Camellia 122

As a slick tongue brushed against the roof of his mouth, Seolyeong let out a quiet sigh. The tongue grazed slowly along his teeth, before starting to press deeper.

It felt like a serpent’s tongue exploring the back of his throat. Seolyeong, breathless and flushed, tried to turn his head away. But Sahyeol Amje’s hand was firmly cradling the back of his head, leaving him no escape.

“Mm, hnn…”

His lower body reacted to the stifling heat of the other’s breath. Feeling himself begin to harden, Seolyeong flushed with shame.

The arms wrapped around his husband’s shoulders trembled. As if he couldn’t bear it any longer, he shoved against those broad shoulders, but the sect leader twisted his head and deepened the kiss instead, tangling their tongues together with deliberate slowness.

Every time their tongues met and glided across one another, Seolyeong jerked with a visible shiver. Sahyeol Amje watched him with delight. The bride, red as a ripe raspberry, squeezed his eyes shut and his lashes trembled.

“Hah, hnn… wait… mmph…”

Smack. Slurp. With exaggerated movements, the man pulled his lips apart, making a wet sound that made Seolyeong respond even more feverishly. His gasping breath mixed with a moan thick with arousal.

The intensity of the kiss made Seolyeong feel like his mind was melting. He was intoxicated by that sweet, velvety tongue, his vision going hazy. Tang Yujae pressed both of his cheeks to open his mouth wider.

Their tongues met again.

“Nnngh, ha… mmph…”

Caught up in the heat, Seolyeong awkwardly moved his tongue in response. He thought he was mimicking his husband’s motions, but from the receiving end, it must have felt clumsy. A soft chuckle leaked out between their lips.

Irritated, Seolyeong furrowed his brows. Seeing the shift in his expression, Tang Yujae finally pulled away. A thin thread of saliva connected their lips before it snapped.

As Seolyeong slowly opened his eyes, he looked at his husband with gaze darkened with lust. As if wondering why the kiss had stopped, he stared at him with undisguised longing.

It was the first time he had felt something like this. A surge of fulfillment so powerful it was hard to put into words. While they were kissing, it truly felt as if the world existed just for them.

The fact that he now linked himself to Sahyeol Amje with “we” still felt unfamiliar. But at this point, it was too late to deny it. His chest even tightened from the comfort offered by the cult’s snake. He couldn’t pretend his heart hadn’t been moved.

He wanted to suck on the man’s lips.

“How can you give your heart away so easily like this?”

But just then, the very lips that had overwhelmed him a moment ago pulled away and changed completely.

“If you fall in love with me, you’re the one who’ll be in trouble.”

His tone was so offhanded, so casual, it stunned Seolyeong. Tang Yujae gently wiped the bride’s glistening lips with the pad of his thumb.

“What are you even saying?”

Even after the kiss, the man was still so tender, it was hard to believe the cruel things coming out of his mouth.

“Judging by how easily you let your guard down after a little kindness, I can guess how starved you’ve been. But even so, don’t throw yourself into some cheap kind of love for a short-lived man.”

“Cheap? What…?”

“Save it. If you want to win a man, you don’t offer your heart up so quickly. You hold back and test the waters a little. That way, you don’t look so easy.”

The sect leader looked entirely too pleased with himself. Whether he was enjoying the chance to scold him or had some other motive, it was impossible to tell.

As Seolyeong fumbled to respond, Tang Yujae turned and leapt off the tree. Snapping out of it, Seolyeong hurriedly followed.

“W-wait, where are you going?”

Where the hell do you think you’re going after saying all that? Tang Yujae, walking with his hands behind his back, turned his head just slightly.

“To return Pungjae’s memories.”

Still dazed, Seolyeong stared at him. He explained calmly.

“You told me to let my sister live her own life. To do that, I need to return what I took from him first.”

That meant he had actually listened to everything Seolyeong had said and accepted it. For the first time since becoming this man’s bride, his opinion had been respected. Unsure how to respond, Seolyeong fiddled with his fingers.

Looking again, he saw the corners of the sect leader’s lips curl in satisfaction. His smile was sly, like a child about to play a nasty prank. Seolyeong stared at that face and muttered with unease.

“I’ll come with you. I’ll stay back and just watch.”

“Why?”

“Because if I let you go alone… you’ll cause trouble.”

“Like the things you always do?”

At the snide response, Seolyeong’s temple twitched with a visible vein. He quickened his pace to catch up. Ahead of him, Tang Yujae even began to whistle.

Listening to that carefree, melodic whistling, Seolyeong stared at the man’s back. Did the world know that the most powerful man alive was such a shameless, childish trickster?

It felt like he had uncovered a hidden part of the sect leader. And that strange fluttering in his chest wouldn’t leave him.

*

And sure enough, Tang Yujae caused trouble.

While Si Pungjae was out in the woods gathering firewood, the sect leader suddenly stepped out in front of him and landed a kick to his stomach.

Seolyeong had almost shouted “My lord!” and rushed out, but he froze when he heard a voice ring out.

“This is the price for daring to make my sister fall in love with you.”

The sect leader spoke in a chilling voice. Si Pungjae, struck out of nowhere, lay sprawled on the ground, staring up in shock.

Another kick came. With a heavy thud, Si Pungjae’s jaw twisted to the side.

“And this is the price for failing to even notice her feelings.”

Even as he mercilessly beat the man, the sect leader’s expression didn’t so much as flicker.

“Ugh, kuh…”

Si Pungjae gasped for breath and coughed up blood. His face had gone pale with fear. Tang Yujae delivered another swift kick. Thwack, his foot slammed into Si Pungjae’s solar plexus, sending him crashing into an exposed tree root.

“And finally, this is the price for not only lusting after men but beginning to covet me. Because of you, my sister has ended up clinging to a hopeless love.”

Seolyeong stood frozen, too shocked to step in front of the sect leader or even scold him to tone it down. Feeling his bride’s gaze, Tang Yujae glanced sideways and mouthed silently,

“It’s fine. This bastard likes it when I hit him.”

No, you lunatic… who on earth likes getting beaten?!

As Seolyeong seethed inwardly, ready to finally intervene, Si Pungjae let out a painful cough and looked up at the sect leader with trembling eyes.

“Do… do you know me?”

He had lost all his memories and now floundered in an endless fog of confusion. Caught between a vanished past and an uncertain present, he had no choice but to fight on.

When a woman had come searching for him, asking again and again if he truly remembered nothing, he could only answer yes. It tormented him. It felt as if something precious, something deeply loved, had been stolen, leaving him to wander alone through time.

No matter how hard she urged him to recall, his mind remained clouded in fog. When he’d finally asked if she could just tell him who he had been, she had looked on the verge of tears and said:

‘I’ve told you about your past so many times already. It’s just that… every time you turn your back on me, you forget it all again…’

It made no sense, but Si Pungjae had no choice but to accept it. Someone, perhaps deliberately, seemed to have sealed away his memories. Had he been cursed?

“You… you do know who I am, don’t you?”

Despite being ambushed and kicked half to death, Si Pungjae found himself looking at the man with desperate eyes. Something about the cold glint in Tang Yujae’s eyes and the chill in his voice sent tremors straight to his heart.

It felt like the lost mountain of his memories was finally within reach. Clinging to that thread, he pressed on.

“You came here for me, didn’t you? Then… you must know what kind of person I was, and… what kind of life I lived?”

Tang Yujae stepped forward, slowly. Si Pungjae, splayed on the ground, pushed himself upright with great effort. Then, as if his body remembered something his mind did not, he knelt without hesitation.

“I’ll give you a choice.”

His voice was low. Si Pungjae flinched at the words, his bruised eye twitching. Tang Yujae’s shadow fell across his bowed head. Beneath the night sky, where moonlight mingled with darkness, the sect leader’s voice echoed solemnly.

“If you take your memories back, you’ll have to leave Jungwon and never return. No one will respect your wish to live as you once did, in a powerless body with no martial skill. The place you once belonged to no longer exists.”

“….”

“But if you’re willing to live an ordinary life with those lost memories…”

Si Pungjae clutched his chest, trembling fingers pressed to a pounding heart. He felt seasick, as if adrift in a rocking boat.

“I’ll forgive your foolishness and wish you well on the road ahead.”

Why did it feel like being abandoned by a god? And yet at the same time, why did it feel like being chosen?

As Si Pungjae’s gaze trembled, Tang Yujae fell silent, as if to give him time to decide.

Meanwhile, Seolyeong, eavesdropping on this heartless exchange, muttered in disbelief.

“If you’re just gonna give the guy his memories back anyway, what’s with all the dramatics… Is he just putting on a tough act?”