At this point, he was starting to wonder.
Of course, what happened that dawn had been an unfamiliar experience for him too, but in any case, it had only been contact made in the process of resolving the curse, so couldn’t he just consider it treatment?
…Though the kiss didn’t end even after erasing all the red marks then.
Since it was a kiss that started with the purpose of removing the curse, there was no need to continue contact after the red mark disappeared from Cheon Yijae’s forehead. Yijae probably also knew that the yokai’s energy lingering on his body had disappeared, yet he continued the kiss, and Sim Seowoo didn’t push him away.
They kept overlapping lips, overlapping, overlapping, until they finally flinched and separated from each other when signs of people approached the storage building. They’d been stuck together as if almost enchanted.
‘…Even if Cheon Yijae had aftereffects from the curse, why did I…’
Suddenly recalling that moment, Sim Seowoo awkwardly touched the nape of his neck. He had the excuse—no, the reason—that he’d also been dizzy from using purification power to erase the curse…
Anyway, in fact, Seowoo also hadn’t particularly tried to catch Yijae even when seeing him avoid him because of that question, but after several days had passed, he became curious about how long he would keep running away.
If it was difficult to package what happened that day as a treatment act, couldn’t they just consider it an accident? They say all sorts of problems strike suddenly like traffic accidents while living in the world, so they could just pass it off as one such example.
Could it be that he himself couldn’t forgive the act of substituting “that person” with someone else? Because that existence was too precious to him, how dare he overlay them onto another human?
The more Cheon Yijae avoided even facing his own face, the more such deductions built up in Sim Seowoo’s head, but in the end he shook his head to dispel them. If he worried about this, naturally Cheon Yijae’s gaze from that dawn would come to mind and the kiss would be recalled along with it, so he had to cut it off appropriately.
“Well, the Young Master is strange, but thanks to that it’s quiet so it feels like I’m enjoying a vacation. I heard Seowoo-nim’s purification training is going well these days too?!”
Since Cheon Yijae wasn’t going to the field, Do Seonhwa and Jin Gwangmin, who served him, had also fallen back to standby duty and were staying only at Heun. Of course, there was much to look after internally too, and especially Do Seonhwa was often sought by the Elders since she was of the Daoist bloodline so she was busy, but it was much more peaceful than when they went to dangerous sites every day.
Moreover, as Cheon Yijae avoided Sim Seowoo, it became calmer around him too, creating an even better environment for learning purification techniques. Right now, Seowoo had quietly trained in the training room in the morning and had come down to the cafeteria with Jin Gwangmin, who’d come to find him at lunchtime.
The cafeteria located inside Heun was very spacious, and the menu was mostly healthy food with varieties like a buffet. Sim Seowoo selected mountain vegetable bibimbap with grilled tofu and drizzled honey in two circles over the rice. He was thinking that he’d been eating only healthy food since entering Heun.
Though Jin Gwangmin looked at that additional preparation quite sourly, regardless, Sim Seowoo mixed the rice with his spoon and answered.
“Yes, I think I’m starting to control the range of purification a bit now.”
Since Cheon Yijae no longer came to the training room to cause a commotion and other Purifiers no longer whispered and gave him looks, he could quietly focus only on training. Rather, now other Purifiers were hovering around wanting to help. Saying how much he must be suffering since he was in charge of “that” Young Master.
However, since they’d also heard the news that Seowoo had unleashed purification power at the last deployment and even drove away the yokai, they hesitated about whether they could be helpful, but Seowoo gratefully accepted. Advice from experienced workers wasn’t something to decline.
Thanks to that, he was gradually getting the hang of it. If until now he’d only known how to purify by pouring out energy all at once—to use an analogy, if he’d only poured water out gush gush gush because he didn’t know how to control a water tank’s faucet—now he’d learned to control the degree. He was learning the sensation of drawing out only the amount he wanted.
…But to be honest, the biggest influence on this growth was “that dawn.”
While kissing Cheon Yijae and erasing the curse dwelling in his body at that time, he’d acquired the sensation of transmitting purification power to the other person for quite some time. He’d felt very clearly how the energy pooling in his stomach moved.
So in the training he’d conducted after returning to Heun that day, he’d actually failed the first time, but when he tried the second time while mulling over the sensation from that dawn, he succeeded perfectly, feeling emotions that were difficult to accept purely with joy.
Moreover, even afterward, whenever purification got stuck, he’d break through by reviewing that dawn…
“Hiya, that’s a relief. The Elders were also surprised that Seowoo-nim succeeded at every assignment they gave, wondering why they only found out about such an amazing prodigy now!”
At Jin Gwangmin’s exclamation bursting with excitement, Sim Seowoo briefly rolled his eyes to the side, then silently moved his spoon. Since he’d just thought of “that day” as the background for why purification was going well, it was awkward to respond.
So he was silently focusing only on eating, when Jin Gwangmin subtly looked around.
“Um, Seowoo-nim. By any chance, isn’t it frustrating to stay only here? You answered last time that it was fine since the semester ended… but still, you said you used to travel every vacation.”
As Sim Seowoo’s existence became increasingly precious, his desire to accommodate him grew. However, though Do Seonhwa had previously said she’d give any help, he hadn’t requested anything. Since Heun was an organization with quite a few strict rules, there must surely be difficult parts, yet he’d answered that since he’d received the contract money, adapting to this place was his responsibility.
In reality, Sim Seowoo considered that if such an amount entered his bank account, it was natural to follow the rules and he should get used to the group life on his own. Honestly, if a job posting went up, it would be compensation and benefits that thousands, tens of thousands of people would apply for. He’d just luckily entered because he met the qualifications.
Moreover, even beyond the context of compensation, Sim Seowoo actually didn’t feel that adapting to Heun was very difficult. His adaptability had naturally developed through moving several times in the past as his parents’ business had faltered, and having even been confined in a cult facility, the current dormitory life wasn’t very difficult.
However, the “travel” Jin Gwangmin mentioned did feel fresh.
“That’s right. I always used to travel, but this time I haven’t thought about it at all…”
Though he’d originally planned not to travel this vacation and only work part-time, he hadn’t known he wouldn’t think of travel to this extent. Only after hearing Jin Gwangmin’s words did he realize that he used to travel every vacation in the past.
‘Live outside.’
The words of the boy he met in dreams had remained strangely in his head, and the travel had started to search for that “outside.” Though it was wandering-like travel that started for a rather absurd reason, it was still something he’d consistently done for several years…
Not once while staying at Heun had he recalled travel.
Sim Seowoo had felt a sense of dissonance in the past that even while going around here and there, he couldn’t find a suitable place. No matter which country or city he went to, it didn’t satisfy him, and he’d even suffered from an uncomfortable sense of disconnect, as if he was only wandering wrong places.
But rather, at Heun, he’d met calm peace. A familiar coziness, as if he’d finally returned to a suitable place.
‘Is it probably because of the incense that stabilizes mind and body?’
He’d heard that not only was incense constantly burned in the Purifiers’ training room, but the building itself was also filled with spells engraved to help stabilize practitioners’ energy. Heun’s location was also backed by mountains and facing water. Perhaps an auspicious site wasn’t called an auspicious site for nothing.
Sim Seowoo nodded and answered.
“Staying at Heun isn’t frustrating at all, so it’s fine. It’s such a unique place that there’s no time to be bored, and learning purification is also quite fun.”
“I-if that’s so, that’s a relief…”
At the calm answer, Jin Gwangmin rolled his eyes here and there. He didn’t sense falsehood in Sim Seowoo’s attitude, but rather the fact that it was 100% sincere seemed even more bewildering.
