Chapter 3
Why had it happened again? He tried to recall. Ah, right. They’d insulted his sister. Said she was a girl trying to act like a boy. Or was it that it showed she had no parents?
“Think they won’t be able to chase us this far?”
Only after running for quite a while did Lee Dam, panting, glance to his side.
“What the—!”
The hand he was holding belonged not to his sister, but to Lee Han. Swearing, Lee Dam shook off his hand. Lee Han frowned, a rare display of emotion for him.
“What the hell? Why was I holding Baek Lee Han’s hand?”
When he turned around, Ra-yeon was laughing heartily. Standing in the green grass, her bright smile made her look less like a person and more like a flower in bloom.
“You’d been holding his hand the whole time. You like Han that much?”
His sister called Baek Lee Han simply Han, just as she called him Dam.
“Han, too—you held Dam’s hand so nicely all the way here.”
“In the confusion, I mistook him for you, Noona.”
Ra-yeon scrunched her nose and burst into laughter.
“We do look alike, don’t we?”
“Please don’t say such things, Noona.”
“Why not? Everyone says Dam and I look alike.”
It was said that the Seo and Baek families shared distant roots, though that had been centuries ago. Their resemblance must simply be coincidence.
“Absolutely not.”
Still, thanks to that resemblance, almost no one doubted when people said Ra-yeon and Lee Dam were cousins. They looked like siblings. Only Lee Han stubbornly denied it.
“Hey, Baek Lee Han. Everyone knows Noona and I look—”
“Baek Lee Dam.”
There was even a chill in the way his name was spoken.
“Say that nonsense one more time, and I’ll cut out your disrespectful tongue and feed it to your dog.”
Not exactly something a thirteen-year-old should be saying.
“Like that actually scares me.”
“How dare you compare yourself to Noona?”
Did he really have to go that far with his own blood brother? Lee Han was always like this.
In truth, it wasn’t just Lee Han. Everyone in Lee Dam’s family seemed to exist solely for Ra-yeon. Maybe it was because daughters were rare in the Baek family—women there tended to die young.
“Why do you two always fight? Cousins should get along.”
Ra-yeon flopped down on the grass. Her clothes would get stained, and her father would surely scold her again. Lee Dam knew that, but he didn’t try to stop her. In fact, he almost never stopped her.
Instead, he quickly lay down on her right side.
“Those kids were so funny, though. When they fell into the trap—their shocked faces, their screams…”
“They really were.”
Not to be outdone, Lee Han sat on her left side and answered quickly—something he normally wouldn’t do.
“I didn’t think they’d fall for the provocation so easily.”
“That’s because Noona provoked them so well.”
“Well, being told they’d lose even to a girl probably didn’t sit well with them, right?”
She had said even worse things—asking why they even had those things between their legs if they weren’t going to use them.
“I’m happy to lose to you anytime, Noona.”
“If you’re going to say cheesy things like that, at least wipe your mouth first.”
Lee Han stuck out his tongue and licked his lips. Ra-yeon frowned briefly, then burst into laughter.
“Cute.”
“Is that so?”
Though his tone was calm, satisfaction was obvious. That damn guy. If I call him cute, he glares like he wants to kill me. We’re only a year apart, and I’m older, yet he never uses polite speech with me…
Then again, Lee Dam himself called Ra-yeon “Noona” casually despite only being a year younger, and didn’t use honorifics either. He couldn’t really complain.
“About those kids…”
His sister spoke again.
“They’ll be okay, right?”
Two pairs of eyes focused on Ra-yeon. Then again, they always did.
“They can untie the snare trap with their hands, so they’ll get out, right?”
Ra-yeon added quietly.
“The pit’s pretty deep, though.”
Lee Han didn’t seem concerned at all.
“I see…”
Her eyelashes drooped. Ra-yeon was always soft-hearted at the last moment. No matter how much Lee Dam or Lee Han pushed boundaries or caused trouble, she always welcomed them back with open arms.
“Are you worried?”
That was why Lee Dam asked. Reading his sister’s feelings had always been his role.
“I’m just worried they might become animal food if night falls.”
What should he say? Truthfully, he worried a little too, but Ra-yeon mattered more. And Lee Dam knew better than anyone what comfort she needed.
“The adults will come rescue them.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah. It’s not far from the village.”
Lee Han shrugged.
“I think it’d be fine if they became animal food. They insulted you, Noona. They don’t need to live.”
Ra-yeon frowned.
“They’re still kids.”
“It doesn’t matter if they die.”
“A human life isn’t that trivial, Han.”
“All lives are trivial. Except yours, Noona.”
“What about me? What about me?”
Lee Dam asked flippantly.
“Of course you too, Baek Lee Dam.”
“That really hurts, cousin.”
“What’s hurtful? My life’s trivial compared to Noona’s too.”
“You’re insane. Noona, he’s weird.”
“He’s always weird.”
“Noona…”
Once Ra-yeon got caught in her thoughts, she struggled to get out. The topic had to change before that happened. Luckily, it seemed to work.
Lee Dam quietly took Ra-yeon’s fingers in his hand. She didn’t pull away. Instead, she softly recited lines of poetry forming in her mind.
“In wind filled with the scent of grass, warm sunlight gently falls, lingering in memory and filling our hearts…”
Ah, this was perfect. The grassy scent, the warm sun, the cool breeze… and his sister’s sweet voice beside him.
It was so perfect that Lee Dam blurted out,
“I wish we could live like this forever.”
Just like this, forever—living only among ourselves, in the world we made.
“I want to eat watermelon.”
After writing poetry for a long time, Ra-yeon suddenly announced she wanted watermelon—in the middle of winter.
“Let’s go find some.”
So Lee Dam and Lee Han set out with her to look for watermelon.
It wasn’t because she actually wanted it. Ra-yeon wasn’t foolish enough to think watermelon could be found in winter.
Her poetry probably just wasn’t coming easily, and she was venting her frustration.
Even knowing that, both boys went along with her whims. They were that kind of people.
“Where should we go?”
“Let’s check the watermelon field first?”
They were walking aimlessly toward fields that were obviously empty.
“We just paid tribute recently. Why are we being told to pay again?”
Ra-yeon suddenly stretched out her arm. Lee Han stopped immediately, but Lee Dam, walking absentmindedly, ran straight into her arm, taking a blow to the stomach.
“Ow… Why’d you stop all of a sudden?”
Ra-yeon raised a finger to her lips. Shh. Frowning, Lee Dam looked where she pointed.
“Isn’t that Uncle Cheon?”
It was a familiar face. The man sometimes helped around Lee Dam’s house.
And his wife had been kind to Lee Dam after his mother died young, often giving him snacks when he visited. He’d stopped going in recent years after realizing it burdened their poor household.
“How many times do I have to say it?”
Judging by his clothes, the other man seemed to be an official from the local administrative office assisting the magistrate—likely the head official, wearing a jade badge at his waist.
“We just held the Dongji ritual, and now you need to prepare offerings for the Halloje ceremony.”
They looked more like bandits extorting money than officials.
Halloje was a ritual praying for people’s safety during the harsh winter cold. But this winter hadn’t even been that severe. Lee Dam scratched his head.
“How can we hold rituals twice in one week? We have nothing left to offer. Do we really need to hold this one?”
“So you want to skip it? What if the cold worsens afterward? Will you take responsibility if people die?”
“Winter is supposed to be cold. Summer’s hot, winter’s cold. Isn’t that normal?”
The official raised his hand as if ready to grab the man by the collar and shouted,
“Look at this guy—pretty bold, aren’t you? Do you even know who governs Seochang right now?”
“I do, but…”
“Our magistrate is related to Her Majesty the Empress herself! Lord Jang Min-heon, her eighth cousin!”
He spoke as though he himself were related to the Empress.
“You know the Jang family, right? A member of such a great family coming to a rural place like this—you should be grateful and do as you’re told. That way the village prospers and everyone benefits.”
The Empress’s cousin. The Jang family.
Ra-yeon’s expression hardened instantly, and a cold glint filled her eyes.
