It couldn’t be.
Cheon Sohee stared at the man who shalessly claid to be her brother right in front of her.
In the diary she had just read, the man knew about her past and her na.
At first, Cheon Sohee was startled after reading the man’s diary, but as she cald down, another possibility ca to mind.
Could it be that soone among the Joseon people rembered a child with black hair and red eyes?
In a certain village, a child with red eyes was born.
Her na was Cheon Sohee. Similar to how a rare white animal is rembered, her red eyes were notable. However, unlike white animals, which were seen as good ons, her red eyes were considered a bad on.
Everyone in the village where the child with red eyes lived had died. Red eyes were indeed a bad on. Perhaps the man just happened to rember that.
Could this man have forged the diary to ensure he wasn’t killed?
Cheon Sohee kept this possibility in mind as she woke him up.
‘You knew my real face.’
When she woke the man up, she discovered sothing even more astonishing.
It had been over 10 years since she left Joseon. It was possible for soone to know about the annihilation of the village with the red-eyed child from 10 years ago. But to rember the face of a child from back then? Could soone who only heard rumors rember that?
It was possible. She shouldn’t dismiss her doubts.
She might have to scour her mory, in case she was at risk of death, to recall if soone had described her appearance.
‘You know my real face, and you claim to be my brother.’
She had nearly fallen for a scam. Cheon Sohee steadied her slightly shaken heart.
By continuing to listen to the man’s words, she might find a flaw.
Then she could strike.
Let’s listen a bit more.
That was Cheon Sohee’s mistake.
‘I’m Kang Yun-ho, the brother you played with in the past. Not Cheon Yun-ho.’
“I couldn’t have had a brother to play with…”
She hesitated for a mont. Did she have a brother with whom she played in her childhood? Could she definitively say she didn’t?
Cheon Sohee was unsure. Her mories from over a decade ago were fragnted, mostly revolving around her family.
‘Even though I was older, Sohee always won at air gas.’
The man looked at Cheon Sohee with nostalgia. Don’t look at her with those eyes. She was not part of his mories.
“I don’t rember that.”
Cheon Sohee’s voice ca out gruff, and she surprised herself with its tone.
“It’s been too long, over ten years. That’s natural.”
The man nodded, apparently satisfied, and smiled. What exactly convinced him?
He claid to have played air gas with her in the past. There was a gap in her mory. A foggy recollection that remained indistinct. Cheon Sohee pictured herself playing air gas within that fog.
She could not rember. Yet, she could not firmly deny it either. The mories had faded, leaving her unable to determine their truth.
Cheon Sohee tentatively placed the man’s childhood image alongside her own within the fog of her mory.
It was okay to introduce a hint into a forgotten mory. If what the man said was true, it might resurface unexpectedly one day.
But she suspected the man’s words were not true. There was a glaring inconsistency in his story. There had been no survivors from that village.
‘I used to play with you while waiting for my father in the fishing village.’
The man’s statent seed logical. It was possible such a person had existed. Cheon Sohee visualized a boy in fine clothes, gazing out to sea in the quiet fishing village.
Had there been such a boy, would her younger self have been drawn to him? If they had beco friends, would they not have played square ball, air gas, and house together?
‘Why were you in the Central Plains when I thought you died that day?’
Pirates wielding swords. A village ablaze. Villagers’ corpses. Blood and death all around. Mom. Dad.
Horrific mories flashed through Cheon Sohee’s mind, mories she didn’t want to recall. Her heart felt constricted, and a hot fire burned within it.
“I don’t want to… talk about it.”
She barely managed to speak. Had she not spoken, she might have vomited sothing else.
‘I’m sorry. That mory must have been too horrifying for you. I was too insensitive.’
The man expressed sympathy, as if understanding Cheon Sohee’s distress.
‘What do you know? You weren’t there that day.’
‘How dare you pretend to understand.’
Cheon Sohee’s dislike for the man’s appearance grew even more. The anger that arose from recalling that day was now directed at Kang Yun-ho. She discarded the slight trust she had placed in him.
“No. I get that you stayed in our village. But if we were that close, I would have rembered you.”
‘I can’t rember anything about the village, except for my parents. But I couldn’t have forgotten soone I was that close to.’
‘Though I lost most of my mories, the precious ones remained. That man is not in those precious mories.’
Cheon Sohee’s distrust of the man stemd from her anger towards him, the wounds of that day, and her confidence in her mories.
‘This man is a liar.’
An unexpected bombshell of words fell upon the confident Cheon Sohee.
Cheon Sohee’s logic was based on her mories.
No matter what I said, it was deflected.
If breaking the foundation of her logic was what it took to make her believe in , then I’ll break it.
I’ll use a plot twist from the original work as a bomb.
“Sohee, do you rember when your mother made you a flower wreath as a child?”
“How do you know that?”
Cheon Sohee’s eyes widened, and her mouth opened. Her expressionless facade shattered in an instant.
It wasn’t a face made to hide her feelings like before. This was the most emotionally revealing expression I had seen on her that day. A good sign.
How did I knew?
Of course, I knew.
[Mom… Can’t I go where you are?]
In Cheon Sohee’s death scene, an unnecessary long flashback occurred. Cheon Sohee rembered her mother as she was dying. In that scene, a young Cheon Sohee smiled at her mother while wearing a flower wreath on her head.
Even though she had lost her past mories, that one happy mory supported her from within.
“That day we played together. Your mother made you that flower wreath in the flower field. If I rember correctly, it was made of white flowers. Do you rember?”
“White flowers. I rember.”
“I made you a ring of yellow dandelions next to you. Don’t you rember that?”
“That was also made by my mother, wasn’t it?”
Cheon Sohee asked back, her eyes wavering.
A distant mory. Our childhood mories were not always complete. Even a precious mont was often rembered incompletely.
Especially for her, who had lost her past mories, I injected a setting into the scene she rembered.
Cheon Sohee had lost most of her mories and only retained fragnted parts.
Because they were lost, they were precious. I was a new stranger in her mories. If I recklessly disrupted those mories, she could continue to doubt . That’s why I prepared the bomb.
A mory she believed she rembered perfectly.
A mory she turned to in hard tis.
If I made her doubt even that mory,
Could she really keep suspecting as a fake brother?
“Yes. Didn’t your mother, you, and I climb a mountain together? You rember your mother and the flower wreath, and even the flower ring, but why can’t you rember the brother you played with? I feel a bit hurt.”
I let out a slight sigh of hurt and turned my head away. I wanted to check her expression, but acting required imrsion to avoid being detected.
It was convincing, wasn’t it? Quickly acknowledge as your childhood friend.
With my words, the room fell into silence again.
A short ti, yet it felt like an eternity.
I was getting impatient. Please just admit defeat.
“Alright. I understand.”
“Sohee! Finally!”
It had been tough. Ti to really shake hands and end this.
I turned my head happily to look at Cheon Sohee, but her atmosphere was sowhat off. Her body trembled slightly.
“I understand that you were in our village. I get that you knew my mom. That we were close. I get all of that… but I don’t know you.”
Cheon Sohee bit the right end of her lip.
Her face struggled to remain expressionless. Yet, it subtly trembled continuously, as if trying to hold sothing back.
But ultimately, she couldn’t stop it.
A single tear rolled down from Cheon Sohee’s left eye.
“Sohee.”
This was not a good sign.
“Who are you? Why don’t I know you? Why do you act like you know ?”
Her words were tinged with moisture. There was a sense of frustration in her voice. It seed like anger not directed at but at herself.
“Sohee, maybe you don’t rember because it happened when we were young…”
Hey. Don’t cry. Why was she like this?
“Shut up!”
It was the first ti Cheon Sohee’s voice had risen that day.
“……”
Yes. I’ll be quiet.
“Your words might be true. My doubts might be true. But I don’t know. I can’t know. So, I’ll watch.”
There was a certain resolve in her words and face. Cheon Sohee, wiping her tears, looked at .
“What do you an?”
“You. Until I recall my mories. Or until I find out you’re lying. I’ll stay by your side.”
Cheon Sohee put away her blade and pointed at . Her face no longer attempted to stay expressionless. It was already set in firm determination.
Of course, that determination was directed at .
Ah… This was going to be a total ss.
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