Part 24 {The Hottest Part]

Together

The two sit on top of a boulder. Sunjoon paces in front of  her. They can no longer hear the sound of the water.  Sunjoon suddenly stops and speaks.

"You're really a woman?"

Yoonhee buries her head into her knees and answers with a  small voice. "Yes."

Sunjoon shakes his head. It seems like the world flipped  upside down after they fell into the water. Or did he fall on his head? Maybe he pulled out this fantasy from the  pain he was feeling before the fall? Sunjoon puts puts his  arms around her head and says, "n-no.. This can't be. This  is too cruel a dream. If I wake up from it, I don't know  how I could go on living."

Yoonhee can't tell him it's not a dream. She can't really  believe this is all real, either. Sunjoon asks again.

"Who's Kim Yoon Shik?"

"He's my younger brother."

"Then who is the person in front of me?"

"She's Kim Yoon Shik's older sister."

"Then who was the older sister that I saw that time?"

"That was also me."

Sunjoon sits down. He laughs, and sighs, "this is indeed a dream. This is too much like what I wanted, like what I  fantasized."

Yoonhee can't believe what he is saying. She can't believe he's fantasized about this, and about her being a woman.

Sunjoon runs his hand slowly down her hair. She's  beautiful.

"You're really a woman?"

"Yes."

He touches her cheek.

"And I can love you as much as I please?"

Tears start coming out of Yoonhee's eyes. His thumb  touches her lips. Sunjoon's hands slowly run down her  neck, past her collarbone, into her clothes, and to her  breasts. They are still there. Yoonhee and Sunjoon kiss.  Sunjoon's lips follow his hand's path down her body, but  he stops when he reaches her breasts.

"What's wrong?"

"Being together before marriage makes us no better than  beasts. It's no matter to me, but I can't do that to you."

His breath is warm. Yoonhee pulls his head to her and  says,

"If being with you right now makes me a beast, then I'll choose to be a beast. If I don't now, I will die forever  regretting that I didn't become one."

How can she ever dream of marrying this man? It's better to just become a beast. Sunjoon is trying hard to hold himself back. Yoonhee breathes into his ear, "A man and  woman's lust is the will of the skies("gods" is a more  appropriate translation, but Koreans usually interchange  "Sky" and "God"), whereas propriety and discretion are the  teachings of man. Man can disobey man, but he shouldn't  disobey the sky."

Her whisper kills all the reason in him. His lips move once again and they land on her breasts. She leans back to lie down on the rock. She looks up at the sky, and rain droplets fall between tree branches onto her face. The drops aren't cold, not because the rock is warm, but  because of Sunjoon's mouth. Yoonhee doesn't close her  eyes, because she's afraid that she'll wake up from this dream.

Sunjoon pulls her clothes away and looks at her small, pale waist. He is about to pull down her bottoms but stops. He is scared: what if he pulls them off to find a  man's object waiting to taunt and scare him awake?

He looks at her face, and even though he's felt this way before, she looks more womanly than ever. He can't even believe he saw her as a man until now. It doesn't matter anymore. Man or woman, he doesn't care. Having someone that he loves so much in front of him, like this, is enough.

He quickly pulls off the rest of her clothes, and puts his face between her legs. There isn't anything. There isn't a  trace of the famous Daemul ("big thing" "big treasure"), nor is there even a  Sohmul ("Soh" means small).  Grateful, he kisses where it should have been, and drinks her body.

After a short while, Yoonhee raises her waist. A cold pain  penetrates her body. She closes her eyes. It's not a  dream, because she doesn't wake up. She takes in the pain because it means that she is taking Sunjoon's body into hers. Amidst the rain, the two share their bodies.  Sunjoon's personality is calm and reserved, but his body is not. Sunjoon, unaware of Yoonhee's pain, doesn't stop,  and he goes on for a long, long time.

Jaeshin impatiently plays with Yoonhee and Sunjoon's hat,  putting them on top of each other, taking them out.  (coincidence?) He's worried. He throws the hats onto the  floor and yells, "Why haven't they come back yet?!"

Yongha says carefully, as to not anger Jaeshin, "They'll  come. They probably stopped somewhere to avoid the rain."

"The rain's stopped now! Why aren't they coming?"

"How would I know? It's not even that far in; they  couldn't have gotten lost. They'll come."

Yongha shuts his mouth after he sees Jaeshin's angry eyes.  He picks up the hats and dusts off the dirt. Jaeshin spits  to the other students, "Hey! Aren't you guys worried?"

"Of--of course we are!"

"Aish! I shouldn't have left them there..."

Jaeshin starts putting on his shoes, and Yongha stops him.

"You're gonna go? What if you just miss them?"

He's right. Jaeshin takes off his shoes and sits down  again. He's worried. Not because he thinks they are lost,  but because the two are alone together. Jaeshin lies down,  and imagines Yoonhee's face on the ceiling. He starts imagining Sunjoon's face next to hers. Anger fills up his  throat.

Somebody yells, "Here they come!"

Jaeshin jumps up. Yoonhee, who's put her hair nicely back into a sangtoo, and Sunjoon, whose hair is down, are walking towards them, with their clothes mostly wet. Yongha murmurs, "was there a typhoon over there?"

Yongha shouts out to them, "Hey! We came here to avoid the  rain. What's the point if you are all already soaked?"

"Sorry we're late."

Sunjoon greets Yongha, and then the other students.

"Daemul doryung fell into the bottom of the waterfall;  that's why we're late."

Yongha, surprised, says, "What? he wasn't hurt, was he?"

"No, just a little shaken."

"Why is your hair that way?"

"I lost my Mang-gun (the band around their head). I looked  everywhere, but I couldn't find it, and I came because I  didn't want to make everyone wait."

Jaeshin is the one who waited the most impatiently, but  after their appearance, he takes a glance at Yoonhee and  lies back down again.

Yoonhee, after greeting the students, sits down to lean  against a pillar. She still feels a strong pain and  soreness in her lower body. It was hard just walking over  here; how will she walk all the way back to Sungkyunkwan?  On top of that, it's hard to pretend she's not in pain.

Yongha looks at her face and asks, "Daemul! Are you okay? Why do you look so pale?"

Jaeshin gets up suddenly to listen to the two.

"N-no, I'm okay. I'm just a little shook up. I think the  water was a little too cold."

Jaeshin kicks her side. "Hey! Are you sure you're okay?"

With Jaeshin's kick, Yoonhee feels the pain in the lower  body spread throughout her system. She tears up a little, and nods painfully.

Sunjoon is quiet because he knows, and he sits down next to her. He is worried, but can't ask how she is because of  everyone around, or hold her.