episode_0024

next day.

Ja-young went to cut the grass on the mountain behind and found wild flowers blooming. I thought that the flowers that had just sprouted from their buds, shyly sticking out their petals, resembled a young lady. I thought that the white petals and the timid red color were very similar to the young lady.

So, during her break time, Jayoung secretly picked up a sickle and cut down the flowers.

I wanted to gather a lot of flowers to make a bouquet, but it was impossible for him, as a servant, to take a bunch of flowers with him, so he selected only a few of the prettiest flowers and put them in his pocket.

The disciple of the clan who came out to watch over the servants was sleeping in the shade, while the other servants were busy eating the rice balls they had brought as snacks or chatting.

Jayoung sneaked back among them and joined in the chatter.

“So, what were you talking about?”

One of the attendants said while chewing grass.

“No, Ja-young. You say it once. Even if our Master Moon can’t enter the old room, isn’t he enough to step right under the Oh Daese? I saw our Master Moon fighting the other day, huh? That ring-like thing was flying so brightly that people’s bodies fell off? I don’t know much about martial arts, but I got there with my own strength. Still, won’t the five generations go next? Our Moonju.”

The other servant shook his head stubbornly and said:

“Hey, what about the Odaese family? There is a rich man who lives near Mt. Jongnam, and I went there not long ago because my Lord Moon was talking about some kind of business there. Our Lord Mun couldn’t move even from the martial people standing there to guard him. It’s not about the five generations, but it’s not even below them.”

“Isn’t that guy a fearsome expert? You say you have a lot of money?”

“Do you guys understand? The name is so difficult that even an illiterate person should be able to memorize it. Anyway, Jayoung. What do you think? Our Lord Mun is of the lower five generations. No?”

“….Still, our Lord Mun has his own sect, so isn’t he quite capable?”

When men get together, they end up talking about who is stronger. Jayoung spent the rest of the time sitting around with her attendants discussing this topic.

“Does that make sense!”

While they were talking, someone hit Jayoung’s thigh.

“No, that could really be the case? What is our Moonju? Want to improve? You’re a person full of those things!”

Jayoung was immersed in the story and pressed her legs and moved them around.

Meanwhile, the flower I put in my pocket lost its shape and was ruined.

******

On the way back from cutting the grass.

As the other servants rushed to the lodgings and laid down on the bed without even knowing who was first, Jayoung pulled out a few flowers she had stored in her pocket.

“Oh my… .”

The damaged flower shape didn’t look pretty to him, but Jayoung decided to show him at least this.

Everyone is bound to have arrogance.

Jayoung was also a young man who purely wanted to be with her.

If she couldn’t walk, she would be happy just by looking at the shape of a flower.

He was also a man who developed a strange arrogance in his heart, thinking that people would like it because he gave it to him.

At the end of the day, everyone became undisciplined and did not pay attention to where the servant went alone.

Ja-young succeeded in going to the front of the building where Seon Seon lived, avoiding people’s eyes, and secretly called her in front of Seon Seon’s door.

“Lady. Miss.”

How many times did I call you in an urgent tone? The door was opened carefully, and a tired-looking Sensei appeared from inside the door. She blinked, checked Jayoung, and spoke in a weak voice.

“…What’s wrong?”

“I, I, want to give this to you… .”

Jayoung said that and held out a flower. I sat down while working, and the flower shape was disorganized because I was busy moving around. The crushed shape, which looked like it would be better put on the table and eaten as a side dish rather than given as a gift to someone, made the sentence a little embarrassing.

She realized a beat later that it was a flower and nodded awkwardly.

“Ah, it’s a flower.”

“Yes. that… . While I was working, I thought about you. Well, I wanted you to see it… .”

As Ja-young said that, she glanced at Seon-jung’s gaze. Seonjong only looked at Jayoung’s hand and the flower with a subtle expression, but did not seem moved.

“….Please leave it here in front.”

Normally, I might have been moved by his behavior like this. But now she was in a bad mood after her intense first night yesterday. My back throbbed every time I moved, and the feeling of a foreign body still lingered in my lower abdomen.

Jayoung’s visit was a bit burdensome to her now.

She didn’t want Jayoung to come and notice her abnormality, call someone or make a fuss. So she reacted more calmly and distantly than usual.

“Ah, yes… .”

Jayoung nodded at her cool reaction and carefully placed the flower.

The flowers left on the floor looked even more shabby.

Jayoung put down the flowers, scratched her head and spoke carefully.

“Well, maybe you’re a lady… . If you’re not feeling well… .”

“….It’s okay.”

Senseon smiled and said that.

“But… .”

“….It’s okay. Jayoung.”

Jayoung tried to say something more, but he sensed a line in her smiling face and backed away. This was not the line he felt as a man. As a subordinate, Ja-young felt an instinctive sense that she should not go against her superiors, so she bowed down and took a step back.

Ironically, although this was the image that Seong Seon wanted, it also brought him a strange sense of disappointment. The moment Ja-young, who was always free and willing to do anything for herself, showed her limitations as a man, the pure image of Ja-young that she had developed within her was distorted and falling apart.

Ja-young couldn’t say anything and turned around and walked away, and Seong-seon looked at the flowers Ja-young had left in silence and exhaled. It’s not pretty, and there’s no place to decorate it.

The man will come again at night, and it’s hard to explain if he’s holding a flower like this.

She reached out her hand and carefully pushed the flower.

The moment a flower falls on the floor.

What is the sentence? I heard the sound of falling.

******

Night has come.

Senseon was covering himself with a blanket and looking at the sky. The man never said exactly when he would come, but he always came around the time the moon rose and disappeared before the rooster crowed at dawn.

The man who called himself Docheol. It will come again today and crush you.

In the name of husband and wife, they will take and take themselves mercilessly.

The sentence was intended to beg him to bear with it for today.

I wasn’t feeling well and I still had a feeling of a foreign body in my lower body. I thought I would be fine after a day of rest, so I hoped I would just endure it for today.

“Enter.”

As if calling the name would bring out a ghost, there was a knock on the door. The shadow beyond the moonlight created the shape of Docheol. Senseon held the blanket tightly and spoke in a low voice.

“…Please come in.”

Senseon then carefully raised his head. The hands that were tightly holding the blanket turned white, and the words lingered in her mouth: “Just endure it for today.”

“Are you okay?”

And what approached her wasn’t a rough move.

Docheol didn’t attack her or take off her clothes. He came into the room carrying small items as if he had no intention of joining the room today.

As soon as he came in, he walked away from Seonjong and showed her some herbs in his hand.

“This is an herb that is said to be good for pain. It is said that it is effective if you pound it finely and dissolve it in water and eat it.”

He had a mortar and pestle in his other hand, and his pocket also had a peculiar smell.

He seemed to have prepared a lot for her.

“You had a hard time yesterday, so take your medicine today and get some rest.”

Docheol said that and started crushing the herbs. There was a faint smell of grass in the air, and just that scent made Seon Seon feel at ease. The reason it wasn’t made in advance seemed to be to allow the scent to spread.

However, even as his body was getting better, Seonjong could not understand his actions. It was hard to read what his intentions were for himself.

Sensei looked at his eyes and asked cautiously.

“…Why are you so nice to me?”

Then, Do-cheol looked at the sentence with an expression that he could not understand and said this.

“Because they are a couple.”

Docheol nodded once and then started making the medicine again. Pour water little by little to make it come together well and form a round pill shape. And then he places the medicine onto her neatly gathered hands.

The sentence felt like it resonated with those words and actions.

The heart that had been pushing him away was cracking little by little.

I began to question whether it was right to keep pushing away someone who treated me so well.

The medicine that went down my throat was a bit bitter, but I felt like I was somehow at ease just by swallowing it.

Docheol said.

“If anything hurts more, tell me.”

Then he carefully laid Seonjong down and covered him with a blanket.

Senseon made eye contact with Docheol with his eyes wide open.

Docheol said.

“I’ll go watch you sleep today.”

The sentence looked at Docheol’s body.

Docheol just watched her silently.

“Hey… .”

In that silence, the sentence was the first to speak.

She pulled her hand out from under the blanket and pretended to shake it.

“…if it’s a hand.”

Docheol could barely keep his mouth from twitching.