The Fiancée's Morning Drama
Sunlight slipping through the window tickled Soye's eyes. The nagging little sensation drew her up out of sleep, and she slowly pushed herself upright. When she turned her head, the man she loved most in the world lay there, dead to the world.
His face, given over to a sleep so carefree it bordered on foolish, had gone utterly slack. But Soye was long past the point of seeing him clearly. To eyes already wrapped in love, even that looked adorable.
"Honestly... how is a person allowed to be this cute? It's cheating."
In the bedchamber that belonged to the two of them alone, where no one else could hear, she gushed under her breath and carefully stroked her fiancé's hair. Living beside him, she had come to know him piece by piece — his habits, his little quirks, and even the fact that he grew lonely far more easily than she had ever expected. A few days ago she had been told something more shocking still.
Foolish man... You were that afraid...
Even she, composed as she was, had been unable to escape the shock of hearing it the first time. But the moment she saw him shaking with fear as he offered her the truth, none of it mattered anymore. Watching him dread that she might turn him away, she understood that he truly loved her. Her heart pounded, and a feeling too large for words welled up until it nearly overflowed. Who he had once been no longer mattered to her at all.
At the words that slipped from Soye's lips, a small smile touched the mouth of the lover lying beside her. His breathing and his pulse stayed perfectly even, so he had not woken. He was only dreaming something sweet.
So in the end, just as people say, a first love never comes true.
But that no longer mattered. She loved this person far more.
She had been content simply to gaze at the lover sleeping at her side, but at last she woke him. Left to her own heart, she would have gone on watching him sleep just like this — yet if they lingered any longer, they would never depart on time.
"Wake up, Gaga."
"Mm..."
She kissed the fiancé who was fussing about not wanting to rise, and said, "Today's the day we leave for Hubei."
"All right. I'll get up..."
Rubbing his eyes, he dragged himself upright and looked at the Soye waiting in front of him.
"Good morning."
"Good morning."
Awake at last, Muwon offered the greeting and kissed her. Soye did not refuse her lover's affection — and then she shook the fiancé who was already trying to sink back into sleep.
"Tsk. You were about to go back to sleep, weren't you?"
"Uuugh..."
"Go wash your face and come back properly awake."
"Okay. Come with me."
She took the hand of Jin Muwon as he hauled himself to his feet, and thought that she wished this moment could last forever.
Two hours later, at the main gate of the Tang Clan.
The clan lord approached the two of them as they prepared to set out for Hubei Province, there to deliver a letter to the leader of the Murim Alliance.
"Are your preparations finished?"
"Yes. We only need to deliver the letter, so there wasn't much to pack."
It really was nothing more than carrying a letter, and the bundles Soye and I carried were light — travel money, and a spare change of clothes. That was about the whole of it.
"And you, Soye?"
"Yes, Clan Lord."
It struck me only now, belatedly, but every time I watched Soye and the clan lord speak, the air felt hard to breathe. They were father and daughter by adoption, so I had never expected the ease of blood kin — and yet their relationship felt colder than it needed to be. More precisely, it seemed the clan lord wanted to draw nearer, and Soye was the one holding the line.
"Well. Knowing you, I'm sure you handled everything properly."
"..."
"Then I'll leave our Soye in your care."
"Don't worry. I'll protect her even if it costs me my life."
"Then be on your way."
"Yes!"
Seen off by the clan lord, Soye and I turned our steps toward Hubei Province, where the Murim Alliance stood.
The road ran on toward Hubei. By the time that vast Tang estate had dwindled small enough for even my hand to hide it, I put to Soye the question that had been growing in me all the while.
"Hey, Soye. Mind if I ask you something?"
"Of course. If it's you, Gaga, you don't have to stop at one."
"Thanks. I'll save the rest and ask them slowly, as we live."
"That's fine too. So what has our Gaga so curious?"
"The clan lord."
At the name, sprung on her without warning, Soye flinched. A moment later her bright expression was back in place.
"What about the Clan Lord?"
"If it's a sensitive subject, you don't have to force yourself to tell me."
"No. I was only startled because the question came out of nowhere."
"Yeah? Then that's a relief, but..."
"A-anyway, what about the Clan Lord?"
Her tone said something had struck a nerve.
"I just thought the two of you didn't seem to get along."
"M-me? The Clan Lord and I don't even have any real conflict."
"Not quite that. How do I put it? It feels like he wants to be closer to you, and you're the one drawing a line."
"Th-that's..."
She kept her mouth shut for a long while, as if I had struck the heart of it, and I was just beginning to wish I had held my tongue when she spoke.
"Does it look awkward to you too, Gaga? The Clan Lord and me...?"
"I'm sorry, but I think it would be harder not to notice."
"Haa... Is that so..."
Soye let out a long sigh. Then, as if she had made up her mind, her face set with resolve, and she looked at me and began.
"It isn't that I dislike the Clan Lord... I just don't know how I'm supposed to face him..."
"Then you don't need to refuse him like that, do you?"
"That's... haa... Gaga, have you ever heard anything about how I was born?"
"No? I only heard you were from a branch of the Tang Clan."
"The truth is, I don't have a father. My mother had me unmarried."
The sudden confession threw me, but I could hardly take the question back now. I set my face and quietly gave her my full attention. And come to think of it — Soye's mother. I hadn't even seen her at the engagement ceremony.
"When Mother was pregnant, the clan was turned upside down, and there was even talk of casting her out."
"..."
"And the one who stopped them from banishing her was the Tang Clan Lord."
"Soye..."
"When that was all I knew, I was truly grateful. And with good reason. You can't use internal energy while you're pregnant. If Mother had been driven out as she was, she would have met a cruel fate. I don't know what would have become of me, either."
Soye sank into thought, then forced the next words out.
"But... the year I turned twenty, Mother told me about my father."
Before the words that mattered, she drew a long breath. Anyone who had watched their share of Korean dramas knew this kind of buildup, and the precise beat where the line was meant to break — and without meaning to, I held my breath.
N-no. It couldn't be.
But contrary to what I hoped, what Soye said was not hope. It was the truth.
Thinking back, it had been strange all along. However exceptional the talent, a collateral branch was still a collateral branch. By any common sense, taking her in as an adopted child and letting her learn the martial arts of the direct line made no sense at all. And now that Tang Pung had lost his place as young clan head, she had gained the very same right to rise as clan lord. This was not the twenty-first century. I had never quite understood why the murim — so sensitive about blood and succession — would make so radical a move. But if Soye was the clan lord's true daughter by blood, the story changed.
"I... I see..."
"Honestly— no. It was a terrible shock. He was someone I respected. He always looked after me and helped me in so many ways..."
"Of course he was."
"After I heard that the Clan Lord was my real father, those kindnesses— no. I was angry at the Clan Lord himself."
"Soye..."
"Because whatever his reasons, it doesn't change the fact that he abandoned Mother and me."
I could guess at the shape of it. Judging by Tang Pung's age, the clan lord of that time would already have been a married man with a household of his own. And in that situation, he must have been involved with Soye's mother and conceived her.
The bond set down in the family register between Soye and the clan lord was clearly that of ninth-degree kin. Which meant the clan lord and Soye's mother would have been eighth-degree kin — third cousins — who had come together as if married.
Eighth-degree kin. In the modern age it was a closeness hardly anyone bothered about, but this was the murim, where Confucian propriety ran to the bone. The elders would have frothed at the mouth to reject any bond between Soye's mother and the clan lord.
"Of course I know he made that choice to protect Mother and me. But... but..."
Unable to tell whether she liked the clan lord or hated him, Soye let the words trail away. Even I would have found it hard to forgive. And yet, sorry as I was to her, I could understand his position to some extent. If the clan lord and Soye's mother had made their relationship public, an even worse future might have fallen on Soye and her mother both. That did not make what he had done any easier for Soye to forgive. But if my guess was right...
"Even so, Soye — you want to be close to the Clan Lord, don't you?"
"...Yes."
If she had truly wanted to draw a hard line, there were any number of ways to do it. She could have shut him out for good. That she still had not meant she did not really want to push him away.
"The truth is, I... I wanted a father too. I wanted to be with both my parents, like everyone else."
"Soye."
"..."
She could not get another word out. She stopped where she stood and leaned into me.
"Gaga... what am I... what am I supposed to do...?"
And that was all. A quiet question, offered only to me.