Part 23

Sunjoon and Yoonhee in the Water

The sky clouds up. Jaeshin, who is at the top of the waterfall with Sunjoon and Yoonhee, yells down towards those playing at the bottom, "Hey! it looks like it's going to rain!" Nobody can hear, so he decides to head down to ask. As he climbs down the fall, it starts to rain.

Sunjoon puts on his outer clothes and Yoonhee puts her buh-seon back on. Jaeshin yells from the bottom, "get your things! let's get out of here!"

Sunjoon waits for Yoonhee, who, as she's scrambling for her things, gets her sangtoo (the updo all men are sporting) stuck in a branch. She tries to get it out, but she has a hard time because she can't see it.

"I'll help you."

Sunjoon comes over to grab the branch.

"It's okay. It'll come undone soon."

"Stay still. It's going to get even more tangled."

They hear Jaeshin shout from the bottom, "I'm taking your hats! Do you remember the place we were at before we came here? We'll be there, so catch up!"

Sunjoon yells back that they will soon be there, and goes back to taking her sangtoo out of the branch. Yoonhee stands there frozen between his arms, which are raised around her to reach her hair. She can't step back because she will fall into the waterfall. She looks at Sunjoon's neck and remembers the first time she met him, when she didn't think she would ever see him again.

Her clothes start getting more and more wet. But his hands are slow and careful. She can't get her clothes wet, but she doesn't want to hurry him. She wants to stay like this for longer, if she could.

Sunjoon's hands have stopped. But her hair is still caught on the tree. She looks up to his face. His own hair and rain are running down his face, and his eyes are looking at her. It's different. His eyes don't look like the first time she's met him. It looks like hers.

Why? Why is he looking at me like this?

Tears start running along the hair and rain on his face. All the emotions he's kept hidden start flowing out.

"Even if I do away with your sangtoo, you are still a man..."

Yoonhee is pained just to see his sadness that she doesn't decipher what he means. She wants to pretend that she's not seeing him like this; it's just the wind and the rain making him seem sad, she wants to believe.

She missteps as she tries to back away, and the wind blows her sangtoo free; she loses her balance, and waterfall suddenly becomes louder. She reaches out a hand, but she feels him getting farther away, and she can only see the clouds in the sky. But after a moment, the sky is covered by Sunjoon, who's leapt to grab her. They catch each other in an embrace and fall into the water, like the rain, like the waterfall.

The water sucks the two in, and in the water, Yoonhee can see Sunjoon's eyes. She can't see the tears, but she can see that they are still falling. His hair weaves through the water, as does hers, until they get closer and closer to be one, in a hopefully neverending embrace. She can't breathe. Not because she's underwater, but because his lips are on hers. They float in the water as though they're in a dream, as though they're above the skies, as though they are babies in a mother's womb.

There's no world underneath here. Since there is no world, there's no rules, or duties. There's only these two people. Only their lips. They share their warmth through their lips, in this cold, small, world-less place.

But the water spits them out. As they come out to the world, they are torn apart, and Sunjoon's lips are far away. They stand where the water is shallow. There is no one else. Sunjoon evades Yoonhee's gaze.

Yoonhee can't believe what just happened under the water. She thinks it's because of the shock of falling that she made it up in her head. Or it's because he was trying to help her breathe, to save her, that he did that.

Sunjoon turns around to walk out of the water. Yoonhee, somewhat out of it, follows, but the water is unruly under the rain and she keeps falling. When she reaches a point where most of her body is above the water, she finds that her clothes are almost completely see through, and she's lost the cloth she keeps to cover her breasts in the water. She quickly puts her arms around her chest.

Sunjoon, who is almost out of the water, suddenly turns around and walks towards Yoonhee. He kisses her passionately. The warmth that was there underneath the water isn't there anymore. Instead, he is drinking her heat with all his emotion through their lips. Yoonhee is unable to even understand what is going on, so she doesn't push him away, or embrace him. She just stands there with her arms around her chest. Her knees go weak and the water tries to push her. Sunjoon grabs her firmly and pushes his tongue through the small space between her lips. He kisses her as if he is searching for something, as if there's an answer there, as if there is a way for them to be together. Tears fall from Yoonhee's eyes.

Sunjoon, unable to find what he's looking for, stops, and turns around. He doesn't look at her, and Yoonhee, scared that he will run away, grabs the tail of his clothes. Sunjoon says,

"I won't say that I'm sorry."

She wants to answer, but no words come out of her mouth.

"I'll leave SungKyunKwan. I no longer deserve to be there."

Yoonhee shakes her head, but he can't see. Yoonhee walks through the water so she stands in front of him, but Sunjoon turns his head, and closes his eyes.

"You didn't do anything wrong." he says."I don't think I did anything wrong, to you. But I've wronged everybody else."

Yoonhee leans her forehead onto his chest and starts sobbing as she says,

"Everything is my fault! You didn't do anything..."

"I'm the one who wanted this! Even if you say you wanted me too, I'm the one who wanted you more, and therefore I am more at fault."

"No!"

Yoonhee takes his hand and she puts his hand onto her breast.

"Are you still at fault? Please, don't blame yourself..."

Yoonhee bites her lips, with her hand holding his tightly. She can't raise her head.

Sunjoon's senses come back to him, and he realizes what he's holding in his hand. This is a woman's breast. Shocked, he takes her arms off her chest and he sees a woman's body through wet clothes. Her hair falls down with the rain.

Sunjoon's hands shake as he undoes her clothes. Her clothes fall, one by one, to reveal the body underneath. The rain falls on her to run down her body. When all her clothes are off, Sunjoon finds that Yoonhee is wearing a 허리가리개 (This is the underwear bottom that all the women wear... > >) Sunjoon can't believe his eyes.

"Wha--what is.. Is something wrong with my eyes?"

Yoonhee covers her body with clothes and shakes her head.

"So you deceived me?"

"I didn't intend to lie to you."

"If you didn't lie to me, what is this?!"

"I didn't deceive you! There was nothing I hated more than standing in front of you as a man! I would deceive the entire world, but I wouldn't deceive you.."

"W--wait. I don't understand anything. I don't understand what you're saying." Sunjoon shakes his head in confusion, then looks at Yoonhee. Then he puts his arms around her. He doesn't think about anything else, but he feels pity that she's had to dress as a man.

When he is hugging her, he is sure that he is embracing a woman's body. Suddenly the water gets more out of control because of the rain. Sunjoon takes Yoonhee by the hand and head the opposite direction of where they are supposed to meet the other students.