The Gift — 8
“Once you get over a wall, I feel like your mastery of the Shadowless Body Art will deepen. Where do you think you're struggling the most?”
Lim Hayeon asked as we walked along a deserted night road, away from the night market.
“It's the walking that's hard.”
Walking with my left and right feet, specifically. I pulled water from the bag I'd brought along, taking a sip to soothe my throat as I spoke.
“Don't joke around.”
“I mean it — I'm at the toddler-taking-his-first-steps stage. I've only just set foot on the edge of the Shadowless Body Art, a supreme art of ascension. I can't even say which part is harder because it's all so far beyond me.”
So this is how a beginner driver feels behind the wheel of someone else's luxury sports car. To an onlooker the driver might seem enviable, but the novice's hands tremble just gripping the wheel.
“I've already taught you the fundamentals. If you just squeeze past your limit, I think you can break through the wall…”
Squeeze past my limit, she says. There's only one limit I want to be squeezed to.
“I think you're doing pretty well, actually. So, where are we headed right now?”
I'd asked a couple of times already and gotten no answer. Where exactly are we going?
“Well…”
Lim Hayeon let the words trail off and stared at the hand holding my canteen.
Thirsty, maybe? When I offered her the canteen, she flinched at the shoulder and quickly shook her head.
“If you had nowhere particular to go, I wouldn't mind heading back.”
The beginner driving lesson was fun enough. I'd had my fill of night air, and honestly home sounded better than the road now.
“W-well, since we're already out at night, let's run through a few different situations.”
Lim Hayeon gave a slight bend of the shoulders, pressed her lips shut, and gazed off into the distance.
Somehow she looked disappointed.
Come to think of it, I hadn't taken a single leisurely stroll since arriving in Wuhan.
Perhaps I should spend a little more time with her.
“Then let's do that.”
“Good. Up you come.”
At my answer, Lim Hayeon straightened her slightly hunched shoulders, smiled, and leapt up onto the perimeter wall.
“Is there really any need to go traipsing over other people's fences?”
“The best movement art usable in any situation is the Shadowless Body Art. You need to get used to it even when there's an obstacle in the way.”
“Fair enough, but…”
Creeping around other people's walls at night isn't lightness training so much as training to become one of those people who come out at night, isn't it?
Then again, the movement art I learned *is* a thief's martial art. I suppose it's the right kind of practice.
I climbed up onto the wall at Lim Hayeon's urging.
Back in school gym class I could barely manage the balance beam. Now I was standing on a wall with astonishing steadiness.
Is this what they mean by a martial art on friendly terms with walls?
“Follow me.”
Was this some kind of date invitation, maybe? I'd been half in doubt, but it seems I was mistaken.
Shaking off the misunderstanding, and armed with the childhood resolve of a boy crossing a line that meant lava floor or death by shark, I ran along the wall, chasing Lim Hayeon's nimble figure.
———————
“How much farther are we going?”
I never imagined I'd end up doing parkour in real life after only ever watching it in videos.
The funny thing was, I was following along surprisingly well — awkwardly, sure, but well enough that I wondered if this body was really mine. So the Shadowless Body Art training hadn't been in vain after all.
“If we cut across here, it's right ahead.”
Lim Hayeon pointed at a large mansion.
I'd been here before.
“This place? This isn't the mansion where Jeon Gilsan lives.”
The enormous estate before my eyes was Jeon Gilsan's mansion.
“The security's lax, so it's easy to cut through.”
Judging by her nonchalant tone, this wasn't her first or second rodeo.
“Wouldn't it be a disaster if we got caught?”
“If we get caught, we say the pigeons escaped and we were out searching for them. So.”
Lim Hayeon wore a mischievous smile I rarely saw from her.
“Still, that's—”
“Worst case, we apologize by lending them a pair of homing pigeons for free. Come on.”
With that, Lim Hayeon stepped on the piles of goods beside the wall and was over the mansion's fence in an instant.
Is this really okay?
Well, Lim Hayeon is a master of infiltration and lightness arts. Isn't she the woman who's never once been caught sneaking into any mansion?
Maybe I should trust her.
“INTRUDER!”
Caught, almost immediately.
“CATCH HIM!”
What am I supposed to do about this? I turned to fire off a retort, but Lim Hayeon was already gone from the spot.
She was definitely there before the shouting started.
“CATCH HIM!”
The area began to churn with commotion.
What do I do? Just let myself be caught?
For a flash, I imagined Jeon Gilsan's face gloating as he demanded a franchise fee cut from me. I couldn't stand to see him looking so smug.
Run. That's step one.
“THIEF!”
“No — it could be an ASSASSIN!”
*I'm merely a pedestrian who took a shortcut and got spotted.*
Leaving behind excuses I could never bring myself to say, I started running along the route Lim Hayeon had pointed out the moment we cleared the wall — the path with the laxest security.
Lights were flicking on in the buildings one by one. Run. If I get caught, it's all over.
I channeled my internal energy into my legs and ran at maximum speed.
“HE'S HERE!”
“Tch!”
One more wall and I'm free!
Two rough-looking men blocked my path.
Could they be actual warriors? If they were armed with swords, letting myself be captured without stirring up more commotion might be one option.
“Could be an assassin! Don't get close! Just surround him until the warriors get here!”
“Intruder over here!”
Thankfully, the two men held clubs at their waists, not swords. Servants who'd come running at the ruckus, apparently.
What now? Knock them down? Veer off in another direction?
Then I saw a hand raised high over the wall.
“This way!”
The hand belonged to Lim Hayeon. When did she get over? She was staring at me with an impatient expression.
“The intruder's over there!”
Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Armed warriors were closing in from behind.
I couldn't knock them down, couldn't veer away. I supposed I really had to go toward Lim Hayeon.
But how?
The wall towered far over my head — even at a distance, I had to crane my neck to look up at it.
I'd gotten over by stepping on stacked goods, but there was nothing like that here.
Worse, in front of the wall stood servants resolved to block me at any cost. And behind me, warriors sprinting closer.
“Grab him — don't let him escape!”
The warriors' shouts were growing nearer.
*Whew.*
Guess I've got no choice.
Even if I fail, all I lose is a little more face in front of that rat Jeon Gilsan.
I activated my dantian's internal energy to the fullest. Five years' worth of power spread through every meridian in my body, following my breath.
Crisis on both sides. Maybe it was the tension, but today my whole body's energy moved exactly as I willed it.
The Shadowless Body Art is a supreme art of ascension.
Not just the legs — I used my entire body to create the finest possible motion.
My lessons hadn't gone to waste. The moment I showed signs of doing something, the servants advanced with their clubs raised.
The clubs swung. But there was no way they'd touch me. Energy flowed to meridians, from meridians to muscle. My body moved impossibly lightly at my command.
An opening.
I seized one servant's shoulder and launched myself skyward. Did they think that was the opening? The instant another servant swung his club at me, I planted the sole of my foot on it.
The energy lying in wait gathered in a flash at the Yongcheon acupoint on my sole.
A catapult made of human strength.
“HAH!”
I shot into the air.
Flying with every ounce of focus, I watched the servants' astonished faces pass by as if in slow motion.
A single breath's worth of time — and my body was soaring toward the top of the wall that had loomed impossibly high over the servants.
I might actually clear this wall in one go?
The launch effect is better than I expected. Which means there's a line I have to say at a moment like this!
“EXPECTATIOOOON-EXCEEDIIIIING PROPUUUULSIIIION!”
People of Mangeum Bookstore — live long and untroubled lives.
“Since we made it this far, they can't possibly chase us.”
Lim Hayeon stopped in front of a vast, empty pavilion and said.
I didn't expect a lightness-arts lesson to include a midnight chase scene.
“Hah… hah… And that's why I said we shouldn't.”
I panted, catching my breath in relief.
Lim Hayeon may have mastered stealth arts and lightness arts alike, but jumping other people's walls was beyond me.
“It went exactly as planned, though.”
Lim Hayeon smiled with her eyes as she said this to me.
“What do you mean?”
*Clap clap clap.* Barely had my bewilderment settled when Lim Hayeon gave a small round of applause and delivered unexpected news.
“One Star of the Shadowless Body Art. Congratulations on your achievement.”
She beamed at me with an utterly earnest face.
“I've reached One Star of the Shadowless Body Art?”
One Star meant you had crossed the first threshold of a martial art.
In martial arts tales, a technique's mastery is typically measured in stars — usually up to Ten Stars, or Twelve for those who surpass all limits. Many supreme arts are so profound and obscure that even geniuses who train their whole lives stall at Five or Seven Stars, and such cases were far from rare.
“You harnessed your inner power in full to control your entire body and drew out every ounce of your capability. That qualifies as One Star of the Shadowless Body Art.”
Lim Hayeon nodded, confirming my astonishment.
“So that back there was a kind of enlightenment, then.”
I murmured, carefully clenching my fist in my palm.
That feeling in the moment of crisis — my whole body moving as if it were entirely mine. As if it were me, yet not the usual me.
It seemed the Shadowless Body Art, which until now had existed within me only as instruction, had finally become one with my flesh — a single moment of awakening.
“Mmhm. See? You squeezed past your limit and broke through the wall.”
“Still, who strands someone alone in Jeon Gilsan's house?”
“I was ready to rescue you at a moment's notice.”
“Some rescue — you looked pretty rattled when I cleared the wall in one jump…”
Clearly Lim Hayeon hadn't expected me to clear the wall in a single leap either; for a moment she'd worn a completely dazed expression.
“I-I was not!”
She was rattled, all right.
“Honestly, if it really is One Star, my body does feel lighter somehow.”
From today on, call me Kang Yunho +1. I puffed up my shoulders and declared with full confidence.
“Then I suppose you could leap up this pavilion too. Come on up.”
Wouldn't that be more of a Two Star move?
Thinking I'd said something unnecessary, I followed Lim Hayeon up the pavilion.
“Oho. So a place like this existed.”
From atop the tall pavilion's roof spread a panorama of downtown Wuhan.
“I found it on my way home from work one day.”
“Truly a magnificent view.”
So this was why Lim Hayeon had suggested a night stroll.
To the right, the night market and pleasure district blazed like a city that never sleeps; to the left, the wide Yangtze River reflected the starlight of the night sky.
Wuhan had been this beautiful all along?
I'd been so busy scraping by, eyes fixed on the ground, that I'd lived without ever once seeing scenery this lovely.
“……”
Face full of wonder, I turned and moved to sit beside Lim Hayeon on the roof.
“Miss Hayeon.”
Why did she startle like that? As I approached, Lim Hayeon, who had been tucking hair behind her ear, flinched at the shoulder.
I sat down naturally beside her and gazed out over Wuhan's nightscape.
Lim Hayeon looked at me for a moment, then hunched her shoulders up tight and spoke quietly.
“I… I'm sorry.”
“Whatever for?”
“At first, even just climbing over walls felt wrong to me. But since we weren't stealing anything, it's honestly been… rather fun lately…”
Lim Hayeon mumbled, sounding somehow embarrassed. *Ah.* So that's why we went to Jeon Gilsan's mansion.
“You spent your whole life learning this — how could it not be fun to finally use it? Truthfully, looking back on what just happened, I found it quite entertaining too.”
She'd apparently gone out of her way to stage a fun situation for me. Very much in character for her martial arts, if a bit extreme.
The night market. The infiltration of Jeon Gilsan's mansion. The nightscape from the pavilion.
Had I seemed worn out lately, to her eyes? Or was this her way of declaring a truce after our cold war of the past few days?
It seemed Lim Hayeon had led me out into the night tonight to give me some kind of memory, in her own way.
“I… it was?”
“Besides, thinking of me, you brought me to the safest possible place to raise my martial attainment. Being taught the Shadowless Body Art was a stroke of fortune already — and now you've lifted my mastery besides. So don't go moping about it strangely.”
I told Lim Hayeon with an easy smile.
“A-all right, as long as you know.”
Only then did her mood seem to lift; she pouted her lips and turned her head away.
What a fine opportunity.
If she extended a hand of reconciliation, the obvious move was to take it. Time to bring out the ultimate weapon to end our cold war once and for all.
“Miss Hayeon.”
I turned my head and leaned in closer to her.
“Wh-what is it?”
“There's something I want to show you.”
“And that is?”
“I only just got my hands on it today…”
I rummaged through my bag and took out a box — the box I'd received earlier today.
“Isn't that the gift that woman gave you? Why did you bring it here?”
Why the voice suddenly colder than the night air?
“Hahaha. It's not like that. I was hoping *you* would be the one to open this, Miss Hayeon.”
It's a misunderstanding, I say. With a gentle smile and a shake of the head, I held the box out to Lim Hayeon.
“Me? This is… flower shoes?”
Inside the box lay a pair of shoes, exquisitely embroidered.
I glanced briefly at Lim Hayeon's own shoes — worn ragged from all the running we'd done today — then looked up at her astonished face.
“Tanghye — flower shoes of the Tang style. A gift from me, to you, Miss Hayeon.”