By Zephyria 
“…Is it possible to break it?”
Jin Geum-ryeon’s voice, asking cautiously, seemed to contain a hint of disappointment. He must have suffered quite a bit during those three years, so one would think he’d be glad, but he seemed rather regretful.
“Yes. All you have to do is imprint with someone else when your heat cycle comes. It’s not as easy as it sounds, but it’s better to find a new partner now than to suffer for the rest of your life.”
The tone was still brusque, but there was a hint of concern mixed in. Jin Geum-ryeon lowered his eyes, gazing at the closed eyes of Ak Mujin, and slowly bit his lip.
He was conflicted. He couldn’t help but be conflicted. As far as he was concerned, the only connection between Ak Mujin and himself was that imprint. Giving it up felt like giving up Ak Mujin, which was too difficult.
But if he continued this out of his own greed, Ak Mujin would suffer. If he regained his senses, it was obvious that he would be tormented by what had happened last night. Thinking about it, it seemed right to let him go.
Jin Geum-ryeon was silent for a while.
“Let’s do that.”
It was Ak Mujin who broke the silence. In the end, he had no choice but to lift his eyelids, which had been closed all along. Jin Geum-ryeon, as well as the Physician, stared down at him with wide eyes.
“You, were you awake?”
Ak Mujin sighed softly and sat up, Jin Geum-ryeon hesitated and took a step towards him.
“You…”
“I’m sorry about last night. But after listening, it seems it was all because of this imprint… It doesn’t seem good for me, or for you.”
“But, Ahn Do-hyun. I…”
“I don’t want these disgraceful things to happen again either. So it’s better to break the imprint.”
Ak Mujin cut him off, blocking the words Jin Geum-ryeon was about to say. Ak Mujin didn’t need to hear anything. Jin Geum-ryeon, flustered by Ak Mujin’s stubborn attitude of not listening to him, hurriedly opened his mouth again.
“But, please listen. If, as the Physician said, we only react to each other’s Body fragrance because of the imprint, wouldn’t it be more free to be active? We can just help each other out briefly when the cycle comes. If that’s the case, then truly disgraceful things won’t happen…”
At those words, the Physician stroked his chin, expressing his agreement with Jin Geum-ryeon’s suggestion. Yang Persons and Yin Persons who were not imprinted were too easily influenced by the Body fragrance of others without knowing it. As a Physician, he had seen countless cases of unwanted accidents occurring when people faced their heat cycle without proper preparation.
It wouldn’t matter if it was a Yang Person since there was no risk of pregnancy, but if it was a Yin Person, the problem was serious. Certainly, having someone to soothe the heat cycle with, even without feelings of affection, might be quite good from the Yin Person’s point of view.
“That’s right. If there’s trust between each other, it might not be a bad thing.”
Ak Mujin crossed his arms. After listening, it wasn’t a bad idea, so he was tempted for a moment, but who knew how far that trust would go. And what if they both lost their minds and had a child while going through the heat cycle? He couldn’t take contraceptive medicine every time this happened, and above all, the idea of just soothing the body grated on his nerves.
Besides, putting aside all the other problems, the biggest problem was that the other party was Jin Geum-ryeon. Jin Geum-ryeon’s narrative was already twisted because he was involved with him, so what was the point of continuing the imprint?
He stared up at Jin Geum-ryeon. Jin Geum-ryeon was now looking at him with an earnest face. He even bent one knee and knelt in front of the bed, gazing at Ak Mujin.
“You don’t have to worry about my cycle. I’ll take care of my own business. So, can’t you just trust me once? I’ll do well. I’ll be good at contraception, and…”
“Jin Geum-ryeon.”
But Ak Mujin put on the coldest tone he could muster and looked into his eyes.
“Don’t say ridiculous things.”
Jin Geum-ryeon froze for a moment at the harsh tone.
“I know you have feelings for me, so on what basis are you telling me to trust you? If I lose my mind and ask you for a child, can you ignore it and move on? How do I know you won’t try to restrain and bind me under the pretext of hoping your feelings will deepen?”
Of course, there were convenient aspects to Jin Geum-ryeon’s proposal, but there was nothing wrong with each word Ak Mujin refuted. It wasn’t that Ak Mujin didn’t trust Jin Geum-ryeon at all. But he was also a little afraid.
To be honest, he was afraid of himself craving Jin Geum-ryeon when the heat cycle came. He loved Jin Geum-ryeon so much that he couldn’t bear it, to the point where he would give his whole body. So, he was afraid that if he faced that situation repeatedly, Jin Geum-ryeon would seep into his heart like clothes getting wet in a drizzle, and he was afraid that it would become irreversible. It was no exaggeration to say that he didn’t trust himself more than Jin Geum-ryeon.
The person who should be by Jin Geum-ryeon’s side is the ‘real’ main character. Not ‘Ak Mujin’ possessed by an outsider’s soul.
“When the heat cycle comes, I lose myself too. I can’t refuse you at all. But that’s not my real heart, so I can’t stand feeling self-loathing after waking up anymore.”
Jin Geum-ryeon, hearing at the same time that he couldn’t refuse him and that he didn’t want him, didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. In the end, he seemed to let out a faint laugh, then lowered his head and bit his lip tightly.
“…Are you saying you can’t give me even a piece of your heart?”
Ak Mujin’s attitude was firm. So much so that Jin Geum-ryeon couldn’t possibly change it. Now that it had come to this, Jin Geum-ryeon couldn’t help but imagine the situation of breaking the imprint.
If the imprint was broken, at least one of them would have to imprint with someone else. That meant that one of them would have to mingle bodies with another person, and Jin Geum-ryeon felt very bad imagining Ak Mujin entangled with someone else. Naturally, the image of Ak Mujin lying beneath Seo Moon-gwang came to mind, so he frowned deeply.
“…I’ll take care of this… so don’t worry and don’t rush.”
If he broke the imprint now, Ak Mujin might meet someone else someday. But he didn’t want to realize later that Ak Mujin had found someone else because the imprint was broken. In that case, would it be better for him to accept an unwanted partner first? Jin Geum-ryeon told him to leave it to him, but his mind was complicated as he thought about which method would be less painful.
Ak Mujin stared silently at Jin Geum-ryeon, who was lost in thought, then turned his gaze to the Physician and asked.
“Excuse me, Physician. Is there no other way to break the imprint besides the method you mentioned?”
“…As far as I know, that’s it. If you don’t want to transfer the imprint and there’s no other solution… well, you’ll have to live like this ambiguously until you die. So in that case…”
‘Until you die.’
Those words weighed heavily on Ak Mujin’s heart, and he couldn’t hear the Physician’s words that followed. In fact, even if his body was broken and his heat cycle was raging and the suppressants didn’t work, Ak Mujin vaguely felt that he could endure it. He had been doing so ever since he became a Yin Person. But after learning that Jin Geum-ryeon was in the same situation, the imprint began to feel like a burden.
Besides, wasn’t this the second accident caused by this heat cycle?
He didn’t know if he could find another Yang Person to imprint with, but it was clear that something needed to be done. He thought he had already ruined enough, so there should be no more unnecessary contact beyond this.
*
After that incident, Jin Geum-ryeon became somewhat less talkative. However, he never physically moved away from Ak Mujin’s side. Rather, it seemed he was afraid that he would leave his side, so he tried to stick to him more tenaciously. It seemed he was trying to keep the promise he had made when he came out of the Spirit Mausoleum and reunited with him.
This was also the case at Son of Heaven Mountain, which they stopped by on the way to the main headquarters of the Sado Association after leaving the Physician. Although he had been urging Ak Mujin to go to the Sado Association, he couldn’t ignore Ak Mujin’s words that he wanted to go to Son of Heaven Mountain.
Jin Geum-ryeon was clearly aware that he had to transfer the imprint. That’s why Ak Mujin was still curious about Jin Geum-ryeon’s intentions to take him to the main headquarters of the Sado Association. Did it matter if Ak Mujin continued to reject him? Would he let him go if his imprint partner changed? Come to think of it, he said he would take care of the imprint himself, so did that mean Jin Geum-ryeon himself was trying to break the imprint?
If Jin Geum-ryeon had the intention to do so, Ak Mujin was fully prepared to help him. His ‘real’ imprint partner would be the ‘main character’. If so, he could no longer postpone finding his partner. Not that it was something he had postponed in the first place.
Anyway, he couldn’t realistically bring Mae-yeong to Jin Geum-ryeon’s side right away, so he thought that the first priority was to distance himself from Jin Geum-ryeon’s side. If they stayed together like this until the next heat cycle, they wouldn’t be able to avoid a third accident. It didn’t seem polite to those who already had their original partners.
That being said, if he attempted to escape in front of Jin Geum-ryeon’s eyes, he would be caught before he could even take a few steps. Moreover, martial artists who had reached a certain level didn’t even sleep properly. Therefore, he couldn’t even dream of escaping while Jin Geum-ryeon was sleeping.
Fortunately, Jin Geum-ryeon didn’t try to prevent Ak Mujin from contacting other people or exchanging letters, so he was able to recall that he had barely said he would send a messenger hawk to Chun-wol.
But in reality, Ak Mujin, who received a small paper-wrapped white powder in response from Chun-wol, was very uneasy and his heart was complicated.
That powder was… San Gong Poison.