Those Who Meet Must Part
Those who meet must part; those who leave must return.
Cheongija led the Heavenly Killing Star to a teahouse in Daeheung County.
The place was not crowded, yet every patron seated within spoke of one family alone.
“Have you heard the rumor about the Seong Family Manor, friend?”
“The Seong Family Manor? You mean the one that has been collapsing since the incident a month ago?”
“That very one. Word is the eldest son who survived has decided to become the new family head.”
“Seong Sehui, is it? So it has come to that. After the catastrophe Seong Jiru caused, the clan was practically doomed to extinction—yet the boy still stepped forward to claim the seat.”
“Indeed. Who could have guessed Seong Jiru would slaughter every guest the moment his own shame was exposed?”
“Seong Sehui and his retainers tried to stop it, but the only one who walked away from that massacre was Seong Sehui himself, they say.”
“Household servants, warriors, guests—all dead. Even the family itself was wiped out. With the people’s fury still directed at the Seong name, the manor is finished in all but name… yet he still chose to become head.”
“At least the young master still has his wits about him. Still, to volunteer for that…”
“What will become of the Seong Family Manor now?”
“Is that our worry? Let’s just enjoy the gossip that makes the tea taste better.”
“Agreed.”
The massacre at the Seong Family Manor had been officially pinned on the former head, Seong Jiru.
The few surviving witnesses had fled at the very start—when the swordfight between Seong Jiru and Seong Sehui first erupted—and once the Heavenly Killing Star went berserk, no one remained who could be called a witness except Seong Sehui himself.
Of course, Seong Sehui’s testimony could have created enormous trouble.
What truth do you speak of? Everything that night was orchestrated by Seong Jiru. By rights I should have lost, yet by chance an unexpected benefactor helped me tear through his schemes. I am grateful.
On the night the Heavenly Killing Star secretly visited Seong Sehui, the young man had offered her his heartfelt thanks.
The Seong Family Manor was now nothing but ash. Yet some men still choose to grasp even unwanted ashes with both hands.
Seong Sehui’s life ahead would be far harsher and more grueling than the path that led him to the headship—yet he would smile at the ashes clenched in his fists and walk the thorn-strewn road without flinching.
“What did you come for?”
The Heavenly Killing Star turned from the conversations about the Seong Family and asked Cheongija her purpose in bringing her here.
Thanks to Cheongija she had learned of Yunho’s existence. Whatever his reason for seeking her out, she could thank him after hearing him speak.
“I will speak plainly.”
Cheongija took a sip of tea to order his thoughts, then fixed her with a grave expression and opened his mouth to state his purpose.
“What is it?”
“Leave the benefactor’s side.”
What nonsense was this?
The Heavenly Killing Star could not begin to grasp the words Cheongija had just uttered the moment he appeared.
She felt as though she had been struck hard across the back of the head without warning; her mind went blank.
“Think of the Heavenly Killing Star as a great ship sailing the Yangtze.”
Ignoring her stunned silence, Cheongija picked up an empty teacup before him and began to explain why she must leave.
“Originally that ship should have followed the current without deviation. Even if the end of that current is shipwreck, one cannot defy the flow of the Yangtze. Yet by the purest chance the ship called Heavenly Killing Star discovered a tiny skiff rowing upstream against the river.”
As he shifted one cup aside he stopped it in front of the small cup standing opposite.
“The great ship is blocked by the little skiff and cannot advance; the little skiff is blocked by the great ship and cannot go its own way. That is the present state of the two of you.”
He placed both cups dead-center on the table and met the Heavenly Killing Star’s eyes.
“How does that become a reason to leave?”
Cheon Sohee understood the metaphor itself.
The Yangtze was destiny. The great ship was herself. The skiff was Kang Yunho. The Heavenly Killing Star, racing toward catastrophe, had met the man who could alter another’s fate and had thereby halted her own.
Yet she could not comprehend why that meant she must leave him.
Whether Yunho was a little boat or a teacup, he had stopped her destiny. He had pulled her free of the Heavenly Killing Star’s fate. So why leave?
“These ships appear motionless, yet the endless current of the Yangtze still presses from behind. The destiny the Heavenly Killing Star carries is immense. It is good that the skiff ahead has brought a temporary halt—but what happens if the great ship moves even a little toward the skiff?”
Deliberately he nudged the large cup so that it struck the small one.
From the large cup’s perspective the force was slight, yet the small cup toppled sideways, its balance shattered.
The Heavenly Killing Star grasped the meaning at once.
“You’re saying Yunho will be in danger?”
“You have already nearly killed him twice.”
“How do you know that?”
“Twice I saw the light of the Heavenly Killing Star eclipse the light of the Yeokcheonja. Under ordinary circumstances the other star would have died—yet a Yeokcheonja is a Yeokcheonja. He survived even that.”
Cheongija added that “Yeokcheonja” was the name he used when speaking of the Heavenly Killing Star’s special benefactor.
“……I nearly killed him twice.”
Once in Chilgok County. Once in Daeheung County. Cheon Sohee realized anew how close those moments had come to tragedy.
“Do you believe he will survive a third time?”
The question cut sharper than any blade and drove straight into the Heavenly Killing Star’s heart.
“……”
Cheon Sohee had no answer.
“Such things will happen again whenever the two of you remain together. If you treasure him, leave.”
Cheongija urged her with quiet calm.
The casual tone with which he recommended so painful a choice sparked a surge of resistance in her.
“You were the one who told me that staying beside Yunho could change my destiny, Cheongija.”
She reined in the anger rising in her chest as best she could.
“That is true.”
“And now you tell me to leave?”
“I do not mean leave his side forever.”
“Then what?”
“He is not yet ready to bear the Heavenly Killing Star’s destiny. Leave only until he shines more brightly.”
“Shines?”
What did that mean?
Cheongija answered her puzzled question by taking up the cups once more.
“At present this skiff is far too small; all it can do is stop the great ship for a moment. Even that is enough to capsize it if the ship so much as shifts. But what happens if the skiff grows larger?”
From the corner of the table he fetched an empty cup the same size as the one he had called the Heavenly Killing Star and set it beside the small cup.
“It will not topple even if they collide.”
“More than that. Once the skiff grows large enough to hold a star, it can also receive the cargo of other ships.”
He poured every drop of tea from the Heavenly Killing Star’s cup into the empty one.
The ship that carried the destiny of the Heavenly Killing Star.
Transferring that cargo to another vessel surely held meaning.
“You’re saying he can change my destiny?”
The tea inside the cup was not the Heavenly Killing Star—it was Cheon Sohee herself.
“No matter how large the ship of the Heavenly Killing Star becomes, it can never leave the current of the Yangtze. But if she can transfer to the Yeokcheonja’s ship, then yes—she can alter that destiny.”
Cheongija began sliding the cup that now held the tea freely across the tabletop.
A ship that could move wherever it pleased, unlike her own vessel that sailed only toward ruin.
Only by boarding that ship could she finally escape the Heavenly Killing Star’s fate.
Only then could she live as Cheon Sohee.
But to do so she must leave, just as Cheongija said, until the skiff grew large enough.
“Can’t I transfer now?”
Why later? Could she not simply continue traveling with Yunho and walk their shared destiny together?
“You nearly killed him twice by trying.”
Without expression Cheongija began pouring the tea from the large cup into the small one.
The liquid soon overflowed the rim of the little cup.
To Cheon Sohee the spilling tea looked exactly like the blood Yunho had shed a month ago.
“Must I truly leave Yunho’s side?”
“Those who meet must part; those who leave must return. You have already met him and glimpsed the possibility. If you wish to save him—if you wish to change destiny—then this is the time to part.”
What she had gained from meeting him was more than mere possibility.
The thought of Yunho waiting for her even now in the safehouse made her chest ache.
I do not want to leave.
I must leave.
Can I truly part from him? Must I leave for his sake?
With a heart in turmoil, Cheon Sohee could only listen in silence to Cheongija’s words.
A month had passed.
When I first opened my eyes again, roughly ten days had already gone by since the incident ended.
Had I lost too much blood? I thought I had only blacked out for a moment, yet so much time had slipped away.
The one mercy was that my condition was not critical.
The physician who examined me said my internal organs had not been badly damaged; I need only concentrate on recovering.
“This is why you invest in cash items.”
As expected of the Jade Face Bodyguard Art I had trained by pouring money into it. Scars would remain, but the recovery speed was still astonishing.
Of course, not everyone was so fortunate.
Yunho… because of me…
Sohee had gone into full major-criminal mode.
This was the same girl who already blamed herself whenever I got hurt under her watch—and this time she had stabbed me in the gut herself. Even without anyone telling her a sinner should crawl on the ground, guilt had her ready to do exactly that.
I kept comforting her and patching up her mental state, so she was mostly back to normal lately. Still, the moment she tried to apply medicine to my wound she would sink into gloom again, which is why I had been handling the bandages myself for the past few days.
“Thankfully the killing intent has completely vanished.”
Since that day, Sohee’s killing intent had never surged again. She said she could walk anywhere in Daeheung County and feel nothing.
Every problem was solved; once my body recovered fully, we only needed to leave the county.
“Sohee’s late…”
She said she was going out for medicine—why was she taking so long? At this rate Big Brother here was going to turn into Grandfather.
“Yunho. I’m back.”
Looks like Sohee wasn’t a noble lady after all—she walked straight in the moment she found me.
“Sohee, did you get the medicine?”
“Yeah.”
She approached carefully, yet did not sit. Instead she stood looking down at me where I lay on the bed.
Her lips moved faintly as she fidgeted in front of me—the exact habit she showed whenever she had something to say but could not easily spit it out.
“Sohee, if you’ve got something to say, just say it cleanly.”
Anything except asking me to stake my life again.
“Yunho.”
She drew her chin up a fraction, as though she had made up her mind.
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to leave.”