Pitiful and wretched.
That was the thought that had stuck in Dong Hwa-rin’s mind during the days she was trapped in the Black Tiger Society.
“I thought I’d be able to live freely once I got out into the world.”
Dong Hwa-rin let out a small sigh in our confined space, speaking to herself.
From the head of the Seong Family to the servants, new family members, and even her mother—people looked at her with hatred or disdain.
To forget such a situation, Dong Hwa-rin dedicated herself to martial arts, becoming undeniably strong, confident that few could catch up with her peers.
A frustrating cage. As Dong Hwa-rin grew stronger day by day, she began to view the Seong Family that way.
One day, once she got out into the world, she believed she could excel at anything. Inside that frustrating cage, that’s what she thought. But reality was different.
Once she was expelled from that cage, her mother abandoned her. The servants vanished, too, hurling insults. She had no money in her pockets, nor had she ever earned any. On top of that, being sick, she couldn’t do anything.
She didn’t know what to do or how to do it.
A bird longing to escape its cage realized, once actually thrown out into a world of cages, that it knew nothing at all.
From the day Dong Hwa-rin entered the world, she had shrunk down endlessly.
“I wanted to be of help.”
Dong Hwa-rin thought of the man who treated her kindly. With him by her side, all her problems seemed to vanish. It felt like a bird trembling outside its cage had regained its confidence, perching on its owner’s shoulder.
Like that bird singing the only melody it knew for its owner, Dong Hwa-rin just had to protect him with the martial arts she was confident in.
She thought she had found a way to live outside this cage.
But she hadn’t.
“Idiot.”
Dong Hwa-rin cursed herself for being trapped in a cage.
The man who always made everything feel ordinary was gone, and with the disappearance of her confidence in martial arts and the pain from her unique condition, a dreadful sense of powerlessness swirled in her mind.
“If I can’t even use martial arts properly, what am I?”
A foul-mouthed, annoying girl. A girl with skin diseases. A bastard child. A despised girl. Yes, she felt she was nothing.
A bird truly realizing its situation only when trapped back in the cage.
Despair began to fill her heart. And despair brings with it other negative emotions.
As the mental wall of confidence in her martial arts protecting her crumbled, countless unhappy memories surged from the past to the present.
Why was she so unfortunate?
Misery, when gnawed upon, is painful and torturous, yet is an addictive emotion. It drew forth bitter feelings of unfairness about her life, powerlessness, anger, and self-pity.
Though it was a self-destructive behavior, she couldn’t stop this addictive act of self-pity.
Until a single voice echoed through.
“Hong Gildong said! Even if trials come upon me! I cannot sit idly by!”
Dong Hwa-rin heard a voice from afar that seemed to blame her. A familiar man’s voice.
The man trapped in a cage was now outside, mingling with fearsome bandits. The sight was absurd yet impressive.
Even when in a similar situation, he had an entirely different attitude.
“When the army comes to catch me! People from every corner shout! I am Hong Gildong! Come catch me!”
As she listened closely to his words, her negative thoughts began to dissipate.
Hong Gildong.
A man who became a hero despite facing a fate similar to hers.
Was Kang Yoon-ho mentioning the story of Hong Gildong to encourage her, who was feeling down, to cheer up from afar?
“Pfft. No way.”
Dong Hwa-rin thought it was ridiculous, yet she wondered if that man could really do such a thing.
That thought began to seep into her heart, which had been filled with deep self-pity, slowly filling it with warmth.
——
Dong Hwa-rin found solace in Kang Yoon-ho’s story, yet she couldn’t fully shake off her self-pity.
“Are you okay?”
“Why are you here?”
Though she found comfort in his voice and wanted to see his face again, she couldn’t honestly express her feelings due to the strange emotions that arose upon seeing him.
“Why am I here? Because I can be here. Why do you look so worn out for days?”
If it weren’t for her, he might have been able to escape.
But still, it made her feel like an idiot and ashamed that he came to see her without fleeing.
“…I feel like a total dummy.”
Dong Hwa-rin glanced at the man’s face.
He looked at her with genuine worry. His expression evoked memories of misfortunes that had tormented her for days.
This man seemed like he could listen, understand, and continuously provide comfort.
Dong Hwa-rin began to spill out her unhappiness regarding the past that had brought her down, in front of the man who had supported her throughout the journey.
The internal struggle she’d never shared in her life. The more she poured out, the lighter her heart felt.
“…….Why am I such a dummy? Why do I have to be so miserable?”
But even as much as she voiced these things, a lingering gloom remained.
Kang Yoon-ho observed her for a while.
‘Did I say too much?’
Dong Hwa-rin secretly peeked at him with a heavy heart. Did she burden him unnecessarily?
He couldn’t solve any of her problems. Yet, contrary to her expectations, he came closer.
A gentle touch, oblivious yet warm. Even after being rejected, he still approached, offering comfort. He sought to console her not through words, but through actions.
“You’re not crazy. If it’s about your skin, don’t be too embarrassed. I’ve seen it a lot during friend’s medicine tests.”
“Th-that’s not it! H-huh!”
“I’ll even give you a special massage.”
“Hey! D-don’t! Ugh! Hey! Where are you touching… Ugh!”
She felt embarrassed. She found herself unable to tell him not to say that.
——-
As her embarrassment chased away the gloom, the man began to share his own life story that was equally hard to talk about.
What kind of life he had lived and what misfortunes he’d faced. Just hearing a fragment of his life showed her that he had endured tragedies beyond her imagination.
“Everyone thinks their lives are the most unfortunate.”
Kang Yoon-ho looked at Dong Hwa-rin with gentle eyes.
As if understanding everything. For a black-haired barbarian with nothing in this Central Plains, it must be just as difficult to live with such a face.
Similar, yet different.
“So what?”
You’re struggling too. Why do you talk about it so nonchalantly? Her prickly tone slipped out in rebellion.
I have poured out my heavy emotions to you, yet you brush it off so lightly. How can you carry on as if nothing’s wrong?
As Dong Hwa-rin shot him a sulky glare, Kang Yoon-ho propped his chin on his hand, turning to face her as he spoke.
“Why am I so unfortunate? Why must I suffer like this? Those people walking over there seem like they’re not as unlucky as me. Why am I the only one so unlucky? I thought this every day after coming to this Central Plains.”
Kang Yoon-ho spoke with a voice born from his own experiences, as if he had just heard Dong Hwa-rin pour out her unhappy story.
It was a thought he had repeatedly. Dong Hwa-rin tried not to show her surprise that he had thought as she did.
“I wanted to just collapse because of the misery I was handed. No, I couldn’t get up at all.”
Kang Yoon-ho turned to her with a sorrowful gaze.
“But you didn’t do that.”
Unlike herself. He was standing up and moving forward.
“I realized.”
He brightened up from his sad face into a beaming smile.
“What?”
“The reason someone who has suffered can rise again.”
“How?”
“I found out that I had strong legs to shake off the misfortunes.”
Kang Yoon-ho stood tall, shaking off his legs, and looked at Dong Hwa-rin with a vibrant face.
He showed her that even bearing unspeakable misfortunes, he could rise again whenever he wanted.
Dong Hwa-rin stared at him in a daze.
‘Why is he similar yet so different?’
Though they were the same age, with similar backgrounds, and both having faced significant hardships, she couldn’t act like that. For days now, she had been wallowing in gloomy thoughts, unable to rise because of her sense of powerlessness.
He had strong legs, but she did not.
She couldn’t do it.
As the oppressive sense of powerlessness sought to fill her heart,
“And I also have hands to help the unfortunate.”
Kang Yoon-ho thoughtfully extended his hand toward her.
—————-
“Let’s go together. We’re escaping this place.”
It was a big hand. Unlike her profoundly small self.
Did she even deserve to hold this hand? This man always only helped her. How was she different from those who had openly tried using her?
A surge of self-loathing welled up inside Dong Hwa-rin.
“Why would I? You don’t need someone like me. Just go alone.”
If she weren’t there, he could escape freely.
You’re just a burden! Even without you, I could manage!
Her mother used to curse her using those very words. Even if she reluctantly accepted it, she felt like a burden to this man. She was worthless.
“Hwa-rin.”
When Kang Yoon-ho sweetly called her by name for the first time, Dong Hwa-rin looked up in surprise.
“I need you.”
Kang Yoon-ho actively extended his hand, as though he genuinely needed her help. Her gaze wavered at the sincerity of his face and hand.
“Really… Do I really matter to you? No lies?”
“When unfortunate people hold hands, it’s not one helping the other unilaterally; it means we lean on each other and help one another. So let’s go together. Hwa-rin. Please help me a little.”
He spoke tenderly, as if he couldn’t do anything without her, waiting for her to take his hand.
Dong Hwa-rin looked back and forth between his face and hand.
In reality, she probably wasn’t needed. She could be replaced even in the one thing she felt guilty about.
Yet this man offered her his hand.
He sought to lift up the unfortunate her.
She wanted to penetrate him who entered her heart filled with hurt as a friend. But instead, this man easily slipped into her heart.
Sometimes normally. Sometimes carelessly. Other times tenderly.
Even when she wanted to give up, this man would persistently come into her heart. And there was nothing she disliked about this man.
“Okay. Let’s go together.”
Thus, Dong Hwa-rin carefully grasped Kang Yoon-ho’s hand.
——————–
“Let’s go! Hwa-rin!”
Dong Hwa-rin was pulled along by Kang Yoon-ho’s hand, escaping the prison and running out.
Ahead of them lay a swarm of bandits. Could she really escape with him? She must do her best to protect him. If escaping together seemed impossible, she could let him go and face the bandits by herself.
That would be the way to repay him for reaching out to her.
Dong Hwa-rin resolved as she gazed at the confident back of the same-age man leading the way.
“Get back, dammit!”
As they sprinted out of the prison, a massive force of armed bandits blocked their path. Dong Hwa-rin jumped in surprise, pushing Kang Yoon-ho behind her.
So many bandits… Had they been detected already? Dong Hwa-rin, determined to protect Kang Yoon-ho, felt a thread of despair pass through her as she saw the number of bandits before her.
But then, Kang Yoon-ho smiled and stood in front of Dong Hwa-rin.
“Hey. Step back…”
She acknowledged that his back seemed steady, but this wasn’t the time. Just as Dong Hwa-rin was about to speak, Kang Yoon-ho turned to face the bandits.
“Did you all gather here?”
“You’ve arrived!”
“Lord! We’ve been waiting for you!”
“Shall we start right away?”
The bandits approached Kang Yoon-ho, their faces filled with joy.
“W-what is happening?”
Dong Hwa-rin questioned the man with a befuddled expression.
Then Kang Yoon-ho smiled mischievously, like a playful boy, and said to Dong Hwa-rin.
“Here’s the thing! I’ve started a revolution!”
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