[TOMORROW X TOGETHER Beomgyu] To the point of aching

Episode 17. Achingly, Again (Complete)

On the way back from Hanyang, Beomgyu kept imagining, again and again, the faces that would come out to meet him at the village entrance.

No matter how fast his steps were, his heart was racing ahead by several times that speed.

The moment the main gate came into view, Yeoju ran out barefoot.

 

"...You’ve really come back."

 

"I did promise, didn’t I."

 

Beomgyu swept Yeoju up in his arms, then abruptly remembered her ankle and set her back down in a panic.

 

"...Does it still hurt?"

"No, it’s all better now. So you don’t have to be that careful."

 

The two of them held each other like that, wordlessly, for a long while.

 

Over Yeoju’s shoulder came the mingled scent of the faint sweat and dust he had longed for so much. Only then did it finally feel real—he had truly come back alive.

Dani looked at the scene and grinned brightly, her face smeared with tears and snot.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

At the commotion, Kim Yuhyeong and his wife also came rushing out barefoot from the inner quarters.

 

"...You really made it back alive, didn’t you."

 

Kim Yuhyeong’s voice trembled. Beomgyu quickly let go of Yeoju and knelt before Kim Yuhyeong.

 

"...I returned safely, sir. I’m sorry for causing you concern."

"Lift your head. Before such formalities, I want to know first whether your body is whole."

 

His wife came over too, taking Beomgyu’s hands and checking him over here and there.

 

"Any injuries? You didn’t get hurt anywhere?"

"I’m not badly hurt anywhere."

 

Beomgyu got to his feet and briefly reported what had happened over the past days.

 

"...Jo Seunghak has been transferred to the Uigeumbu. After interrogation, his crimes were exposed in full, so now all that remains is the court’s formal judgment."

 

Kim Yuhyeong looked up at the sky in silence for a long while, then finally let out a deep breath.

 

"...You’ve worked hard. Truly."

 

Only then, with a relieved expression, did he look at Yeoju standing beside him.

 

"...For days, that child didn’t have a single moment of peace."

"...Father, really, why would you say that all of a sudden."

 

Yeoju blushed and shot him a sidelong glance.

Laughter spread through the courtyard. It was the first time in a long while that the whole family had laughed together.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

A few days later, an official document from the court arrived.

 

It said that all suspicions of treason against Choi Siheon had been proven false, his title restored, and the Choi family’s status reinstated.

 

At last, Beomgyu regained his original surname and rank.

A message also came that even at the site of the old Choi house in Hanyang—the one that had burned and disappeared—a new shrine had been built so their parents’ spirits could be enshrined there.

 

Beomgyu sat in silence for a long while after hearing the news. It was a moment he had waited ten years for, yet his face showed little sense of reality.

 

A separate ruling was also handed down for Kim Yuhyeong. The crime of hiding the truth for ten years was by no means light, but considering his merit in submitting a secret letter of his own to expose Jo Seunghak’s crimes, the matter was settled at the level of permanently stripping him of office. His status as a yangban and his property remained intact, so if anything, that was fortunate.

 

"...Given all that, this is more than I deserve."

 

Kim Yuhyeong accepted the decision calmly.

Watching from the side, his wife gently took her husband’s hand in both of hers.

 

"...I’ll never have to go back out to Hanyang now, but honestly, I feel relieved."

"Quite so. Spending the rest of my days quietly in this village doesn’t seem bad either."

 

So Kim Yuhyeong and his wife decided to put down roots and live in this village they had long since retired to.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

That evening, Kim Yuhyeong held out one half of an old jade pendant to Beomgyu.

 

"The night you were badly injured and bedridden, I only realized who you were when I saw it slip out from between your collar. I’ve been keeping it ever since. Now I’m returning what’s yours."

 

The tips of Beomgyu’s fingers trembled faintly. The half he had carried for over ten years was back in his hands.

 

"...Thank you, sir."

"If you don’t mind... I think it’s time we changed how you address me. Not ‘sir’—‘Father-in-law.’"

 

At Kim Yuhyeong’s offhand cough of a remark, Beomgyu’s eyes grew red.

 

"...Yes, Father-in-law."

 

At those words, a faint smile spread at the corners of Kim Yuhyeong’s mouth as well.

Then, quietly watching from the side, his wife took a small box from her arms and set it down.

Inside was a jade pendant half that looked exactly like the one Beomgyu had.

 

"...This was originally meant to be Yeoju’s. He said to erase it, to wipe away any connection with the Choi family, but... I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I just had a feeling these children would meet again someday, so I kept it hidden for ten years."

 

Kim Yuhyeong looked at his wife in astonishment.

 

"...You kept that all this time?"

"...I’m sorry. I went against your wishes, but I don’t regret it."

 

His wife gently placed the jade pendant into Beomgyu’s hand.

 

"Keep this safe for now... and tomorrow, show it to Yeoju yourself."

 

Beomgyu silently lowered his head, holding the two jade pendants together side by side.

 

 

*

 

 

 

Beomgyu, coming out of the inner room, called Yeoju out into the courtyard.

He took the two jade pendants from his chest and laid them side by side, overlapping them.

 

"This one is mine, and this one... was originally yours, miss."

 

Yeoju’s eyes widened. When the two jade pendants with the familiar pattern were placed side by side, they fit together perfectly, as if they had been one from the very beginning.

 

"This... why is this here?"

"Your mother said she had kept it hidden for ten years. It wasn’t destroyed—she had been protecting it all along, right by her side. Her feelings for you, and this jade pendant too."

 

Tears welled up in Yeoju’s eyes.

 

"I spent ten years searching for this half. And at the end of it, I found something even greater than a half."

"Since the time I stayed by your side pretending to have lost my memory, hiding even my name... it was always you. You were the one I wanted to protect to the end."

 

"...Will you marry me?"

 

"...Yes. As many times as you ask, I’ll say yes."

 

Beomgyu joined the two jade pendants together and tied them onto the string of Yeoju’s robe. It was the moment the half-thing finally became whole.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

Before setting a wedding date, Beomgyu carefully spoke before Kim Yuhyeong and his wife.

 

"The new house in Hanyang still needs a lot of work, so I’m not in a position to bring Yeoju there and set up a household right away. We will hold the wedding here, stay at this house for a while until the home is in order, and then... once everything is ready, I would like to take her to Hanyang."

 

Kim Yuhyeong nodded.

 

"No need to rush. In the meantime, you can stay a little longer by this father’s side before you go."

 

His wife, unable to hide her reluctance, soon smiled as well.

 

"It’s hard to see my daughter go far away, but... now that she’s found the man who bears her name, it’s only right she live beside him."

 

Yeoju clasped her hands tightly together.

 

"Whether it’s Hanyang or anywhere else, as long as we’re together, it doesn’t matter."

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

On the wedding day, red and blue canopies were hung across the courtyard of Kim Yuhyeong’s house.

As Yeoju in a one-piece ceremonial robe and Beomgyu in formal bridal headgear and robe exchanged bows, low gasps rippled through the people filling the yard.

It was a place to complete their betrothal at last, under the name he had recovered after ten years.

 

Kim Yuhyeong and his wife wiped away tears without a sound.

Dani, off to the side, kept sniffing and clapping.

 

"...Sir, you’re really a proper lord now!"

 

At that teasing remark, Beomgyu laughed out loud for the first time in a long while.

Among the neighbors filling the courtyard, Taehyun and Yeonjun’s faces were also there.

Both of them, on this day, had taken off their armor and were smiling brightly.

 

At the drinking table set up in one corner of the courtyard, laughter had already become endless. They were faces free of worry, seen after so long.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

As night deepened, only the two of them remained in the bridal chamber prepared in the annex of Yeoju’s house.

Yeoju gently touched the tassel ornament made by joining the two jade pendants into one.

All the sorrow of the past ten years, and all the tears of the past few months, seemed to be contained in that one small ornament.

 

"From now on, there won’t be any more pain, will there?"

"...There won’t. The days we missed each other so painfully are all behind us now too."

 

Beomgyu took Yeoju’s hand in his.

Outside the window, the Big Dipper they had once looked up at together was hanging in the sky.

 

"...I still vividly remember how flustered you got when you pointed at that star back then."

 

"That... can’t you just forget that?"

 

When Yeoju burst out laughing, Beomgyu ended up laughing along too.

That laughter remained in the room for a long time.

 

The past ten years, so painfully missed, would now remain not as longing but as memory. And upon those memories, the two of them would begin building new days together once again.

 

Their story was beginning anew like that.

 

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

Completion note!!

 

Wow, it’s finally complete!!!

I’ve grown really attached to this work since I wrote it for so long, and it’s already finished ㅎㅎ

 

Did you enjoy reading it???? It was my first time writing a historical drama, so I was a bit clumsy, but I’m so happy that so many of you enjoyed it ㅎㅎ

Mixing romance and plot progression in just the right way was really hard ㅠㅠㅜ

Still, I’m glad both the case and the romance seem to have wrapped up well with a happy ending!!

I think I’ll probably continue a bit more with side stories

It felt like the story focused too much on Yeoju, so I also want to write some from Beomgyu’s point of view, and

I’d like to write about the two of them when they were little and got along well!

And I also want to write about the two of them living together after marriage..........ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ

 

Oh, and I’m planning to write another work too, so if there’s a topic you’d like to see, please recommend it!! 🙌

Then I’ll see you in the side stories!!! Thank you🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷