Chương 121: S.05 Time to Fly 08(06)

Scene 09_02. The upscale hotel room was cozily lit by the sunlight pushing dimly in. Thanks to the warm 온돌(On-dol_Korean underfloor heating) being on, the bed in the fairly cozily warmed hotel room rustled. Lying there, Hee-jin drew a thin blanket closed to cover her bared body. Hee-jin: It's cold …. At the voice of the just-awakened Hee-jin, Yu-seok—who lay reading his phone with one arm extended so Hee-jin could rest on it—turned his head. Yu-seok: Want me to turn the heat up more? Hee-jin: No.

Shifting the blanket she'd clutched closed, Hee-jin moved a little closer to Yu-seok lying beside her. Hee-jin: I should wash up and head down now. There are only five days left. Yu-seok: How about reconsidering, even now? Hee-jin: For that, don't you think both you and I have come too far, Oppa? Holding Yu-seok's firm body, Hee-jin shared their warm body heat with each other. The plush, soft skin of Hee-jin's breast touched Yu-seok's skin. Hee-jin's flat laugh spilled out, buried in her husky voice.

Yu-seok thought it over carefully and nodded with difficulty. Yu-seok: Fair enough. Hee-jin: If I'd had to reconsider, I'd never have let the Former The Oldest go. Never. After that, we walked a road that can't be undone. Now there's only one thing left. Hee-jin pulled Yu-seok's body in tighter and breathed against his ear as if whispering. Hee-jin: I will, without fail, with my own hands, embrace the defeated. Scene 10. The one always keeping by her side was, as ever, only Seong-hyeon.

Yeon-jin pushed herself up to sit on the sofa, then squinted at the morning light. Today as always, it felt like she only came back to full lucidity after seeing the light flooding into her office. Yeon-jin dragged over the ashtray that had sat on the sofa table, then fished a cigarette from her pocket and put it to her lips. Before striking the lighter, Yeon-jin checked the flame's strength and, with a click, lit it. This time too, the flame Yeon-jin lit flared up bigger than expected, as if bursting.

Holding the flame slightly away, Yeon-jin lit the cigarette and blew out a long stream of smoke. Only then did Seong-hyeon, seated across from her, let out a grave voice. Seong-hyeon: Sis. Yeon-jin: Enough. As if she knew the reason she'd been called, Yeon-jin cut Seong-hyeon off before she could string the rest together. Yeon-jin: I'm meeting him knowing full well, so enough. Seong-hyeon: Knowing what? Yeon-jin: What that man's pulling.

You wouldn't know, but I know what he is, so I'm just sticking around to drag out a bit more information. It's not what you're thinking, so ease up on the nagging. There was nothing to say to Yeon-jin, who held a long drag of smoke.

Since Yeon-jin didn't know the fact that Seong-hyeon was tied to the 단(Dan_The Covenant), Seong-hyeon could only be a naive whore who fretted over Yeon-jin's state—Yeon-jin, who'd begun to fall apart meeting some strange man—while knowing better than anyone what kind of man Yu-seok was, yet unable to say it. Rising with a sigh, Seong-hyeon brewed coffee and brought over a white cup with white steam curling up. After setting it on the table and seating herself again, Seong-hyeon asked Yeon-jin.

Seong-hyeon: What is it you want to do? You, sis? Yeon-jin: I want to become someone no one can touch. Seong-hyeon: You already are. Neither the police nor the prosecutors can touch you, so what, you gonna become a lawmaker? Or, what, a king? Yeon-jin twitched the corner of her mouth. She figured Seong-hyeon didn't know her situation. Letting out a big sigh, Yeon-jin pondered where to begin.

Yeon-jin: If you got damn strong, could pull bad things off without anyone knowing, and — ah, yeah — could even turn back time, briefly, however you pleased, how do you think that'd be? Inwardly Seong-hyeon felt a subtle emotion. She thought the truth of it wasn't like that. It wasn't power. It was closer to a curse. A curse of not even getting to live a whole life and dying earlier than others. It was closer to the nameless trace of nameless people, whose very existence no one in the secular world even knew.

Seong-hyeon couldn't even come up with anything to say. The only thing she managed to think of was that she ought to scold Yeon-jin. Seong-hyeon: You watch a movie or something? What bullshit are you — Yeon-jin: That's exactly why. Because it's something you wouldn't get. That's why I'm meeting him. Seong-hyeon: He says he's got a trick like that? Damn nice. Why? Why didn't he just become king himself? There's a limit to believing in some cult — why? Did he stop short of claiming to be a god??

Yeon-jin stubbed out the burned-down cigarette in the ashtray and wet her lips with a sip of the coffee Seong-hyeon had brewed. Yeon-jin: What would I even say to you, when you won't buy a word of it. Grumbling, Yeon-jin set the coffee in her hand down on the table. Letting out a big sigh, Yeon-jin turned a momentarily blank gaze and looked at the light pushing into her office. Yeon-jin: But, all the same, it is a bit galling. I'll let being toyed with once slide, but I'm starting to get ticked off. Scene 11.

Hee-jin, looking just as clean as the day before, made to leave the hotel room. After spending a night with Yu-seok, just before stepping out the door Hee-jin saw Yu-seok quietly following her out behind her and halted her steps abruptly. The halted steps turned back to Yu-seok. The sun hadn't yet risen to the center of the sky. Hee-jin, having gotten ready by late morning, suddenly turned around, took Yu-seok's neck in her arms, and lightly met his lips.

After the two's warm breaths passed briefly between them, Hee-jin lowered the arms she'd wrapped around Yu-seok's neck, laughed lightly, and turned back around. She opened the closed hotel room door and slowly stepped outside, as if nothing had happened. Hee-jin: I'll head to the meeting place. You go on back first, Oppa. Yu-seok: The car? The awkward one, if anything, was Yu-seok.

His head seemed to have grown fairly tangled, so he couldn't get the long talk out after all, but Hee-jin, without bothering to let it show, moved her stepping feet a little quicker. Hee-jin: I ate here and watched the fire get set here, so of course I parked here. Handle the checkout for me. I think I need to get going fast. Yu-seok nodded without a word. Hee-jin pressed the elevator button.

As the elevator came up, to Yu-seok—who let out a big, awkward sigh for a moment—Hee-jin first took half a step back, came to stand level with Yu-seok, and linked her arm through his. Hee-jin: We'll end up living together once I get thrown out anyway, so don't be so awkward about it. Yu-seok: How could it not be awkward, after spending thirty-some years together. Hee-jin: You don't think this happened all of a sudden, do you? At Hee-jin's provocative question, Yu-seok fell silent yet again.

Hee-jin: You thought I wouldn't catch a single one of your come-ons, Oppa? Yu-seok: Was it obvious? Hee-jin: How very Doe Yu-seok. Seeing as you're not flustered. Stolen story; please report. Yu-seok: I'm not a kid. Hee-jin: Settle for me instead of Kang Ji-young. I'm not such a bad deal, more than you'd think. Yu-seok: Guess once you're the Strategist there's nothing you don't know. At Yu-seok's sly joke, Hee-jin, instead of the usual twitch at the corner of her mouth, burst into a slightly bigger laugh.

Hee-jin: There's a sly streak in you that's not half bad. Doe Yu-seok. A bit dim, though. Yu-seok: Most likely, her asking to see you separately isn't a good sign. The elevator Hee-jin had called arrived. The two of them walked in like an ordinary couple and stepped inside. Hee-jin: I'd expect so. To Hee-jin, who'd pressed both the button for the underground parking lot and the one for the first-floor lobby, Yu-seok gave a careful warning in a slightly smaller voice. Yu-seok: Be careful.

No matter that she's a dog being kept, a pimp's still a pimp. Hee-jin: I should. Always. The elevator doors shut firmly. Scene 12. The capillaries in Ji-young's eyes stood out a little. Holding her meal tray and standing in line while stifling yawn after yawn, Ji-young was queuing at the cafeteria in time for a late Sunday lunch. As staff in casual clothes passed by, offering Ji-young and Yeon-su light nods, So-hui and Si-yeon came up behind Ji-young.

So-hui: I told her to just throw on some makeup and come out, and she damn well wouldn't listen, Lee Si-yeon. Si-yeon: Yah, people keep mistaking me for Ji-young sis and greeting me as it is, so the makeup's gotta be heavy at least for them to tell us apart. Ji-young: Ah, these two are bickering over nothing again, first thing in the morning. Yeon-su: Actually, I went to wake the three of you earlier, but you were sleeping so soundly I couldn't give word about breakfast. Si-yeon: It's fine.

Skipping a day won't kill you — ah. Right. You and I are already dead, oh well. Ji-young: I'm only half dead, thank you. Si-yeon: Anyway, you don't die. Even skipping breakfast. Ji-young: That goes for Jo So-hui and Doe Yeon-su too. So-hui: Ah, the hangover's brutal, of all days today. Ji-young: Twig, what's on the menu today. Yeon-su: Perfect timing — it was pork-bone gamja-tang. Ji-young, So-hui, and Si-yeon all quirked their mouths.

Only then did they open their eyes a bit wider and check the staff's meal trays closely. Hefty pork bones were piled generously in a big brass bowl. Ji-young: Jo So-hui, did you happen to tell our kitchen Manager yesterday? So-hui: Am I supposed to foresee even our hangovers in advance? Ji-young: Guess not. So-hui: But I told them. The four's chatter carried on right up to the serving counter. Ji-young thrust her tray out and stamped her feet. Ji-young: Gamja-tang, gamja-tang!! Gamja-tang!!!

At Ji-young's childish urging, the serving-counter staff hurriedly filled her tray. So-hui and Si-yeon, watching Ji-young, stood a bit off at a distance, trying not to get close. Yeon-su, as if used to it, flatly moved her own tray and got served right after Ji-young. Ji-young set the tray with the generously heaped gamja-tang on the table, then started picking the bones clean without preamble. A moment later, Yeon-su, So-hui, and Si-yeon all settled around Ji-young. Si-yeon: But we did eat it last time, right?

Gamja-tang. So-hui: Honestly, back then, I ate it without even knowing it was going down my throat, Ji-young: Right, like we were even in our right minds back then. Recalling the gamja-tang they'd eaten the day Hyang-rim left a while back, the four talked while picking bones without pause. Yeon-su: Still, it was tasty. Si-yeon sis really cooks well. Si-yeon: I wasn't the only one doing it — others helped out back then too. Ji-young: By the way, did Jeong-seon get there okay? So-hui: Ah, right.

Sis, Jeong-seon says to get in touch whenever you have time. Said she found a phone game she wants to play and asked to play together? Ji-young: So she plays phone games now too. Now that the Godmother's gone. Si-yeon: Still, the Steward actually even encouraged us to hang out cursing freely with her. Said she felt sorry toward Jeong-seon for not being able to do that for her, what with her spending time around people over a hundred years apart from her in age.

As if she could understand what it meant, Ji-young nodded while picking bones. When her long hair slid down, Ji-young scrunched her face slightly, looking annoyed. She pulled a tissue from the table, wiped the fingers she'd been picking bones with, then gathered up her long hair and tied it back. Slipping off one shoe and propping it on the chair again, she hugged her knee and started picking the bones clean in earnest. Ji-young: I should give a call after I eat.

To ask how the Stewards are doing too, while I'm at it. So-hui: And they asked whether the construction payment got paid out from Headquarters here. Ji-young: Of course. It's as good as me having wrecked it. If I had my way, I figured I ought to pay out of my own pocket rather than the budget here. Si-yeon: Sis, do you get paid that much??? Ji-young scrunched her face and shook her head. Ji-young: It's not that much, which is why I used the budget here. So-hui: How much do we get paid??

Ji-young: Uh, the thing is, I didn't set your pay aside separately in the budget plan. I did draw up the budget through the third quarter. Probably the Directorate of Knowledge will work it out together with the administrative office. Still, you'd get about as much as Yeon-hui or Hee-jin sis, no? Even at a starting salary, there's one more grade to it. So-hui: It's been ages since I got a paycheck. Now that I think about it.

Ji-young: Right, you haven't done office life since you slapped your boss and walked out, huh? Did some tutoring gigs. Si-yeon: Slapped?? So-hui: The spinster boss bitch got plastered and harassed me at a company dinner. Called me a bitch who'd spread her legs for the male staff, and I just couldn't take it, so I doused her with beer and cracked her head open with the beer glass right there. Yeon-su: Oh. That's beyond just a slap …. So-hui: But I just turned time back right after.

That SSibal bitch won't even remember, but it was cathartic. And galling too. She doesn't remember, right. It became something only I remember. Even that SSibal bitch bawling and kneeling and begging forgiveness — because of the time I turned back, it became a thing that never happened, so in the end it became something only I find cathartic and only I find galling. Ji-young: So-hui had a rough time of it, actually, stopping me from charging after her and raging that I'd set the place on fire too.

So-hui: Ji-young sis is someone who'd actually set fires for real. Ji-young: Because I set fire to the university I attended too. Si-yeon: I've torched some SSibal bitch's entire office clean too. Listening to the talk, Yeon-su, nearly done picking her bones clean, grumbled to herself. Yeon-su: Aigoo, every last one of them's an arso — Yeon-su's words couldn't carry on. The three sent Yeon-su a stinging, hot stare, looking straight at her.

Yeon-su, struck with an oh-shoot feeling, froze right there with a bone in her mouth, her muttering left unfinished. Scene 13. It wasn't a place all that welcome to return to. Hee-jin moved her clacking heels and entered another hotel lobby. In broad daylight it was an ordinary hotel. It wasn't as upscale as the hotel she'd slept and left, but it was still a hotel of a decently regarded grade. It was only the establishment on the upper floors that was the problem—otherwise an ordinary hotel, with nothing amiss.

Hee-jin's clacking steps headed for the hotel front desk. Heading to the desk in a fine formal suit, Hee-jin wrote a floor number on a memo slip set on the desk and handed it to the desk clerk. The clerk, having checked the floor number, silently handed over a key. Taking the key, Hee-jin headed for the elevator set to the side of the hotel lobby.

Approaching the elevator that moved only with a key inserted, Hee-jin slid the key in and turned it with a somewhat practiced motion, and the closed doors of the elevator stopped on the first floor opened. When the closed elevator doors opened, Hee-jin headed out. As if he'd been waiting for Hee-jin, Hong-sin, who'd been standing at one side of a corridor lined with high-floor windows, moved his large frame over and approached Hee-jin. Hong-sin: You've arrived.

She didn't so much as pretend to hear Hong-sin's courteous voice. When she didn't stop her walking steps, Hong-sin, with quicker steps, stood ahead of Hee-jin and guided her. Following Hong-sin's lead, she went in through an opened door. Yeon-jin stood in place and offered a courteous greeting. After answering Yeon-jin's courtesy with a light nod, Hee-jin sent the rest of her steps inside. It was still a hard place to get used to. She didn't want to get used to it either.

After Hee-jin stepped in, the opened door shut firmly. Yeon-jin held out a hand and offered Hee-jin a seat. Once Hee-jin, taking the head seat of the sofa, sat down first, Yeon-jin seated herself after her. Before Hee-jin and Yeon-jin sat a cup of warm coffee each. Yeon-jin: Hearing word that you'd come up from the lobby, I prepared it in advance. Hee-jin silently lifted the coffee cup and lightly wet her lips.

As the warm coffee went down her throat, the cold seemed to ease a little only then, and Hee-jin straightened her back a bit more and asked Yeon-jin. Hee-jin: Why is it you asked to see me? Yeon-jin: I invited you because I wanted to ask what happened yesterday. Hee-jin: What I'm more curious about is the intent behind your wanting me to go to the trouble of saying it with my own mouth. Yeon-jin: It seems even the Strategist knows shame.

At Yeon-jin's somewhat relaxed voice, Hee-jin flicked her eyes up and looked at Yeon-jin. Withdrawing the cool glance again, she lifted the cup and drank one more sip of coffee. Hee-jin: Drunk as I was, I did briefly share a bed between the Former Executive Secretary and the Master of the Province, but since I'm no beast, I don't consider it a story worth keeping in memory or excreting out my mouth again. Yeon-jin: How did you know I was seeing Doe Yu-seok? Hee-jin: Were you, now?

Yeon-jin: Of course, it's closer to a calculated relationship, but I'm the one who asked. That can't count as an answer. Hee-jin: It is an answer. Since it was a question that meant I didn't know. Yeon-jin: It's merely the evasion of someone who already knows. Hee-jin twitched the corner of her mouth. Hee-jin: If the reason you'd go out of your way to ask this is, perhaps, that you're afraid you've been cast off by your master, then do rein it in. Yeon-jin: Yesterday's affair is something that never happened.

The three of you would never have shared a bed. So speak properly. What happened yesterday? Hee-jin: … Who's to say …. Yeon-jin: I think that Doe Yu-seok and the Strategist owe me something to repay. What I've backed isn't a small amount. Hee-jin: That shouldn't be called something owed. It's closer to a mutual transaction. Yeon-jin: If you didn't receive your compensation in a transaction, that becomes a debt. Hee-jin: But there's nothing I haven't given. Yeon-jin: I've never received anything.

Hee-jin: But I've already given you what you wanted. Yeon-jin: And what is that? What do you take me to want? Hee-jin: All-powerful might. Power, or status. Weren't those the kind of thing you wanted? Yeon-jin: I never received it, so I'm ask — Yeon-jin's words choked off in an instant. Her smug attitude vanished without a trace as she jerked back in alarm, as if pulling away from the sofa. Yeon-jin: Wh-what did you do. The lot of you. Hee-jin: How laughable.

You met Doe Yu-seok, read my intentions ahead of time, prepared in advance, and acted as if you'd remain a dog by any means—then to bare your teeth this easily, just because you were uneasy for a few days, I can't help but be disappointed. Yeon-jin: What did you do to m —!! Hee-jin: You said you didn't want power in death, so I let you have power while alive — yet the dog foolishly craved its food and means, after all, to bare those teeth at its master. Yeon-jin: Wh-what …?

Hee-jin: Coaxing Doe Yu-seok to look after your own interests fell within the bounds of forgivable, but slipping something strange into the drink I was to have and trying to abduct me, all to dig out one more paltry curiosity — that's rather hard to forgive, wouldn't you say. Master of the Province. Hee-jin settled herself comfortably and even folded her arms. Gazing straight at Yeon-jin, Hee-jin asked her. Hee-jin: Now then, what will you do? I drank it knowing.

By the taste, it was that drug I was always dosed with while staying here with The Oldest. In ten minutes, I'll either go into heat like a dog or pass out. One of the two. And you — what will you do? Will you abduct me, or simply let me rest and then send me off obediently? Yeon-jin trembled at her fingertips. But the weakness didn't last long. Yeon-jin: I'd be better off calling out what's inside me myself and making a deal. Hee-jin: Do you know what that is? Yeon-jin: I don't. Hee-jin: I'll tell you, then.

It is the Weeping of Immolation, of the Envoy's Legion. The one who weeps scorched by fire. Of course, since you aren't of the dead, only a trace of it lingers. Even that much made you a being the living cannot stand against. I'd meant to leave you as no more than a passing chess piece, but since you've rudely gone so far as to bare your teeth, I plan to change my thinking a bit. Yeon-jin: Is it my death? Hee-jin: Are you afraid? Yeon-jin, forcing her fear under control, slowly nodded.

Hee-jin: Then I'll give you one more chance. Yeon-jin: What kind …. Hee-jin: These days I'm searching for a vessel for that Weeping of Immolation to dwell in. As it happens, I know a suitable someone who could serve as that vessel. Yeon-jin: Who is it? Hee-jin: The cripple. Yeon-jin twitched the corner of her mouth. The emotion she felt wasn't joy, but what formed was nothing but a sneering smile. Yeon-jin: However much I hate my own flesh and blood, do you really see that as even a conceivable thing right now?

Hee-jin twitched her lips. Hee-jin: Then the negotiation falls through. Now. I'll close my eyes and try to get some sleep, so do as you see fit. Arms folded, Hee-jin sank herself a bit deeper into the sofa. Eyes closed, Hee-jin left behind a chilling remark. Hee-jin: Only — you ought to know that just because you won't do it doesn't make me someone who can't.