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Chapter 13
Yeon sat quietly on the wooden porch. Fortunately, she had brought her small sewing pouch with her.
The children had brought the sewing box used around the mountain stronghold, but though the thread was usable, every needle was rusty or bent. Even so, considering how lacking everything was here, it wasn’t all that bad.
It was too dark inside the room to sew, so Yeon settled herself on the sunlit porch.
She hadn’t intended it, but it was the perfect place for onlookers to gather. Everyone who passed by glanced her way, and the children straight-up sat down to watch her sew.
“Sister-in-law, you look just like a fairy!”
“She really does!”
Embarrassed by their fuss, Yeon smiled shyly.
She thought no one else in the world sewed in front of this many spectators, yet she couldn’t bring herself to shoo the children away—the warmth they gave her was too precious.
As noon approached, a thin beam of mountain sunlight fell across Yeon. The red thread on the embroidery hoop in her lap sparkled brilliantly, and the children gasped in awe.
Yeon had only just threaded the needle, but seeing the children smiling so brightly, she returned a soft smile of her own.
Then her gaze moved to the girl whose skirt she was mending—the child who had cried so hard her eyes were still puffy. Quietly but swiftly, Yeon continued working.
In no time, the tear in the skirt was neatly mended by Yeon’s graceful fingers. She didn’t stop there; she moved her hands even quicker and began embroidering it.
With every movement of Yeon’s needle, small flowers bloomed along the fabric. The children’s expressions brightened.
“Why are you doing more? The skirt’s already fixed.”
“Are you drawing on the clothes? Why?”
The children chattered with questions.
Without taking her eyes off her stitching, Yeon replied with a gentle smile:
“W–well… even if the skirt is fixed, your h–heart still got hurt, didn’t it? When that happens, you embroider it… You s–stitch the heart back together with thread.”
But the explanation seemed too complicated, because one child blinked wide-eyed and asked:
“You can… sew the heart too?”
“Y–yes, you can. You can sew longing, and sew sadness… A–and even scary or painful memories—if you weave them together stitch by stitch like this, t–time will turn them into pretty patterns.”
Yeon recalled the countless lonely days spent in a cramped annex room, doing nothing but embroidery.
Compared to that, life here was unimaginably free. Rough, yes—but the people of the stronghold were pure-hearted, and Haegon, though a stranger to her, had shown her unexpected kindness.
Even if he called it a formal agreement, in truth Haegon had granted her request—it was no different from granting her a favor. That alone showed how considerate he was of her.
Father and my brothers…
The moment the thought surfaced, Yeon’s concentration slipped.
“Ow—!”
A sharp sting made her lower her gaze. A small bead of blood was forming at her fingertip. A rare mistake.
“O–oh…! Blood!”
Afraid it would drip onto the fabric, Yeon quickly brought her finger to her mouth and grimaced at the metallic taste.
“Sister-in-law! Are you okay?!”
“I–I’m fine. It’s nothing…”
The mountain children, who always ran around with fist-sized bruises and scrapes, suddenly worried over a single drop of blood on Yeon’s finger.
I must forget Father and my brothers. The people here… they’re my real family now.
Thinking so, Yeon moved her hands even faster.
The children still glanced worriedly at her pricked fingertip, but soon became absorbed again in the sparkling thread and growing embroidery.
Red petals blossomed, blue waves curled, and a small butterfly took shape.
Had she used gold thread, it might have been even better. They didn’t have many colored threads, which was a pity, but it still looked nice enough.
“Wow…”
“It looks alive…”
Yeon smiled softly at the child who blushed with delight. The other children looked at the embroidered skirt with openly envious eyes.
Yeon spoke:
“I–if you tell me what you like, I’ll embroider it on your clothes too.”
“…All of us?”
“Embroidery doesn’t take that long.”
Yeon was thankful that her hands were fast. She had been so lonely for so long that she had stitched until she could practically sew with her eyes closed.
The little bandit children exchanged hesitant glances—then shouted all at once:
“Meat!”
“Acorns!”
“Wild boars!”
Yeon burst into bright laughter.
For the first time, she felt like she wasn’t the shameful son of a government official’s daughter—but someone needed here.
Later That Night
Dinner was more lively than ever. The children eagerly showed off the embroidery Yeon had added to their clothing.
Though they lacked colored thread, the white-stitched designs outlined with color looked charming even to the adult bandits.
“Wow, we get to see rare things now that we’ve got a new person here.”
“Right? When did we ever get this kind of luxury?”
“Sister-in-law! Do one for me too!”
“Move! I asked first!”
Watching the excited children, Songwon and Haeju chimed in, and soon the adults joined as well.
The only one who seemed uncomfortable amid the cheerful atmosphere was Byeokhee.
She looked like she had just returned from hunting—her collar was smeared with mud, and her side was ripped where a branch had snagged her clothes.
“Hey, Byeokhee. What happened to you? Did you forget the chief told you not to go hunting for a while?”
“If I don’t hunt, what, am I supposed to starve?”
“You run around every day, and your clothes end up like this again… Maybe you should ask sister-in-law to—”
“Oh shut it! Clothes are clothes! What good is embroidery? Does it make food come out?!”
Byeokhee grumbled and plopped down by the fire. Then she threw off her sweat- and blood-stained jacket, and the atmosphere instantly stiffened.
Yeon hesitated, then gathered her courage and approached Byeokhee.
She was still terrified of her—but she couldn’t live forever like this. Even if she got dragged by her hair again, she had decided to be the one to reach out first.
Byeokhee’s rage-filled lunge at her earlier still flashed in her mind, but Yeon would be living here for a while—and these people were her only family during that time.
She wanted to get along with them.
“L–leaving it like this will make it tear even more.”
Yeon gently picked up the discarded jacket.
“Leave it. I don’t need it.”
Byeokhee looked down at Yeon’s hands with half a mocking expression. Her fingers were swollen from a day of sewing, the fingertips flushed red.
“You think those hands can fix anything? I’ll sew my own clothes.”
“P–please think of it as thanks for your hunting. Th–thanks to you, I get to eat my fill too…”
Yeon had no interest in the rabbit Byeokhee brought, but she said it anyway.
Without another word, she placed the torn jacket on her lap. The rough, old fabric resisted the needle, but Yeon worked gently and skillfully, as if handling fine silk.
Byeokhee stared at her with an expression hard to read.
Yeon’s long eyelashes trembled every time the needle moved. Even to Byeokhee, she looked like a celestial maiden descended from the heavens.
What kind of man looks that pretty?
Even as she admired her, a sour thought crept in—if she were Haegon, she too would prefer someone gentle and lovely like Yeon over a tomboyish brute like herself.
“Don’t pretend to pity me with your little skill. No matter how good you think you are—!”
Yeon paused for a moment, then quietly resumed sewing as she replied:
“……I–It’s said that w–wearing torn clothes brings b–bad luck.”
“…What? You—!”
Was she calling her unlucky?
Enraged, Byeokhee raised her hand to strike Yeon again. Yeon squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the blow—
But someone shouted:
“The chief is back!”
At the words, Yeon opened her eyes. Byeokhee had already lowered her hand and was running toward the entrance to greet Haegon.
“……”
Yeon scratched her head and lowered her gaze. She had only thought the words, but they had slipped out loud, and she had nearly gotten herself beaten.
Yeon watched Byeokhee rushing out to greet Haegon with a look of envy.
She too was glad Haegon had returned—but unlike Byeokhee, she couldn’t go running to him. All she could do was quietly fidget with Byeokhee’s torn jacket.
