TBML 71

From the outside, the water had looked as clear and blue as jade, but beneath the surface, it was as dark as if it had been covered with several layers of rice paper. When the ice-cold water enveloped his entire body, Yiyeon didn’t feel the chill at first. It was a stroke of luck that his heart hadn’t stopped the moment he fell in.

Hyunhak was swimming so nonchalantly that he hadn’t thought much of it, but the water was deeper and more abundant than he’d expected. He had to struggle to get back to the surface as quickly as possible, but due to the suddenness of the situation and his bound left arm, Yiyeon couldn’t react quickly enough and found himself floundering in the water.

“Yeon-ah!”

With a gurgle and a flurry of bubbles, Hyunhak wrapped both arms around Yiyeon’s legs. Slipping his arms under his armpits would have been a more effective and comfortable method, but applying that kind of force would have been too much for Yiyeon, whose left arm hadn’t fully healed yet.

After several failed attempts, Hyunhak wrapped his arms around Yiyeon’s legs– which were flailing and hindering his efforts to pull him out –and lifted him up. With Hyunhak’s strength, Yiyeon’s head broke the surface, and he coughed up water. His nose stung, and his throat burned.

“Cough, cough, cough……”

As Yiyeon coughed incessantly and spat out water, Hyunhak pulled him into his arms and hurriedly made his way to the shallow shore. Only then did Yiyeon begin to shiver like an aspen tree, his teeth chattering. He felt a fierce chill, so intense that he wondered if it was even possible to feel this cold in his entire life. His mouth was so frozen that he couldn’t speak properly; his lips moved in vain as he tried to call out to Hyunhak.

“I..My Lord.”

Hyunhak was in no state of mind to respond to Yiyeon’s call. He hurried Yiyeon out of the water and stripped off his jacket, which was heavy with water. Even as he gathered the thick garments he had taken off before falling in and the dry laundry that hadn’t gotten wet, Hyunhak never let go of Yiyeon. Perhaps his mind had frozen as well, for he was unable to think or act rationally.

As Hyunhak hurriedly stripped off the waterlogged clothes and dressed Yiyeon in the dry laundry, Yiyeon could not even manage to lift his arms and legs.

Hyunhak somehow managed to wrap his arms around Yiyeon and ran at lightning speed back along the path they had walked that morning. Leaving all the belongings they had brought behind in the valley, he ran with his eyebrows fluttering in the wind, carefully taking care of only the trembling Yiyeon.

Huddled in Hyunhak’s arms, Yiyeon inwardly reproached himself. He wondered why he, who had always been so tenacious, had turned into such a nuisance. But that thought didn’t last long. All he could think was, “It’s so cold.”

When Hyunhak, who had left with Yiyeon in high spirits, returned with hurried steps, the crow that had spotted him from afar puffed out his feathers, stretched his neck, and cawed.

– What on earth is going on!

When Yiyeon, who had bravely walked out on his own two feet, returned home pale and once again held in Hyunhak’s arms, even Zao was flustered. But Hyunhak, with no time to respond to the crow’s voice echoing in his head, rushed into the room while still holding Yiyeon.

Once he had set Yiyeon down in the warm room, where the embers were still burning, Hyunhak stripped off all the wet cloths wrapped around him and tossed them aside. He then took out all the padded and fur-lined winter clothes that had been the cause Read on of the argument before they left for the valley that morning, wrapped them around Yiyeon, and as if that were not enough, he even covered him with two blankets.

“I’m so cold, my lord.”

Throughout the journey carried in Hyunhak’s arms, Yiyeon kept repeating only that he was cold. Seeing Yiyeon trembling and looking pale despite being wrapped in layers so thick they were practically steaming hot, Hyunhak wrapped him up tightly in the blanket. Yiyeon was sealed away in the blanket, just like a newborn baby wrapped in a swaddle, or like fluffy dumpling filling wrapped in a dumpling wrapper.

Even though he had become like a caterpillar, Yiyeon squirmed under the covers to find a spot where the warmth was even slightly stronger.

Hyunhak looked at him briefly before rushing out and dragging a large wooden tub used for bathing into a corner of the kitchen. He then poured the water he had set aside earlier into a cauldron and began to boil it. Due to the boiling water, the steam filling the kitchen, and the blazing flames of the hearth, the kitchen was soon filled with heat.

Hyunhak, who could withstand the cold but was sensitive to heat, was dripping with sweat when he opened the door to catch his breath, only for Zao to barge in. After confirming that Yiyeon, wrapped in blankets, was shivering in the warmest spot by the hearth, Zao interrogated Hyunhak.

–You couldn’t even keep an eye on one little human and brought him back like this!

Faced with the crow’s furious rebuke, Hyunhak couldn’t offer any rebuttal. As he tried to think of a way to counter Zao’s scolding, he realized it was his fault, yet he also felt a little wronged.

Naturally, as a tiger, Hyunhak loved water. Before Yiyeon came to him, he would frequently dive into the water, enjoying a swim four or five times a day. He didn’t care about the season, but since he was sensitive to the heat, in the summer he would often eat his meals in the water and spend most of his time with just the top of his head peeking out.

For Hyunhak, what happened today wasn’t much different from his usual swimming routine. It was a bit wrong to suddenly jump into the water while standing right next to Yiyeon.

But as he looked at the letters spelling his name that Yiyeon had written, his whole body began to tingle and he felt a rush of heat; before he knew it, his ears and tail were about to appear, and he felt as if he were about to turn into a tiger in an instant. He glanced at Yiyeon– who was busy doing laundry– before slipping away from him and looking around for deep water where he could submerge his entire body at once.

The tingling sensation all over his body and the heat made him anxious. He hurriedly stripped off his robe and shoes and dove into the deep water. For Hyunhak, his top priority was to make sure Yiyeon didn’t find out that he was a tiger.

After the refreshing cold water bath, that tickling sensation disappeared, and he was able to regain his composure. As he submerged himself completelyin the cold, clear water, the heat cooled instantly, and the tickling sensation vanished as well.

Hyunhak, who loved swimming, was in high spirits once the coolness of the water had relieved that itchiness. Just for a moment– feeling so good that he didn’t immediately lift his head above the surface –he took a quick peek at the creatures below. After touching the bottom of the pond and peeking his head up, he saw Yiyeon standing on a rock, pale with fear.

As you know, what happened after that was nothing more than Hyunhak giving very honest answers to what Yiyeon asked.

– What a dumb tiger!

“……”

Zao clicked his tongue inside his beak, annoyed. Come to think of it, it really was his fault.

Stupid tiger. He should’ve held back his ears from sticking out so prominently and kept his eyes on Yiyeon. Even though he’d taken Zao’s words to heart– that humans die from both cold and heat –he hadn’t experienced it himself. But seeing Yiyeon today, pale as a sheet, shivering, and stuttering, he realized that humans really do die when it’s that cold.

–Hurry up and boil some water!

“I’m boiling it.”

When Zao butted in, Hyunhak replied gruffly. Even without the crow’s nagging, he was the one feeling the most upset right now.

Once the water had boiled sufficiently, Hyunhak transferred it to the wooden tub and poured in all the remaining cold water. He adjusted the temperature until it felt a bit hot by his standards. Once everything was ready, Hyunhak hurriedly unwrapped the layers around Yiyeon and picked him up. His lips were still a deep blue.

In the kitchen, where warm steam swirled from the constantly boiling water and the fire, Yiyeon turned pale as he looked at the steaming hot water. One of the reasons he’d followed Hyunhak was right there before his eyes.

He wanted to take a bath, but as a servant, he couldn’t very well ask his master to prepare warm water for him. He’d also intended to lend a hand, but his desire to relieve his own discomfort was [Read on]even stronger. But in the end, he found himself being treated to a bath by a nobleman.

The chill that still made his teeth chatter hadn’t subsided, so Yiyeon quietly surrendered himself to Hyunhak. Unlike when he’d boldly jumped into the stream, Hyunhak– worried that the water might be too hot –very carefully and slowly lowered Yiyeon into the tub.

The water wasn’t as scalding as he’d feared, but when his frozen toes touched the hot water, his skin stung as if being pricked by needles. Soon, as his body slowly submerged, with only his head remaining above the water, Yiyeon finally felt the chill subside a little and let out a sigh of relief.

His lips were still trembling, but as the bluish pallor faded and a flush of red began to spread across his face, Yiyeon finally found the composure to look at Hyunhak.

Yiyeon compared himself, who had fallen into the stream, with Hyunhak, who had been swimming in it so nonchalantly. Wondering if his claim that he wasn’t cold had been mere bravado or a lie, he noted that even though they’d both fallen into the same water, their appearances were strikingly different.

There was himself, whose face was blue as he shivered, and Hyunhak, who had taken off his top garment, tied back his wet hair, and was beading with sweat.

Only then did Yiyeon realize that Hyunhak’s claim was actually true. Even in the middle of summer, one usually feels a chill after getting caught in a downpour, yet Hyunhak hadn’t seemed particularly cold even on the day they first met.

In fact, even then, he’d been barefoot and hadn’t even buttoned up his thin clothes properly. Although Hyunhak always had the word cold on his plate, he had never once said “I’m cold” himself.

“Were you really swimming in this weather?”

Yiyeon laughed incredulously. It was absurd. He’d always thought he was a mysterious man, but the more he got to know him, the more of a mystery he became. He’d been swimming and enjoying himself as if nothing were wrong, so he wondered how surprised he must have felt when Yiyeon suddenly started making such a fuss. For some reason, he recalled Hyunhak’s expression just before he fell off the rock. He’d been staring at him, yet looked completely clueless as to what was going on.

Feeling both flabbergasted and embarrassed, Yiyeon curled up and submerged his face all the way down to his chin in the hot water. Gurgle, gurgle – air bubbles rose from the water filling the tub.

Seeing Yiyeon with only his eyes and nose peeking out of the water, Hyunhak assumed he was still shivering from the cold and peered into the cauldron to see if he could add more water. Since he hadn’t been able to fetch any fresh water and had used up every last drop of what was left, there was no way any water remained.

“I’ll go get more water, just bear with me a little longer. I’ll get the laundry too.”

Recalling the household items and laundry left by the water’s edge, Hyunhak picked up an empty water bucket and spoke to Yiyeon. Yiyeon was conflicted in many ways, but he did not stop Hyunhak and simply blinked his eyes out of the water.