Chapter 15: Secret
“…?”
Did I hear wrong. Sungmin widened his eyes and looked back at Wijihoyun. Wijihoyun’s face was as still as ever.
“…Wwhat?”
“I’m a girl.”
Wijihoyun pointed at herself. Sungmin’s mouth slowly opened. He didn’t hear wrong. Wijihoyun was just saying that she was a girl.
“No way!”
Sungmin yelled loudly. To that, Jack and Lula looked outside. I’m sorry. Wijihoyun said that to the kitchen and looked back with annoyance at Sungmin.
“You can’t yell like that.”
“What! I yelled because I was surprised!”
“Hm, I get it.”
Wijihoyun nodded her head. Sungmin had no other words to say. He looked back into his past life. Small Pegasus Wijihoyun. There was no rumor that Wijihoyun was a girl. No, looking outside of the past, he looked at the ‘now’ Wijihoyun that was in front of him.
A high nose. Narrow eyebrows. Large eyes. White skin. Stature was small, but he thought it was because of young age. But now, he thought differently.
“…Rea, really?”
“Really. Why would I lie about this? Or do I have to go to the room and take off my pants?”
Wijihoyun laughed and said. There were many things that he wondered before.
Wijihoyun looked pretty. He thought that she would be a handsome man. Yes. that’s what he thought. But now thinking that she was a girl… it was different.
‘We never even had a bath together.’
Sungmin usually took a bath after he finished practicing and hunting, but Wijihoyun never tried to get in with Sungmin. He didn’t think that there was a reason for it. He just thought Wijihoyun was dirtier than he expected.
“There’s no chest….”
“I covered with a bandage.”
Wijihoyun slightly lifted her shirt and said. There was a white bandage.
“It didn’t come out as much. I don’t know how much it will get bigger by…hopefully not much. It’s uncomfortable living with skin on my chest.”
“…I can’t…”
Sungmin muttered. Wijihoyun was actually a girl. He never thought about that.
“Why did you dress up like a boy?”
“The head wanted me to. I was a genius and had the type of body to learn techniques, but I was a girl. The head thought it was wasteful for my talent to go to waste. So he wanted me to live as a boy from early on.”
“It was probably the first order from the head and my dad,” Wijihoyun added and laughed.
“But there aren’t cults in this world. There aren’t heads here. There’s no reason to live as a boy. But… I lived 13 years as one. I can’t just abandon it in one morning. So I’m probably going to continue doing it. Unless my chest gets too big for this bandage.”
That would be good. Wijihoyun muttered. Sungmin looked at Wijihoyun as if dazed, and Wijihoyun opened her mouth looking back at him.
“That’s my secret. What’s yours?”
“…hmm…”
He didn’t think it was a lie. Girl. Girl… Small Pegasus is a girl. Sungmin kept hold of his mind.
“…I’m…”
Listening to that, Sungmin couldn’t say that he couldn’t tell her. Sungmin sighed and said.
“I’m a rarity.”
“What is that?”
Wijihoyun tilted her head and asked. His heart dropped a bit, but Sungmin continued.
He told him. The fact that he was reborn by getting a stone. He died and came back. As Sungmin said, Wijihoyun just listened quietly.
“I see.”
As the story ended, Wijihoyun nodded her head.
“It’s hard to believe, but I guess I have to. This world. And magic. Those things. I just have to believe it. I wouldn’t believe it in my world, but this is different.”
Wijihoyun muttered. He, no, she stared off.
“How was I?”
“… What?”
“There should be me before. How was I?”
“Well…”
He told Wijihoyun about her in the past life. He never saw her before, so he could only tell her rumors.
“So, I was living well. At least for 13 years.”
“I … think so.”
“And still as a boy.”
Wijihoyun laughed.
“Probably, my chest wasn’t that big even after 13 years. That’s good.”
Sungmin didn’t know if that was a joke or the truth.
“I am curious. Why did you want me to promise to not kill you?”
“… It wasn’t a coincidence that we met. I… wanted to see Wijihoyun for the first time. So I was there at the point where you were summoned. I was looking at you.”
“Ah, so since that meeting was false, you thought I would kill you because I would angry that I was being used?”
That was true. Sungmin stayed silent.
“That’s strange.”
Wijihoyun laughed.
“Think about it. When you and I met, you were just looking at me. I was the one that went up to you. I was the one who asked to be friends. The person who gave you advice on martial arts? Haha! That’s me as well. You didn’t ask me to do anything. I said everything.”
There was nothing that he said. What she said was true.
“You have way too many worries. Is it because you faced death before? Or just that personality.”
“Both.”
“Hmm, well anyway. I have no intention of killing you. Now, I have an interest in you. You came back after dying. That’s interesting. I understand the flaws in yourself. 13 years, no 10 years, is it? After 10 years, you get used to it. It’s a shame that you’re only that good after 10 years though.”
“F*ck.”
Sungmin cursed at Wijihoyun’s muttering. The facts hurt him way too much.
“From what you said, I left this city after one month and was away for 3 years.”
“Yeah.”
“What did I do for 3 years?”
“How would I know?”
“That Wijihoyun and this Wijihoyun are two different people. But the way that they think or the things that they want… are probably the same. I was probably not doing anything for 3 years. I might have traveled the world.”
“Travel?”
“Wijihoyun was a human that wanted freedom. The control of the head, that freedom. I’m happy that I was summoned here. I earned that freedom.”
That was Wijihoyun’s sincere thoughts.
“I think that, too. I want to leave now. I wandered the city for a week. But this city is small as well. I want to see other things and feel other things as well.”
“…You’re going to leave?”
“I was going to. But… what do you want to do?”
Wijihoyun asked to Sungmin.
“You already lived in this world. You lived for 13 years and died. You got an opportunity and came back. But what do you want to do in this world?”
Sungmin couldn’t say anything to Wijihoyun. That was something that Sungmin never thought of.
“You have memories of your past life. What do you want to do with it”
“…A better life than before.”
“I saw many people after wandering for one week. No classes. Not all of them go to the forest to hunt. They all live doing other labor. Do you not want to live like that?”
“… That’s a waste.”
Sungmin muttered.
“I have everything that is useful from my past life. I have information that I written down.”
“Greedy. Well, I have no intention of blaming you…but what do you want to do. A better life than me? Isn’t that a bit vague? Any other goal?”
“I have… no idea.”
Sungmin wondered for a second and sighed.
“I only thought about surviving every day in my past life. Like you said all the time, I don’t have talent. Still, I tried to survive. I died stupidly… even though I came back. I don’t have a goal. Just, I’ll probably live like before.”
“I see.”
Wijihoyun nodded. She didn’t have any advice for Sungmin. Well to be fair, Wijihoyun was 13, and Sungmin was 27. It would be stupid to get life advice from a 13 year old.
“But, you. You want to stay being friends?”
“Is there any other reason?”
“I’m older than you? The mental age…”
“That’s not a problem.”
It basically meant she was going to continue not being polite towards him.
“Let’s go up.”
Wijihoyun stood up. Sungmin followed Wijihoyun and went into Wijihoyun’s room. Thinking about it, it was the first time that he went in Wijihoyun’s room.
“I will give you the High Heaven spear technique.”
Wijihoyun said with a solemn face. Wijihoyun sat on the bed and looked at Sungmin.
“…do I have to kneel?”
“Just get a chair. Friends don’t kneel.”
Wijihoyun muttered, and Sungmin pulled a chair and sat next to Wijihoyun.
“This is the best spear technique that I remember. A hundred years ago, a man called the Spear King who ruled the world with a spear, used it. The name just looks majestic, doesn’t it. The best spear technique from the high heavens. It’s that good of a technique.”
“I can’t memorize hard things.”
“I know. Your talent is trash. Like the [Amethyst Cloud], the High Heaven is also a grace technique. You won’t do anything with your talent even if you spent your life practicing it.”
“Do you keep having to say that?”
“It’s true.”
There was nothing he could say back.”
“So I will change it to your talent. It might take a while, but it’s going to better to learn the revised version than the original.”
“…Can you do that?”
“I’m a genius.”
Wijihoyun said solemnly.
“The head realized this as well. I’m not completely changing. It’s only lowering the entrance limit… it’s also mixing other techniques as well. I can’t change the origin. The Spear King who made it was a genius as well.”
That was a great thing already. Changing an original technique. Wijihoyun was just a different person from Sungmin.
“I’ll change it to High Heaven Sungmin technique.”
“What?”
“It’s for you so it should have your name. High Heaven Sungmin. Isn’t it great?”
“That’s great?”
“If you don’t like the name, you make it. I like that name.”
Wijihoyun said. Sungmin was about to disagree but closed his mouth. She was going to fix a technique it for him, so he felt kind of sorry to say something about the name.