[TOMORROW X TOGETHER Beomgyu] To the point of aching

Episode 7. Kicked out

Bokgyu woke with a dull ache.

His whole body felt so heavy that even the ceiling seemed unfamiliar.

There was a faint smell of blood from the bandage wrapped around his back. The wound had opened again.

 

Memories of last night came rushing back one by one. The village shrine, the torch, the arrow, and the weight of the heroine he had carried in his arms as he ran.

Only much later did it occur to him that he had lost consciousness without even confirming whether he had arrived safely.

 

There was still no sound from the next room.

His worry came first, wondering whether the wound on his arm and the fever had eased at all.

 

As he tried to sit up and tug his collar straight, the fingertips of his hand suddenly stopped.

The jade ornament was gone.

Even when he groped around the blanket and the floor, nothing reached his fingertips.

 

It had clearly fallen somewhere during the night. A bad feeling crept up his spine.

Then, suddenly, the door flew open.

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

The person who came in was Kim Yuhyeong.

The moment he saw what was in his hand, Bokgyu seemed to stop breathing.

It was the jade ornament.

 

"...Was this yours?"

 

There was already a tremor in his low voice, the tremor of someone asking while already knowing the answer.

Bokgyu could not bring himself to choose a lie.

 

"...Yes."

 

At that short answer, Kim Yuhyeong's hand tightened around the jade ornament and shook.

 

"Choi... Siheon daegam's."

 

He could not even finish the three characters of the name before he squeezed his eyes shut.

It was as if the face he had suppressed for ten years was collapsing all at once inside him.

 

"So you were alive. Alive and... you even came into my house."

 

His voice cracked in a way that made it impossible to tell whether it was resentment or relief.

Bokgyu bowed his head while kneeling.

 

"I'm sorry for deceiving you. But I didn't approach her from the start with the intention of using her."

"Whether you intended it or not, the fact that you were here is the problem."

 

Fear, held down for too long, seeped into Kim Yuhyeong's voice.

 

"Do you think I didn't know Jo Seunghak was chasing you? To think I let someone like that stay near my daughter..."

"I didn't come here to blame you, sir. I only..."

"I don't want to hear it."

"Leave."

"...Sir."

"I said get out of this house right now!"

 

His shout shook the room. Bokgyu could not have failed to notice the fear hidden beneath it.

 

"Young lady Yeoju is nothing..."

"That is not a name you have any right to put in your mouth lightly."

 

At that firm cut-off, there was nothing more he could add.

Bokgyu already knew he had to leave.

Kim Yuhyeong's fingertips, gripping the jade ornament, were still trembling.

Bokgyu could tell that the trembling was fear, not anger.

 

Ten years ago, on that day, this man must have lost something too.

He could not even tell whether he had the right to resent him.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

Without even fully bandaging his wounds, he headed out into the pale dawn.

Suppressing the urge to look back, he kept only the dark window of Yeoju's room in his eyes.

 

I'm sorry. Someday, when I can hold my head high, I will definitely come back to see you.

 

Swallowing those words, Bokgyu left through the gate.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

Late in the morning, Yeoju woke feeling as though her whole body were as heavy as waterlogged cotton.

The first thing she looked for as soon as she sat up was Bokgyu.

 

"Dani, the guest..."

 

As Yeoju trailed off, Dani struggled to speak.

 

"Well... he left at dawn today, and..."

"What?"

 

The color drained from Yeoju's face.

 

"Without even saying goodbye? There's no way..."

 

Dani hurriedly stopped Yeoju, who was trying to get up in disbelief.

 

"Young lady, your body still isn't well..."

 

But nothing reached Yeoju's ears.

Stumbling, Yeoju shoved the door open, and all she saw was the empty yard.

Even the bloodstains that had soaked the ground last night were already gone without a trace.

As if nothing had ever happened in the first place, everything had returned to where it belonged.

 

"Guest! Where are you!"

 

Even when she called until her voice broke, no answer came back.

 

As Yeoju passed by the sarangchae, she finally met her father's eyes.

Kim Yuhyeong seemed about to say something, but he could not bear to meet his daughter's gaze and turned his head away.

 

In that brief avoidance, Yeoju sensed it immediately.

That her father knew something. And that whatever it was, it was by no means trivial.

 

"Father, what did you say to the guest?"

"...That's none of your concern."

 

It was the first time she'd heard such a cold voice. It was not her usually gentle father.

 

Without asking any further, Yeoju walked on unsteadily until she was outside the front gate.

 

Only the deserted road stretched empty far into the distance.

Looking toward the end of that road, Yeoju faintly felt that this strange sense of loss was not the first of its kind.