Chương 107: S.05 Time to Fly 06(05)

Scene 03_08. FLASHBACK It was harder work than she'd expected. Not that the body was hard. The effort spent on a heart she'd struggled to numb had emptied Seong-hyeon's head clean out. Behind Seong-hyeon, who'd curled up lying facedown, a familiar voice came. Seong-hyeon, only just past adulthood now, lay with her head buried, fairly heavy makeup drawn on. Si-yeon: That's what you get — should've gone when I told you to. You idiot.

Lying still, Seong-hyeon only listened to Si-yeon's soft, calm reproach — comforting her as if cursing her. Seong-hyeon: I'm the one who decided to stay. I don't blame you, sis. And anyway, the only ones who looked after me to the end were you, sis, and Boss-sis. Where would someone like me even go. At Seong-hyeon's voice on the verge of tears, Si-yeon sighed and sat herself on Seong-hyeon's bed. Si-yeon's long sigh felt hollow.

Not bothering to uncover Seong-hyeon, who'd burrowed in as if clutching the blanket tight, Si-yeon went on in a troubled voice, small as it was. Si-yeon: The truth is, back then, there was a place you could've gone — I thought about telling you and couldn't. Seong-hyeon: Why. Si-yeon: Just — afraid you'd be put in danger, and they'd be put in danger too. Feels like I got scared first, maybe. Seong-hyeon: That café ajeossi you'd go on about every time you got drunk? Si-yeon: You remember that?

Seong-hyeon: 'Cause you ran your mouth about it every time you got wasted. Si-yeon: Known me a little while and now you're running your trap. You idiot bitch. Seong-hyeon: Back then, if I'd gone to those people, would it have been different? Si-yeon: Whether they'd have carried on with me what they never finished, or whether they wouldn't have taken you in at all to keep you from ending up like me — that, even I don't know.

At the embarrassment and shame that belatedly crowded in, Seong-hyeon buried her head deeper. Seong-hyeon: If not for you, sis, I'd have dropped dead in the street. I won't regret it. Never have. It's just — first time, so it's a bit — Si-yeon: If you say so, that's a relief — but I do feel real sorry about it. Seong-hyeon slowly shook her buried head. Si-yeon sprang up first and said to Seong-hyeon. Si-yeon: Come on. Let's go get some hangover soup. I'm starving. Scene 03_09.

FLASHBACK As the tipped glasses piled up, the morning light climbed helplessly higher. Si-yeon's listless gaze turned pitifully toward the already-drunk Seong-hyeon's slurring tongue. The busy steps of the summer-morning commute showed through the plate glass of the sundae-gukbap house. To Si-yeon, who'd let out a small sigh, Seong-hyeon loosed her slurring tongue. Seong-hyeon: Me, though — I don't hate Boss-sis. Si-yeon: I hate her fucking guts, myself.

Seong-hyeon: Helping me stay with you, Si-yeon sis, and not skimming my money but handing it over straight — honestly, I'm really thankful. Si-yeon: Did you not hear me. I said I want her dead, that bitch. Seong-hyeon nodded her drunken head this way and that. Seong-hyeon: I'd just rather you didn't, though. Si-yeon: Hey. Look. Si-yeon jerked her chin at the drunk Seong-hyeon. They looked at the blank faces of the busy, irritation-tinged people beyond the plate glass.

Beyond the window she was watching the ordinary figures of countless people. It was a sight that showed clearly even past Seong-hyeon's swaying gaze. Si-yeon: Back in my high school breaks, I used to get up early every morning to help the ajeossi out, getting coffee ready to sell to people like them. I couldn't get up early enough to see all that many people, but I always stopped by the café and helped out with the shop his family had been running. I liked that work better than school.

I was fucking hopeless at brewing coffee, but the ajeossi was so grateful to me — said folks came in just for me. Still, he'd never once let me come work at the shop after the break ended. Said I had a place of my own where I was meant to be. Said it doesn't come back once it's gone, so I should stay there and give it my all. Si-yeon lifted the glass before her and tipped it back into her mouth.

When Seong-hyeon, with a clumsy motion, made to refill Si-yeon's emptied glass, Si-yeon made a sour face, took the bottle from Seong-hyeon's hand, and filled her own glass herself. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Si-yeon: And the one who stole that place of mine was that boss bitch. I will never, ever forgive her. Seong-hyeon: Mm …. It was a hatred one could understand. To Seong-hyeon's mind it was a hatred all Si-yeon's own, fully understandable.

It was a hatred she hoped, please, the Si-yeon unspooling her past in brief had come to terms with. But Si-yeon had never once come to terms with it. She'd only slapped a filthy disgrace over the hatred stored deep, as if to hide it. Si-yeon: Me — someday, I'm going to kill her, for sure. That SSibal bitch. Scene 03_10. FLASHBACK Seong-hyeon's cheek had split red. Her lip had burst and blood seeped out.

Before Seong-hyeon, kneeling, stood some woman customer with her temper risen to the top of her head — and along with her, Si-yeon's wheedling voice, trying to soothe the customer's anger while cradling her as if to embrace her. Si-yeon: Aw, sis~ I'll redo it for you. Hm? Let's go. She just doesn't know any better. As Si-yeon covered for Seong-hyeon's blunder and stepped away to soothe the huffing anger, a familiar handkerchief was thrust out abruptly to the kneeling Seong-hyeon.

Yeon-jin: Si-yeon'll calm her down well enough. Up you get. With trembling hands she barely caught the offered handkerchief. She pressed the cloth over her burst lip and the long, torn-open wound at the corner of her eye. Her quaking legs wouldn't straighten for anything. Hearing Seong-hyeon's labored, sorrowful sigh, Yeon-jin bent at the waist and raised her up, propping her.

Only after watching Si-yeon disappear into her own room at the end of the corridor could Yeon-jin finally get Seong-hyeon all the way to her feet. To soothe Seong-hyeon's mute grief, Yeon-jin carefully propped her along toward her own office, which she'd left open. Each time the high heels wobbled, Yeon-jin held Seong-hyeon up a little more. Propping Seong-hyeon as if patting her steady, Yeon-jin went into the office with her.

Once the two had stepped inside, they shut the door firmly and carried on the rest of their steps. Only after carefully seating the utterly crestfallen Seong-hyeon on the wide sofa did Yeon-jin twist her own shoulder a moment as if it were stiff and settle herself on the sofa across from Seong-hyeon. To Seong-hyeon, who didn't smoke, she didn't bother offering a cigarette. Dragging over the ashtray set on the sofa table, Yeon-jin lit her long pipe. Yeon-jin: Don't fret. I'll cover it all.

I'd heard that one — a drifter, no less — shows up once in a blue moon and wants the world. At Yeon-jin's grumbled voice, Seong-hyeon could offer no answer at all. A long silence stretched on. The wheedling voices that wore through the night came from all directions, far off. As if today of all days she couldn't bear to hear it, Seong-hyeon could hardly lift her head. After blowing out several long streams of smoke, Yeon-jin asked the head-bowed Seong-hyeon listlessly. Yeon-jin: You regret it?

Seong-hyeon couldn't answer. Yeon-jin: If you want out, just say. Si-yeon asked me to let you go anytime you want to leave. Said she'd take it all on. Your share included. Seong-hyeon: Just so she can rake in all the money herself. At Seong-hyeon's grumbled, empty quip, Yeon-jin twitched the corner of her mouth. Yeon-jin: You do want to go, though? It was a question come again. Seong-hyeon slowly shook her head. Yeon-jin: Why?

Letting out a big sigh, Seong-hyeon belatedly lifted her head and offered a calm, sunken voice. Seong-hyeon: Where would I go and meet people like you, sis, or Si-yeon sis. With a small sigh, Yeon-jin asked back, her sneering smile still in place. Yeon-jin: That one says she'll kill me herself one day, you know? Seong-hyeon: I get it. That — I won't be able to stop. It's just — even saying I wish she wouldn't isn't something the likes of me dares to say.

But — Seong-hyeon lowered her dazed, faded gaze and looked at the ashtray heaped over with cigarette butts. Seong-hyeon: I just — I keep hoping you won't die at anyone's hands. Anyone other than Si-yeon sis, that is. Yeon-jin: Well, that's decently sweet of you. Seong-hyeon: Honestly — if I'd been Si-yeon sis, I don't think I'd have managed to hold back either. Scene 03_11. Si-yeon stood in the garden taking a call. Familiar noise tuned to the deep night came through from the other end of the phone.

Si-yeon, one arm crossed, moved her steps listlessly and gave the incoming call a familiar brusqueness. Si-yeon: You're the one who should watch yourself. Keep running into a bastard like that and it's only you who gets hurt. A deep sigh came from the other end of the receiver. Suddenly grated, Si-yeon flung a rebuke straight at the sighing voice. Si-yeon: Ah-ni, SSibal, this one keeps sighing away at me. The young one, no less. At the light rebuke, a voice raised without malice came faintly across.

As if dumbfounded, Si-yeon let a puff of breath slip across the receiver. Si-yeon: Did this one eat something rotten. Baek Seong-hyeon, you gone crazy? Seong-hyeon: I'm not crazy! What! The sharp voice shifted at once into one laced thick with a nasal coo. As Seong-hyeon's sales-floor voice, turned coquettish, began carrying to someone on the other end of the phone, Si-yeon — as if the call could go no further — hung up first. She let out a big sigh.

Si-yeon glanced through the living-room plate glass at So-hui, who was carrying on a call inside the 별채(Byeol-chae_Detached Quarters). Crossing her arms the rest of the way, Si-yeon stood taking in the cold wind, trying to sort out the somewhat tangled thoughts as if unspooling them. Calm steps carried on. The old Si-yeon wouldn't even have tried to sort out her thoughts. It had been a time lived loosely, drinking and trusting that things would be over by the time she woke. After dying, she stopped living that way.

Her heart's wish was not to be a burden to the people striving for her sake. Before Si-yeon's steps, which carried on as she paced a good while, the front of a familiar person fell into view. So-hui: Aren't you cold? In So-hui's hand was a somewhat thin coat. Unfolding her crossed arms, Si-yeon grasped her own coat held in So-hui's hand. Si-yeon: When'd you come out? So-hui: Just now. Si-yeon: And Ji-young sis? So-hui nodded without a word. Carefully taking So-hui's hand, Si-yeon carried on the rest of her steps.

So-hui, holding Si-yeon's hand as if cradling it, kept pace with Si-yeon's slow steps. Si-yeon: Does Ji-young sis know how much is left, too? Holding Si-yeon's hand, So-hui nodded and let a small breath slip out. So-hui: I can't even begin to imagine how terrifying the path the lost child has laid out will be. Si-yeon: People who don't so much as change color in the face are the scariest of all, true. Which is exactly why you and I are small fry.

When Si-yeon turned So-hui's stifled voice into something comical, So-hui twitched the corner of her mouth. Si-yeon: The two of us, we just itch to write it all over our faces. Like, "Would you look at that SSibal bitch?" So-hui: I'm not that much of a small fry, okay? At So-hui's protest, Si-yeon crumpled her face listlessly and answered in a voice with not a trace of sincerity to be found. Si-yeon: Ahh~ yes. Whatever you saaay~ Si-yeon let go of her hand fast and bolted across the cold yard with all her might.

Face scrunched, So-hui tore after the Si-yeon who'd started to flee. Scene 03_12. Her outfit was comfortable, but her expression was not. Before Ji-young, seated on a 보료(Bo-ryo_cushioned mat) in leggings and a single T-shirt, sat the Directors, dressed as comfortably as she was. Having heard out the whole of Ji-young's calm words, the Directors, as if mulling something over, couldn't readily put forth a voice.

As these people — who couldn't easily leave their places even at full nightfall — gathered up their deep inner thoughts, Hee-jin, seated between the Directors and Ji-young, was first to speak. Hee-jin: They will most likely come crashing in before they've managed to prepare. At Hee-jin's words, Jeong-in nodded as if in agreement. Jeong-in: They surely never expected the Weeping of Putrefaction to be cleared up so easily.

Still, considering the things the Oldest went through over at the Black Doctrine before, I think the same. The Weeping of Immolation will likely come crashing down soon. Soo-a: But there's no way those people have anything else they could even call preparation. Eun-jae: They'll only drag up some one-legged specter dregs, and they can't lightly step out on that alone. So long as the Oldest, together with the Envoy, remains in the world of the living, whatever they prepare won't be enough.

Ji-young, sitting cross-legged, even folded her arms and carried on a somewhat deep deliberation. Turning her head, she put a question to Hee-jin. Ji-young: By any chance — how far along is the preparation? Hee-jin: The fact that I brought in Officer Mun Gyeong-seo of the Directorate of Support today is, in truth, a matter tied to that. The preparations are done, for now. Ji-young: Mm. Then after the meal later, would the Directors inspect it once in person. I-seon: Understood.

Ji-young: It's a bit comical, the way they come crashing in one after another, but still — if they make hostages of ordinary lives to stir up trouble, it could bring an improper outcome for us too, so it's best we prepare ahead. As if she'd said all she had to say, Ji-young straightened her back a little and gave an awkward smile to the Directors seated across from her. Ji-young: Sorry for calling you in after work hours. It's a bit late, but let's go eat first.