn them into your worst enemy just as fast. So Jin Se-jeong resolved to close her heart to Yang Woo-bin's actions.
"Ready?"
"...Huh?"
But the moment he gripped his sword and took his stance for the first time, she forgot her resolve entirely, her mouth gaping dumbly in shock.
"Ch-... Azure Dragon Twelve Swords?"
The stance he took was the basic form of the Jin Family's secret sword art, Azure Dragon Twelve Swords.
She'd figured after three years he'd show the Yang Family's Solar Divine Martial Sword for his first sword grip in ages, but Azure Dragon Twelve Swords out of nowhere?
It was so bewildering her own stance nearly crumbled, but she wasn't allowed the luxury of standing there stunned.
"Here I come."
Bang-!
A gunshot-like crack ripped through the air as Yang Woo-bin charged at Jin Se-jeong, his hair whipping behind him.
Azure Dragon Twelve Swords, First Strike—Azure Dragon Single Thrust.
The technique she'd used on the day they met, broken so effortlessly.
As his sword tip descended with a lethal, singular focus, Jin Se-jeong instinctively twisted her body and stepped forward.
Whoosh-
Just like he'd done to her.
"Good. Well done."
As if he'd known she'd dodge, he showed no disruption despite his technique being countered with such effortless grace. He kicked off the ground without a hitch, widening the gap.
"Next up... this one...!"
Right after, as he pulled back while creating distance, he thrust his sword forward explosively.
Not once, but repeatedly—a barrage of thrusts in succession.
A superhuman chain of stabs: Azure Dragon Twelve Swords, Second Strike—[Azure Dragon Thousand Stings].
Shwick-shwick-shwick-shwick!!!
The sword paths fanned out like a lethal shroud, overwhelming the defender into paralysis.
But Jin Se-jeong didn't panic at the countless thrusts blotting her sight.
She knew there was only one real blade amid them all. And that true mastery required a fully grown body. Calmly, she twisted aside and stepped forward, seizing his wrist.
Thud.
"Well done."
Yang Woo-bin's voice rang out.
Despite her dismantling his technique, he praised her sincerely, without a trace of regret.
Only then did Jin Se-jeong grasp his intent a little, understanding why he'd suggest a real sword duel.
"W-Woo-bin, you..."
Her chest tightened, words failing her, but Yang Woo-bin grinned and said,
"This is your parting gift. You have to survive. Survive, and we'll meet again at the academy."
From Yang Woo-bin's lips came not a farewell, but a solemn vow of reunion.