TM | Chapter 8

“I was surprised too. Kkotnim came carrying the sack on her shoulder. So bold. She’s like a real tough girl.”

At Lee Seol’s praise, Cheondung eagerly added, “Our noona is the best!”

Kkotnim shrugged her shoulders and laughed, her mouth wide open. Then, she untied a small hemp cloth from her bundle and pulled out some sirutteok^[1], holding it out. The way she was looking out for him made him feel a little awkward.

“Ah… it’s okay, Kkotnim. You eat it.”

“You should accept it when a kid is giving it to you.”

At Lee Seol’s words, Yoon Sung took the tteok. Just then, Cheondung approached and held out a rice ball to Lee Seol.

“Lord-nim gave this to me.”

“Oh yeah?”

Lee Seol took the rice ball. Kkotnim also received one but gestured to Cheondung that she’d already eaten. It seemed Lee Seol had bought her something to eat at the market earlier. The two siblings bowed to the both of them.

Lee Seol smiled at the children and twirled the rice ball around in his hand.

“Sung-ah, did you make this?”

“Yeah.”

Lee Seol nodded, then took a bite of the rice ball. Seeing him savor the taste, Yoon Sung hesitantly spoke up.

“…How is it?”

“Hmm~.”

Curious about his verdict, Yoon Sung widened his eyes, waiting for his response.

Lee Seol, looking thoughtful, took another bite before suddenly flashing a bright smile. Seeing that, the corners of Yoon Sung’s lips lifted slightly. At least it didn’t seem terrible.

“It’s bad.”

At Lee Seol’s brutally honest response, Yoon Sung’s face scrunched up in a pout, his lips sticking out in protest. Seeing that, Lee Seol laughed so hard his eyes crinkled.

“But it’s tasty…”

Cheondung mumbled from the side, and Yoon Sung’s expression immediately brightened.

“Cheondung says it’s good!”

“Uh-huh~ It’s bad.”

Lee Seol kept grinning while taking bite after bite. Annoyed, Yoon Sung tried to snatch it away, but he quickly stuffed everything into his mouth.

“If it’s bad, then why are you eating it?!”

“Because you made it. When else would I get to eat something so precious?”

“…….”

Just when he thought Lee Seol was being annoying, his irritation melted away in an instant. Lee Seol smiled faintly and continued speaking.

“This rice ball might be the last thing you ever make for me. Even if it were poisoned, I’d still eat it.”

“…Why do you say things like that? If that’s the case, at least lie and say it’s good.”

“I’m forced to lie and put on a front my whole life. Can’t I at least be honest when I’m with you?”

“…….”

“It’s bad.”

“Hey!”

Yoon Sung smacked him on the back, but Lee Seol just laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. Meanwhile, Kkotnim, after tasting the rice ball, clapped her hands with her arms spread wide in excitement.

Still huffing slightly, Yoon Sung couldn’t help but chuckle at Kkotnim’s reaction. It must have suited her taste. He had made it for the kids, after all—if they liked it, that was enough.

Yoon Sung patted Kkotnim’s head. Then, he took some grain from his bundle and handed it to the two children. They stomped their feet in excitement and bowed repeatedly.

While Kkotnim pulled out a new set of clothes from the bundle to help Cheondung change, Yoon Sung mended the boy’s torn pants.

Since he’d practiced sewing even while crying last night, today, his stitches looked pretty decent. As he admired his own handiwork, Lee Seol, who had been quietly watching, suddenly ripped a piece of the myeongju^[2] he had brought and held it out.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“If you wrap it around the ends of the sleeves and sew it in, wouldn’t it look better?”

“No, actually, Kkotnim’s sleeves are too short, so I should use it to extend them instead. I need to lengthen her sleeves.”

Lee Seol tore the fabric just as Yoon Sung requested. He took out a silver dagger from his sleeve and folded the cloth, trimming it neatly.

Then, Yoon Sung’s stitching—slow and wobbly like a worm crawling—began. His skills were lacking, but his careful effort shaped the collar and pant hems into something relatively neat.

After much struggling, he finally finished hemming Kkotnim’s sleeves, and Yoon Sung muttered to himself.

“If you don’t look too closely, it’s perfect.”

“Right? Hey, can’t we use this to make a daenggi (traditional hair ribbon) for Kkotnim?”

Lee Seol twirled a leftover piece of fabric between his fingers as he asked. Yoon Sung, focusing intently, stitched along the edges and embroidered a small, weed-like flower on it.

Once his careful needlework was complete, Kkotnim clapped her hands in delight, and Lee Seol gave him a thumbs-up. It didn’t feel like he had done anything impressive, but with all the praise, he couldn’t help but puff up with pride.

Yoon Sung gently combed through Kkotnim’s messy hair with his fingers, while Lee Seol took out his silver dagger to trim the tangled strands.

After struggling with her hair for a while, the two of them managed to braid it, though it was a bit uneven. Lee Seol tucked in the stray strands with his fingers, and at last, Yoon Sung’s handmade daenggi^[3] was tied at the end of the braid.

Cheondung jumped up and down, exclaiming how pretty it was.

Lee Seol smiled warmly as he watched the children, clearly pleased. Feeling accomplished, Yoon Sung glanced at Lee Seol’s serene profile, as if he were a painting, and asked,

“Did you like kids?”

“No.”

“…….”

“You like them, though. You can’t just walk past someone pitiful without doing something.”

“…What’s that supposed to mean.”

“Every moment I spend with you will become a memory, and for those kids, our story will be talked about for a lifetime. Isn’t it nice to know that we’ll be part of someone’s happy memories?”

There was something wistful in Lee Seol’s calm words, and it made Yoon Sung uneasy. It felt like he didn’t expect Yoon Sung to accept his proposal. Even just conveying his feelings yesterday seemed like it had been a huge decision for him.

It really seemed that way. Really…

Suspicion crept into Yoon Sung’s mind, and he narrowed his eyes. He stared at Lee Seol’s face for a moment before cautiously asking,

“Are you trying to seduce me?”

“Yeah.”

Of course.

At Lee Seol’s blunt answer, Yoon Sung let out a short laugh.

“And what if you keep trying, but I never fall for it?”

“Then I’ll just get married as my father ordered. I can’t bring disgrace to my family.”

Those words made something in Yoon Sung’s chest grow heavy. He absentmindedly fidgeted with his fingers, focusing on Lee Seol’s calm voice. He felt like he should say something to comfort him, but his mind was frustratingly blank.

Perhaps sensing that, Lee Seol spoke again, his tone light.

“On my wedding day, I’ll poison the liquor.”

“What?!”

“I’ll kill my betrothed, barely survive, and then come back.”

At the absurd statement, Yoon Sung’s voice shot up.

“What the hell?! What did your betrothed ever do to deserve that?!”

“How should I know? If the mess spills into politics, things might get interesting. Maybe the royal family will even praise my father for eliminating some rivals.”

Yoon Sung stared at Lee Seol, stunned into silence, as he smiled while saying such outrageous things.

Of course.

Like hell this guy would just obediently go through with a wedding.

This was the same person who threw himself off a cliff just because his name was put on the consort selection list.

Just thinking about that moment made my hands clench involuntarily. The memory of him hurling himself into the lake below the cliff, screaming that he’d rather drown than become a royal consort, was still vivid in my mind.

Cheongrok had been there too, completely losing his mind because Lee Seol couldn’t even swim. In the end, I had to jump in after him. Just remembering it sent a shiver down my spine.

Did he really have to hate it that much…?

Everyone else accepted arranged marriages just fine. What made it so unbearable for him?

“…But what if you actually like your betrothed?”

“You’ve never been in love with someone, have you?”

The sudden remark made my heart plummet.

Kang Taegwon flashed through my mind, and I clamped my mouth shut, turning my gaze toward the children by the stream. They were pulling up the fish trap we had set earlier, retrieving the fish wriggling inside.

“You’ll understand when you fall in love with someone, Sung-ah.”

“…Understand what?”

“That doing the things in chunhwajip with someone you don’t care about is disgusting. That having your first time with a stranger’s body scent lingering in the air is nauseating.”

I had only asked out of pure curiosity, but his serious and skeptical answer left a bitter feeling in my stomach.

The things in chunhwajip.

Yeah, that’s exactly how I felt when I first saw them.

I hated it.

When I had my first wet dream, and Lee Seol was in it, I didn’t even need to admit it—I just knew. That he was my first desire. Not that it lasted long.

Back then, I had spent days agonizing over it before finally telling him, carefully and awkwardly, that I had… well, dreamed.

‘Who was in the dream?’

‘Huh? I—I don’t really remember.’

‘I appeared as a drawing in a chunhwajip^[4].‘

‘…What?’

He had dragged my bewildered self straight to his house’s study.

The study, nestled deep inside his home, held more books than some bookstores. Seeing all those books, I had thought, If he plans to read all of these, his head is going to explode. Poor guy.

But before I could voice any of that, he led me even further inside, to a small sliding door I hadn’t even known existed.

I hesitated at the threshold, instinctively feeling that I shouldn’t go in, but his beckoning hand left me no choice.

The space was small, just enough for two adults to stand in without much room to move.

On one side, a bookshelf stood packed with dozens of books—every single one of them chunhwajip.

‘Look at this. This is what a woman’s body looks like.’

The illustration he showed me was almost mystical in its detail. My eyebrows immediately furrowed at the sight.

I had seen the male body plenty of times, so I had never thought much of it, but looking at a woman’s body so explicitly drawn… it wasn’t just embarrassing—it was uncomfortable.

‘See? This is how a man and a woman share affection.’

The image depicted a man and a woman lying together, wrapped around each other, their expressions bizarre. Their bodies were completely bare, tangled in a way that made me widen my eyes in shock.

Feeling an instinctive revulsion, I quickly shut the book and shook my head.

But then, Lee Seol pulled out another chunhwajip.

‘This is how it works between men.’