The Apricot Blossoms That Never Fall
Drip. Drip-drop.
A droplet of water clinging to the ceiling fell, sending ripples across the surface. The moment the water stirred, Yeo-won’s heart lurched violently in her chest.
Her gaze slowly followed the hand reaching toward her until it landed on Shin-wol. He sat there smiling.
Without thinking, her eyes drifted downward. Past those elegant shoulders that contrasted with his firm build, her gaze reached his waist where a massive, throbbing length twitched openly.
The clear, transparent water offered no concealment. Yeo-won whipped her head away.
‘This crazy bastard—he really took everything off!’
She had assumed he would at least leave his underwear on. But no. He was completely, utterly naked.
Her vision spun. Heat surged across her face.
His behavior was so far beyond what her mind could process that she nearly felt nauseated.
“……I’ll step out. You can wash first.”
Yeo-won clutched her dizzy head and rose from her seat. It was easier to avoid him than to try understanding him. She didn’t even have the energy to argue.
Just as her body was about to leave the bath entirely, a languid voice drifted from behind her.
At his words, Yeo-won froze in place. She glanced sideways. He narrowed his eyes and spoke with gentle composure.
He tilted his head back and sank deeper into the water, as if it truly made no difference to him.
She wasn’t foolish enough to miss the true meaning behind those words. On the surface, it sounded like he was respecting her wishes. In truth, he wasn’t. If she walked out now, he would not answer a single one of her questions.
‘Bastard.’
Thinking that, she glared at him with all her might. Shin-wol simply offered a lazy smile, unbothered.
Swallowing the urge to smack him while pretending to be insane, Yeo-won sat back down. She scooted sideways, putting as much distance between them as possible.
Entering the bath fully clothed made the fabric cling unpleasantly to her skin.
She tried to hypnotize herself into believing this was just a swimming pool and organized the questions she wanted to ask in her head—when a beautiful voice reached her from the side.
“……You may not know this, but these days people sometimes bathe fully dressed,” Yeo-won replied without looking at him. Her defiant tone drew a low chuckle from him.
Was it her imagination, or did his voice carry a trace of bitterness? Yeo-won gazed at the apricot tree outside the window and let out a long, frustrated breath.
Perhaps it was the heat of the bath, but her mind kept growing hazy. She blinked slowly, and a single petal fluttered toward her like a butterfly.
More petals kept drifting in through the space above the glass window.
While staring at the small apricot tree, Yeo-won suddenly felt curious.
“You must really like apricot blossoms.”
They were in his garden and here as well. If she looked, she would probably find even more. Whose preference was it? Shin-wol’s? Or that girl named Mun-a?
She hadn’t asked expecting an answer, yet an unexpected one came.
Then it must be that child’s preference. Yeo-won stared at the flowers with a detached expression. Her eyes kept drooping, so she scooped water into her hands and splashed it on her face. A voice came from beside her.
“Apricot blossoms? Ah, you mean the flowers…… Well, all flowers look pretty much the same to me.”
After saying that, Yeo-won let out a small “Ah!” and continued.
“But I do like apricots. They’re delicious.”
When the pink flowers fell, small round fruits would grow in their place.
Yeo-won liked the fruit far more than the flowers.
After waiting a month or two, the green fruit would ripen to yellow. Then her grandfather would climb a ladder, pick them, and hand them down to her.
Freshly picked apricots were slightly sour and a little bitter.
It wasn’t exactly a child’s favorite treat, but she would finish an entire basket because she loved her grandfather’s smiling face.
Later, when her grandmother scolded him for letting her eat even the ones meant for pickling, her grandfather would laugh and say, “She eats them so well—how could I not give her any?”
Suddenly thinking of her grandfather made her heart ache. Rubbing her stinging nose, Yeo-won murmured.
“That apricot tree outside…… the flowers never fall from it, do they? It’s a shame we can’t see the fruit……”
At those words, all warmth vanished from Shin-wol’s face. Her back overlapped completely with Mun-a from that day.
The child who preferred fruit over flowers. The child who had laughed so innocently in the clover field.
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Shin-wol…… Please, please just……’
The girl who had wept as she drove a knife into her own heart flickered before his eyes.
He ground his teeth. As his emotions surged, the fangs he usually kept hidden were revealed.
Shin-wol reached toward Yeo-won. Black mist began to rise slowly from his fingertips.
The slender line of her neck was visible above her blouse.
In that brief moment, countless thoughts swirled through his mind.
It was utterly repulsive. That face so like the child’s, that voice, even her tastes—everything.
Would killing her make it easier? Could he escape her lingering shadow?
It would be simple. Just snap her neck or plunge his hand into that small back and rip out her heart. That would be the end of it.
After all, once he drained all her spiritual energy, she would die anyway.
So wouldn’t it be better to kill her now, while he had something to vent his rage upon?
The black mist born at his fingertips slowly filled the bath.
The air grew so cold that the water droplets falling from the ceiling froze in midair.
The water surrounding his body crackled and froze in an instant. The ice was just about to reach Yeo-won.
“But seeing it like this today, watching the flowers as decoration isn’t so bad. They fall in the blink of an eye anyway.”
At her softly murmured words, Shin-wol’s hand stopped in the air.
Just a little more. Just one twitch of a finger. That was all it would take. Yet at the sound of her powerless voice, that intention scattered like mist.
The black fog that had reached the nape of her neck slowly retreated back into his body.
He frowned in a daze and laughed sharply.
Instead, he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into his arms. Yeo-won, suddenly yanked forward, squirmed and protested, but it didn’t reach his ears.
The warmth felt through the thin fabric was gentle. It was a warmth one could never feel from the dead.
Yeo-won gave up and let out a deep sigh, straightening her posture. Shin-wol rubbed his face against the nape of her neck. A sweet body scent rose from her heated skin.
Yeo-won answered with an awkward expression.
“No, you don’t have to go that far……”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her even tighter. An awkward silence fell. Yeo-won lowered her head with a heavy heart.
Sometimes he spoke in a voice filled with such pain.
It had been the same when she visited his quarters, and it was the same now.
What exactly had happened between him and that girl to make him like this? She didn’t want to know, yet at the same time she was curious.
Even in the dream, the two of them had seemed so close that no one could come between them.
It was too vague to call them lovers, yet too tender to call them family.
What had that girl been to Shin-wol that he suffered this much?
Even after being betrayed by her.
She wanted to ask him. Why he kept her alive instead of killing her.
In truth, she already knew the answer without hearing it.
It was because she was that girl’s descendant.
Nothing more, nothing less than the fact that his fox marble resided inside her body.
At that realization, Yeo-won felt a faint pang in her chest.
To ignore the strangely throbbing feeling in her heart, she squirmed.
“Let go of me. I’ve been in the bath too long—I think I’m getting dizzy.”
[…….]
The arm wrapped around her waist was as solid as iron chains. But Yeo-won couldn’t back down either.
If she stayed any longer, she really might collapse.
Her mind was already so hazy she felt like she was losing it. Yeo-won grabbed the arm inside the bath and tugged at it, whining.
When it refused to budge, she clicked her tongue and grumbled.
“Keep this up and I’ll really pass out from dizziness. All that useless strength……”
[…….]
She felt his gaze from the side. Shin-wol had his face resting on her shoulder, blinking slowly.
“Ah, that was just me talking to myself. But could you let go now? Or are you waiting for me to faint?”
“I do know it.”
“Only if you let go.”
Yeo-won was still struggling to pry his hand away. No, this wasn’t even a rock—it wouldn’t budge at all.
Knowing it was pointless, she kept tugging out of sheer stubbornness. Then, at that moment, his hand finally released her.
Her joy lasted only a second. His hand began to move again—slowly. One hand cupped her chin while the other slipped between her thighs, sliding toward the space between her legs.
Something pressed against the small of her back.
Throb. Throb.
The sensation of that hot, enormous flesh nudging her like a knock at the door made Yeo-won’s hunched back straighten instantly.