A Date Among the Cherry Blossoms
"It's a date."
"That? Canceled. The plans have changed."
How very easy that was for her. Well—what was I supposed to do about it?
"But, Master. You said it would be just the two of us. So why did you bring Cecilia?"
I was guilty of it myself.
"There is a reason, you see. Your escort targets were tied to the demons, so that duty is already finished. Mine is not yet..."
My charge had only ever been Cecilia, not the merchant company. The company was under investigation for colluding with the demons, and so the examination could not go on. The disciples might rest through whatever remained of the trial period. I could not.
It had been unavoidable. Hyeon, however, was not inclined to understand.
"Can you not understand...?"
"Didn't you yourself say that in war, one does not listen to such convenient excuses?"
Ah... that was true. But this was not a war, was it? Since when had a date spent playing together become a war? Hyeon? This master of yours isn't quite sure.
"It's a wish I was granted..."
"That..."
"You didn't seem keen on it being just the two of us, so I even called Seol..."
"No—that was because you wanted her there...!"
"You won't even try to understand your disciple's heart, and then you bring another woman along on a date..."
"All right! Next time, it will be just the two of us. I give you my word."
"Yes. Shall we go, then?"
Hyeon. Could you not at least pretend to be reluctantly persuaded? She accepted without a single second's hesitation, as if this had been her aim all along.
"More importantly, Master, where are we going?"
"...Wherever you wish. Let us go."
I answered with a wry smile, and a small debate passed among the disciples. One suggested a nearby park, another the market, and still other places were named. I watched them, smiling faintly. There was a little weariness in it, and a little tenderness.
"Cheon Hwi, where do you want to go?"
In the end they reached no conclusion, and Seol turned the question on me. I narrowed my eyes and looked up at the clear sky.
"If I must choose, somewhere the wind blows would be good."
"The wind?"
"Yes. Not winter. Somewhere a pleasantly warm wind is blowing..."
I stopped all at once. The corner of my mouth lifted.
"I want to play with all of you."
For a moment the disciples caught their breath. For a first date, it was an absurdly ordinary thing to say. The warmth held inside it was simply too great.
"Master..."
Hyeon coughed for no reason at all and turned her face away. Seol, just as needlessly, kicked at the toe of her shoe. Only Cecilia smiled softly, took one step closer, and asked.
"Then what about the mountain? I heard the cherry blossoms and the meadows are beautiful."
"...Good. Let's go!"
Hyeon answered in a bright voice. It was a place the disciples had wanted to visit as well, and the rest of them nodded along without protest. And so the destination was settled, and all of us set out for the mountain nearby.
As we walked the green forest path, the dirt underfoot rustled. Overhead, cherry blossom petals drifted here and there, and beyond the branches birds sang as the wind passed.
"Master! Look here! Aren't the cherry blossoms pretty?"
Hyeon was the first to catch my sleeve and point toward a small hill. Pink petals riding the wind down—it was like a painting.
"Yes. Truly lovely."
I answered shortly and reached out, gently lifting a single petal that had settled in Hyeon's hair. In that instant she opened her eyes round as a startled rabbit, and a heartbeat later her face went red.
I swallowed a laugh, and beside us Seol stepped forward with her arms folded.
"I've got petals stuck on me. Take them off."
"That is... quite a lot of them, isn't it?"
They clung so thickly, and so artificially, that it looked as if she had gathered the petals herself and dropped them onto her head.
"A lot stuck. Take them off."
"Yes. I understand."
I smiled, half incredulous, stroked her hair, and brushed away every cherry blossom petal that was stuck there—no, that had been placed there. A satisfied smile spread over Seol's face as she watched them fall.
Cecilia gazed at the sight for a long moment, then smiled softly. She came quietly to my side.
"You look happy, Cheon Hwi."
"Of course. I am enjoying what I could not enjoy in my past life. How could I not be glad?"
"I'm glad."
"I cannot live like this every day. But a rest like this, now and then, is good."
In my past life I had set far greater meaning on growing stronger, and so I never took a rest like this. In this life, for my disciples' fates—and beyond that, to build a future for all of us—I had thought rest a luxury. But run too hard, and one collapses. A proper rest would let us go farther still.
I was watching my disciples at play, content, when Cecilia laughed softly. She plucked a single cherry blossom and set it gently on my shoulder. The touch was like a blessing being laid upon me.
"Why don't you play with them as well, Cheon Hwi?"
"What business has an old man, shamelessly joining in their play?"
What pleased them, surely, was simply that we had come out together. Playing alongside an old master would not delight them. When I answered with that thought, Cecilia sighed.
"Why do you sigh?"
"It's nothing. Only... I found myself thinking your disciples rather pitiful."
"...?"
I could not see why they should be pitiful, and Cecilia did not answer the question.
"Go and play with your disciples, Cheon Hwi."
"An old man, shamelessly..."
"You've grown young again. That excuse will not do."
With a firm look, she pushed me toward them. Driven forward as if by a hand at my back, I moved my feet and pretended I had lost.
The moment I took one step closer, the disciples traded glances, as if they had been waiting. A strange contest of wills spread over who would seize me first, and who would speak first.
Hyeon stepped out ahead of the rest.
"Master! Would you spar with me?"
"Spar? Since when have you liked such a thing?"
Seol, perhaps. Had Hyeon ever liked sparring? Before she regained her memories, she had been the one most reluctant to cross blades with me. No—not only before she regained her memories. Even in her past life, sparring was the one thing she had never much cared for.
"I think I could match you evenly now."
Her reasoning was, unexpectedly, sound. Our internal energy did not differ by much. In raw muscle alone, Hyeon even had more than I did now. Nor was that all. From the small things—the reach of her arms, the quality of her weapon—Hyeon held the advantage. Spoiled or not, a pike is still a pike; I was still Cheon Hwi. Even so, with a gap like this, a close match ought to be possible.
But is sparring really the game you play with someone you love? What's wrong with sparring? Cross swords for a while and you come to know what the other is thinking. Slip, and you can catch their wrist as if you hadn't meant to, and help set them right. That's how you grow closer.
Hyeon's eyes flashed.
Amusing.
I swallowed a quiet laugh. Sparring. I had never dreamed I would come to view the blossoms and clash steel—and still less that my own disciple would be the one to ask.
"Very well. Let me see how much stronger you have grown."
I accepted the match with a smile. I had been wondering what one was meant to do on a date, and here we were, sparring.
We will never pass for proper gentlefolk.
But perhaps this was all the more a date for people like us.
I faced Hyeon with a sword in one hand. Cherry blossom petals settled on my shoulder in the wind, then scattered the instant they touched the point of the blade.
"Master, how does it feel to hold a sword on a spring day?"
"On a spring day, a wine cup suits better than a blade. Had you not urged me on."
I answered, flicking a petal away with my fingertip.
"We'll drink together later. Today..."
Hyeon moved her feet slowly, drawing a circle.
"Today, I want your hands on me first."
The end of her words trembled, as if she were a little shy. The hand on the sword was sharp. Only her heart spread sweet.
She came in first and struck my blade with hers.
Ting!
Against the force she brought down, the sound of the clash was clear and small, like glass cups meeting.
I don't even need to use my strength...?
I put no force into it at all. I only turned the path of Hyeon's sword.
"Sloppy."
"You're simply too strong, Master."
The gap in experience was far greater than I had thought.
That doesn't mean I'm giving up.
This time her sword slipped in softly toward the nape of my neck. The point was keen, but the movement was smooth as a dance, like wind seeping between petals. Each time the two of us moved, blossoms scattered over the dirt path gathered at our toes and vanished. Each time the swords met, there seemed to be no killing edge at all—only a whisper meant for the two of us.
"You may come a little harder."
I said it low. Hyeon's eyes glinted.
"Then I can catch you, can't I?"
She lowered her sword and pressed lightly on my blade. It was fortunate I was holding the sword still in its scabbard. Otherwise a hand would have been cut.
She knew.
She would never have done it otherwise.
In the brief space while I was slightly startled, Hyeon twisted her foot in, left the sword, and caught the end of my sleeve in her hand. I swallowed a laugh.
"What kind of spar is this?"
"It's a date."
Still holding the sleeve, she smiled faintly.
"Catching you with a sword is too hard, so I caught you with my hand."
"...Haha. Yes. This time, I lose."
I smiled, gently. Hyeon tightened her fingers on the sleeve and wore a satisfied smile, as if she had truly caught her master with her hand instead of a sword.
The wind blew, and cherry blossom petals settled softly over both our shoulders and our hair. Seol, watching from a little way off, curled the corner of her mouth.
"Me too..."
That was the moment.
Shhhk!
From the wind that had been blowing so gently until a moment ago came a sound that should never have been heard.