A Flower That Should Never Have Bloomed
"So this is where the ceremony to endorse the new Tu Gate Branch Master will be held."
Following Lady Hayeon's lead, I made my way to the venue for the endorsement ceremony — and arrived at a place I never could have expected.
"Isn't this the pavilion we used to come to now and then?"
The pavilion where we'd come for night strolls — and where I'd found her that time she ran away from home. And they called this a den of thieves. Honestly, I'd assumed it would be some secret hideout where shouting Open Sesame! would rack up forty arrests for the constables in one night.
"That's what I thought too. What a coincidence."
"Seems even the Tu Gate knew this pavilion had the finest view around."
Once I climbed onto the roof and looked about, the wide-open sightlines made it a perfect strategic perch — as well suited to reconnaissance as to a quiet stroll.
"Looks like we're a little early."
Had we hurried too much? The sun was reclining into the Yangtze like a child gingerly dipping a toe into a cold bath.
"Did you hear anything more about this endorsement ceremony?"
"I heard it's some kind of test."
"You can't be serious. Don't tell me they're changing the rules on us now?"
Nothing in this world is more detestable than a professor who suddenly whips out an unannounced quiz and declares it will count toward your grade.
"I think it's purely ceremonial, like it was for the Ma Gate."
Less a test, more the thief's version of a new-semester self-introduction, perhaps. Self-introductions are a pain in their own right, but as long as you don't announce that you have no interest in ordinary humans, or ask if anyone here is from the future or has psychic powers and would like to be friends, you can look forward to a perfectly uneventful life of thievery.
"Are you nervous?"
Lady Hayeon's face was stiff as stone. Well, with the test and the ceremony both, this was the final stair left to climb — it couldn't be helped.
"No, it's not quite that."
"Or is it perhaps about what happened with Lady Jegal...?"
"I do not sulk over things like that!"
Lady Hayeon shot back at me as though I'd said something utterly ridiculous.
"Hey, that's not what I meant."
I was only joking to lighten the mood.
"Lady Jegal held back a great deal because of me, you know. She isn't someone who can't yield over a little thing like this. If anything, if all you'd offered back there was a few measly words, it's I who would have had something to say to you."
Apology toward Lady Jegal dripped from Lady Hayeon's eyes.
"Haha. Is that so?"
Even I could tell the two of them had grown remarkably close lately. The awkwardness between them had melted away, and to an outsider they might well have passed for sisters.
"It's just..."
"Just what?"
"I can't help it when feelings come out on their own, that's all..."
Lady Hayeon murmured, looking down at the rooftop as though embarrassed.
"Hahahaha."
"Nngh! This is exactly why I didn't want to say anything."
Lady Hayeon's cheeks colored faintly, as though she'd walked straight into my trap.
"Come here, then. Let's sit and watch the sunset until it's time."
I settled onto the roof and patted the spot beside me.
Lady Hayeon glanced between the spot and me, breathed a small sigh, and lowered herself down beside me as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Before I knew it, her head had come to rest on my shoulder, and my hand had settled at her waist just as naturally.
The sunset was melting away.
Feeling each other's warmth, the two of them watched the sun slip toward the horizon without a word for a long while. It might have been an hour for a hundred conversations, but neither of them opened their mouth.
Sharing the same space, the same time, with a lover in silence. That alone can drive out the tension and dread packed into the chest and fill it instead with contentment and happiness.
"I've seen the night view from up here, but this is my first time watching the sun go down."
Only when a small smile appeared on the woman's face did the man finally break the silence.
"It's my first time too."
The dying light stained the Yangtze crimson, and the sun's last rays shimmered beautifully along the river.
Leaning against her lover's shoulder, Im Hayeon carved the scene into her memory — a scene she suspected she would never forget for the rest of her life.
"It's nearly over now, isn't it?"
It had been long. From the Usan Gyobang, past the Yichang Daseogak, to an inn in Wuhan and her life as the Shadowless Divine Thief — the journey she had undertaken to cast off her courtesan's registry was finally drawing to its close.
"It's only just beginning."
At the touch of her lover's hand on the back of hers, Im Hayeon tilted her head up to look at him. As ever, the man smiled down at her — the smile that said there was nothing to fear.
"Just... beginning?"
"Your life and mine are only just beginning, Lady Hayeon."
"Hmph."
How did he always know exactly which words would slip beneath her guard? Another pink-arrowed confession flew into her heart and struck home — but it hardly mattered. Her heart had long since become a target reserved for one man alone.
"Thanks to you, I've somehow made it this far."
"You made it this far because you are who you are, Lady Hayeon."
When the sun set and night fell, the end would come. But that end would not be the end at all — the sun would rise again. Even after she cast off the status that had tormented her all her life, her lover would remain at her side.
Im Hayeon carefully laced her fingers through his, wanting to feel his touch. Then, wanting to hear his heartbeat, she leaned her ear against his chest. It was quickening, just a little. That fact pleased her immensely.
"The day I met you was the greatest luck of my entire life."
The first man she'd met when she first stepped out into the world, trembling with fear. The first man to extend his hand to her. And when she slapped that hand away, he had only smiled as if it were nothing and offered it again.
The man who brought her meals with such tenderness, pressed gifts into her hands as if they cost him nothing, and taught her how a person lives in this world.
It had all been this man.
Perhaps her whole life had been nothing more than the road to meeting him.
Im Hayeon lifted her gaze once more to the man who filled her heart to overflowing.
"And I could only have made it this far with you beside me. But there's still one last stair left to climb."
There was still a little time before sunset; it would have been nice if he'd set the mood a touch further. Whether that gift of his — for scrambling a person's heart into ruins and then strolling casually away — was instinct or intention, she could not tell.
But it didn't matter.
After all the days she had wandered, agonized, ached, and burned over men, she knew at least this much now: how to take what she wanted from one.
With a faintly sulky expression, as if begging for affection, Im Hayeon spread both arms wide toward him.
"I get jealous too, you know. Hold me."
He stared at her, startled, for a moment — then chuckled softly, opened his sturdy arms, and drew her in.
I should have asked for this much sooner. Im Hayeon drank in his embrace.
Was she nervous after all?
Well, she had every reason to be. He could feel it — her shoulders, firm yet soft, trembling faintly against him.
"Mm..."
Perhaps her racing heart had finally settled, for she gently drew away from him.
"Hm?"
"I... I think I might understand how Lady Jegal felt earlier now."
Lady Hayeon turned her face away, her voice thick with reluctance.
"Lady Hayeon. Only one trial remains now."
"So it does."
She nodded and looked up at me. Her blue eyes filled my whole field of vision. The pink-haired Shadowless Divine Thief, with eyes the color of the open sky, was gazing at me.
A beauty one could never quite grow accustomed to, no matter how many times one beheld it. That face — one that should have made her the most celebrated courtesan in all Hubei Province — I was hoarding for my own eyes alone.
"Do you remember what happened up here on this pavilion, back then?"
My hand had risen of its own accord to stroke her cheek.
"When you said we had too many problems between us, so you couldn't give my heart an answer?"
"I gave you my answer to that not long after, didn't I? I mean the words that came after."
The thing I'd meant to do once we'd finally shared our hearts — surely she remembered.
"The words after that? ...Huh?!"
Had she caught on? Lady Hayeon's blue eyes went wide in an instant.
"Remember now?"
The time we'd tried to pour our overflowing hearts into each other, only to be cut short when some absurd misunderstanding came to light. I asked her with a rather impish grin.
"Wh-why would you b-bring that up?!"
Lady Hayeon stammered as my face drew closer and closer to hers.
As if all I'd ever wanted from the woman who'd given me her heart was to hold her hand. Once two people had confirmed what they meant to each other, why on earth would they stop at a hug?
Because once restraint crumbles, there is no end to how far it will crumble.
She's a runaway courtesan — hands off. It would only have made everything harder for us both. However badly I wanted to be bolder with my affection, I had held myself back for the sake of her future.
Countless problems had stood stacked in our way. But now, only a single gate remained.
By then we were close enough to feel each other's breath. I asked her, loading the question with all the affection I had.
"There's a spell of courage we use back in Joseon. Care to receive it?"
"H-how long does it take?"
"For as long as you wish, Lady Hayeon."
"Then... do it for a long, long time."
It did not take long at all for their breaths to mingle.
"Ahem."
The spell of courage — which, judging by the evidence, had no intention of ever ending — continued until an awkward cough sounded from behind them.
In truth, both of them had known since the previous evening that an officer of the Tu Gate they had met before was standing there. It was simply that, to part two people already aflame, the man had to dump the cold water on them personally.
With eyes full of regret, the two gazed at each other's lips — glistening now, and marked as belonging to one another. But the time had come to stop.
"..."
Neither of the lovers bothered with words. Their faces were as red as the sunset had been.
"We begin the moment the sun goes down. Acting Branch Master — follow this man ahead to the ceremony grounds."
If they stayed any quieter, he suspected they'd be getting started on something other than a ceremony. The Tu Gate officer prudently kept that observation to himself.
"Lady Hayeon."
"I've had all the courage I need. Wait for me."
"I'll be waiting."
Kang Yunho nodded and followed the Tu Gate man into the dark.
She had courage enough. Im Hayeon did not turn to watch Kang Yunho's back as he vanished from view. It was her turn to face forward now.
"We will now proceed with the ceremony."
It feels like floating above the clouds. Right now, I could walk across the sky itself. Im Hayeon thought, brushing her lips together.
"Who are they?"
Darkness had settled over Wuhan at some point. On the pavilion roof, besides the single familiar-faced officer, ten warriors now stood at their posts.
"The ten officers of the Tu Gate — and the ten finest lightfoot artists among us, at that. Wearing white headbands, they will run the night of Wuhan."
Just as the officer said, every warrior wore a white band bound about his head.
"And what am I to do?"
"Strip them of their white headbands. Any man robbed of his will swear his loyalty then and there."
"Is there a passing condition of some sort?"
"There is not. But should you fail to lay hands on a single headband by sunrise, then even as Branch Master you will be met with the eyes of distrust rather than of loyalty."
There was no disqualification here. It was simply an occasion for the new Tu Gate Branch Master to demonstrate her abilities before her officers.
"Do we begin right away?"
"The instant this coin is flicked, everyone gathered here will move. Branch Master — you move the moment the coin leaves the pavilion and touches the ground below."
Im Hayeon stood atop a tall pavilion roof with the whole of Wuhan spread out beneath her. Wait for a coin to fall all the way to the ground — by then, the masters of the lightfoot arts would be leagues away.
Catching even one would count as a marvel, so failing to catch them all would cost her nothing. But as a stage for proving the new Branch Master's skill, it was exquisite.
Truly, a trial worthy of being called the Tu Gate's ceremony.
"I have a question."
Im Hayeon asked, sweeping her gaze across the officers around her.
"Ask."
"How many did the previous master catch?"
The previous Tu Gate Branch Master — and the previous Shadowless Divine Thief. Im Hayeon was asking about her father.
"Eight. The most in the Tu Gate's history."
In the great metropolis of Wuhan, catching even two or three would be a miracle. The previous master had taken eight.
It was no accident that the people of the Tu Gate had remained loyal to their Branch Master through his ten years of absence, waiting for his return.
"Is that so?"
Im Hayeon nodded, one corner of her mouth curling upward.
"Don't tell me you mean to challenge the old master's record?"
A few of the officers scowled at that smile and spoke up.
"That man left his name in the Tu Gate's history. Daughter or not, she ought to understand just how extraordinary her father's deeds were."
"We acknowledge the Branch Master-elect's own accomplishments. But do not forget — it is only because she is his daughter that we consented to this at all."
"She is the Tu Gate Branch Master, endorsed after ten years! Have you no respect!"
"Hmph!"
Most of the Tu Gate officers had approved Im Hayeon's endorsement, but their old devotion to the previous master had not faded one whit for it.
Im Hayeon didn't deign to answer a single word of it. She only closed her eyes.
Like someone steadying her heart before a final trial.
At the sight, some marveled at the new master's composure; others quietly mourned what looked like a daughter's lack of reverence for her father.
The pavilion roof fell silent, and the officer, every preparation complete, raised the coin between his fingers.
"We begin."
The coin flipped into the air.
Like the waves of the Yangtze striding proudly across Wuhan — like the leading current that would rather drive forward than be driven back by the water behind it — the officers kicked off the pavilion and rose into the night.
Im Hayeon, ear inclined to the falling coin, sank into thought.
What if... what if I had never met him?
She would have been taken as a runaway courtesan. Unable to stop the Do Gate Branch Master from becoming the Mangju, she herself would have lived out her days a fugitive courtesan.
And then what would have become of her?
Would she have made her peace and lived content as a courtesan? No. She would have cursed her fate, and cursed it again.
Perhaps, never understanding any of the truth behind it all, she might have turned to thieving in a desperate bid to escape her registry.
A lowborn courtesan, and a thief. Loathing herself, forced to become, all at once, both of the things she had never wanted to be.
Im Hayeon's guess was correct. That was her fate in the life where she never met Kang Yunho.
But the woman she was now was different.
She had cleared away the misunderstanding that shadowed her father. She had become not the thief she despised, but a righteous one. She had weathered every crisis at her lover's side, and come to love everything she had learned along the way.
The Im Hayeon of this moment was a martial artist who had shaken off every last illusion.
"Now then, one more thing."
The coin was still falling.
"No more questions! It has already begun!"
An eternity that was also the briefest of instants. With the sound of the coin striking the earth, her eyes — long since adjusted to the dark — opened.
The woman, freed of every illusion, moved.
"Wh-what in the—?"
Im Hayeon's hand was already closed around a headband.
"If I catch them all before the sun rises, we hold the endorsement ceremony straight away. Isn't that right?"
On the moonlit night, a single flower bloomed, unbearably beautiful.
The name of the flower that never should have been able to bloom —
The Shadowless Divine Thief. Im Hayeon.
The footsteps of a woman blessed with a thieving talent the whole world would come to acknowledge were impossibly light.