Chapter 18
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Every time, it was Namgung Ho who came to Hong-seol’s rescue.
“You rascals! Seol is still shy around strangers.”
“Aack!”
It was almost comical to see them tuck their tails between their legs and flee at a single roar from Namgung Ho.
And yet, Heuk and Jeok would be back the very next day, loitering around the Azure Sky Pavilion.
In their hands, they held bamboo balls and wooden dolls, as if they wanted to play with her.
Judging by their pure, sparkling eyes, they didn’t seem like bad kids. Just a little overly curious.
‘I heard all the dog beastkin of the Namgung Clan were cruel… This seems different from what I used to hear at the Myo Family.’
To be honest, Hong-seol was curious about the three brothers, too. She had never had friends her own age, aside from the nasty twins from the Myo Family’s branch clan.
But Hong-seol was far too timid to play with them freely.
‘If they find out I’m a cat beastkin, I’ll be kicked out of the Namgung Clan. I have no choice but to be careful.’
Just as Hong-seol lowered her head in disappointment, a voice called out.
“Oh? It’s the little kid!”
“It really is, brother!”
As if on cue, the second brother, Namgung Heuk, and the youngest, Namgung Jeok, appeared. Namgung Heuk was carrying a small bundle on his back, which he must have gotten from somewhere.
Seeing the two, Hong-seol jumped in fright.
“Oh my goodness!”
Hong-seol quickly turned away, but it was too late to pretend she hadn’t seen them.
The two young masters approached her with tremendous energy. As they ran toward her from a distance, she could almost imagine their tails wagging furiously behind their backs.
“Fancy meeting you here! It must be fate!”
We live in the same house, what’s this about fate!
Namgung Heuk, who had closed the distance in an instant, showed a hint of disappointment.
“Hey! Why are you pretending you don’t know us?”
Her fingertips trembled with nervousness, but for some reason, Hong-seol didn’t want to back down.
Perhaps it was thanks to all the stamina training she had been doing with the Lord of Changcheon, but a strange sense of confidence was bubbling up inside her.
Hong-seol retorted immediately.
“I-I wasn’t pretending.”
“You just did.”
He’s so sharp!
Left with nothing to say, Hong-seol pressed her lips together. The two young masters circled her excitedly.
“How come no one’s with you today? We can finally get a good look at your face.”
After getting a clear view of Hong-seol’s innocent face, Namgung Heuk grinned.
“You’re really cute. Are all little girls like that?”
Hearing this, Namgung Jeok shook his head vigorously.
“No way, brother. It’s because she’s pretty!”
“Is that so?”
Heuk and Jeok were mischievous, but they were kind by nature. This was likely because they had grown up showered with love, wanting for nothing.
Watching their father cherish their mother like a precious jewel his entire life must have had an influence as well.
“Father always said you have to make a woman smile. You have such a cute face, so why do you always look so glum?”
“Yeah!”
Heuk and Jeok were incredibly curious about this girl named Hong-seol.
The fact that they’d never had a chance to properly interact with a girl before only fueled the brothers’ curiosity.
And on top of that, she was a cat beastkin!
It was no wonder Heuk and Jeok’s eyes sparkled as they tried to befriend her.
But Hong-seol, who had never received kindness from her peers, couldn’t properly understand the situation.
She just stood there, hunched over and tense.
Namgung Heuk suddenly asked her.
“Hey! Want to play ball with us?”
“No.”
“Then how about a race, sister?”
I don’t want to do that either!
Hong-seol shook her head frantically.
‘If I run with even a little bit of abandon, I’ll get excited without realizing it, and my cat ears will pop right out.’
Then the brothers’ curiosity would instantly turn to hatred.
Namgung Heuk scratched the back of his head.
“Playing fetch with a stick… you’d obviously hate that too, right? Since you’re a cat.”
That’s right… huh?
Hong-seol, who had been nodding unconsciously, froze. Her face turned pale in an instant.
‘Th-they found out! They knew I was a cat!’
Her body trembled. Hong-seol barely managed to lift her head. She was prepared to transform into a cat and leap over the wall to escape the moment they pounced.
‘…Huh?’
But strangely, the two showed no signs of wanting to tear out her throat. On the contrary, they looked utterly thrilled.
“We figured as much, so we came prepared. Here!”
Namgung Heuk took something out of his bundle. It was a mouse doll made of cloth. A sturdy silk thread, twisted several times, was attached to its back, and the other end was tied to a finely carved wooden stick.
It was, without a doubt, a toy for a cat.
“What do you think? Can you play with us with this?”
Standing there in a daze, Hong-seol’s tension seemed to melt away. Her eyebrows formed a sad V-shape as she asked Namgung Heuk.
“You… you don’t hate me?”
“Why would we hate you?”
“Because I’m a cat beastkin, different from you…”
“That just means it’ll be twice as fun to play together!”
Namgung Heuk dangled the mouse doll in front of Hong-seol’s eyes. Her pupils followed his hand as it moved from side to side.
“We begged the seamstress in the sewing room for three days to make this. Hold out your hand.”
When Hong-seol held out her hand, the cloth mouse doll settled gently into her palm.
“It’s a present. Do you like it?”
The doll’s body was made from a gray scrap of fabric left over from making martial arts uniforms, and black knots were sewn on for its eyes and nose. Its tail was a leather cord braided from three strands.
“Oh, right, we had your name embroidered on it, too!”
At those words, a hole opened up in Hong-seol’s swelling heart.
‘I… I never learned to read…’
These children assumed she could naturally read. That must be why they said they had her name embroidered on the doll.
The fact that she couldn’t read felt like a mark of an unloved child, and Hong-seol’s eyelashes drooped.
“Ah, um, actually, I…”
Before Hong-seol could finish, the youngest, Namgung Jeok, spoke, his eyes sparkling.
“Hurry and turn the doll over, sister!”
After a moment of hesitation, urged on by Namgung Jeok, Hong-seol had no choice but to flip the cloth mouse over.
“I can’t read… huh?”
There, embroidered in a lovely pink thread, was the shape of a snowflake. Namgung Heuk said boastfully.
“This way, you can tell it’s your name even if you can’t read, right?”
“Ah!”
Hong-seol gently traced the beautiful embroidery with her fingertips. She felt as if she could feel the warmth of their consideration for her.
The back of her neck grew hot as if she had a cold, and the tip of her nose tingled as if she had chewed on ginger.
“It’s so, so pretty. Thank you, Young Masters.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Namgung Heuk puffed out his chest triumphantly.
“Don’t call me Young Master! Call me brother!”
“And call me Jeok, too, please!”
At the brothers’ kind words, which tumbled out as if they were competing, Hong-seol’s eyes welled up with tears.
“Um, I-if it’s alright, in return, I’d like to give you this…”
Hong-seol carefully extended both hands toward Namgung Heuk. In her palms lay a blue silk ribbon.
One side of Hong-seol’s hair, which had been tied up in two pigtails, had come undone and was now fluttering in the wind.
“I don’t have much that I can give…”
Everything Hong-seol owned had been given to her by the Namgung Clan, from her clothes to her toys.
Because of this, Maeran, noticing the child’s dejection, had made her a new silk ribbon and fibbed that she had traded Hong-seol’s old clothes and some silk scraps for it.
Of course, it was a lie. What merchant would ever trade silk for rags, even if they were just leftover scraps?
But to Hong-seol, who didn’t know the truth, the silk hair ribbon was the only thing that was truly hers.
“It might look a little plain, but if I do this!”
Hong-seol’s hands moved nimbly, and soon, a chrysanthemum flower bloomed in her palm.
It was made using a knot-tying method that Maeran had taught her in her spare moments.
“It will look pretty as a decoration on your sash.”
After handing the knot to Namgung Heuk, Hong-seol watched his reaction. Heuk’s eyes were wide as he brushed his fingertips over the knot.
‘D-does he not like it…?’
As a young master of the Namgung Clan, there was surely nothing he hadn’t owned since he was a child.
She worried that, in her excitement at receiving kindness from a peer for the first time, she had done something foolish.
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