There’s a limit to how far you can screw with people! (5)
Swish.
A strip of pure white cloth slid over the blade.
Swish.
Baek Cheon's eyes were lowered, calm and serious.
It was a habit he kept up once a day. Even so, the way he held himself was as solemn as the first time he had ever polished a sword.
Swish-swish-swish.
The blade reflected his face like a mirror. Baek Cheon looked at the image staring back at him for a moment, then quietly resumed polishing the sword.
How much time had passed?
"Hoo."
After making sure the blade was spotless, he slid it back into its scabbard.
Clack.
He carefully set the cleaned sword down beside him and glanced toward the door.
"If you’re here, come in. What are you lurking around for?"
"...How did you know?"
"You’re making enough noise to wake the dead. If I didn’t know, that would be the strange part."
"Then tell me to come in!"
Baek Cheon let out a snort of laughter as Chung Myung shoved the door open and stepped inside, grumbling all the while.
"Since when have you ever been the kind of person who waits to be invited? You’re the sort who’d smash the door down even if I locked it."
Well, fair enough. Chung Myung grinned and strode lazily into the room before flopping down right in the middle of it.
A faint smile touched Baek Cheon's lips.
"... ..."
"... ..."
A brief silence passed.
Chung Myung narrowed his eyes and looked at Baek Cheon.
"Aren’t you going to ask?"
"Ask what?"
"Why I came."
"You must have had a reason."
"No, I mean...?"
"So I waited. To hear what you had to say."
Chung Myung pouted, plainly dissatisfied, then said in a surly voice, "You make it sound like you knew I was coming."
"I did."
"Huh?"
Chung Myung’s head snapped up. Baek Cheon answered in an unhurried tone under Chung Myung’s questioning gaze.
"I didn’t know you’d come to my room, but I did think you’d say something soon. Something pretty important, in fact."
"...Why?"
"Why?"
Baek Cheon looked genuinely bewildered.
"Because you weren’t acting like yourself."
"And what’s that supposed to mean?"
"You really don’t know?"
"No. I think I was acting the same as always."
Baek Cheon let out a long sigh and pressed one hand to his forehead.
Under that look of utter disappointment, Chung Myung flinched and bristled.
"W-what? What!"
"Chung Myung."
"What!"
"What did you do after you came back from fighting Jang Il-so?"
"What did I do? Obviously, I..."
Chung Myung couldn’t finish. Slowly, he shut his mouth.
Come to think of it. What did I do?
He tilted his head a little and retraced the past few days.
He had been constantly doing something, but when he thought about it again, it also felt like he hadn't really done anything at all. Now that Baek Cheon was asking him so directly, he found himself at a loss.
Watching Chung Myung struggle in earnest, Baek Cheon gave a quiet laugh and said, "Plum Blossom Island’s repairs were mainly handled by the Tang Family. The harbor and the merchant network were set up by the Green Forest. The Mount Hua disciples stabilized the surrounding area and carried out relief work."
"...Right?"
"If this had been like usual, you would’ve been grumbling the whole time about building halls, giving orders left and right, and then running off to the harbor to kick the bandits around. You’d have been the first one charging about, screaming about how you were going to beat every Sapa bastard to death."
"... ..."
"You were that full of energy, and now you’ve been shoved onto some cramped little island where you’re doing nothing but playing at being an immortal. Did you really think that was normal?"
A dry laugh slipped out of Chung Myung’s mouth.
"So that’s just what you thought, Sahyung?"
"Do you think I was the only one? Everyone’s probably walking around with a bomb in their hands right now. If they didn’t notice something was off with you, they’re not Mount Hua disciples."
"... ..."
Chung Myung’s expression changed several times in the span of a few seconds. He seemed about to say something, his lips parting and closing again, until at last he let out a deep sigh.
"...Then why didn’t you say anything?"
Baek Cheon shrugged.
"Because I didn’t need to."
"... ..."
"You’re not the sort to listen to other people anyway, and you’re certainly not the kind to sit alone and stew until you rot from the inside. I figured that when the time came, you’d work through it and tell me yourself."
Baek Cheon’s gaze settled on Chung Myung.
"Just like now."
"... ..."
"So talk. Tell me what the problem is."
That expression was so serious that Chung Myung awkwardly rolled his eyes around before finally meeting his gaze. A sigh leaked from his mouth.
"No, it’s not..."
"Mm."
"No, I mean..."
"Yes."
"No, it’s just... so..."
"...What, you bastard? What? What the hell is it?"
"Ah, why are you yelling at me too!"
Chung Myung shouted right back and scratched his head roughly.
"...It’s not like there’s some specific problem or anything."
"Hmm?"
"To be exact, I don’t even know what the problem is. I only just found out I’d been holed up in my room all this time after you told me, Sahyung."
"... ..."
"Don’t look at me like, ‘What kind of useless idiot is this?’"
"...Have you learned mind reading in the meantime?"
"Ugh."
Chung Myung pulled together a complicated expression that was hard to name and went on.
"After hearing what Sahyung said, I can tell I was definitely tangled up in something, but why I was like that, I honestly..."
"You don’t know?"
"Yeah."
"I think I do."
"Huh? Really?"
Chung Myung looked at him, startled. How could Baek Cheon know something even he didn’t?
"What, it’s obvious. You’ve always been unimaginably thoughtless, simple, obvious, stupid, and also..."
"That’s enough."
You bastard.
When Chung Myung glared at him with all the innocence of a sheet of white paper, Baek Cheon laughed.
"That’s just the sort of person you are. If there’s something urgent you need to do, nothing else gets into your head."
"... ..."
"Repairing Plum Blossom Island, opening trade routes and making money, expanding our influence, kicking the asses of the Nine Great Sects and eating up the places they used to occupy..."
Baek Cheon rattled the list off and then looked steadily at Chung Myung.
"Yes, all of that matters. But..."
Then he smiled faintly.
"That probably isn’t the most important thing. At least not to you, Chung Myung."
"... ..."
"Chung Myung."
"Yeah?"
"Do what you want to do."
Chung Myung fell silent, as though someone had stolen his voice.
Baek Cheon continued, "Do what you think you need to do. Not what you’re only doing because you have to."
"No, Sahyung, I..."
"You think this is because you can’t handle Saperyeon and Maninbang as you are now, don’t you?"
"...What are you talking about?"
Chung Myung looked a little awkwardly at Baek Cheon.
"Our influence is growing, and the Heavenly Alliance is getting even tighter-knit, and..."
"The Chung Myung I know,"
But Baek Cheon cut him off firmly.
"Doesn’t know the first thing about solving problems by using other people. If there’s a problem, you’re the type who has to smash straight through it yourself before you can breathe easy."
"... ..."
"For you, all that stuff is just secondary. Isn’t it? What matters to you is..."
Baek Cheon looked him straight in the eye.
"Can Mount Hua beat Saperyeon?"
"... ..."
"Can Mount Hua fight Maninbang?"
Chung Myung shut his mouth and stared at Baek Cheon.
"That’s it, isn’t it?"
"... ..."
At Chung Myung’s blank expression, Baek Cheon smiled.
"Sometimes the person standing beside you can understand the situation more clearly than you can yourself. From where I’m standing, this feels like one of those times."
"... ..."
"I’ve got the heart of it. What needs to be done is clear. But the situation won’t allow it. So... if it were me, I’d probably act just like you."
Baek Cheon looked at Chung Myung with a serious face and gave a small nod.
"So there’s only one thing I want to say."
"...What is it?"
"You’re a greedy, stupid, awful bastard with a rotten personality."
"Hey, you—"
"But the worst thing about you is that you don’t trust other people."
"... ..."
"You’ve already done more than enough. The things you’ve built will keep moving even if you don’t personally stick your hands into every little thing. So let go of that greed that says you have to oversee everything yourself. When enemies are piling up all around you, what’s the easiest way to deal with the problem?"
Chung Myung’s lips moved.
This was a line he had thrown at Baek Cheon countless times before.
"Take the head..."
After a moment, a low groan-like sound slipped from his mouth.
"...and grab it."
Baek Cheon smiled with obvious satisfaction.
"Exactly. You know it well."
It didn’t just mean to deal with the leader. It meant handling the most important thing first.
Both Chung Myung and Baek Cheon understood that.
"Being dragged around by everything around you isn’t like the Chung Myung I know. You’re at your best when you’re simple. Throw the rest to everyone else and do the best you can with what’s in front of you."
"... ..."
"Taking responsibility doesn’t mean carrying everything on your back. If anything, that’s the irresponsible thing to do."
Chung Myung stared wordlessly at Baek Cheon. Then Baek Cheon gave a crooked smile and shrugged.
"What? Thinking of praising me for sounding like a Sahyung now?"
"No, it’s not that..."
"Then what?"
Chung Myung, who had been wearing a complicated expression, suddenly laughed.
"I was just thinking Dong-ryong actually looks human sometimes. It feels like just yesterday you were this lanky, pale-faced loser who couldn’t even live up to his looks and always acted like an idiot."
"...You bastard?"
Chung Myung snickered.
"I figured out one thing."
"What?"
"That if a sparrow tries to follow a crane, its legs will get torn apart."
"Are you talking about me?"
"No. I’m talking about myself."
Chung Myung let out a self-mocking laugh.
He had wanted to become Chung Mun.
Because, to him, the ideal sect leader was Chung Mun. But somewhere deep down, he had already known it.
He could never become Chung Mun, and he was not the kind of person who could be a sect leader. He could do neither.
I knew it and still forgot.
He had indeed been doing something that didn’t suit him at all.
It wasn’t as though he had heard anything earth-shattering. And yet it felt as if the haze in front of his eyes had suddenly cleared. As if the pale fog covering the world had been swept away all at once.
"Sahyung."
"Mm."
"Thanks."
At that calm thanks, Baek Cheon’s eyes went wide as saucers.
"...Did you eat something bad?"
"... ..."
"Did Jang Il-so beat you so badly last time that you damaged your head? Should I call So-so?"
"... ..."
Chung Myung felt a little sad—not because of what Baek Cheon had said, but because of the utterly sincere look in those eyes that made it clear he wasn’t joking at all.
On any other day, he would have jabbed a finger straight into Baek Cheon’s eye, but today, he decided to let it slide.
"Seriously..."
Yu I-seol and Baek Cheon both acting like this meant he really had been acting like a complete idiot.
Chung Myung’s eyes grew clearer and sharper by the second.
"So you’re saying I should do what needs doing right now?"
"Yes."
"The most important thing?"
"That’s what I said, didn’t I?"
"...That’s what you mean?"
"... ..."
A brief silence fell. Unease began to spread across Baek Cheon’s face.
It was because a wicked smile had started to spread over Chung Myung’s lips. It was so very like Chung Myung that it was reassuring, but at the same time, it was so very Chung Myung that it made him nervous all over again.
"You’re right, Sahyung. I was being an idiot."
"... ..."
"Now that I think about it, it pisses me off! Something this obvious! Since when have I ever cared about every little thing?"
"Ah, no, wait. Chung Myung. Hey, you little—"
Baek Cheon’s face began to go pale.
Something... had started going differently from what he’d expected. No, it wasn’t just a feeling anymore. It was a certainty.
"Thanks, I feel much better now! Heh, Dong-ryong’s actually useful once in a while! We’ll talk later!"
Chung Myung sprang to his feet with a refreshed expression, spun around, and strode for the door.
"Hey, you bastard! At least tell me what you’re going to do now—"
Baek Cheon hastily reached out, but Chung Myung had already shoved the door open and disappeared outside.
The hand that had swiped at empty air flailed there awkwardly a few times before dropping limply.
"... ..."
Do I have a bad feeling about this?
At that moment, Yoon Jong and Jo Gul cautiously poked their heads through the wide-open doorway. Apparently, they had been eavesdropping from outside for some time.
The two of them alternated their gazes between Chung Myung, who was already sprinting off into the distance, and Baek Cheon, who stood there dazed, before one of them finally spoke.
"Sahyung."
"...Mm?"
"What exactly did you do?"
"... ..."
Kids...
I'm the one who doesn't know, so don't ask me.