Then Just Date Already
Ah, whatever. Just start dating already.
"Huh? Wang Seolha...?"
"Young Lord?"
The two of us blurted out equally foolish exclamations, and the vice-commander and the rest of the Flag Bearer Corps tilted their heads in confusion. Amid all that chaos, it was Wang Seolha who came to her senses first.
"Ahem... It's been a while."
It's been a while? Why are you dropping honorifics with me?
Apparently she hadn't fully recovered her composure. Having said that, Wang Seolha strode right up to me.
As I stared blankly into her eyes, she suddenly broke into a playful smile. Then, stroking her hair ornament, she began to lean in closer and closer.
What the hell is this?
When I scowled, Wang Seolha pressed her face right up to my ear and whispered.
'This.'
Tap.
'Is mine again.'
Two years, and she's grown into such a little temptress. She's grown up way too well— no, way too badly.
A brat who's barely come of age is provoking me?
I decided I couldn't just sit here and take it, so I chose to be even bolder. I rested my chin on Wang Seolha's shoulder and whispered right back into her ear.
'You're my slave now.'
"!!!!"
She shoved me away in a panic, her face flushing scarlet, completely lost for words. And no wonder—she'd just been toyed with by a kid younger than her.
'Shouldn't have provoked me first, then.'
My nonchalant reaction must have irritated her even more, because she finally jabbed a finger at me and shouted.
"You just wait! I'll make you cry!"
Wait for what? Why not watch all you want now, and then never look at me again for the rest of your life?
With that, she huffed and puffed, told the vice-commander she was heading back, and marched off without another word.
'Seriously? You're just going to leave like that?'
Wait. What about the rest of the Flag Bearer Corps?
I turned around to find the soldiers whispering among themselves. Curious what they were talking about, I strained my ears—and heard all sorts of nonsense.
"Whoa! Did you see that? So romantic~!"
"Who would have thought the Young Lord and the Commander were in that kind of relationship..."
"Spoken true. Spoken true indeed."
Fucking hell.
My mood soured instantly and I rushed to correct them, but all I got in return was more garbage—things like 'we'll keep it secret' and 'we already know the truth.' In the end, all I could do was heave a sigh and make a hasty retreat from the scene.
The days that followed passed quickly. Compared to training with Moyong Hu, the Flag Bearer Corps' drills felt like children learning martial arts as a form of exercise. Granted, as newcomers, we had to start from the very basics.
In any case, the important thing was that Wang Seolha hadn't shown her face even once during that time. The vice-commander, Wang Ojong, had been showing up in her place every single day, so I figured I wouldn't have to see her for a while.
As I went through my self-directed training with that thought in mind, I felt Wang Ojong glaring at me from far off.
'What now? Why the deathly serious face?'
This feels ominous. Something troublesome is about to happen.
Soon he started hovering around me, shuffling back and forth like a desperate puppy that needed to relieve itself.
He went on like that for a while without saying a word, and it was so stifling I felt like I'd lose my mind. Honestly, why does a guy pace around like that?
Eventually, I spoke first.
"Is something the matter? You've been preoccupied with me since a while ago."
Flinch.
"Ah— well... that is..."
He clearly hadn't expected me to speak first, because Wang Ojong stammered and fumbled. Then, suddenly hardening his face, he asked:
"Is it... true that you and Seolha are lovers?"
Ah, for fuck's sake.
"So... are you and Seolha really together?"
Me and Wang Seolha, together... Well. If it were true, the elders would probably be thrilled. She's the optimal match in terms of legitimacy. But what can I do? It's not true.
"No."
"Eh...? But the rumors say you're dating..."
"Ah, that? It's a false rumor. Totally false."
I waved my hands and denied it vehemently. But Wang Ojong apparently thought I was lying, because he looked at me with narrowed, suspicious eyes.
"You're not hiding a secret relationship, are you?"
"Why on earth would I go through that kind of hassle? If we were dating, we'd be dating. Besides, the rumor's already spread far and wide—what would be the point of hiding it now?"
When I said that much, Wang Ojong finally let out a sigh of relief. Watching a man so obviously lovesick over Wang Seolha, I shook my head. What does he even see in her?
Ordinarily, this is where the conversation should have ended, but having my training interrupted had put me in a slightly foul mood, so I decided to tease him a little.
"Why do you ask, though?"
"!! Th...that's! Well, you see... there were rumors going around, so I just wanted to confirm...?"
"Ah, I see. And here I thought there might be another reason."
"Another reason?"
"Like how you, Vice-Commander, are pining after our Commander."
"......"
Wang Ojong went red and clamped his mouth shut. Oh, he's fallen completely, isn't he? I decided to needle him a bit more. And why not? His reactions were absolutely delightful.
As I was busy teasing Wang Ojong halfway to death, a murmur of voices drifted over from far away. Leaving behind the wreck I'd made of him, I turned my ear toward the sound.
"Did anyone miss training while I was away?"
That's Wang Seolha's voice. Wait, is she actually showing up today?
"Ah... a few members fell ill and couldn't come out."
"Ill? What kind of illness?"
"Well, they say they've got a bit of a fever... and a bit of a cough..."
"And the diagnosis? If they knew they were sick, surely they'd at least know the name of the illness."
"Th...that, we're not quite sure..."
"I will report this matter to the instructors myself."
"Yes?"
Having finished scorching one of her soldiers, Wang Seolha pulled out a brush and a ledger and began writing something at a furious pace. Wondering what she was up to, I poked just my head out from behind the wall.
Sharpening my inner sight, I looked closely—and saw that it was a record of the members who'd skipped training, along with a note that since no diagnosis could be confirmed, punishment was required.
Insane.
No wonder everyone's terrified of her. Sending them off without even verifying anything—truly an impressive woman in many ways. Granted, the men whose names she'd just written down were all ones with poor conduct records.
"And one more thing."
"Yes, ma'am!"
The soldier who'd been reporting moments ago snapped to rigid attention the instant the sick trainees became punishable offenders in one stroke.
"Mujin. Where is he? I don't see him."
Now she's just calling me by name outright? Even two years ago, when she was furious enough to seethe from head to toe, she never once dropped the honorifics with me. And now she's flipped like a switch—it's actually a little chilling.
'She never thought of me as the Young Lord in the first place, did she?'
With a slightly bitter feeling, I looked toward Wang Seolha. It was true that my own past conduct had earned this—but thanks to it, I'd been forced into political maneuvering ever since the enlistment ceremony, a role that didn't suit me at all. No matter how much I planned to slack off, I had no intention of giving up my position as Young Lord.
When I kept peeking out from beside the wall, Wang Ojong, standing behind me, asked:
"What are you doing?"
"Ah. The Commander's looking for me."
At those words, Wang Ojong sulked, clearly wounded that Wang Seolha was calling for me and not for him.
They really are just kids. Our Commander's too busy drunk on her own power to notice anything, and our Vice-Commander is lovesick. What a pair.
I thought to myself that the Flag Bearer Corps was in excellent shape.
"Hey. What are you secretly watching over there?"
"Ah."
Caught spying at last, I was dragged over. When I presented myself before Wang Seolha, she glanced at me sidelong and spoke.
"Why were you watching in secret?"
"I wasn't watching in secret. I was hiding behind a wall and watching openly."
"What kind of logic is that..."
She sighed and beckoned to me.
What now? Is she trying to pick a fight?
"Come with me for a moment."
First she disappears, then she pops up out of nowhere—now what's she scheming? Grumbling to myself, I followed Wang Seolha, and whispers drifted from behind us.
"The Commander's so bold. Not what I expected at all."
"No, I'd say she's exactly as bold as she looks."
"Maybe. Calling her lover out like that in front of everyone, though. My, my..."
"Makes me wonder if she's really the same Commander who banned dating in the corps."
I turned my head, and the soldiers were all dutifully practicing their basic swordsmanship as if nothing had happened. When I looked forward again, Wang Seolha's ears had turned bright red.
And what's wrong with you now?
Walking after her in puzzlement, I found that her footsteps stopped at the Flag Bearer Corps' main hall. She turned to look back at me.
"Inside."
Her expression, as she said it, was more serious than I'd ever seen.
"Why have you come all the way here?"
I'd been led by Wang Seolha into the Commander's chambers. She brewed tea and even poured me a cup. When I gave her a look that said 'did this girl eat something wrong?', she finally spoke.
"Why did we end up being mistaken for lovers?"
What. Why honorifics all of a sudden again? It's honestly terrifying.
"That's because of something you did, no?"
"What did I do—! ...Ah."
She started to raise her voice, then shut her mouth, apparently realizing even to herself that she had no leg to stand on.
"See? You brought it on yourself."
"Still! You were way worse, Young Lord!"
Wang Seolha's face flushed deep crimson, the memory apparently still fresh. And then she said something utterly beyond imagination.
"Take responsibility."
Excuse me? For what?
Confused, I just stared at her blankly, and an exasperated Wang Seolha thumped her own chest as she went on.
"The rumor has already spread through the entire Flag Bearer Corps—no, all the way to the Sasin Pavilion! At this rate, it's bound to reach my father's ears!"
The moment I heard that, I shot back in sheer disbelief.
"Hold on. The people actually involved say it's a misunderstanding—so why is everyone else throwing a fit?"
"Exactly! I fled every time someone asked me about it too—who wouldn't!"
'Wait, what?'
You fled? How is that helpful?
Now I understood how things had gotten this far. Fleeing every time someone asked meant she'd never actually given a proper explanation—which meant everyone naturally assumed she'd simply run off out of embarrassment. A perfect recipe for misunderstanding.
When I spelled that much out for her, Wang Seolha finally grasped how badly she'd mishandled things, her face going hollow with despair.
"Then... what do we do now...?"
"That's what I'd like to know. What do we do, indeed."
This wouldn't end with the two of us simply avoiding each other's faces for the next three or four years. The matter of a political marriage could well come up at a clan assembly.
In short: throwing childish tantrums about how we despised each other wasn't going to stop it.
I racked my brain for a long while over what to do, but neither Wang Seolha nor I had any brilliant stratagem between us.
"Hey."
"Have you thought of a good idea?"
"Not exactly. I was just thinking—why don't we actually just date for real?"
"I'm... sorry?"
"Honestly, I'm tired of denying it over and over. If we actually date, there'd be no need to anymore."
"Even so, how would we just actually date?!"
Wang Seolha's face had gone scarlet as she shouted, but I remained perfectly calm.
"Either way, talk of a political marriage will come up sooner or later, won't it? And the moment it does, it's a straight road from there to our wedding."
"Aaah..."
Ignoring her groan of agony, I rose from my seat. Wang Seolha hastily grabbed at me.
"Where are you going? We haven't decided what to do yet."
"Nothing to decide. It's already decided, one way or another. Short of some twist of heaven keeping marriage off the agenda at the clan assembly, there's no other way out."
With that, I slipped out of the room. Staying here any longer would accomplish precisely nothing.
As Mujin returned to the training grounds and Wang Seolha was left alone, she gritted her teeth.
'He creates this misunderstanding, and then what is this?'
Wang Seolha had assumed Mujin was in love with her. And she had every reason to—he had done what he'd done, after all.
Resting his chin on a woman's shoulder.
For Wang Seolha, who had never once experienced physical contact with a man, an act like that had set her heart racing.
The moment itself—his chin on her shoulder, his lips moving as he murmured directly into her ear. For reasons she couldn't explain, Wang Seolha simply could not get that moment out of her head. Every time she saw Mujin's face, her cheeks would inexplicably flush red.
In the end, she took drastic measures: a full week of not setting foot in the Flag Bearer Corps at all. And perhaps because it worked, her face no longer reddened when she saw Mujin. But after only a few words exchanged, it went strange all over again.
Her face was red even now. She'd assumed it was because she was ashamed that Mujin liked her—but having realized today that wasn't it at all, she had no explanation left.
'Could it be... that I...?'
Uuuu.
Just as she resolved to reclaim her hair ornament and put an end to this insufferable entanglement once and for all, a familiar voice sounded from outside the door.
"Vice-Commander Wang Ojong. May I come in?"
"Ah. Yes, come in."
Creak.
Wang Ojong opened the door, entered, and dropped to one knee. Honestly, it was an excessive gesture, but Wang Ojong had noticed that Wang Seolha liked it, and so for the past year he'd made a habit of kneeling on one knee whenever duty brought him before her.
As if to prove his instincts right, Wang Seolha's face was already brightening into a smile.
"What is it?"
"We've completed all of today's training. And I've submitted the list of those absent due to illness to the instructors."
"Have you? Doing my work on top of your own—you've worked hard. You may return now."
"Ah..."
"? Is there something else to report?"
"Well... the conversation you were having earlier..."
"Earlier?"
Wang Seolha pondered for a moment—then abruptly flushed red. Mujin's face had come to mind yet again. As she stood there dazed, Wang Ojong tilted his head. Seeing his expression, she hurriedly shook her head back and forth and replied.
"We were just... discussing what we ought to do about the future."
"!!!!"
The future? They've already become that close? No, wait—didn't Mujin clearly say they weren't in any kind of relationship...
Convinced he'd been deceived, Wang Ojong lost the focus in his eyes like a man whose soul had departed his body.
The next morning, I strode out to the training grounds feeling as refreshed as ever. Learning basic swordsmanship was deathly boring, but grabbing any senior member at random and inflicting violence disguised as a friendly spar was quite enjoyable.
Except.
'The stares are stronger than yesterday.'
And extremely annoying stares, at that. It's like the look parents give a son who's grown up well. The only problem is, those looks aren't coming from Wang Inho or Cheok Hwaryeon—they're coming from people my own age, or barely a few years older.
Just as I was sensing that something extraordinary was about to unfold yet again, Wang Ojong approached me with an utterly resolute expression on his face.