One Kiss Before the Core
“Hwarin—this child—doesn’t have much time left.”
The words that left Uigakju’s mouth were grim news about Hwarin’s condition.
“What do you mean by that? Didn’t you say she could come to her senses after taking the Joseon Ginseng?”
The efficacy of Joseon Ginseng was so remarkable I could finally understand how the Kang Clan had become one of Joseon’s foremost wealthy houses through the trade of it.
“Raising her vitality enough to restore her consciousness is one matter. The poison of the Thousand-Year Centipede invading her marrow is another entirely.”
So it was like an unconscious cancer patient regaining awareness while the cancer itself still remained in the body.
“Wasn’t the Human-Faced Spider’s Poison Core supposed to fix that?”
“Of course. The extreme Yin energy within the Human-Faced Spider’s Poison Core can clash with the Yang energy of the Thousand-Year Centipede and annihilate both.”
“Then isn’t that enough?”
He had spoken as if the Human-Faced Spider’s Poison Core would cure her, so what was this now?
Uigakju shook his head at my question and continued.
“The reason this child has remained unconscious until now is not because she lacks the capacity to hold poison energy in her body. It is simply that the volume of poison energy and Yang energy exceeded what her instincts could control. Her entire body has fallen into sleep in order to contain it.”
It sounded similar to the hibernation the Medical Pavilion members had mentioned.
“So Hwarin can store poison energy in her body, but as a Dokin her martial prowess is still insufficient to control both Yang energy and poison energy at the same time. Is that how I should understand it?”
Uigakju nodded at my summary.
In computer terms, the hardware could run a single program just fine—but trying to run both the poison energy and the Yang energy at once had frozen the whole system.
“To resolve this, we must wake the child’s mind and then use the Human-Faced Spider’s Poison Core to annihilate the Yang energy, leaving only pure poison energy. Once that is done, she need only handle poison energy, so the burden will lighten.”
“Then isn’t that enough?”
“Poison energy alone she could manage. But these are the poisons of two spirit beasts. It is already a miracle that a human body can contain the poison of a Thousand-Year Centipede. Adding the poison of the Human-Faced Spider on top of that… While the Yang and Yin energies annihilate each other she must refine both beasts’ poisons into a single core. Only then can she live. Yet I cannot say whether this child’s body will endure it.”
Uigakju gazed at Dang Hwarin with a complicated expression.
So handling Yang energy and poison energy together was beyond Hwarin’s current martial capacity. Handling the poisons of two spirit beasts was possible for her—but this time it was her physical body that might not hold out.
The second path offered a chance of survival, yet that did not mean she was guaranteed to live.
“Is there another method, or anything else we can do for her?”
“There is no time. The highest chance of survival lies in her regaining consciousness and consuming the Human-Faced Spider’s Poison Core within half a day. Since the Clan Leader and the Council of Elders have already given their approval, teaching her the martial arts of a Dokin will help. However…”
“You cannot give a definite answer so easily, can you?”
Even the college entrance exam has its hundred-day miracles, but there is no such thing as a half-day miracle.
“We can only do our utmost. And if this child becomes a true Dokin…”
Uigakju looked at me with something like pity.
“Why do you look at me that way?”
Still clinging to residual feelings? Thinking that if I gained the support of a fully realized Dokin Hwarin I could become Young Clan Leader? I already told him I don’t need that.
“Haa… No, it is not that. Never mind. When this child awakens I will arrange time for you and her. Prepare yourselves for every possibility and exchange your greetings then.”
I was grateful for Uigakju’s consideration, yet that final sentence pressed heavily against my chest.
I heard that Hwarin had awakened three days later.
I wanted to rush in at once, but my turn had to come last.
First the members of the Medical Pavilion had to enter in order to rein in Hwarin’s rampaging poison energy. After them came people who looked every inch the masters, entering to transmit the martial arts of a Dokin. On top of that, countless experts in medicinal ingredients and those well-versed in Dokin matters went into her room ahead of me.
I waited outside her door like a university hospital patient stuck forever in an endless queue, counting the moments until my turn arrived.
“Prepare yourself to enter.”
Had the time already come? Uigakju approached me as I stared endlessly at the door of the room where Hwarin lay.
“May I go in now?”
“I have already explained everything that has happened. The moment you step out she must consume the Human-Faced Spider’s Poison Core, so if you speak with her, focus on words that can give her hope and a will to live.”
“I already know that much.”
Positive words are said to help critically ill patients, after all.
“And…”
Uigakju looked at me with a somewhat apologetic, complicated expression.
“And?”
“I cannot give you much time, but if there is anything you must say, speak it so you will have no regrets when you leave.”
This might be the last conversation we ever had while she was still alive.
I was not so dense that I failed to grasp the meaning of those words, so I nodded heavily and stepped into the room where Hwarin waited.
The moment I entered the room my breath nearly stopped.
Hwarin was not unconscious. She sat upright in bed with her upper body raised, eyes closed, murmuring something intently under her breath.
Was she reciting martial formulas? I made a small sound of my presence the way one might silently signal a bus driver approaching the stop, yet Hwarin showed no intention of opening her eyes.
I wanted to speak with her at once.
I wanted to tell her how glad I was to see her looking like a high-school girl muttering English vocabulary ten minutes before the entrance exam. I wanted to tell her how desperately I had feared she might never wake again.
Wait a little longer.
I could not interrupt her. The instant our conversation ended she would have to take the Human-Faced Spider’s Poison Core. I held the urge in check and simply watched the Hwarin who had returned to her senses.
Her face was pale, yet color had returned to her cheeks. When I lowered my gaze a little I saw loose, comfortable clothing.
The ideal garments for a patient. Ordinarily they would hold no charm whatsoever, yet clothing always changes according to who wears it.
The fabric gently rode the curve of a chest that defied gravity even in illness, then plummeted in astonishment down a sheer waterfall of cleavage that could have supported the flat-earth theory.
I had never possessed a taste for the frail, sickly beauty of a delicate girl whose arrival and departure from this world seemed equally faint yet still traced feminine lines. Even so, looking at Hwarin’s particular blend of fragile body, overwhelming bosom, and delinquent-girl aura, I felt as though an entirely new preference might be born on the spot.
“You’re here?”
In the brief moment my mind had been sucked into the black hole of Hwarin’s figure, she had already opened her eyes and spoken in a bright yet slightly drained voice.
“Feeling any better?”
I sat on the chair beside the bed and asked with a worried expression.
She didn’t notice, right? Worry is one thing, but the eyes have a mind of their own. My expression acting was natural, so she couldn’t have known.
“My body is exhausted. It feels like I’ve drunk a whole barrel of strong liquor—my limbs weigh a thousand pounds and I can barely hold myself up—yet my mind is crystal clear.”
Well, of course. There was poison inside her that put liquor to shame.
What should I say to her?
I had words prepared for Hwarin. Yet seeing her smile so weakly made it hard to open my mouth.
“I dreamed about a cat.”
While I was still choosing my words she began recounting the dream she had had while unconscious.
“A dream?”
“In the dream I was a cat, and I got trapped in a cage. Right in front of me was a fish I’d carefully brought over, but I couldn’t even eat it.”
“Must have made you mad.”
Before I brought up anything important I would match her tempo.
“That alone wouldn’t have made me that angry. What really pissed me off was something else.”
Despite her pale complexion her lips looked unusually red today; she pouted them a little as she spoke.
“What was it?”
“There was this fish I’d already put my saliva on but hadn’t even taken a bite of yet—and some other cat just snatches it away, you know?”
She spoke with a distinctly indignant tone.
“That’s just too much.”
“I could see and hear everything, but I couldn’t move at all, so I just had to watch that cat lick the fish. And the fish itself was acting all buddy-buddy with that other cat, seriously…”
A fish about to be eaten acting friendly? It was only Hwarin’s dream, yet her imagination was surprisingly rich.
“Did you end up watching it get eaten?”
Had there been a final twist? At my question Hwarin looked at me and gave a small, satisfied laugh.
“Nope. All of a sudden the fish decided it had to be eaten by me, so it punched that other cat, and the cat got so startled it ran off. Heh heh.”
She laughed with pure satisfaction, as though she herself had possessed the cat in the dream.
“What the hell is that?”
I let out a short snort of laughter.
“Stuff like that happens.”
When I looked at her with an incredulous expression, Hwarin stroked my cheek the way one might caress something precious.
The warmth of Hwarin’s hand after so long. The thought that I had gone through all that hell just to feel this again was oddly moving.
“Heh heh.”
I remained dazed, savoring her touch, until she lightly pinched my blankly staring cheek.
Once Hwarin’s dream story ended, a brief silence settled between us.
This might be the last conversation we ever had. I had something I absolutely needed to tell her. But how was I supposed to say it?
“You… you.”
Hwarin called me with a faintly embarrassed air.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t you have something to say to me?”
“Huh?”
“You’re not going to say it?”
When I answered blankly she pressed me as though scolding.
“Say what?”
“Ugh! What happened at the Council of Elders. I heard everything, you know!”
She turned her head away as she spoke, clearly embarrassed.
“Ahh…”
So she had heard me call her my woman. How embarrassing.
“Ahh? You—things like that should first—no! No, no, you should discuss it with me before you say them. Why go telling other people first?”
She glared at me with the axe-blade eyes I hadn’t seen in a long time.
“Hahaha…”
I was embarrassed.
This was exactly as embarrassing as that time at a classmates’ drinking party when, while drunk, I had casually asked the girl I liked whether she had a boyfriend—only to receive a look that said, “Who the hell do you think you are to even ask me that?”
“Don’t just laugh!”
Then what was I supposed to do instead of laughing? Every step forward looked like a minefield.
“Yunho. Hurry up and tell me how it felt to block someone else’s marriage path.”
Still turned away, she glanced at me from the corner of her eye and urged me on.
What should I say? I looked at her for a moment. She appeared angry, yet the corners of her lips were twitching strangely. Her pale face was oddly flushed.
Perhaps the whole world was not a minefield after all.
“Did hearing the news make you feel bad…?”
I didn’t know how to advance in situations like this. Better to play the heavily sulking card. I dragged the words out with a terribly sad expression, as though apologizing.
“No, it’s not that I hate it! Actually it’s g—ahk…!”
Startled by my expression, Hwarin tried to sit up and nearly toppled over.
“Hwarin!”
I hurriedly caught her body as she lost her balance and started to fall.
Her body was burning hot. She had been joking around and pretending to be fine while in this state?
When I looked at her in shock our eyes met. We were far too close. If she lifted her chin even a little our noses would collide.
I tried to lay her back down on the bed, yet Hwarin was the one who held onto me instead.
An indescribable feminine scent mixed with a faint medicinal aroma left my heart in disarray.
“Yunho. Just say it… Stop slipping away every single time…”
Resentment and grievance colored her voice.
Is this the chance?
Is this the chance to say those words?
There’s no better opportunity than this moment right now, is there?
“Hwarin.”
I called her name tenderly, refusing to look away from her earnest gaze, ready to speak the words I had prepared ever since I entered this room.
“Yeah?”
“Want to kiss me?”
“H-huh?”
“Let’s kiss.”
“Wh-wh-wh-what?!!!!!”