Destiny in the Palm of Your Hand
Cheon Sohee, the heroine of the Murim dating sim.
What the hell is she talking about?
Sohee’s bombshell announcement boiled down to this.
Cheongija had come looking for her. If she kept traveling with him like this, she might try to kill Yunho again. Until he shone brighter, Sohee needed to leave his side.
“Sohee. Do you really have to go?”
I understood the gist of what this Cheongija person had said.
The minimum stats needed to clear Cheon Sohee’s route were still lacking. From the way he talked about shining brighter, he had to mean reputation points.
If I stayed with Sohee as I was, her next rampage would hit long before I ever reached the required reputation. Better for her to leave for a while. That had to be the idea.
“Yunho. To keep from killing you. I have to leave.”
Sohee spoke in clipped fragments, as if she were trying as hard as she could to sound numb.
She was doing her best not to show anything, but to me she looked ready to burst at the lightest poke.
“Sohee. What about you, then? If you get far from Oppa, won’t you lose control of the killing intent again?”
“Cheongija said… during the Seong Family Manor incident, Yunho’s sincerity passed the Yeokcheonja’s energy to me. He said the killing intent wouldn’t surge for a while.”
Sohee lowered her head a little and brushed her fingertips across her lips.
I knew exactly which action she meant. That had that kind of power too? Only possible because this was a dating-sim world, I supposed.
“Then there’s even less reason for you to leave.”
If one kiss settled the killing intent, I could just give her a good smooch whenever she wanted—morning, lunch, dinner, plus snack time. Purely medical, no ulterior motives at all. Tongue included if she asked.
“If we keep traveling together like this, we’ll keep stimulating each other without end. The same thing will happen all over again, he said.”
Sohee shook her head left and right.
Stimulate, huh.
Thinking back, both of her rampages had been my fault.
If simply being near me was guaranteed to keep triggering this, then her decision to leave made a certain amount of sense.
“Sohee. Oppa cares more about your opinion than whatever this Cheongija person said.”
Reasons were only reasons. I wanted to hear Sohee’s true feelings.
“…….”
Sohee bowed her head in silence.
“Sohee. We promised to find the answer together, remember? Oppa doesn’t want to send you away like this.”
This wasn’t like before, when Sohee was going for my throat.
And now that I knew she was a heroine, I had no reason to let her go.
“……I don’t want to leave either.”
Sohee forced the words out as if wringing them from the deepest part of herself.
“Then just don’t leave, Sohee.”
“Then what happens to Yunho?”
Under my continued refusal, her eyes trembled.
“You never meant to kill Oppa on purpose, did you?”
“Yunho. The killing intent inside me is never intentional. It just greedily swallows whatever it wants, whenever it wants.”
Sohee laid a hand over her chest, pointing at the killing intent within. She wore a small smile to fake composure, but the corners of her mouth trembled with unease.
The sight of her looked terribly fragile.
“If we keep looking for the answer…….”
“The first time, it went after Yunho’s life. The second time, it went after Yunho’s life and I stabbed you with my own hands. What about the third time?”
Sohee’s chest shook. The expression she had been forcing into calmness began to crack, and moisture gathered at the corners of her eyes.
“Sohee.”
“That day… I was actually happy. Happy that Yunho came to save me. Happy that you kissed me. But the funny part is… something inside me was happy too, because it got to stab you. And as it gradually faded away, it felt so disappointed. Not because it was disappearing—because it hadn’t managed to kill Yunho.”
Sohee confessed it to me like she was admitting a shameful crime.
“Sohee. That wasn’t you.”
“I know. I want to protect Yunho. I want Yunho to be a Maedamja and me to be your bodyguard. I want us to travel this Central Plains together. Forever. But the thing inside me will keep going for Yunho’s throat. I want to protect you, yet I’ve become the most dangerous person to you in all the Central Plains. Me.”
Her voice trembled as if the emotions surging up were beyond her control.
“Is there truly no way for Oppa not to part with you, Sohee?”
“He said it would be possible if you shone brighter than the Heavenly Killing Star. When I asked what that meant, he said the Yeokcheonja’s renown had to resound throughout the Nine Provinces under Heaven. What even is that supposed to mean?”
Sohee let out a hollow little laugh, as if she had just heard pure nonsense.
Yep, that fortune-teller was the real deal.
Sohee seemed to dismiss it as absurd, but I understood immediately.
I understood—and yet hearing it laid out like that made the goal feel impossibly far away.
How much reputation did I need to shine brighter than the Heavenly Killing Star?
“Is the will of Heaven truly something that cannot be defied after all?”
Sohee opened the window beside the bed where I lay and gazed up at the night sky.
Was she searching for the Heavenly Killing Star itself up there?
As she stared blankly at the heavens, a tear finally welled and fell from one eye.
The first tears I had ever seen from her.
The girl who had never shed a single tear no matter the situation was crumbling before the thought of parting with me.
Do we have to separate for a while?
If it was certain she would keep going for my throat, then yes—a temporary separation was the right call.
When my reputation finally reached the point of completely suppressing Sohee’s killing intent, I could call her back then.
As if I know when that day will come.
This was the Heavenly Killing Star we were talking about. As a devoted reader of martial arts novels, I knew full well how hard it was to rewrite that kind of fate.
I looked at Sohee as she stared blankly at the sky.
Does she think we’ll never meet again?
If she believed she would leave for a while and then return, she wouldn’t be crying like this.
She must think that once she left this time, there would be no guarantee of when—or if—they would reunite.
I have to give her the courage to come back.
So she wouldn’t give up.
So that even if she left, she could return to me as a heroine.
If I couldn’t change her decision, then I had to give her courage.
Cheon Sohee stared blankly at the stars above.
The starlight in the sky shone down on the earth without a care in the world.
Those stars were so indifferent, yet she—who had received even a single thread of that indifferent star’s energy—suffered and suffered under her fate.
The terror of the day she would no longer be herself. The destiny that would drive countless people to their deaths.
On the road toward that catastrophe, she had found hope.
A man who shared the same experiences, who understood her pain, who even shared her past.
With him, she had believed she could walk any thorny path as long as she could look at his face. But—
—He is not yet ready to bear the fate of the Heavenly Killing Star.
She could not walk with him. If she walked with him, someday she would kill him.
Cheon Sohee carefully looked at Yunho sitting on the bed. Yunho, watching her with worried eyes.
To stay by his side, his renown had to resound throughout the Nine Provinces under Heaven. Was it even possible?
She acknowledged Kang Yunho’s gift of the gab, but she had never once heard of a Maedamja whose fame shook the entire land under Heaven.
Where there is meeting, there must be parting; where there is parting, there must be reunion. That was what Cheongija had said. But if she parted with Yunho now, would she ever be able to stand at his side again?
Cheon Sohee could not answer her own question.
“Sohee.”
Kang Yunho pushed himself up from the bed and came toward her.
“Yunho. Stay lying down.”
No matter what Yunho said, she had to leave for his sake. But if he pulled her into his arms, would she still be able to go?
To stop her heart from wavering, Sohee took a half-step back.
Yunho looked at her with a pained expression, then turned his gaze to the sky beyond the window.
“There are so many stars in the sky. They just look like they’re twinkling up there, yet those same stars can twist a person’s life this badly. It’s hard to believe.”
“I guess the fate of the stars is something that can never be overcome after all.”
Sohee spoke in a tone of resignation.
“Fate, huh. That reminds me, Sohee. Oppa learned a bit of palm reading when he was young. Let me see your hand for a second.”
Kang Yunho held out one hand with a completely natural gesture, asking for Sohee’s.
After a brief hesitation, Sohee carefully placed her right hand atop his.
“Looking at this hand… Sohee, you’re fated to love only one man your whole life.”
Yunho glanced at her palm and gave a small snort of laughter.
“You can see that in a hand?”
“Is that all? I can see all sorts of things. Oppa will give you a proper reading.”
Sohee watched blankly as Yunho’s fingers traced the lines of her palm.
A faintly ticklish sensation. He was only reading her palm, yet she felt his affection traveling up through her hand and sinking deep into her chest.
She wanted to keep feeling this forever.
There was not much time left.
Whether he knew her thoughts or not, Yunho began explaining the lines of her palm.
“You’re fated to love one man your whole life, and to marry that man. Looking at the head line, your intelligence is outstanding—nothing will block your learning. Your nature is a bit cold, but once you give your heart to someone, you’re destined to show passion like fire. And looking at the life line… you’re fated to enjoy a long, full life.”
A long, full life, he said.
She was fated to keep killing people until someone finally killed her.
You shouldn’t tell lies like that, Yunho. Sohee shifted her gaze from her hand to Yunho’s face, ready to say exactly that.
“Sohee.”
Yunho was already looking at her with a thoroughly serious expression, as if he had known she would turn to him.
“Yeah.”
“Sohee. You are fated to live a long life.”
Yunho declared it to her as if stating an unshakable truth.
“How could that even be…….”
“That indifferent sky up there doesn’t decide it. It’s written right here on Sohee’s hand. Tell me, Sohee. Is your fate in the sky right now… or is it in this hand?”
As he spoke, Yunho clasped both of her hands in his.
His grip said he would never let go, that she could rest easy.
The sky told her that if she left Yunho she would never meet him again for all eternity.
But this hand said she was fated to enjoy a long life together with him.
There was no reason to hesitate over which one she wanted to believe.
“It’s in this hand.”
“That’s right. Your hand. Not that cold, indifferent sky. Your fate is right here in this hand. So don’t give up.”
“Y-Yunho.”
Sohee’s hands trembled. But Yunho held those trembling hands firmly so they would not shake.
“What hurts Oppa more than the thought that Sohee might kill him is the thought of being separated from you. But you must be just as tormented by the fact that you could put Oppa in danger.”
As if he understood everything, Yunho slowly stroked Sohee’s hair with his free hand.
“I don’t want to leave. But I have to leave for Yunho’s sake.”
Because he was precious, she had to let him go. But if she let him go, she felt she would never again walk the Central Plains at his side.
Accepting that fact felt more bitter to Sohee than accepting the fate of the Heavenly Killing Star.
“All right. If you must leave, then leave. But never forget that your fate is not in the sky—it is in this hand. Grip it tight and never let go.”
“……Then will I be able to come back to Yunho’s side?”
“If Sohee doesn’t give up. If I don’t give up. Absolutely. Oppa will work hard for you too. I’ll make sure my renown resounds throughout the Nine Provinces under Heaven. So promise Oppa you’ll come back to his side.”
Sohee could feel his resolute will flowing from their joined hands straight into her heart.
An impossible-seeming task. And right in front of her was a man declaring he would achieve it—for her sake alone.
For a moment, changing the fate gripped in this hand seemed like a tiny thing compared to what he was about to do.
Yes.
That was why he would become strong enough to hold her.
Only now did Sohee begin to vaguely understand what Cheongija had meant.
If it was this man, it was possible.
If he was her fated benefactor, it was possible.
……If he was the man she loved, it was possible.
“Yunho.”
In that instant, Sohee could no longer contain the overflowing feeling in her chest.
“Hm? Mph—!”
Sohee’s first kiss.
It was the second time, but the first time she had done it of her own will, so she decided this one counted as the first.
Nothing more than lips meeting lips—a butterfly kiss.
It was like the kiss of a baby bird pouring infinite affection toward the one precious being in the whole world.
Her kiss was shy, yet more passionate and earnest than anyone else’s.
“Uh, Sohee?”
After kissing him long enough that he could fully feel her affection, Sohee looked again at the still-dazed Yunho.
Not enough.
It wasn’t enough.
“Do it again.”
Sohee covered Yunho’s lips once more.
Her kiss still had a touch of clumsiness about it, but the love and passion for him contained within it was something no one in the world could ever surpass.
After a long time had passed, the two of them looked at each other with flushed faces.
“Are you going now?”
It was time to part.
If they delayed any longer, they would never be able to separate.
Both Sohee and Yunho understood that.
“Yeah.”
Sohee began etching into her eyes the face she would not see for a long while.
The man who had not given up on her.
As long as he did not give up on her, she would grip her fate tightly and keep moving forward.
So.
She would not say goodbye.
“See you later. Oppa Yunho.”
The one and only in this world.
My fated benefactor.
My childhood friend.
My one and only Oppa.
The person I love.
I will return so I can meet him again.
Cheon Sohee carved into her heart the startled face of Yunho at the word “Oppa,” and vanished from the room before he could even react.
“She only acknowledged me as Oppa right at the very end.”
Hearing the Heavenly Killing Star call me Oppa. It felt better than I expected.
I gave a small snort of laughter and stared for a moment in the direction Sohee had disappeared.
I wouldn’t be able to see her for a while.
But I would see her again soon.
I would make sure we met again.
“Guess I have to get insanely famous.”
I had to become famous. Only then could I meet her again.
Only then could I save her from her fate.
So how was I supposed to do that?
“Looks like it’s time to start writing books again.”
For her future and mine.
It was time to write again.