Predator and Prey
The entrance to the Sacred Light Festival was strung thick with lanterns, their glow spilling down over the streets below. The moment they stepped in through one of the many gates, Cheon Yujin had darted straight to a shop right beside the entrance and impulsively bought a candy.
And now she felt wronged.
Wronged, and so very wronged.
The lanterns came in shapes so unusual they recalled the skies of Murim, where nature lay untouched and the Milky Way and starlight shone clean and clear. Even with the Gates open, this night sky glittered with artificial satellites and magic satellites instead of stars — so the lanterns had taken the stars' place. And, as if matched to those lanterns, there was planet-shaped candy.
Not just any candy: a giant sphere bigger than her fist, glittering in the shape not of a mere star but of a full planet...!
It wasn't fluorescent. It wasn't catching the light. It glowed all on its own. How was anyone supposed to resist that?
It was a little embarrassing that she'd caved the instant they walked in, sure — but falling for the candy itself was not embarrassing at all. In any case, it wasn't...! This wasn't the weakness of some clueless infant. Even a cultured, intellectual adult — someone like herself — no, especially someone like herself... in any case, resisting this would have been impossible...!!!
Besides, this was nothing less than planet-shaped candy. Shouldn't a man, by rights, lose his mind for space, rockets, and planets? So boldly, cosmically inhaling candy like this was the very image of a true hero...! The kind of heroic spirit that would make the heroes and chivalrous warriors of Murim slam down the roast duck and bamboo-leaf liquor they'd been marveling over and leap to their feet!
In any case. In any case, that was how it was...!
"........."
A sidelong glance. Another sidelong glance. She'd sneaked a look at the spot beside her, gauging the mood, and found Namgung Yurin's eyes subtly stiffened. The moment she saw that look, Cheon Yujin had poured out this long-winded internal excuse, to no one in particular.
"Th-this is all a misunderstandihng...!"
In any case, she had no choice but to insist it was a misunderstanding.
Then — with a slow, syrupy slide.
The remains of the planet-shaped candy she'd been licking, gnawing, and biting into were smeared around her mouth, and because she'd just moved her lips, the colors of the cosmos slid slowly down her cheek and chin.
"..........."
"..........."
The crimson-eyed girl silently turned her head away and wiped the sugary grease from her mouth.
"......sniff."
Namgung Yurin's gaze, fixed on her in silence with that subtle look since earlier, was far too piercing.... If anything, it was a mercy that Bukgung Seol wasn't here. For some reason, Namgung Yurin hadn't called Bukgung Seol — who, like her, was always tagging along at Cheon Yujin's side — and had come to the Sacred Light Festival with just the two of them.
Ah. Not just the two of us, actually.
A beauty who looked to be in her early twenties, with foxlike features and flowing black hair draped over one eye. A cheater who, thanks to being a powerful Awakened, kept the body of her prime even though she was nearly thirty. Her idiot middle-school-dropout little sister, Cheon Se-ah.
Just as Cheon Yujin had predicted from the start, the moment word of the festival trip got out... Cheon Se-ah had latched on under the pretext of being a guardian.
And come to think of it, Namgung Yurin's gaze wasn't the only one in this place...! Cheon Se-ah had been standing right behind her, hand resting on her big brother's crown. Feeling the candy still refusing to leave her hand sway sweetly even now, Cheon Yujin turned her creaking neck to look up at Cheon Se-ah.
".........?"
She found herself tilting her head without meaning to. Cheon Se-ah wore an equally subtle expression — but her gaze wasn't aimed at the crimson-eyed girl. It was fixed on the dyed-haired girl standing in front of her.
Namgung Yurin, with zero intention of hiding her delinquent look, stood leaning her weight on one long leg. Cheon Se-ah, who had to lift her chin slightly just to meet her eyes, felt her brows twitch. More than ten years apart in age — but the overly tall Namgung Yurin's line of sight sat a little higher.
Only then did Cheon Yujin realize. She'd grown so used to the downward stares this cursed body earned her that she hadn't noticed... that look just now hadn't been aimed at her at all...!
The group had gathered at the entrance, just now joining up. And Cheon Se-ah and Namgung Yurin had been staring at each other and only each other since earlier... with looks carrying some subtle emotion Cheon Yujin couldn't begin to understand.
"...You're Namgung Yurin, right? Same class as Yujin — the one who invited her to the festival."
"Yes, hi. Jjin... Yujin told me beforehand. That her cousin would be coming along."
Officially, they were cousins. To keep the cover story intact, Cheon Yujin had told Namgung Yurin as much in advance.
Cheon Se-ah smiled. Seeing that smile, Namgung Yurin smiled too.
"Hehe, is that so?"
"Yes, haha."
"Nice to meet you, hehe."
"Haha."
Cheon Yujin blinked her crimson eyes, wide and slow. What was with this atmosphere? And what was with that awkward tone — a machine would have sounded more human? And that dry laughter, so unlike her usual self... hearing it sent a chill crawling up her spine.
Cheon Yujin was one to talk, always whining that Bonjwa's sensibilities had withered away to nothing. But that tone and that laughter weren't just dry — they recalled the withering wind that had swept the wasteland where the two great powers of Murim once fought their final battle....
In that atmosphere, Namgung Yurin thought.
We were supposed to come alone, just the two of us...
She wasn't seven. What kind of guardian tags along when you're seventeen? And not even a real sister — some cousin out of nowhere? She'd barely managed to hold back Bukgung Seol — whose squishy cheeks were every bit as bouncy as Cheon Yujin's — from coming along too.... She'd carved out time alone with Cheon Yujin, and now this.
I hate a cousin crashing friend time...!
And so Namgung Yurin's gaze could not, would not soften.
Cheon Se-ah... was hiding the sense of threat she felt behind a stiff expression. No matter that it was for her big brother's safety — wedging herself between Cheon Yujin and her friend was honestly embarrassing. Compared to the threat she was feeling right now, though, it was nothing...!
Th-this girl...
That seductive catlike face. That dyed hair, on a girl who looked ready any second to fold her middle and index fingers, stick out her pierced tongue, and grin. Not tanned exactly, but her skin carried a subtle darker sheen. She looked ready to go Uhyooo, throw an arm around Cheon Yujin's shoulders, and vanish into the far end of the festival...!!!
The way she stood beside Cheon Yujin looked, no matter how you looked at it, less like friendship and more like predator and prey. Cat and pet rat. It was impossible not to picture a cat with a rat held in its paws, licking it once with its tongue.
And above all.
Th-that expression — that one right there!
The expression Namgung Yurin wore when looking at Cheon Yujin. Most of the time it was that contented, happy look she gave her big brother — the one she fussed over and dragged around everywhere. But sometimes... just sometimes... it was the expression Cheon Se-ah herself used to wear as a child, every time she looked up at her dependable big brother Cheon Yujin. That look brimming with longing, admiration, and affection — the exclusive property of a little sister — would surface on Namgung Yurin's face!
When she saw that expression — so alike it stirred something like nostalgia — Cheon Se-ah had no choice but to feel crisis and menace at once. The little sister of Cheon Yujin... was her, and her alone! Her possessiveness, already faintly present since childhood... had exploded in a strange direction ever since Rachel's confession.
"Well... thank you for inviting 'our Yujin,' Yurin. Really."
"Oh no, it's nothing. I just wanted to have fun with 'our Jjin,' just the 'two of us.' Nothing to thank me for."
"What a wonderful friend. I don't know if I should say I'm relieved 'our Yujin' has a friend like you..."
Cheon Se-ah let her words trail off, and gently stroked the forehead of the crimson-eyed girl, who'd been watching their exchange in a daze.
"'Our Yujin' never tells me anything about school... I had no idea she had a friend like you, Yurin. Why wouldn't she mention it, hehe."
"She's never mentioned me? Well, that can happen. I've got an older sister too, and, well... it's a little embarrassing to go around saying who your best friend is. And there's no rule saying you have to tell your sister about your best friend..."
Namgung Yurin shrugged.
"My sister at home's the same way. Whenever I go to a festival like this, she keeps trying to tag along — maybe because she doesn't have a single friend? When your sister crashes a friends-only outing, it's embarrassing, you know? Embarrassing for her too. It'd be weirder if it weren't. Right?"
"Hehehe...... I suppose so?"
"Ahaha...... right? Looks like she really doesn't have a single friend. Honestly, my sister. I'm embarrassed on her behalf, ahaha."
"Hehehehehe......"
Crick. Crick-crick.
A strange sound of something fracturing — one that ordinary people, and even most Awakened, couldn't have detected.
"H-hooogeeaah..."
Her Forged Blood Art had long since left most Awakened in the dust of yesteryear. Cheon Yujin trembled like a leaf. Greatest Demon Under Heaven, Blood Demon, whatever — her legs shook with pure terror. Her qi sense, sharpened as the Forged Blood Art advanced, let her read the flow of mana around her with perfect clarity.
Because the ripple of the barrier wrapped around her body — the amplitude of the tremor was tiny, but that shaking churned as if an earthquake had struck...! Especially... the grip of the hand gently stroking her forehead... it was gathering monstrous force, as if unleashing the full form of the Dragon Claw Hand....
Then Namgung Yurin swept back her bleached hair and offered a handshake with her other hand.
"Well... since it's come to this, let's have a good day together, shall we?"
『Kyaaaoong...!』
"Yurin... what an interesting friend. Let's have a good day... shall we?"
『Foxooooo—』
Cheon Yujin saw it. Behind the two shaking hands, strange phantom images were rising up. The hunting cat of the Namgung clan. The brother-obsessed fox. Two beasts that looked, beneath their different exteriors, fundamentally identical in nature, shook hands.
"......squeak, squeak-squeak."
With a smooth slide, Cheon Yujin brought the Hypocrite's Gentleman Steps to full power, its silver stealth art carrying her into light-footed movement. With a mobile-prison barrier around her, her position would be tracked wherever she went — running away was impossible. But for a martial artist, there are moments when you must challenge a fight you cannot win....