The earthworm pressed its body desperately against Yunseo's. Did it feel as though it were telling him not to think such thoughts — or was that just his imagination? Yunseo watched the earthworm with wondering eyes.

He couldn't know what it wanted or longed for in acting this way, but one thing came through clearly. It wanted to be together. With him.

"What's your name?"

He reached out and tried to touch the top of the earthworm's head. No sensation registered on his skin at all, yet the word "soft" surfaced in his mind. Finding that strange, he petted the earthworm freely, and it shook its body as though laughing with delight, scattering light.

"Where did you come from?"

At this question, the earthworm swayed and came close, touching Yunseo's chest. Was it being coy? Yunseo laughed and tapped the top of the earthworm's head lightly, when he suddenly sensed that his body had become somewhat lighter.

"Did you do that?"

Whether or not it understood speech, the earthworm wriggled in a shape like the character 乙 in the air before suddenly making for Yunseo's wrist.

And it curled its body into a circle, enclosing Yunseo's wrist. Yunseo followed the unfathomable movement quietly, and then abruptly realized that his wrist was bare.

Had there been something there originally?

As he reached up to touch his wrist, the earthworm tickled his palm. Yunseo narrowed his eyes and tried to reckon what it was he had lost. But no matter how hard he thought, nothing came to him, and his head began to throb.

A sharp pain made him groan, and the earthworm quickly sprang up and brushed against his forehead. The pain gradually faded, and something filled the space it left behind. Yunseo pressed his fingertip to his forehead and tried to define the presence pooled there.

At last, a low sigh slipped through Yunseo's lips.

Longing.

The moment he became aware of it, longing burst forth like a dam breaking and soaked through every part of Yunseo. Yunseo let himself be drenched in that emotion, and let the tears that had gathered at the corners of his eyes fall.

The emotion existed, but nothing to accompany it remained. Only the definition was left, growing the absence ever larger. Yunseo held the earthworm that was pressing its body to his cheek in his hands, gazing at it blankly.

14. Exposure

A curtain of rain fell freely, blocking the view. That rain had come at just such a moment to a place that had long suffered a drought — could it truly be coincidence?

Whenever rites were held for the people who had suffered from drought or flooding, indifferent nature would, as though nothing had happened, either send down rain or stop it. People at large praised this, saying it was because Hwi was a peerless dragon-descendant, the most beloved bloodline of the Dragon God.

This time, since rain would not fall even after rites were performed, he had resolved to focus on relief efforts — yet as soon as he passed through this place, rain began to fall.

If only no harm would come to anyone from the very start — yet the being high in the heavens always played tricks like this. Did someone truly exist up there? Did it not all seem like one grand, well-scripted play?

It was better to think of himself as a mere creature that had entered a snare. Then there would be no need to be swayed by anyone.

But whose snare, exactly? He had been here, but Yunseo, who had offered prayers at the shrine, had also been here. It was he himself who had planned the route to pass through this area on purpose — yet…

Just then, warmth touched his fingertips. Between the sounds of the rain, the sound of a gently pounding heartbeat spread near his ear. He turned, and Yunseo was holding his hand, lightly.

"I, I just… you looked lonely."

An innocent face with pure concern. Clear eyes that not even the mist rising from the torrential rain could cloud. The one who had dripped fat tears one after another just because he'd had a coin purse stolen. How much he had hated the sight of those tears.

As Yunseo's hand began to slip free from his grasp, Hwi, without thinking, closed his grip around it. Yunseo flinched in surprise, but then, remarking that his hand was so cold, gave it a squeeze in return.

Naturally the memory of the first day he had held young Yunseo's hand arose. Had he, too, reached out and gripped a stranger's hand back then out of the same concern?

Did your snare begin from that day? Even so, do you seek to put it behind you and forge your own path?

Yunseo looked away and caught his lip between his teeth. Even as a flustered look spread across Yunseo's face, he did not let go of his hand. Hwi carefully traced Yunseo's round eyes with their more frequent blinking, his twitching cheeks, his lips that quirked up and back.

A feeling came over him as though all things had stopped. He hadn't even noticed the rain quieting, and it was only when Yunseo let go of Hwi's hand and stepped out from beneath the shade of the tree to hold out his hand that Hwi blinked slowly, as though waking from a long sleep.

"Let us be on our way now."

As if he couldn't afford to waste another moment, Yunseo said briskly. Hwi mounted his horse first and watched Yunseo's retreating figure as he rode ahead. Before long, Yunseo had become completely accustomed to riding, reaching a level that was hard to believe he hadn't been at it long.

Yunseo learned quickly, as he himself had said. Like a sponge absorbing water, he would soak up anything and shoot forward at lightning speed.

"Aren't you coming?"

At Yunseo's urging, Hwi mounted his horse. A strand of Yunseo's hair that had come loose trailed long and dangled. Hwi kept his gaze on it as he followed behind Yunseo.

"There will be no lodgings where we are going. So…"

"Then shall we sleep over there?"

Yunseo's eyes lit up with an ominous brightness. Hwi followed his pointing fingertip with his gaze. In the middle of a wide-spread field stood a humble farmhand's shelter.

There were no lodgings in the village they were headed to, but the plan had been to borrow a house there and spend the night. Jeongju had already secured a house, so upon arriving at the village, they only needed to make a show of borrowing a place to stay.

"We can go to the village and borrow a house."

"A house at this time of night? Not even a room? It might actually be more comfortable to use that place. I'll go take a look!"

Yunseo was unexpectedly stubborn. No, calling it stubbornness was perhaps the wrong word — wasn't he exactly like a child who had some kind of new adventure in front of him?

Hwi let out an empty laugh and followed after Yunseo. Yunseo arrived at the farmhand's shelter, got off his horse, gave the door a light knock, then grabbed the handle and opened it.

"It's unlocked."

Yunseo said in an excited voice and immediately stepped inside. Hwi looked around at the lush, leafy field, confirmed there was nothing amiss, and followed him in.

Contrary to its shabby exterior, the inside was relatively clean, but the center of the roof had caved in so the sky was visible straight through, and large spider webs hung in the corners of the ceiling. The floor was covered in cloth-wrapped bundles of straw, but the sunken state of them conveyed the sense of long use.

"It's nice, isn't it?"

Yunseo looked around the inside of the shelter, then turned to Hwi with a look of satisfaction. He wondered whether a young master who had been born and raised in a good house could really sleep in a run-down place like this.

"You can sleep in a place like this?"

"Of course. Oh — will it be uncomfortable for you, sir?"

Looking at him belatedly checking the mood, it was clear he had absolutely no innate talent for attending to others. Not wanting to erase the expectation shining in Yunseo's eyes, Hwi tossed his belongings down in one spot. Only then did Yunseo press his lips together in a pleased little smile and headed to the opposite side.

"You can sleep over there, and I'll sleep here."

Yunseo lay down without hesitation on the cloth — who knew who had rolled around on it — and pulled a bundle from his pack to cover himself like a blanket.

"Look. There are so many stars."

"It seems sleeping outdoors is your true calling."

"…I've wanted to try sleeping under the open sky at least once. Isn't it a sort of rite of passage that all travelers must go through? Ah, perhaps you're tired of it, sir. Or have you only ever slept in nice places?"

Occasionally, when traveling far on covert excursions, he would deliberately spend the night in the open or in a run-down inn. It was because he believed that to understand his people and know about their lives, one needed to live no differently from them.

"This would count as one of the better options."

"Is that so? What a relief."

Yunseo let out a bright, unguarded laugh, then looked up through the opening in the roof with sparkling eyes. The sky he glimpsed held nothing but stars. As though those stars had shed their light as rays, Yunseo's eyes shone twinkling and bright.

Watching Yunseo treasure each passing ordinary scene and take it in carefully, Hwi also found himself looking anew at the scenery around him. Perhaps it was because Yunseo had spent most of his time within the inner quarters. His face was at all times alight with curiosity and vitality.

A sudden fierce gust of wind brought a desolate sound, and the corners of Yunseo's eyes flinched. He rolled his eyes to look around, glanced into one corner, and then suddenly scrambled to his feet.

"Sir."

"What."

"Would it be alright if I moved a little closer to you?"

Asking the question while already creeping closer, he looked just like a puppy with its tail between its legs. Hwi only watched in silence without answering, and Yunseo took that as consent, quickly coming over to lie down at a distance of about one step from Hwi.

It was dark all around and the wind was raising a racket as it struck the grasses and trees, so he must have been scared. Only after drawing close to Hwi did Yunseo let out a small sigh of relief and squeeze his eyes firmly shut.

Hwi studied Yunseo's face with eyes sharp in the darkness. He suspected it was not yet time for him to fall asleep — and just as he thought it, Yunseo opened his mouth.

"Me — when I was at the young mistress's house, I stayed in an outrageously large room. People might say what's wrong with a big room, but I was young then, so I was terribly scared."

Having the whole inner quarters to himself, that made sense. The creases around Yunseo's eyes softened, and his eyelids slowly opened. His pupils swayed gently, as though looking back on the past.

"Not that I could sleep alongside the young mistress, of course. The other servants all… lived in separate places."

His lips twitched and his eyes clumsily rolled this way at that — clear signs he was lying. As if checking whether he was being listened to, Yunseo looked at Hwi, then continued.