The female lead had been staring for a long while at the road outside the main gate, with no one in sight, when she suddenly turned around.
She couldn’t back down like this. The female lead headed back to the sarangchae.
"Father."
As she flung the door open, Kim Yuhyeong turned around with a startled look.
"That guest is the person who saved me. The one who risked his life to protect me."
"……"
"Why did you send someone like that away so hastily? You didn’t even give me a chance to thank him, or to catch my breath."
The tip of Kim Yuhyeong’s fingers trembled faintly.
"…This isn’t something you should step in and handle."
"It’s not something I shouldn’t step in about. He was hurt because of me!"
Her voice cracked. The female lead swallowed the tears that were welling up.
"Please, Father. At least tell me why."
"…Enough."
The back of her father, turned away from her, was more resolute than ever.
Only then did the female lead realize she couldn’t get an answer here anymore.
If her father wouldn’t open his mouth, she’d have to go and find the answer herself.
She didn’t have the luxury of waiting until her body healed.
"I have to find him. Myself."
Muttering it like a whisper to herself, the female lead pulled her bandaged arm closer with her collar and started walking.
Dani, who came after her, stamped his feet in panic and grabbed her.
"Miss, you’re not even well—where do you think you’re going!"
"I’m fine. I just need to walk a little."
It was a lie. Her legs were already shaking, but she couldn’t stop.
In the end, Dani hurried after her and supported her arm.
*
From the market to the ferry landing, the female lead searched the whole village.
Every time her bandaged arm brushed against her collar, a sharp pain spread through it, but she didn’t stop walking.
Each time she asked whether anyone had seen a strange man, the answer was always that they didn’t know.
Even the doctor who had once made a house call only shook his head with a pitying look.
"I never thought he’d leave so suddenly. His body is so unusual, he should be holding up well wherever he is."
If anything, it only made one corner of her heart feel colder.
That line about his body being unusual suddenly felt unfamiliar.
The sun had already passed its zenith, but the female lead still couldn’t turn back.
Neither hunger nor the pain in her legs mattered now.
Even at the inn in the market street, where she stopped on the off chance, all she got was the answer that no guest like that had stayed there.
In the end, her steps led her to the old shrine building in front of the mountain path where they had been chased that night.
*
The shrine building stood in quiet solitude, with not a soul around.
Seeing it in daylight, the urgency of that night felt like a lie; under the trees, everything was only peaceful.
The female lead scanned the spot where he had stood, the place where low voices had passed back and forth, one by one with her eyes.
"Be quiet." The cold, hardened look in his eyes came back to her now.
What had frightened her then because it was so unfamiliar now, strangely, she missed.
At the very least, that face was proof he had been alive and standing here.
While she wandered around for a long time, something caught on the tip of her shoe. It was a wooden piece half-buried in the dirt.
On the palm of her hand after picking it up, a familiar pattern had been carved into the wooden fragment split in two.
It was the very same pattern she had seen on the guest’s jade pendant.
Her breath caught. Her fingertips trembled faintly.
It felt as though the strange voice that had passed through the darkness that night was ringing in her ears again.
One thing was certain: this was an item connected to whatever he had been chasing, or whatever had been chasing him.
Why had someone who said he had lost his memory secretly met with a person bearing this mark?
The female lead tucked the wooden piece firmly inside the edge of her robe ties and stood up.
*
As the sun slanted low in the sky, the female lead clutched the wooden piece tightly in her hand, came down from the mountain, and ran straight home.
She yanked the sarangchae door open, and Kim Yuhyeong turned around with a startled face.
"Yeoju, where on earth have you been until this hour……"
Instead of answering, the female lead held out the wooden piece in front of her father.
"This. It has the same pattern as the guest’s jade pendant. It was lying where that person had been standing."
Kim Yuhyeong’s face went pale in an instant.
Taking the wooden piece with trembling fingertips, he stared at it fixedly and couldn’t say another word for a long while.
It was the face of someone who had recognized a familiar pattern. Fear he couldn’t hide flickered across it.
"Father, who exactly was that guest?"
"……"
"What does he have to do with our family? Why have you gone so pale?"
Facing his daughter’s trembling, pressing questions, Kim Yuhyeong only moved his lips, unable to say a word.
That silence weighed on the female lead’s chest more heavily than any answer.
She had never seen this look on his face before. He had always been a kind and gentle father.
"Father…… why are you looking at me like that? It’s scary."
Her voice shook as it came out. She couldn’t tell whether she wanted to hear the answer or not.
Kim Yuhyeong gripped the wooden piece, his hands trembling violently, and squeezed his eyes shut.
"…Later. Let’s talk later."
"Please tell me now. I can’t wait anymore."
It felt as if something enormous was quietly cracking open inside this once peaceful house.
She had nowhere left to back down. The female lead knew she had to find out what was waiting at the end of that crack.
Hehe, there wasn’t a scene with Beomgyu in this episode, so there aren’t many photos ㅠㅠ
But the past will be revealed soon and the plot will move forward too, so please hang in there a little longer!! 🫰🫰
![Night Jju TALK [Complete] thumbnail](https://cdnetphoto.appphotocard.com/fanfic/2236885/184842/thumbnail_img_20211002194933.png)
