"You can't do that within the grounds of Shaolin Temple—!"
The words trailed off into an ugly sound.
That's right. He had bitten his tongue.
"…"
"…"
For a moment, silence flowed.
But it did not last long. Because Seol Ri-hyang burst out laughing.
"Ahahaha!"
Seol Ri-hyang burst out laughing, patting the hand she had just placed on my thigh with a subtle air, slapping it again and again.
Naturally, the ticklish atmosphere vanished completely—and with it, my internal energy.
Somehow, that brief moment felt more exhausting than the several sijin we had spent discussing martial arts and Gakjeong.
"Haa…"
A sigh escaped me before I could stop it. Hearing it, Seol Ri-hyang began to wheeze as if she were choking on her laughter.
"Euh! I was wondering what you'd say with that usual deadpan face. Ahah! You said 'deheok'… hehehe! You bit your tongue! Ahahaha!"
"…Well, a person can bite their tongue now and then, you know. Don't you think you're laughing a bit too much?"
"But why did you have to bite it right now, huh? What were you imagining doing with me that got you so flustered? Surely you weren't imagining something weird, were you? Huh? Cheon Hwi. Say something. I'm dying of curiosity!"
"Could you keep your mouth shut for a moment…"
"Nope! Nope nope nope! If you really want to shut my mouth, then you try to stop me yourself!"
With that, Seol Ri-hyang puckered her lips out like a duck.
And then, as if to tease me, she wiggled her head side to side and worked her lips, and I felt a sudden surge of irritation.
Squish.
"Mmph?!"
Seol Ri-hyang's lips were caught in my grip. Holding her mouth shut, I shook it back and forth.
"Bweup? Euheup!"
"What do you take me for? I'm a person too, a person. When I see something pretty, I think it's pretty, and when the mood suddenly turns like that… and especially when I know there's a betrothed waiting behind me, I get nervous—that's the kind of person I am."
"Eububup? Beupeup."
I figured that was enough, and since I couldn't make out what Seol Ri-hyang was saying anyway, I decided to let her go at that point.
"Phew-ha!"
Finally regaining freedom of speech, Seol Ri-hyang spoke up, her voice carrying a lingering trace of laughter—fainter than before, but still very much there.
"It's all because the usual Cheon Hwi acts like a block of wood, you know."
"Me?"
"It was fine when I was young, but after I grew a bit—especially after Tang unni said something—you've often been stiff when dealing with me, haven't you?"
"…"
"Ah, that wasn't a dirty joke just now, so don't misunderstand."
"…I've never even thought about something like that."
I let out a hollow laugh and looked back on my recent actions.
It was true. Compared to before, I had been showing a somewhat strange attitude when dealing with Seol Ri-hyang.
It wasn't for any great reason. It was simply because the growing Seol Ri-hyang was gradually resembling her pre-regression self.
Her smiling face was similar, the habitual flick of her hand was similar, her voice was similar, the way she'd tease me whenever she got the chance was similar… and even the way she liked me was similar.
There was no helping it—I would inevitably recall the image of my past life from time to time.
Just moments ago, I had flinched at the sight of Seol Ri-hyang humming on the floor.
I had quickly pulled myself together, but I couldn't deny that such incidents were growing more frequent.
Perhaps it was because the young Seol Ri-hyang showed more honest reactions than the Seol Ri-hyang of before the regression—the one who had forced herself back onto her feet after being hurt and broken.
There were even times when I belatedly understood, through the Seol Ri-hyang of now, words and actions I had failed to comprehend back then.
However, just because I thought I had handled it quickly on my end didn't mean it looked that way from the other person's perspective.
Just as Tang So-wol had vaguely sensed that I was seeing her not as she was now, but as she had been before the regression.
Seol Ri-hyang must have noticed the subtle reaction I showed whenever I looked at her.
The difference, if there is one, is that Tang So-wol reminds me of someone from the past I can no longer see… whereas Seol Ri-hyang thinks I'm thinking of Tang So-wol.
"Haah. Sister Tang said it's fine as long as we keep the order… but be honest with me, Cheon Hwi. You just don't like me, do you?"
"Why would that be?"
"Hm?"
"How many men in this world could possibly dislike you, Seol Ri-hyang? At least I'm not one of them. My eyes work perfectly fine."
"Oh, really?"
Only then did Seol Ri-hyang smile in satisfaction and flop down onto the wooden floor.
"Well, whatever. This is good enough. Sister Tang might be on your mind, but I'm on your mind too, right? That's all that matters. Yeah."
Seol Ri-hyang muttered to herself. Perhaps because she had taken off her shoes while waiting, her bare feet, naturally turned toward me as she lay down, came into view.
Perhaps because it was a dark night. Her white skin stood out as if floating, catching my eye.
After staring at them for a moment, I lightly lifted one up.
"Eek?!"
Startled by the sudden grab of her foot, Seol Ri-hyang flinched and lifted only her head.
"Wh-what are you doing all of a sudden?"
"Thinking about it, I realized I should finish what I was saying earlier."
"Huh?"
"We agreed that if you win the sparring bout, you'd get a prize. I was asking what you'd like."
"…Ah!"
Seol Ri-hyang had been the one to bring it up, yet she reacted a beat too late, as if she'd only just remembered.
"Wasn't that just now the prize?"
"Just now?"
"Y-yeah. When you said I was pretty…"
"…"
Seol Ri-hyang's face flushed red, embarrassed even by her own words. And to think a mere compliment was supposed to be the prize.
"What exactly do you take me for?"
"A martial-arts addict who acts all slick but turns into a block of wood when it actually matters?"
"Now that's a slander if I've ever heard one."
With a hint of grievance, I tugged Seol Ri-hyang's foot a little harder.
The feel of her round ankle in my palm. Then she slid toward me in a smooth, continuous motion.
"B-but what exactly are you doing, fiddling with my foot like that?"
"Just a simple acupressure. Though I'll be channeling some internal energy into it."
"Internal energy? Surely not meridian cleansing…!"
Her voice trembled faintly. It was clearly filled with anticipation. Seol Ri-hyang had loved my meridian cleansing in her past life, and she still did now.
Especially when I worked on her feet—that always got the best reaction.
Her feet were on the smaller side, and though not severely, they were slightly flat, so she often said fatigue built up in them.
I firmly grasped her foot as she timidly stamped it, and settled it on my thigh.
"W-wait a moment! Surely you don't intend to do it here?"
"That's exactly what I intend."
"Then let's go inside—my room, or yours, Cheon Hwi. This… this can be heard by everyone!"
"Everyone's asleep by now. What's the worry."
"Didn't I say she wouldn't be asleep?! I don't know about Tang unni, but Seomun unni is definitely not sleeping! Right about now, she's probably peeking at us through a slightly open crack in the door or a hole she poked in the window paper beforehand!"
"What grudge do you hold against Senior Seomun Hwa-rin that you'd turn her into a voyeur?"
"I'm serious! Do you know what kind of complicated expression Seomun unni gets when she sees you and Tang unni being all lovey-dovey together?"
"That… I suppose that could be."
Because Seomun Hwa-rin harbored great longing for the youth she gave up for the sake of revenge.
In that sense, she'd naturally be interested in seeing me and Seol Ri-hyang acting all lovey—well, maybe not quite that far, but still flirting with each other. However.
"No matter how much, she wouldn't go so far as to secretly spy on us. At most, she'd just look if she happened to see us."
Clunk!
Was it the wind? A door in the distance rattled, but the sound was soon swallowed by Seol Ri-hyang's frustrated voice.
"Ugh! This is so frustrating! …Haah. Fine. Cheon Hwi, you just live your life that way. I guess that's what suits you."
Even lying down, she thumped her chest—which had a will of its own—and I shook my head at the sight.
Both in my past life and now, Seol Ri-hyang seemed to like Seomun Hwa-rin, but sometimes she acted this way, all sulky and mean.
Or maybe it was because they were close that she acted like that?
I swallowed the question that rose in my mind and gently wrapped my hand around Seol Ri-hyang's foot.
As I pressed the tip of my thumb against the center of her sole, Seol Ri-hyang, who had been raising a ruckus just moments ago, went stiff as if it had all been a lie.
"Hic!"
A stifled hiccup escaped her, and she hastily clamped a hand over her mouth. I let out a soft chuckle and pressed harder with my fingers.
Press.
"Hic!"
Tang So-wol's toes curled up at the sudden pressure. But as I pushed just the right amount of internal energy into just the right pressure point, they spread wide in the opposite direction, twitching as if a cramp had seized them.
"Looks like there's a lot of tension built up here. It'll be satisfying to work it all out."
"W-Wait, what? Hold on a moment! Let's take this slow—"
Press.
"Eeek?!"
Seol Ri-hyang clamped her hand over her own mouth mid-sentence.
Recalling the parts that had often ached before her regression, I focused on the meridian cleansing.
Unlike the occasional sessions I'd given her before, this one was a reward of sorts, so I put in extra care.
"Nngh! Hup… A-ah!"
Seol Ri-hyang flailed this way and that like a fish out of water, but that was only at the start—soon enough, she'd go limp and relaxed.
I gripped her ankle more firmly to hold it in place and began pressing and stroking various points with my thumbs.
"No… why are you even better at this?!"
"Isn't that only natural, since I've grown stronger?"
It was thanks to my internal energy control, which had become far easier after reaching the complete Transcendent Peak, and my senses, which had grown even sharper than that.
"C-Could you go a little easier…? I'll try to endure it as much as I can, but at least keep it quiet enough that no sound comes out… Hic?!"
"If I don't do it properly, it won't count as compensation."
"…!"
Seol Ri-hyang, who had clamped her mouth shut again, glared at me, but seeing how there was no strength in her eyes at all, she couldn't have truly meant it.
"Don't worry. You've been thinking of other places ever since you left to participate in the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, so you must have built up a lot of fatigue. I'll release all of it today."
Press.
Seol Ri-hyang squeezed her eyes shut as if she had given up.
After the meridian cleansing was over, Seol Ri-hyang, utterly drained, stared blankly up at the sky.
Her black hair was strewn in every direction. She had flailed about so much that her clothes had come loose and hung askew.
With her mouth hanging open and her eyes half-lidded, Seol Ri-hyang gazed blankly at the sky. A feeble voice leaked from her, whose appearance might have led anyone to misunderstand.
"You said you wouldn't do something like this within the Shaolin Temple grounds, Cheon Hwi…"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"…"
Trembling, Seol Ri-hyang lifted her head and glared at me. It wasn't very threatening.
Even that didn't last long, it seemed, as Seol Ri-hyang's head drooped once more and she slumped over.
Without a word, she rolled her way to the front of her room, then grabbed the wall and barely managed to stand.
"J-just you wait! Next time…!"
Biting her lip, she said that, then practically rolled her way into her room.
I blinked for a moment, wondering what she was up to. It had taken a while, but I should get some more sleep while I could.
Tomorrow, I'd finally get to spar with the Shaolin monks.
***
The next day.
As I stepped out the door, Tang So-wol, who had been waiting right in front of it, gave me her characteristic gentle smile.
"Young hero Cheon."
"Hm?"
"Did you enjoy yourself last night?"
"…"
Somehow, the morning air felt especially cold today.
It seemed winter was slowly creeping in.