48 | These New and Old Encounters (Part 4)

Soo-Ah remained in the middle of the road looking at Jung-In bewildered, questioning how much of that challenge he took as a joke and how much he took it seriously. Knowing him as she did, or at least as she used to, her suspicion was that he missed having a play partner because for sure he had had plenty of sparring partners.

With the sword in her limp hand, she patted the ground with its tip, in a manner in which Duri would have cringed and swatted at her. But she was hesitant while deciding on the proper response. She had to admit she missed the fun and games she shared with Jung-In because she had seen none since he departed for Seorabeol all those years ago.

"You want to play with a real sword?" she asked him, almost admonishing.

"I don't intend to kill. Only to maim an overconfident ego. You can keep your calm and play nicely, can't you? Come, show me a couple of your moves and I'll show you mine." Jung-In came to face her and positioned himself on guard, looking concentrated and serious.

"You challenge me to a real sword fight, and I have an overconfident ego?" Soo-Ah just laughed and rolled the sword pommel in her hand as if testing her grip.

The man taunted her as a joke and began circling, struggling to cover the amusing excitement he had on his face with a menacing look. Soo-Ah only shook her head and allowed him to continue his prancing. Until Jung-In brushed the edge of his blade against hers, jolting the sword a little in the air.

It was enough to make the woman gasp. "Ha! You're serious about this. What will you do when I end up spanking your conceited butt with my blade?" Soo-Ah teased in return and was ready to launch a strike at him. But she imagined what her grandfather and Sung-Ho would have to say about it so she only poked his feet with the hilt. Jung-In was quick to get out of the way and was incensed to go at it again.

"You know what? I am going to teach you a lesson today," she said, leaving Jung-In excited. "A lesson of maturity, that is. You might still be ten years but I am beyond such foolish games, so I'll get back to the road on my own," she said, feeling superior for having left Jung-In confused and eager.

As she spun on her heels, heading to sheath her sword, she tripped on the hem of her gown, losing her balance. Jung-In dashed to catch her in mid-fall, leaving her upper body suspended in the air. He remained to look at her for a couple of moments, mesmerized.

"Is this the moment you rub in my face you saved me?" Soo-Ah asked, annoyed and embarrassed, waiting for the young man's haughty words.

Jung-In regained his senses and added, sounding serious. "This is the moment I let your overbearing ass face reality," and he let the woman fall with her bum on the ground. "You can go ahead and be the mature one and I'll be your hero. So be grateful if I let you be my sidekick, oh mature one," he said, his cheeks raised high from how wide he was smiling. Since he was meant to be a true knight, he extended his arm to help Soo-Ah get up.

But Soo-Ah pushed it away and gasped. "Don't let this go to your head. I am wearing a dress for the first time in a while. So you simply got...lucky." She got up by herself, dusting off her clothes and staring with a pout at Jung-In's satisfied face.

She was still irascible when she got up on her horse and goaded it back on the road.

Jung-In followed her close by. "Look at you, pouting like a little girl. Don't tell me you are about to cry, like that time when I left home. Do you remember?"

"Why do you remember that?" she almost snapped her neck, turning to confront him.

"Come on. You should have seen your face 'Jung-In don't leave me Jung-In!'" said he, trying to imitate her voice.

"I never said that. And I remember you started crying also. And making me a promise." It was Soo-Ah's turn to tease.

"I remember nothing like that," he took his stand, nudging his horse closer to hers.

"Aha. Who is embarrassed now? Well, I remember loud and clear you said you were going to buy me a jewel." She did not want to mention the part about marriage since she felt uncomfortable saying it like she would have expectations. "Besides if you continue to believe I was crying for you it means you are still Little Stupid-Jung-In."

"You can't fool me. Why else could you have cried like a flower under a rain shower?" he asked, eyeing her, straining to lean over his horse to spy on her face. But he slipped and almost fell in the process.

"Careful," exclaimed Soo-Ah, worried. Despite her genuine concern for the man's safety, the little sprout, growing up on the battlefields, developed some thorns she was not even aware she had. She continued with a giggle, "you are as silly now as you were back then. Well, if you really must know, I was crying because you were leaving with my Ho-Orabeoni instead of me."

The straightforward answer stopped Jung-In in his tracks, pulling at his animal's reins, his joyfulness suddenly vanishing.

Soo-Ah also stopped her horse and turned to look at him. "So, you really thought I was crying for you all this time? Now I feel sorry I told you. You seem awfully disappointed," and she jokingly offered a compassionate look.

Trying to save face Jung-In turned to smile again. "I'm not disappointed. I was just worried. I would have spent my money for nothing. What if I had bought you the jewel?"

"Well, did you?"

Jung-In encouraged his horse to overtake Soo-Ah's, leaving the woman behind. "Pfft, of course not, dummy. Why would I buy a jewel for someone I might never see again?"

But Jung-In did buy a jewelled hairpin. In the first year after he arrived in the city, he saved up all the money he was earning working at his tutor's house. He could wait no longer and wanted to make sure he kept his promise. The hairpin was modest of course but it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It had a water-like stone embedded that reminded him of Soo-Ah and her eyes. After so many years, he smiled thinking back at his childish foolishness. Because he still carried the hairpin in his knapsack, tucked away and safely wrapped in leather, waiting for the right time to give it to its rightful owner. Holding on to the past and a dream for the future.

Soon enough, between jokes and encouragements to move faster, they were on top of the highest hill, ready to cross the unmarked border where the tension of war gave way to normal, daily life.

Since Soo-Ah had departed from the camp, she struggled not to look back, not even once. In the end, she yielded to the inexplicable yearning of this strange call she could not silence. She turned her horse around and stopped. The pointy tops of the tents and a couple of high-raised flags with their usual tails were still noticeable in the distance, vaguely through the midday haze.

"Forgot something?" Jung-In asked, approaching on his horse.

"No, but I am afraid I will."

"What? How a field camp looks like?" Jung-In chuckled while patting his mare.

"Yes," Soo-Ah answered in all honesty, tilting her head and offering Jung-In a sad smile. But it was more. Looking back, she also bid farewell to her grandfather and prayed he was blessing her from beyond.

"By the gods! Most people cannot wait to forget what war looks like," Jung-In mumbled, scrunching his nose in the same funny way he did when he was a child.

Soo-Ah understood what he meant but did not answer. She goaded her horse back on the road and took one more glimpse at what had been familiar for so much of her life. The little sprout that she was when she came to live among the armies, had taken root in the tortured soil of the encampments and adapted to flourish there. And now, the winds of change were uprooting her from the only thing that was familiar, ferrying her to unknown territory.

All the tragedies she had witnessed and lived through could not dilute the good memories. The ones she had made with her grandfather and with a handful of people. She was a child of the war and war was coming to an end for her. She had been a child marked by fear and she finally took the first step to conquer that fear. Like closing the last chapter of a bittersweet story, she embraced the melancholy.

Out of the blue, she began to sing a song, under Jung-In's surprised gaze.

"𝐵𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟, 𝑂𝑛 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑒

𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒.

𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛,

𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘, 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑜𝑤𝑠.

𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑘𝑦,

𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟, 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑒..."

She smiled softly to herself.

Whatever may come her way, at least now she knew who she was. No more disguises, no more lies, no more hiding away behind an image. She was Soo-Ah, daughter of the North, a Wildflower like no other with a Heart forged on the edge of battles.

After all, nothing could go wrong, when she had by her side her old friend, Jung-In and this new flame called Sung-Ho, reuniting with her a few short months down the road.

~The End of Volume I The Sprout~

Book 2 - The Bud (Excerpt)

| Chapter 1 - Kindness

The wind howled through the bare branches while the moon cast an eerie glow over them. The limbs of the trees joined in harmony and made the old forest resonate with solitude and gloom. All around the air was cold, announcing that, though well on its way, spring was still far off and would be long in coming.

From time to time a hooting sound was heard. There was life underneath the deathly coldness of the woods. A dot of amber light, the fire crackling, and diffused voices were the only things that felt out of place in this solemn setting.

Jung-In was up on his feet, tall and stately like the trees around him. He kept talking and gesticulating with such passion that the flames cast shadows over his moving hands, bringing to life his recollections.

"Soo-Ah, wait till we get to Seorabeol. I can't forget the first time I saw it. So much colour. And just beyond it, water like I've never seen in my life. Not a river or a lake, but the sea! It will take your breath away. Don't worry, I'll remind you to breathe, blink and swallow!" His invested expression quickly changed when he started to chuckle, imagining the young woman's face setting her eyes upon such a sight.

After so many years the memory was still vivid, of his companions making fun of his gaping maw and eyes when he laid his eyes on Seorabeol for the first time. Soo-Ah was sure to have the same reaction. There could be only one city as great as the capital of the Silla Kingdom.

Soo-Ah, mesmerized by Jung-In's exuberant speech, needed to tease him. "So this is why we never heard from you, in all these years. You fell in love with a city and forgot all about us."

Old habits died hard it seemed.

"Aside from the fact that you disappeared all of a sudden from the face of the earth, yeah, you could say I fell in love with a city. But trust me, you'll fall in love also," Jung-In grinned at her as he sat down on a log and poked the fire with a stick to ignite some of the embers. After a short pause, the young man continued, deliberately avoiding her eyes, "I used to go down to the port and stare at the sea, you know? It was the only thing that reminded me of you."...

( the continuation awaits in Volume II - The Bud)