It was not that nothing was wrong.
“…?”
Temporarily stunned, Rowoon struggled to overcome the buffering in his mind.
“I think I may have heard you wrong…”
“No, you heard correctly. It’s cancer.”
Hearing Lee Jeonghye say it so calmly seemed to resolve all the missing links from before.
Rowoon remembered how she was always tired and the unidentified pills she occasionally tossed into her mouth.
I didn’t think she was old enough to be suffering from age-related illness yet.
Lee Jeonghye was not nearly old enough for it to be dismissed as simple aging.
Iho told me that she had always been physically frail, so I thought that was all it was.
He had not known that a bomb this enormous was hidden beneath it all.
He had not merely imagined that she looked increasingly gaunt as time passed.
Come to think of it, Lee Yunseo’s visits were a little unusual too.
No matter how close they were, Rowoon had found it somewhat surprising that her grandniece visited and looked after her every single day.
When he considered it patient care, all the pieces fell into place.
“Then shouldn’t you not be here right now? I think you should be hospitalized…”
“There wouldn’t be much point in going. There’s no way to treat it anyway. It has already spread to several places…”
Lee Jeonghye continued in the same calm voice.
“At most, all they can offer is treatment to prolong my life. What would be the point of that at my age? I would rather do whatever I want and look my fill at the faces I have missed.”
A clear smile rested on Lee Jeonghye’s face as she spoke.
Lee Jeonghye appeared to have transcended it all.
She did not look like someone with death right before her eyes.
“I became curious about why the person who spent all those years seeming as though he might come closer but never did, making me worry myself sick, had suddenly decided to appear like this. Once he makes up his mind, he can be terribly stubborn. That is partly why I deliberately gave you an even harder time, Mr. Rowoon.”
She said she had also rather enjoyed watching Iho become anxious and agitated whenever she deliberately made some minor mistake.
She missed him, yet she was also angry at Iho for running away however he pleased.
Even so, her resentment had weathered away over the long years, leaving longing to accumulate in its place.
“He could have appeared just a little sooner. To finally show his face only when I hardly have any time left. He really is a terrible person, isn’t he?”
Iho’s concern had not been unfounded.
So this is why he was worried about her.
Iho had watched over Lee Jeonghye for a long time.
Moreover, he possessed both the ability to see what lay ahead and unusually keen instincts.
He must have sensed that something was wrong.
I’m telling you, the strange thing is that nothing has happened. It would not be strange if something had already happened!
What Iho had said in his agitation had not been nonsense after all.
Something tremendous had already happened.
They had simply failed to notice because the person involved had concealed it so thoroughly.
Rowoon remembered how Iho’s reactions had made even those watching him anxious.
That was why.
“Iho was very worried about you, Jeonghye.”
Rowoon found himself adding a word in Iho’s defense without realizing it.
“It also seemed as though he went through enough hardship to cough up blood while trying to find me.”
He was not particularly trying to take Iho’s side.
For some reason, Lee Jeonghye’s detached and serene smile merely looked lonely to Rowoon.
“He… did that?”
Her eyes widened, as though she had known only that Iho had asked Rowoon for help because he could not intervene directly, but nothing about what had happened behind the scenes.
“Yes. The only reason I was able to help you was because Iho warned me in advance.”
“Do you mean everything?”
“He sent me there ahead of time and had me wait.”
“Oh dear. It seems his attempt to show me a vulnerable side so I could not leave with peace of mind ended up inconveniencing you.”
“No. That isn’t what I’m trying to say.”
What began as a small attempt to support him had somehow turned into Rowoon defending Iho.
Even so, he felt as though this was something he needed to say now.
“It means that he worries about you that much. He seemed especially concerned about your health.”
Lee Jeonghye’s large eyes blinked slowly.
“I honestly didn’t understand why. But after hearing what you’ve said just now… I feel as though Iho’s concern wasn’t unfounded.”
When Rowoon finished awkwardly, Lee Jeonghye seemed to think deeply before speaking.
“Now that you say that, there is one thing I can guess. Have I told you how I discovered the cancer?”
“No.”
“It was during a health examination I had recently. It is embarrassing to admit at my age, but I dislike hospitals because of something that happened in the past. Yunseo knows that as well. But beginning a few months ago, she kept pestering me to get a health examination. Then one day, she brought home a pamphlet and said I had won a free health-examination event.”
“Could that have been…?”
“Yes. I imagine what you are thinking is correct. He was probably the one who arranged it.”
So that was it.
He had sensed something from the moment he told her to undergo a health examination. Then, when there was no follow-up, he kept saying that something felt strange.
That was why he had agonized alone, searched all over the country for Rowoon, and coughed up blood in the process.
[Hmm. So that fellow did pay a fair amount of attention after all.]
Perhaps even Cheonghwa had not expected it, because her previously sharp attitude softened.
“He is a very kind person, even if he pretends otherwise.”
Kind…?
It seems there may be some disagreement in how everyone interprets his character…….
While Rowoon and Cheonghwa were briefly thrown into confusion, Lee Jeonghye continued.
“Truthfully… this resentment is not his fault either. They were feelings I embraced and nurtured as I pleased. I cannot hold him responsible for them, can I?”
An ignorant human child might easily have been a nuisance, yet Iho had kept his promise and remained by her side without showing it for more than enough time for the landscape to change twice over.
“If I had to give it a name, I suppose it would be sulking. Sulking that relied upon his kindness.”
Having finished speaking, Lee Jeonghye made a careful request.
“Would you keep what happened today a secret, as much as possible?”
The request included not only their secret meeting but also the fact that she was ill.
“He has only barely come this close. If he learns that I know, he may run far away again. I no longer have enough time left to wait……”
Lee Jeonghye calmly predicted her own approaching end.
“Besides, nothing would change even if he knew. It would only upset him unnecessarily.”
Even at the very end, her consideration was for someone other than herself.
“Are you truly all right with that?”
“I regret that I do not have much life left, but because of it, Iho has come this close, and I am able to hear news of him like this. I can only be happy about that.”
Lee Jeonghye spoke as she gently patted Rowoon, as though comforting him.
“Do not let it weigh too heavily on you. I am grateful enough that you listened. I have been writing it all down as though keeping a diary, but perhaps I wanted to tell someone about it like this at least once.”
Lee Jeonghye smiled as though a great weight had been lifted from her heart.
It was confident and refreshed.
Yet a hint of regret also showed through.
It was a smile in which countless emotions had melted together.
The secret meeting that had taken place so unexpectedly ended just as quickly.
When Lee Jeonghye said it was almost time for Lee Yunseo to come and pick her up, Rowoon and Cheonghwa decided to withdraw as well.
I did receive a request from Iho, but…
Given what the situation had become, it also seemed somewhat inappropriate to remain there indefinitely.
[What are you worried about? Nothing will happen. I left a portion of my energy with Ms. Jeonghye, so if anything happens, I will surely know. More importantly… do you truly intend to do it?]
“Jeonghye agreed, and it seems worth trying. You said it yourself, Cheonghwa. If things continue like this, only lingering regret will remain.”
[That is true, but…]
Iho had descended to the mortal world as he pleased, stirred everything up, and formed connections.
Even if one generously overlooked the fact that he had formed them, he had not even brought them to a proper conclusion.
“You said that lingering attachment was dangerous.”
[Urgh. It is true that it would be troublesome if a fellow with that much spiritual power lost the proper path because of his lingering attachment and was perhaps erased from the celestial register. Great power unbound by rules is dangerous. The mortal world would also be swept up in the aftermath.]
“Then we should make certain he cannot retain that lingering attachment.”
[Those words are also correct. But what if it has the opposite effect?]
Cheonghwa circled around and around as though worried.
“Of course I’ll judge it according to the situation. If it seems wrong, I’ll send the signal to stop.”
[Hmm. Very well.]
“When I send the signal, you must not forget to proceed according to the promise we made beforehand.”
[Of course not! What do you take me for?]
Before parting with Lee Jeonghye, Rowoon had thought,
Is this really the best course?
This was not some modern-day Romeo and Juliet.
Why could two people who cared for each other not meet?
This is so frustrating. It feels a little like eating a dry sweet potato late at night.
So Rowoon decided to provide some satisfying relief himself.
Of course, he knew that life was not a film or a novel and that every situation could not end with gratifying catharsis.
However.
Does leaving it alone somehow make the frustration disappear?
At the very least, he knew that nothing good would come from allowing the current state of affairs to continue.
A more fundamental solution was needed.
So Rowoon proposed one method to Lee Jeonghye.
At first, Lee Jeonghye looked slightly surprised when she heard Rowoon’s plan.
But she soon smiled gently and nodded as though she found it amusing.
“You truly are quite an impressive person. To think you would consider going this far for us. I am already looking forward to it. I wonder how surprised he will be.”
Rowoon had obtained Lee Jeonghye’s permission.
There was now nothing to hold him back.
[In any case, it should be quite a sight if everything goes according to your plan.]
“Right?”
[But you must control your expression. Your face looks exactly like that of someone who has caught himself a fox.]
“Oh, come on. Surely not.”
What Rowoon wanted was the smooth resolution of the request, not the capture of a fox.
Was that not the reason for this little conspiracy?
Besides, there is nothing I could do to a being who has lived for more than a thousand years in the first place.
He could only do the best he could within his limits.
He would soon learn the result.
And so, the next day dawned.
“Nothing happened?”
Iho, who had arrived at the appointed time, suddenly stopped.
An instinctive sense of danger, as though continuing forward would leave him trapped with no way out, brought his steps to a halt.
And at the end of his path stood someone.
“Why did you stop? You should hurry over.”
Rowoon was smiling brightly.
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