By Zephyria An Unwelcome Guest in a Precious Place (5)
A heavy thigh pressed down on his body.
“Listen, I get angry when someone touches me while I’m sleeping. You don’t want to end up in a bad way either, do you? Let’s just sleep quietly, okay? ”
Seong Mu-yeon suddenly flailed and shouted.
“Our bodies are touching!”
“That’s because you’re resisting! You said you didn’t want to sleep on the floor! When someone shows you kindness, you should know how to accept it. That’s why Demonic Cult bastards are like this. Tsk, tsk.”
‘I’ll get my revenge!’
Seong Mu-yeon gritted his teeth. When he lay still, the leg pressing down on him retreated.
I’ll get my revenge!
Seong Mu-yeon forced himself to sleep. Tears welled up in his eyes from the unfairness.
And so, his first day in Mount Hua passed.
…Or so he wanted to say, but there was an ambush waiting.
“Ugh!”
He was sleeping soundly when suddenly stars burst before his eyes.
He opened his eyes with a start and saw Baek Ryeo-il’s left arm lying on his chest. It seemed he had been hit by the arm that Baek Ryeo-il swung around while tossing and turning. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be throbbing like this.
‘What terrible sleeping habits!’
He tried to move Baek Ryeo-il’s club-like arm, but what? He couldn’t lift it. Just how much of a musclehead was he…?
After struggling for a long time, he finally gave up.
Brutishly strong…
“Ugh!”
This time, Baek Ryeo-il’s leg came up and landed squarely on his stomach.
The arm was heavy, but the leg seemed to be several times heavier. This time, he truly felt a threat to his life.
‘If I can’t get this leg off… I’ll suffocate to death!’
With that thought, Seong Mu-yeon desperately twisted his body. Baek Ryeo-il’s boulder-like limbs pressed down on his entire body, but he barely managed to turn his body to the side.
But when he came to his senses, he was startled to see Baek Ryeo-il’s face right in front of him. Their noses were so close they were almost touching.
His even breaths brushed against his face.
“……”
Now that he looked, Baek Ryeo-il had very thick eyelashes. The dark eyebrows that had always been so grumpy were also relaxed, drawn in a beautiful curve.
He felt annoyed for no reason.
‘He hates being woken up when he’s sleeping?’
What a joke. He was sleeping so deeply that someone could carry him away without him knowing.
It seemed like it would be a long night.
The next day. The second day since Seong Mu-yeon entered Mount Hua dawned.
As soon as Baek Ryeo-il woke up, he thought of Seong Mu-yeon’s pale face.
‘Right, I brought back a strange guy.’
But when he looked beside him, the bed was empty.
Baek Ryeo-il shot up like lightning.
“That bastard ran away again…! Huh?”
He found someone crouching under the bed. It was Seong Mu-yeon.
Seong Mu-yeon was curled up as much as possible, covered with the blanket that Baek Ryeo-il had playfully laid out. He seemed cold.
“Hmm.”
Baek Ryeo-il leaned over the side of the bed and scrutinized his face.
“He’s still strange.”
There was a scent. The Ten Thousand Mile Tracking Incense had long dissipated, but there was a unique fragrance emanating from him. Thanks to that, it took him some time to fall asleep yesterday. He only managed to fall asleep when he got used to the scent and could barely feel it.
Everyone has their own unique body fragrance, but Seong Mu-yeon’s particularly stimulated his sense of smell.
“Hey.”
Thump, he nudged his shoulder with his foot. Seong Mu-yeon unconsciously curled up even more and frowned.
“Umm.”
“Hey, hey.”
After kicking him a few more times, he finally opened his eyes slightly. He looked around with a scrunched-up face, as if he wasn’t fully awake.
“Why are you sleeping there?”
At that question, Seong Mu-yeon revealed his annoyance even more blatantly and retorted.
“Senior Brother pushed me!”
“I did? When?”
“Ugh, never mind. Just give me a separate room. I really won’t run away. If you don’t believe me, you can even tie me up with a leash?”
He got up groggily, making sounds like ‘Aigoo, my back.’
Baek Ryeo-il let out a hollow laugh. He was young, but he was acting like an old man. Besides, he didn’t even have the ability to protect himself, yet he was always brazenly talking back.
Normally, he would have been annoyed, but Baek Ryeo-il somehow just felt speechless. He wanted to see how far this guy would go.
Seong Mu-yeon yawned widely and opened the door and went out.
“Hey! Where are you going!”
“To the toilet. Want to come with me? I won’t refuse.”
“Ah, no! Go!”
“Yes.”
Baek Ryeo-il crossed his arms and closed his eyes.
Shuffle, shuffle. The sound of weak footsteps reached his ears. The sound faithfully went to the outhouse and then returned.
“Can I sleep a little more?”
That’s what he said when he came back.
“I hardly slept yesterday because of Senior Brother. Move over a little.”
He pushed Baek Ryeo-il, who was sitting in the middle of the bed, and crawled into the corner and lay down.
“I’ll just sleep for another two hours…”
Soon his breathing became shallow. Only the evenly swaying blanket, rolled up like a cocoon, remained.
‘Is he fearless, or just bold?’
Baek Ryeo-il shook his head.
It was nothing for Baek Ryeo-il to monitor Seong Mu-yeon. But there was one problem.
Baek Ryeo-il stared intently at Seong Mu-yeon. Eventually, he couldn’t stand the blatant gaze that made the back of his head tingle, and he quietly raised his head.
“……What?”
“I have to go to morning training, but I can’t because of you.”
Outside of Mount Hua, he could do whatever he wanted, but once he returned to the headquarters, it was natural to follow the daily routine. All Disciples train before breakfast. Baek Ryeo-il was the same.
“So what do you want me to do? Just leave me here.”
He had spent the night on Baek Ryeo-il’s shoulder while running all the way to Mount Hua, and he had suffered from his terrible sleeping habits last night, so his whole body was still screaming.
“Hmm……”
At those words, Baek Ryeo-il felt tempted for a moment. With Hwasan Sect Disciples stationed everywhere, what trick could he use to escape?
But he didn’t feel completely at ease.
Baek Ryeo-il scratched his chin for a long time and finally came up with a brilliant idea.
The young Disciples who had finished their morning training were heading to the dining hall in groups of three or five.
But somewhere, they heard a strange sound.
“……Huh? I think I’ve heard this before?”
The boys searched for the source of the sound and found that it was coming from the Emerald Pavilion.
They cautiously stepped into the courtyard. A person was tied to a tree in one corner of the courtyard with ropes.
“Baek Ryeo-iiiiil! I won’t let you get away with thiiiiis! Mother… is this how I have to live? Waaaaah……”
He thrashed about, cried, and got angry in turns. He was like a madman.
“Let’s go, Senior Brother. Master told us not to talk to that person.”
“I know. I know, but……”
This was Hwasan Sect, where there were only Taoists no matter where you looked. Such a sight was a rare spectacle in a quiet temple-like place.
The boys also peeked out to watch the man.
The man, who had been raving into the air for a long time, suddenly stopped and turned his head towards the boys.
“Eek!”
“No, where are you going! Wait a minute! Come here, Taoist students! I won’t hurt you! I’m not a dangerous person!”
The scattering boys cautiously gathered again at the desperate call.
The man tried to smile to lure them in.
“Just come here for a second. I told you I won’t hurt you, right? That’s right. Just a little closer.”
The boys approached cautiously, making sure not to get within his reach.
“……Why are you like this?”
The man let out a deep sigh.
“What is Taoist student’s name?”
“I’m Gang Woong.”
“So you’re Taoist student Gang. I’m Seong Mu-yeon. Yesterday……”
“Yes, I know. Baek Ryeo-il brought you, the Demonic Cult… person.”
Seong Mu-yeon’s face lit up. He nodded fiercely.
“But why are you in this state……”
Gang Woong looked at his appearance with a puzzled expression. His hair was disheveled, he wasn’t wearing his outer robe, and he was tightly wrapped dozens of times with thick ropes.
“Who else would do this? Taoist student Baek Ryeo-il, of course. Why is that man’s personality like that? He said I can’t run away while he’s training, so he did this! Does this make sense?”
Gang Woong and the children burst into laughter.
“Senior Brother Baek is always like that.”
“He’s scary!”
“That’s right.”
The children instantly dropped their guard and sat in a circle around Seong Mu-yeon.
“But are you really a Young master of the Demonic Cult?”
“Yes, I really am.”
“I thought people from the Demonic Cult all looked like monsters.”
The boys openly stared at Seong Mu-yeon with curious eyes. He had been reduced to a spectacle, but that wasn’t important right now.
“But Taoist students, can you untie this?”
The ropes were wrapped so tightly that Seong Mu-yeon couldn’t move at all. He could barely bend his fingertips or legs.
The boys looked distressed.
“If Senior Brother Baek did it, we shouldn’t touch it. We’ll be severely punished. I’m sorry.”
The boys glanced anxiously towards the door. They seemed worried that Baek Ryeo-il would return and scold them at any moment.
“It’s okay. It’s not the Taoist students’ fault. It’s just my fate to be caught by a bad guy. Don’t worry about it…… Actually, being tied up like this isn’t too bad. Thanks to it, I feel like I’ve become a part of Hwasan Sect.”
The boys lingered for a while and then left to have breakfast. They seemed full of regret, but they were probably anxious because they didn’t know when Baek Ryeo-il would return.
Whoosh.
Only the cold morning wind from the summit of Yeonhwa Peak remained by Seong Mu-yeon’s side, circling around him.