Desire
The innkeeper had been quite clear that the attic room was narrow and small.
"…Well, she wasn't wrong."
It was more than narrow. Lay down two bedrolls, set their packs at the foot, and the room was full. The ceiling sat so low that standing straight meant cracking your skull against the beams.
There was a window, at least, so the breeze came cool, and the price had been dirt cheap—but Gayul had not expected it to be this cramped.
She settled the dead-asleep Hoeyeon onto one of the bedrolls and stood there, fretting.
Should she undress her?
Not for any reason that would color her face. Those thick, cumbersome travel clothes would only keep the fatigue from truly leaving her body. She didn't have to strip her bare—but at the very least, undoing the cords binding the upper and lower garments would let her rest more easily, wouldn't it?
The sword was a problem too. It was still belted at Hoeyeon's waist and lashed down with cord; that, too, would only get in the way of a proper rest.
"Nngh."
Gayul scratched her head and groaned. The sword was not something one touched carelessly, so that could wait. As for the clothes…
"Hoeyeon. Are you asleep?"
"Kuaaah…"
"That is a remarkably strange sound to come out of a human throat."
They had run hard today, and tomorrow they would have to keep moving through the sand. Undressing her entirely might be overstepping—but loosening a few cords? Even if Hoeyeon woke later, she probably wouldn't complain.
"Mm… this one, then."
The outer robe first. The knot sat dead center and was easy enough to spot—except it had been double-tied so tightly there was no angle from which to work it loose from the side.
"Hup."
So Gayul had to plant a knee on either side of the sleeping Hoeyeon's belly and settle her own hips lightly across Hoeyeon's pelvis.
From that position, a firm tug undid the knot. One success.
"And this one… over here, is it?"
The second layer had its knot on the right, which meant leaning in even deeper.
"Tied it rather fiercely, didn't she."
Muttering, she bent forward—and Hoeyeon's face was suddenly right beneath her nose.
"…How lovely."
She meant the skin.
A swordsman spent her days under the blazing sun—running, cutting, running, cutting, swinging. And yet Hoeyeon's skin was white and fine.
She must temper it somewhat with internal energy, but most of it is simply how she was born.
Even that ash-gray hair looked soft.
What would it feel like to sink her fingers into that gray fur?
To comb through it, to stroke it—would it be silk-smooth? Or just faintly rough, the kind of texture that made you want to keep touching?
"Ahem."
Gayul undid the second cord. Below that, there seemed to be no more knots.
"Then… the lower half…"
She reached for the waist-cord of the trousers—and realized Hoeyeon's upper garments had ridden up, baring the skin of her lower belly.
A slender waist. Soft, as a woman's body was soft, yet beneath it would be the springy muscle built through long years of training. And if one were to touch it—what would that feel like?
Gayul's hand closed on the knot at Hoeyeon's waistband.
Her fingers were trembling. As they worked to undo the knot, they brushed bare skin.
Having touched it, she let them glide, just lightly. Soft. The flesh rose and fell with Hoeyeon's even breathing.
Her fingertips traced further.
Up. Down.
A whisper of a stroke. A slow slide.
The knot came free. What lay beneath? Another cord? What waited under this cloth?
Her fingers drifted lower. Was Hoeyeon's skin cool, or were her own fingertips burning? Her breath came short. Her face was hot.
Gayul realized she was lusting.
"Kh—!"
Hot. Her body was hot, her breath was hot, the inside of her chest was hot, the pit of her stomach was hot. Get up. This position was dangerous. Every tiny twitch of Hoeyeon's legs beneath her hips sent a sweet jolt through her.
Thud!
"Ghhhhh…!"
She had forgotten the ceiling was too low to stand upright.
Her skull rang. She couldn't open her eyes properly. At the very least, she had to avoid the catastrophe of driving a knee into Hoeyeon's body as she fell.
The knee she threw out for balance knocked against Hoeyeon's sword.
"Ghk—!"
In the next instant, one of Hoeyeon's hands was locked around Gayul's throat. Why was she looking at the ceiling?
Gayul realized her back was on the floor. And above her, Hoeyeon had one hand crushing her windpipe while the other gripped the sword.
The tip of that blade hung a breath from Gayul's nose.
One more handspan and it would run her through.
"Hoe…yeon."
For the first time, Gayul felt that she might die.
Those gray eyes were cold. No—
They were unfocused.
"Hoeyeon!"
"Huh—!?"
The name forced out past the grip on her throat seemed to drag its owner back to herself.
"Uh…?"
Hoeyeon blinked.
"Huh? Gayul?"
"Your—hand…!"
"Wha—wha—wha!? I'm sorry!"
Hoeyeon yanked her hand away in a panic and shoved the sword back into its sheath. Gayul stayed on her back, coughing hard.
"Are you okay!? Want some water?"
Crawling on her knees toward the packs to dig out a waterskin, Hoeyeon felt her lower garments simply slide off her body.
"Eh."
"Ah."
She had undone the cords, after all. Top and bottom both.
…Sliiiide.
"So when you said sobriety was a matter of courtesy, you meant only that you needed to be sober?"
Gayul felt the shadow of death for a second time.
The next morning, Hoeyeon and Gayul set out on the road again.
Hoeyeon found it awkward to speak, and Gayul found it awkward to speak, so both of them stayed quiet.
Getting drunk in the first place was my fault…
Hoeyeon fretted inwardly.
Of course, if Gayul had actually tried something with her while she was out cold, that would have been Gayul's fault, plain and simple.
But after a little over a week of traveling with her, Hoeyeon was more than certain Gayul was not that kind of person.
Drawing the sword was the same. Gayul hadn't meant to—she'd bumped it by accident—and Hoeyeon had genuinely terrified her for it.
But if someone touches my sword, that's just what happens. Can't help that…
Gayul would know that too. It was common sense that laying hands on a martial artist's weapon could get you killed. Which made apologizing for acting on common sense a rather strange thing to do.
But if I hadn't gotten drunk in the first place, Gayul never would have touched it…
So, summing up: acting on common sense wasn't wrong, but she was sorry for getting drunk enough to put Gayul in a position where that common sense had to kick in? Was that it?
"Ugggggh."
Her head hurt. She'd burned off the hangover with internal energy, but maybe some of it was still hanging around?
"…Are you all right?"
"Uh, yeah… I'm fine."
"Is that so. Good."
"…"
"…"
Awkward. She ought to throw out something—anything.
"This is the road, then?"
"It is."
"They said there are wild beasts, right?"
"What of it? Between you and me—"
"Yeah, figured."
"You will be faster than any beast."
"Ah."
"Hm? Ah…"
"…"
"Mm…"
Crunch, crunch. Crunch, crunch.
"Is this the only way through?"
"Unless one means to go around the mountain, yes. Only one."
"Got it."
"Mm…"
Crunch, crunch. Crunch, crunch.
Hoeyeon drew in a long, slow breath. At this rate her nerves were going to fray clean through.
"I'm sorry."
"Whatever for. I am sorry as well."
All at once, her chest felt lighter. And from the look that flickered across Gayul's face when she snuck a glance, it seemed she wasn't the only one.
"Ah! Before we leave town, let's grab one of those to eat."
"Hm? Dumplings, is it. You already broke your fast—have you room left?"
Not the thin-skinned kind, but big, fluffy buns stuffed with meat filling. A light eater could make a whole meal of one.
"We'll buy one and split it, then."
"'Then,' she says… Very well. Then we shall."
Gayul paid and took the steaming dumpling, breaking it cleanly in half.
"You take the larger piece."
"Huh? You sure?"
"I am chiefly curious how so much of anything fits into that body of yours."
Watching Hoeyeon bite in with a blissful face, Gayul sighed.
"Gotta eat when you can. That way, even if you go hungry later, it doesn't hit as hard."
Hoeyeon said it without thinking—but the words caught Gayul off guard.
It hadn't sounded like something a swordsman short on rations would say. It had sounded like something that had slipped out of a wandering orphan.
She watched Hoeyeon chew for a moment, then realized that if she kept staring she would stare too long, and took a bite of her own half.
"It's good."
"Right?"
Once they left the town behind, the road stretched straight ahead.
Keep going and it would climb into the mountains; crossing those mountains was the fastest way north.
"No bandits around here?"
"Not at present, as far as I am aware."
"Yeah? Too bad. Those guys are pretty lucrative."
"My dear—what, exactly, do you take a bandit gang for…?"
"Hm? Mountain bandits are a solid score. Horse bandits and pirates stash their loot all over the place, but mountain bandits? It's just the one mountain. You can find everything pretty quick."
"I—is that so."
"My master cleaned up a fair amount that way."
"Dare I ask whether the funds that built that dojo were—ah. Never mind. It is nothing."
Walking and jogging by turns, they eventually spotted a crowd gathered at the foot of the mountain. People who needed to cross, and somehow could not.
"What do we do?"
Hoeyeon asked. If they tried to push past at their current pace, they would of course be seen. Someone would try to stop them, and that would cost time and put their faces about for no good reason.
"Want to just run for it?"
"That may be the wiser course. Let us at least get a look from behind first—we still have no idea what manner of beast is out, or how many."
As they drew nearer, the murmur of the crowd grew louder. And mixed in among the talk of how to get past, a strange word kept surfacing.
"A monster, they say…"
Hoeyeon frowned.
Some insisted a monster had snatched people, that they had been taken by a monster—not a mere wild beast—while others refused to believe them.
"Masu…"
"Hm? What did you say?"
"Nothing. Shall we go?"
Gayul hesitated a moment, then nodded.