Some memories do not fade with time. Instead, they grow ever more vivid.
Like liquor aging into a deeper flavor, memories steeped in years become a deeper longing. People called that nostalgia.
On the outskirts of Yinghua Village's main street.
After climbing a long slope and ascending a flight of stairs leading toward the mountain, they arrived.
Jin Cheong-un let out a long breath, his eyes clouding with a distant ache.
"Hoo."
Vine-covered walls and a gate tower came into view, and beyond them, several weathered buildings.
Jin Cheong-un walked slowly to the gate and ran his hand along the cracked doorframe.
SWISH!
A wind blew in from somewhere.
Dream or illusion, he could not tell.
Memories he had thought forgotten, memories he had deliberately never revisited, revived like a dream.
—From now on, this place is your home.
The memory of taking his master's hand and opening this gate for the first time.
—You brats!
—Hey! He caught us! Run!
The memory of bursting through the gate with his fellow students, scrambling to escape.
—Cheong-un. The martial arts are something we learn in order to protect. A power that harms others is nothing more than violence—how can you not see that?
Even the nagging from his master, heard so many times it could have worn calluses on his ears.
—Cheong-un. I hope that even if you do not always make the wisest choice, you will at least make a choice you will not regret.
Indeed.
If he had taken those words to heart, he would never have thrown himself into the Martial Arts Alliance and suffered like that.
'Still, yes. I have no regrets.'
Back then, he had thought it was the only way. This unworthy disciple would probably make the same choice even if he could go back.
WHOOOOOOSH!
The wind blew again. Before he knew it, the old memories had melted into the air and vanished like dawn mist.
"......"
Jin Cheong-un raised his head.
Before his eyes, on the eaves of the gate tower draped in white cobwebs, a weathered signboard hung at a precarious angle.
The four characters carved into it seared themselves into his vision.
Blue Cloud Martial Arts School.
It was the name of this school, and also the name the master had given to a nameless orphan child.
Jin Cheong-un flung the gate wide open.
CLANK!
The full view of the Blue Cloud Martial Arts School spread before him.
The training yard where he had drilled every morning with his martial siblings was now overgrown with weeds, and the buildings he had scrubbed and polished during every seasonal cleaning looked as though they might collapse at any moment.
Jin Cheong-un moved through it all with the ease of someone walking through their own home.
The moment he stepped inside one of the halls.
His feet stopped dead.
"......"
There, in a sun-drenched spot deeper inside the building, something caught his eye.
A memorial tablet.
A worn incense burner and spent ash.
A cup and a bottle of liquor.
Withered, shriveled flowers.
Atop a modest altar lay objects blanketed in a thin layer of dust.
Jin Cheong-un lightly brushed the dust away, then pulled out the new bottle of liquor he had not yet opened.
TRICKLE!
Clear liquor filled the cup and was placed upon the altar. The scent of wine spread sharply through the silent room.
'Far too late, but.'
After standing in silence for a long while, Jin Cheong-un let out a deep breath.
'I've finally come back.'
To the Blue Cloud Martial Arts School.
To the place that had been both his home and his homeland......
'Yes, I'm back.'
Back was good and well, but.
'So what exactly is this situation right now?'
Jin Cheong-un glanced over his shoulder.
When their eyes met, Jeong So-so, who had been standing stock-still, flinched.
"......"
"......"
A suffocating silence stretched on.
"Um."
Jeong So-so, wound tight as a spring, was the first to cautiously meet his gaze.
And she spoke.
"......Martial uncle?"
"Give me a break."
This is driving me insane.
***
Let him think for a moment.
How exactly does the lineage work here?
'Which of my martial siblings got married and had a child?'
Given the nature of a martial arts school, splitting hairs over seniority was somewhat beside the point, but in terms of titles, that would make her...... a martial niece.
Jin Cheong-un stole a glance at Jeong So-so.
At any rate, the world ran on school ties, blood ties, and local ties, and his initial surprise quickly gave way to a sense of gladness.
But in that moment, a thought struck him like a bolt of lightning and raised goosebumps across his skin.
'If this is real, who does this school belong to?'
It was maddening enough that the estate he had poured his retirement fund into had been swindled from him, and now the school too......?
And both tangled up with a martial niece, at that?
"Wh-why aren't you saying anything?"
"......"
"Are you really my martial uncle?"
The customs of the Central Plains had always followed the principles of Confucius and Mencius. By seniority, it was only right that Jin Cheong-un should inherit. This was the proper way of the world, one that even Confucius and Mencius in the afterlife would nod in agreement to.
But when you looked at the actual circumstances?
A martial uncle who had abandoned the school and come crawling back after over a decade.
A martial niece who had gone hungry to protect the school through every hardship.
Weigh those on a scale, and the former would be light as a feather while the latter would be heavy as a thousand-catty block of iron.
......If he invoked seniority here, even Confucius himself would hurl his classics to the ground and shout, 'Are you even human, you bastard?!'
In that case, there was only one option.
'Starting today, I shall follow the way of Daoism, not Confucianism!'
Laozi once said: the Dao that can be named is not the eternal Dao!
Right here, right now, he would achieve that very insight and proclaim it!
"I never had a martial niece like you!!"
"How is that even a response right now?!"
Jeong So-so clapped a hand over her mouth after blurting that out.
"S-sorry for raising my voice."
Jeong So-so looked like she was about to cry.
Even by the standards of stacked coincidences, this was absurd. What on earth was happening?
So.
If this was true.
'The person I fought over property with...... is my martial uncle?'
Wh-what kind of a mess is this?
This was not how she had imagined the reunion. It was supposed to be something moving, something warm!
Suddenly the things she had said last night flashed through her mind—along with words like insubordination, treachery against one's master, and treason—and a wave of dizziness hit her.
Right! Confirm it first!
She had to confirm it first!
"You're really saying you were a student of the Blue Cloud Martial Arts School?"
"Yes, I was."
"But you look too young for that...... From what I was told, the school closed......"
"Right."
A distant look crossed Jin Cheong-un's face.
"Has it really been twelve years already?"
"......?"
Jeong So-so furrowed her brow and tilted her head.
"It's been fourteen years, not twelve. Almost fifteen now."
"Close enough. Moving on."
Moving on? You can't just move on!
'If this is true, how old is he?'
Going by looks alone, she would have guessed he had barely reached his twenties. Aside from a certain weathered, world-worn air, he could pass for a man in his twenties well enough.
If he really was as young as he looked, that would mean he had set out into the martial world at an even younger age than she was now......
'Come to think of it, I did wonder about his name the moment I first heard it. But! But!!'
How many people named Cheong-un could there be in the world?
Who would ever expect a coincidence like this?
"S-surely you're not really...... my martial uncle?"
"I keep telling you, I never had a martial niece like......!"
"Can you please stop joking?! You're not some father-in-law trying to chase off an unwanted son-in-law!"
"That was not a joke, but a sincere statement."
"What?"
Jin Cheong-un folded his arms and spoke.
"Think about it. How can you possibly be my martial niece? The school went completely under—we never trained under the same roof."
"......!"
At those words, Jeong So-so's expression darkened in an instant.
Why, she could not quite say. A part of her heart ached.
Confused as she had been, somewhere inside she had been excited and happy at the thought that an elder from her school had finally returned.
But Jin Cheong-un had said it.
You and I are nothing to each other.
He was right, and she accepted it, but hearing it felt cruel somehow—as if she had been abandoned yet again.
"That's true, I suppose......"
Jeong So-so replied as nonchalantly as she could manage and clasped her hands tightly together.
Yes, there had never been any guarantee that a returning elder would treat her like family.
She had to stand on her own.
Was that not what she had resolved after her father abandoned them?
Perhaps even this disappointment stemmed from her own weakness—from needing someone to lean on.
But then.
"That said, it's not as though we're complete strangers."
"What do you mean?"
Jin Cheong-un let out a short sigh, then studied Jeong So-so as she looked up at him.
The surname Jeong. Jeong, Jeong.
Among the fellow students he remembered, was there anyone with the surname Jeong......?
'There is.'
One person.
A name he could never forget.
"Let me ask you something. Would your father's name happen to be Jeong Baek-heon?"
"......!"
Jeong So-so covered her mouth in surprise.
"I thought so. My, my."
Jin Cheong-un let out a bitter smile.
Of all things. He had never expected to hear someone call him uncle.
"You're eldest brother's daughter."
"......What?"
"Yes, I think I remember now. I might have seen you once when you were little......"
Jin Cheong-un heaved a deep sigh and looked around the school.
"So eldest brother was the one keeping this place."
***
It was a distant memory.
One that the Jin Cheong-un of today had tucked away in a corner of his mind.
"You reckless little fool! I told you not to skip your studies, and where do I find you?! Get down from there this instant!"
Jin Cheong-un, sprawled lazily across a tree branch, flinched.
'He's on my case again.'
He peeked down from the tree.
A young man with fiercely widened eyes was glaring up at him.
It was Jeong Baek-heon—the eldest in the Blue Cloud Martial Arts School and infamous for his fiery temper.
He leapt down from the tree and replied as casually as he could.
"What do you want?"
"What do I want? What do I WANT? Do you truly not know why I am doing this?!"
"I wasn't doing anything. I was just resting up here."
"And slacking off is something to brag about?"
"......"
The truth was, Jin Cheong-un had enrolled later than the others.
Senior students throwing their weight around was as natural as water flowing downhill.
Jin Cheong-un was being bullied under their hazing.
"I told you to get along with the other students! What kind of person punches his own martial brothers?!"
"They started it with the hazing."
"You call it hazing when your seniors tell you to stop picking fights with the other students?"
"......"
Jeong Baek-heon sighed heavily.
"Ugh. Give me your hand."
"My hand? What for?"
"Just give it to me. Why does someone your age have to talk back to every little thing?"
"I'm not into that sort of thing."
"Are you out of your mind?"
Rolling his eyes in disbelief, Jeong Baek-heon grabbed Jin Cheong-un's wrist by force.
"Look at this! It's all swollen!"
Then he slathered ointment over the reddened knuckles—sore from punching the seniors.
Jin Cheong-un averted his gaze, feeling oddly sheepish.
"Hey."
"What?"
"Say 'what' one more time and you're dead."
"You're weaker than me, though."
"No more sweets for you."
"I'm listening, eldest brother."
Jeong Baek-heon chuckled drily.
The reason he was called "eldest brother" rather than "senior martial brother" was that he differed from the other students in many ways.
To put it simply, he came from a family of means.
The eldest son of a fairly prominent household, with a bright future ahead as the heir to the family business—that kind of person.
While Jin Cheong-un and the other students ate and slept at the school out of necessity, Jeong Baek-heon came just once or twice a week to learn self-defense.
That kind of arrangement might normally breed distance, but his personality was so warm that everyone looked up to him as an elder brother. He himself preferred "eldest brother" over "senior martial brother," being an only child.
"Is it not about time you started getting along with your martial siblings?"
"I do get along with them."
"Making eye contact and throwing a fist is getting along?"
"In my neighborhood, that was a greeting."
"What kind of neighborhood did you grow up in?"
Having finished applying the ointment, Jeong Baek-heon spoke.
"Cheong-un. Do you hate it here?"
"......It's just alright."
"I like it."
"......?"
"The master, the martial siblings—they all feel like family. Someday, when I have children of my own, I'd want to enroll them here too."
"Where did that come from?"
"The point is, since you joined this school, you are one of us now."
Jin Cheong-un fell silent.
"So I want you to think of me—of us—the same way."
"......"
"You're a hell of a scrapper. Wouldn't it be great if, someday when our people get roughed up or something big happens, you'd be the one standing there to protect them? Right?"
WHOOSH—a mountain breeze swept through.
Jin Cheong-un, who had been listening quietly, gave a small nod.
"Alright."
"For real?"
"So hand over the sweets already."
"......Brat."
Jeong Baek-heon ruffled his hair mercilessly, then pulled a paper-wrapped candy treat from inside his coat and handed it over.
The sweets tasted especially sweeter that day.
***
Jin Cheong-un shifted his gaze.
After taking in the full view of the Blue Cloud Martial Arts School, he let out a sigh.
'So you really stayed and kept this place going while everyone else left?'
Foolish man.
He had not a shred of martial talent, had refused to be called senior martial brother, and of all people should have had the least reason to feel obligation to the school......
So why had he stayed to guard the Blue Cloud Martial Arts School alone, after everyone else had gone?
'And even his daughter.'
Jin Cheong-un looked at Jeong So-so with pained eyes.
"Th-then what should I call you......?"
She cautiously tested the waters, reading his mood.
And said.
"......Uncle?"
"Give me a break."
This is truly going to drive me insane.