[TOMORROW X TOGETHER Beomgyu] To the point of aching

Side Story Episode 1. The Name He Swallowed

Bumgyu's POV

 

 

The torches had surrounded three sides.

With their backs against each other, Bumgyu and Taehyun gauged the number of footsteps closing in.

 

He hadn't expected Jo Seunghak's private soldiers to follow them this far into the mountains. It had been one thing to tail one of the man's trusted underlings and uncover their hideout, but it seemed they'd caught on a few days ago.

 

"Scatter. As long as even one of us makes it out alive, we can get this to the capital."

 

Taehyun said softly, steadying the letter in his arms.

 

"And you?"

"I'll draw them off, so you head that way."

 

Before he even finished speaking, Taehyun launched himself first. At the sound of his shout, half the torches turned to pursue him.

Bumgyu gritted his teeth and ran toward the opposite ridge.

 

The mountain path was dark, and the ground beneath his feet was slick.

Each time an arrow hissed past his back, his breath caught in his throat.

He didn't even know when he'd been cut in the side or when an arrow had grazed his arm; by the time he came to his senses, his whole body was already drenched in blood.

 

Still, he couldn't stop. If he got caught here, everything he'd endured for ten years would be over.

His parents' names, the letter he and Taehyun had shared, everything.

Feeling the footsteps behind him grow farther and farther away, Bumgyu used up the last of his strength to crawl to the old shrine building.

There, he lost consciousness.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

His awareness came and went in fits and starts.

Someone shaking him awake, hurried footsteps moving back and forth, and unfamiliar voices.

 

"Young lady, you can't go!"

"Because I don't know, all the more reason I can't just leave it alone."

 

Though he couldn't hear it clearly, that voice strangely lingered by his ears for a long time.

While someone supported and moved his body, Bumgyu caught a glimpse beyond his blurred vision of a profile lit by moonlight.

 

 

A face that somehow felt familiar.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

He couldn't tell how many days or nights passed.

 

 

When he suddenly opened his eyes from a feverish sleep, the first thing he saw was the side profile of a woman sitting under candlelight.

 

For a moment, he thought he had stopped breathing.

He thought it was a dream. No, it had to be a dream.

It had been ten years since he'd last seen that face.

So she was alive.

 

Something surged up violently inside his chest. He couldn't even tell whether it was relief or resentment.

And what came after that was a bone-deep fear.

The moment he realized what house this was, a chill ran down his spine.

 

Who this woman's father was, what this quiet village was hiding from, everything made sense at once.

That these people had been there too, in the silence that had driven his father to his death ten years ago.

And at the same time, that the mere fact that he was here could put this whole house in danger.

 

At the thought that Jo Seunghak's eyes and ears might follow him all the way to this village, the urge to reveal his name shrank back down again.

To have come back alive, to be glad to see her—those words alone were a luxury now.

 

So Bumgyu decided to act like he knew nothing at all.

 

The only relief was that that person didn't recognize him at all.

Even after ten years, the lines of her face and her neat clothes were exactly as they had been in childhood. Someone born and raised as the daughter of a wealthy yangban family did not easily lose that bearing, even as time passed. So it was no wonder he'd recognized that face at a glance.

 

By contrast, what about himself? Instead of the well-made sleeves of a fine dobok, he wore tattered cotton clothes soaked through with blood, and he'd collapsed in a body darkened by the sun and covered in wounds. There was no trace left on his face now of having once been the son of a yangban household.

 

His complexion, his appearance, even his way of speaking had become so rough that it was only natural she wouldn't recognize him. As frustrating as that was, right now it was a relief.

 

A memory from some long-ago day with warm sunlight on it suddenly brushed past him.

 

"When I grow up later, we'll really be husband and wife."

 

The moment the little girl smiled brightly and pressed one half of the jade pendant firmly into his hand was as clear as if it had happened yesterday.

Bumgyu had never forgotten that laugh, or the warmth of that hand, not for a single day.

And yet now this person was looking down at him with a face that had forgotten that day completely.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

The next morning, when the young lady carefully approached and asked his name, Bumgyu had already made up his mind.

 

"...I don't know."

 

He hadn't known lying could be this easy.

And at the same time, that it could hurt this much.

 

He only had to say one thing: I am Choi Bumgyu, I was the young lady's betrothed—that would have been enough.

But everything that would happen after those words was too clear in his mind.

Jo Seunghak forcing his way even inside the walls of this house, the yard burning like it had ten years ago, the face of the person who would be standing in the middle of it all.

 

It was better to remain an unnamed wanderer. At least that way, he wouldn't put this person in danger.

As time passed, the lie began to carry a different weight.

 

What had first been nothing more than a way to survive became, before he knew it, the only reason he could stay in this house.

The empty jokes he tossed to the young lady, fixing the creaking side gate, sharing the eaves with her when they took shelter from summer showers together—all of it was the first day in ten years that he didn't have to carry anything on his back.

 

A man who'd lost his memory had no name to protect, and no grudge to repay.

As long as he could laugh by this person's side for just one day, that was enough.

 

Every time he had that thought, Bumgyu found himself surprised at his own self.

He hadn't expected that the person who'd held on for ten years with only one thought in mind would so easily come to want something else.

 

The hardest moments were when she absentmindedly touched a fragment of an old memory.

Whenever he casually mentioned the Big Dipper, when she recognized the plum blossoms, every time he saw a faint look of confusion flicker across her eyes, his heart would sink.

 

And then there was the day she smiled and asked to see the jade pendant.

That face, quietly looking down at the jade pendant resting on his palm and asking, "Where did you get this?"—there wasn't a single trace of memory in it at all.

 

Had she really forgotten everything? The courtyard from that summer day, the promise they made then.

One side of his heart quietly caved in.

Maybe it was only natural. She had been so young then, and the years had been so long.

 

Even so, nights where he had to swallow his disappointment were unbearably long.

Climbing over the wall night after night was another face hidden behind a smile.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

Taehyun was alive. After they scattered that night, he'd been hiding nearby and carefully sending word.

 

"Jo Seunghak's people are sweeping this area. It's only a matter of time before they realize you're in this village."

"...Give me a little more time. My body still hasn't fully recovered, and more than anything..."

 

After more than anything, there were words he couldn't bring himself to say.

More than anything, he didn't want to leave this house yet.

 

Taehyun seemed to catch the silence at the end of those words and, without pressing further, vanished into the darkness.

Looking at his back, Bumgyu asked himself.

How much longer could he hold on to this peace?

How much longer could he stay in this house while deceiving that person?

Even knowing the answer, he repeated it to himself every day, just one more day, just one more day.

 

And then that night, everything finally came crashing down.

 

When he realized the young lady had followed him, Bumgyu's mind went completely blank.

He had ended up dragging the very person he should have protected even from afar straight into the most dangerous place himself.

The moment an arrow grazed her arm, he thought his heart had stopped.

 

This person, no matter what.

 

All the way as he ran blindly, that was the only thought in Bumgyu's head.

The warmth of her body slipping from his arms and the hot blood soaking through his clothes tangled together until he couldn't tell them apart.

The moment he reached the house and carefully set her down, his legs gave out.

It seemed the wounds he thought had healed had torn open again.

Even as his consciousness blurred, Bumgyu felt something sliding out from between his collar and his clothes.

 

It was the jade pendant.

 

He reached out to grab it, but his fingertips no longer obeyed.

 

No.

 

Swallowing those words, Bumgyu's vision sank completely into darkness.

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

What happened after that is already known.

Kimu Yeohyeong's trembling hand holding the jade pendant, the dawn road he had to leave on as if being driven out.

But that dawn, what Bumgyu swallowed as he stepped out through the side gate was not just a single name.

 

The peace he'd thought he'd recovered after ten years, the feelings he hadn't dared to give a name to, all of it had to be left beyond that threshold.

One day, when I can stand before you honestly, I will definitely come to see you again—that one last sentence he swallowed stayed within him for a long time.

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

Hehe, this is a side story!!

Minji? is what I imagined for the young lady, so since this episode is from Bumgyu's perspective, I wrote it with Minji's image in mind hehe

Did you understand the reason Bumgyu couldn't recognize her, and the things Bumgyu had been hiding about his name?? hehe