Back Then, The Truth
"Though originally, it was something I was meant to receive from you."
"That's because you couldn't choose one yourself."
At Hoeyeon's words, Gayul let out a soft laugh.
"That is true enough. Do not truly worry over it — I was merely being a touch petulant."
"Petulant…"
Hoeyeon gently tightened her grip on the hand she held with Gayul.
It was a warm, soft hand.
Ever since meeting Master Yu Eunha, Hoeyeon's hands had grown firm and rough from gripping a sword. Holding something so soft with something so coarse suddenly felt almost improper, and she loosened her grip.
Gayul only squeezed back harder to match.
"What is there to feel so self-conscious about?"
"Can you… read my mind?"
"No? But I do pride myself on being rather able to read your face by now. I have been admiring it every day, after all."
"Admiring, she says…"
Still, Hoeyeon squeezed Gayul's hand firmly once more.
Gayul chuckled softly.
"It truly is a wondrous thing."
"What is?"
"How simply pressing our skin together like this can warm the heart so thoroughly."
"We've pressed together a lot more than that, so what's the big— ow."
Gayul wordlessly squeezed her hand hard in reprimand. It didn't actually hurt, but Hoeyeon pretended it did.
The city streets were full of people strolling about.
Showing affection in front of so many strangers was a little embarrassing — but it also felt good.
When Gayul had said she wanted to walk hand in hand, and had specifically chosen a crowded street to do it on, Hoeyeon now understood exactly what that meant.
It was a different kind of pleasure from flaunting money or some grand possession.
Gayul rested her head against Hoeyeon's shoulder.
"Walking is hard…"
"So, do you hate it?"
"…No."
"I thought as much."
This — this was the feeling of being free, and it felt wonderful.
"You in particular will need to grow accustomed to it."
"…"
"Seeing as it is threefold, after all."
"You already noticed that I figured that out."
"Indeed I did. But I wished to say it aloud regardless, simply to see that reaction of yours."
Gayul laughed under her breath. Watching her face, Hoeyeon said,
"It's been a while — you being the one who teases me."
In the beginning, it had clearly been Gayul who did the teasing, and Hoeyeon who flushed red and got angry.
Back then, neither of them could have imagined ending up like this.
Or… had they really never imagined it at all?
I don't know.
Hoeyeon still remembered the words she had thrown, as a child, up at the bored-looking Blue Emperor looking down on her from the ashes of her ruined hometown.
—Why are you so beautiful?
Words spat out like an accusation, like a protest.
"If I am the one who teases you, does that displease you?"
"It's not that it displeases me… it's just that I end up counterattacking without thinking."
"For instance?"
Gayul, still resting her face against Hoeyeon's shoulder, looked up with a mischievous little smile.
Looking down at Gayul was a novel feeling. It was only a finger or two of height difference, but Hoeyeon was always the one looking up.
So, feeling a little wicked about it, she kissed Gayul on the forehead.
Gayul laughed softly.
"My, I am utterly no match for you."
To Gayul's exaggerated words, Hoeyeon lowered her voice and whispered against her ear.
"I held back because we're on the street."
Gayul scrambled upright in a fluster and covered her reddening ears.
"…Doing that on this street is foul play."
"…Oh-ho."
Apparently, for Gayul — whose ears were a weak point — whispering right against them was hitting a critical vulnerability.
Hoeyeon added a new line to the mental list of things she wanted to try.
"Come to think of it, you said you wanted me to pick out something pretty for you, right?"
Gayul nodded.
"Nothing too large, if you please. So that even should I ever be parted from you, I might carry it always, anywhere, and think of you."
"If that's the idea, I want one too."
"In truth, that is precisely the meaning behind exchanging rings upon marriage — but for now, I would have you gift me something first."
"What would be good?"
"You decide. I shall answer if asked, to a point, but the fretting is yours to do."
"Well then…"
Hoeyeon dismissed the trivial question of what she could possibly choose for someone who had once been able to enjoy any luxury in the world, and simply thought.
If Gayul had merely wanted something pretty, she would have bought it herself. She had far better taste for such things, and the money on hand suited her far better for it.
What Gayul wanted was not that. She wanted something her beloved had fretted over, wondering if it would suit her, chosen while thinking of her.
"Between clothes and accessories, accessories, right?"
"Indeed. Easier to carry about."
"And between something worn on the body, versus something clipped to your things or held in your hand?"
"The former being necklaces and the like, the latter something like a doll? In that case, the former."
"Hmm… then…"
An accessory worn directly on the body…
"A ring… well, there's the whole marriage-ring issue, so let's set that aside for now."
Gayul watched Hoeyeon fretting with the expression of someone gazing at something precious, and squeezed their joined hands.
"Earrings… are out."
"Why so firm about earrings?"
"They get in the way."
"When doing… what, exactly?"
Hoeyeon dodged both the answer and Gayul's gaze, but swallowed hard.
Gayul's body recalled the pleasure of having her ears licked by Hoeyeon and trembled of its own accord. That sensation traveled through their joined hands and reached Hoeyeon as well.
"Come to think of it, there's something I've been curious about."
"W-what is it?"
"When you and I had that match back then — if you'd won, what were you going to ask for?"
In Hoeyeon's memory, Gayul's face from that day — desperate, almost frantic with the need to win — was still vivid.
"…Back then, you mean."
Gayul stammered.
"Must you truly hear it?"
Arang and Yujeong walked the streets together, chatting about nothing in particular.
They had set no topic in advance, simply letting the conversation drift wherever it pleased, the better to learn more about each other.
And it was more enjoyable than either of them had expected.
Both had forgotten it, but Arang and Yujeong alike had spent long years without anyone close to them.
Arang had been revered as a divine beast and a great fox, yet there had been no one with whom she could open her heart and talk about nonsense.
Yujeong had spent years isolated even within her rural village.
For the two of them, this bond of four — including Hoeyeon and Gayul — was all the more precious precisely because there were four of them.
And the same was surely true for Gayul.
"When I pushed through that thicket, a vast lake spread before me — and though it was high summer, great chunks of ice floated in the air."
"Ice floating in the air would be weird even in winter, wouldn't it??"
"But is it not all the more wondrous in summer?"
"Okay, that's fair!"
Just as Arang was recounting the strangest sights she had seen in her travels across the land, a bell rang out to mark the hour. It was the time they had agreed upon to switch.
"Has it already grown so late?"
"That was fun, hehe."
At Yujeong's bright smile, Arang grinned too.
"Well then, I shall be off. Keep Gayul good company."
"Have a good time!"
Waving her hand, Arang thought to herself.
Of them all, Gayul must have been the loneliest.
Hoeyeon's childhood had held one stretch of deep unhappiness, but before that she had had friends in the village, and afterward fellow disciples at the dojo, and later still her own students.
Arang had had companions to run with until she left the Fox-kin city, and even after leaving — though she had made no true friends — she had still dealt with people.
Yujeong had been lonely until recently, but her nature was bright; as a child, and at the dojo, she must have had many friends.
But Gayul?
Born a princess, ascended to the throne, and after the fall of Geon wandered the world alone — had Gayul ever, even once, had something called a friend?
Surely not.
"Honestly…"
Arang clicked her tongue.
When Yujeong's turn with Hoeyeon came last, it would be Arang's turn to spend time alone with Gayul.
"…Maybe I should invite her for tea and a game of janggi… Gayul can play janggi at least, right? Hmm…"
Still fretting, Arang hurried along the road to meet Hoeyeon.
"I had intended to ask for your kiss."
At Gayul's words, Hoeyeon felt a fresh flicker of doubt. A kiss?
"We already kissed back then."
When Gayul had woken in bed after exhausting all her magic, the two of them had kissed right there. The match had definitely come after that.
"…Nnh."
Gayul lowered her head.
It was the reaction she showed when she was truly, deeply embarrassed.
"…Forgive me. That was a lie… The truth is."
"The truth is?"
"The truth is, I had intended to say I wished to spend the night with you."
"…Spend the night."
"………"
"Th-there is no need to look at me like that!"
"No, it's just… we hadn't even confessed yet back then… and you were going to go for that first?"
Remembering Gayul's desperate, almost frantic face from that day, Hoeyeon found herself more incredulous than anything.
"I-I… simply…"
Gayul's voice, still directed at the ground, grew thick with tears.
"I wanted to… know my own feelings…"
"Hah…"
Hoeyeon kissed Gayul's cheek.
"Hic!?"
"The fact that you don't even mean to do this — that it's just your nature — is what's actually terrifying… Are you some kind of enchantress?"
"W-what are you saying…"
There was only so much one could do on a public street, so Hoeyeon kissed her cheek just once more and pulled away.
That figure looking back at her with tear-bright eyes, gently touching the place Hoeyeon's lips had touched.
If those were simply the gestures that came out of her naturally — not calculated seduction at all — then what else could she be but a demoness of pure allure?
No wonder the words I want to devour her like a dog had slipped out of Arang's mouth.
"I knew it. You're the most dangerous one of all…"
Gayul protested something, but Hoeyeon had no intention of listening. She still needed to pick out a gift for Arang before their appointed time.
Hoeyeon stopped in front of a shop selling accessories. Her gaze swept over the displayed wares — and caught on one thing.
Something that drew the eye.