Chapter 11: Preparations for Seollal

Moo-young

The first of January came and went without any fanfare which told me Hong-ju was planning a Seollal celebration, especially as we had the future Yeon and his sister visiting. Seollal was seen as a time for renewal, reflection, and re-connection with familial roots. In the current era of Japanese occupation, celebrating was a visible way to rebel against them.

I was keeping an eye on Rose as each training session was expanding how much energy her core could hold and retain, I hoped it was big enough for the final seal to be put on before new years. It would be symbolic of her internal renewal and the one to come in 2024.

There was one month left for the year of the earth tiger when I spied Yeo-hee, Rose, Hong-ju and the other girls heading towards the entrance. I called out to Hong-ju, “where are all of you heading?” her response was “the bathhouse for a girls afternoon. Why don’t you find the yeons and spar for a bit?”

As I finished my cup of tea, there was laughter coming towards my right ear, “Yeons over here please” I called. The smiles on their faces filled me with warmth as they sat down. I took a deep breath before I spoke “Seollal is a month away, so I want to place the seal on Rose before the new year. This will require both of you. My plan is to send a lightning bolt with your sword; it would be the same way as-.” future Yeon interrupted me “when I was blind in the forest?”

I continued “you would be correct” “and this will seal her core while allowing it to still grow in the future?” current Yeon questioned. I explained the process to current Yeon as he didn’t experience it like Yeon and I did, then asked for a calendar from one of the staff. “I am thinking two weeks from today will allow recovery time before Seollal and Hong-ju already knows about this plan. She will make sure everyone will be safe from the lightning.”

Future Yeon asked “how have your missions to keep governor generals out of Gyeongseong been going and will it affect our new year celebration?” The two of us looked at each other before the other Yeon answered himself “we have been keeping the current governor general on a short leash and our celebration won’t be affected. Everyone here including the staff have a contract like an NDA back in 2024, so they can’t talk about what happens on these grounds.”

A smile formed on current Yeon’s face. “I heard what you did to the governor general who was a Japanese mountain god, that kept them for quiet a while.” He glanced around before changing the topic “I was looking for Rang and found him in the kitchen taking notes of how many rice cakes would need to be made in time for Seollal.” “Wait, I remember him mentioning the delivery manager,” future yeon exclaimed, “this means he can make sure everyone gets to celebrate the new year. His former profession will come in handy to get food off the black market.”

As he was talking I had a thought of performing a blessing for everyone especially Yeon and Rose with her health after the ancestral rites. “How does including a blessing to help us in the year of the Earth Rabbit sound to the both of you?”

The two of them went silent and I could tell from their faces they were mulling it over. It was future Yeon who answered with “a blessing would be perfect to give Rose’s recovery in the future easier overall and bring some luck to the current fight here in 1938.”

We chatted about other topics till we saw the girls came back from the bathhouse and during the conversation future Yeon froze for ten seconds. He had a serious facial expression when he said “Rose is feeling overwhelmed so I need to ground her.”

Rose

We were in the Relaxation area of the bathhouse and my hearing became so dull, all the conversations around me were impossible to understand. My eyes started to lose focus and go into double vision along with being blurry. Both of these senses got worse until I found myself within my mind palace with no control of my body.

I watched as my body went nonresponsive to everyone around me and time stopped for me so I blinked to find myself back in my room. My emotions were dis-regulated so I focused on the red string tied to Yeon as he was the only safe person, when it came to my emotions. It turned out I didn’t need to search as Yeon was heading my way and I gave a tug on the string to invite him into my mind palace.

He appeared in one of the armchairs looking confused about where he was, {welcome to my mind palace brother, this is where mum locked me in for a week for my punishment.} {the red string told me about you being overwhelmed}, he paused {when you are ready to talk, I am here.} We moved to the couch so he could hold me after asking permission in order to help me ground myself.

Once I was grounded enough a fancy door appeared to my right, this was the signal to myself now more putting off dealing with my emotions. Yeon looked at me {no need to rush so get up when you are ready} and I nodded my head to say I’m ready. We got up together and headed towards the door.

The room was red with raised seating on the left and a big movie screen in front of us, with the seats in the middle row were open. There was drink and food on a small table in front of them, seeing this Yeon acknowledged {your mind palace knows you need them to help process the strong emotions that might come up. Ready to watch the first memory sis?}

The first memory that came up on the screen was my introductions to Moo-young, Shin-ju and my brother preadoption. {those two foxes really messed up my legs, but I wonder why they didn’t physically attack my upper half except for the curses.} took a sip of my drink before continuing {thinking back my life was hell and that attack changed my life for the better. I’m curious if we will ever find out how I knew to come to your doorstep.} {In time we might get an answer for that, let’s focus on feeling and processing your bottled-up emotions. It’s only the two of us so no getting embarrassed} he told with a reassuring smile on his face.

The cinema screen changed to show when I got some of my feeling back in my legs along with my eyesight. {Shin-ju was very surprised at the sight of your purple eyes when the curses on your eyes and your legs were released}, Yeon took a sip of his drink. {We didn’t know how long it would be after the deaths of the two foxes for the curses to dissipate.}

{I could hear the relief in his voice once my eyes were responding to his light, but he wasn’t happy with how much those two foxes had physically damaged my legs. His voice got a bit darker when performing the sensation test and lightened once he worked out, I had 50% of my feeling back.} {His darker side doesn’t come out a lot so this shows he started caring for you. This is good in a fight or for holding down a nine tailed fox while she is being overwhelmed by too much energy.}

I turned away from my brother to hide my embarrassment {I knew there was something added to our food and I ignored my gut feelings.} my body was engulfed in a hug with reassuring words such as {don’t worry about it, I may not have liked what happened, but I got to see your fox form. The purple suits you, although you are the first fox I know to have this colour.}

As the scene played out I remembered the message but the rest was blank, so I was shocked to watch myself stop breathing. Yeon watched my shocked reaction and gave me another hug to reassure me.

Meanwhile Moo-young was checking over Rose and Yeon’s bodies to make sure nothing had gone wrong as per Hong-ju’s request. She had carried Rose from the bathhouse since she had gone non responsive which worried all the girls. Moo-young finished his check up and found they were in Rose’s mind palace after feeling the red string linking them together. He reassured everyone that Rose and future Yeon would wake up when it was the right time. Yeo-hee put her hand up to watch over them while their bodies slept.

Future Yeon

{Can we have the next memory please mind palace} I asked. Rose’s mind palace responded by cutting to a scene of during her three weeks of unconsciousness, I was sitting on my left holding her hand. {what was going through your mind while you were watching over me?} I took a deep breath {it was a scary time with no idea when you would wake up, it’s rare to find a female nine tailed fox in the world. This made me want to hold on to you in any way I could, so I asked my daughter and she gave us one more week to wait at that point. I trusted her gut feelings, and it turned out to be right.}

I turned to her with a curious expression {how did you cope with being turned human?} {It was frustrating with how weak my body was, the healing rate of humans and not being able to communicate in my normal ways. I realised I turned into a bad patient.} I burst out laughing {I was human for four months and I discovered I wasn’t keen on the shots given to numb the pain at the dentist. There was one time that Ji-ah had to trick me into going and had to drag me inside by pulling on my ear so I’d behave. Pain makes us react in different ways.}

The tone of her voice changed into a serious one when she reflected {It was scary when I almost died as a human. I’m sure mum knew it would happen but didn’t tell us like normal.} {The old hag has always kept information on a need to know basis, with the added condition. The fact she allowed the old man to visit you in person in order to return your fox energy shows she cares for you.}

The scene changed on the screen to show Rose in the aftermath of her head surgery and her temper tantrum in front of the old hag side by side. Rose looked away from me with her posture changing to a slumped kind and I could see her ears turn red which told me she was embarrassed.

In a mumbled tone I heard {these weren’t my finest moments}, I took a deep breath before I responded {Your fall in the bathroom scared all of us especially Shin-ju and your disobedience in front of the old hag both had consequences. Not just anyone can behave like that in front of her and get away with a light punishment.}

I took a sip of my drink before continuing {I saw the progress you were making, so we celebrated every little win you had as Dr. Kim had told us it wouldn’t be an easy process. Your stubbornness has proved to be a roadblock.} I stopped because my sister turned back to me with her eyes filled with tears ready to fall at any moment and her voice was shaky.

{I’ve been alone for over 50 years so I’d forgotten how my actions affect others around me. Thank you for telling me the blunt truth of my actions and choices, this shows I need to think about how a choice or action might hinder my recovery.}

I pulled her into a hug to show I was concerned for her like a big brother should be and she let the tears fall as I felt her body shake uncontrollably. {I’m sorry for going into parent mode, I need to make sure you are around when Yun is older so there will be someone close to her once I get too old. Also you understand how the old hag works, allowing you to protect Yun from her.}

{can we have some of the happier memories please} I asked to show Rose there were positives to her entering our lives. The screen started playing those memories while I still held my crying sister. After ten minutes I felt her breathing return to normal allowing her body to relax and she slowly loosen her grip on me. We held hands as we watched the last few memories with both of us closing our eyes and the next I knew we were back in her room in 1939 still holding hands.

Rang

Yeo-hee and I were watching over my two older siblings when their eyes opened up, “hyung and Noona are you alright? ” with hesitancy in my voice. “Namdongsaeng, I am feeling more like myself and -”, a dry cough came out and I felt my wife grab my hand to reassure me everything was going to be ok. She poured two cups of water, placed one of them next to me and helped Hyung to drink.

I assisted my sister to which she gratefully smiled and hugged me without any warning, I glanced over to see Yeo-hee giggling silently. Eight or nine months ago my typical response would have been an angry outburst, since meeting my mate I have been working on my anger issues.

I couldn’t get mad at my family so I returned my lovely wife’s smile, to our left we heard the door open and Moo-young walked into the room. “Moo-young how did you-” “know you had woken up? I placed a marking when I checked both of you while you slept” he finished Yeon’s question with an answer.

We moved so he could check their energy levels before telling them to sleep for the rest of the day. They accepted this order from him as the time spent in Rose’s ‘mind palace’ hadn’t allowed them to properly get enough sleep. Moo-young sent the both of us to get food and rest after watching over them for the last few hours.

Moo-young

It was the first of February which was the day we had organised to seal Rose’s core and complete the recovery process from the intense surgery I had to perform. Hong-ju had arranged for all the humans at the Myoyeongak to be off the grounds for their safety. Rose was woken up at eleven am on an empty stomach in case she had any reactions after the lightning strike.

This last step was crucial for her core to be protected and the last requirement for the outer barrier to be removed, so nothing was allowed to go wrong. Current Yeon carried her to the platform in the middle of the courtyard where I was waiting and he laid her down in the centre. Both yeons stood to the side while I explained the process to Rose.

“We will be using lightning to form the final barrier between your core and the world to prevent you from getting any more holes. You will be holding future Yeon’s sword while both of them send a bolt to you, while you summon a bolt to yourself.” I sent Rose a mental video of what I had planned and her face confirmed she understood the process.

Everyone else retreated to the covered areas around the courtyard with both yeons on either side of the platform. I gave them the countdown of three, two one and three lightning bolts headed towards Rose. She caught the two white one along with her own purple bolt between her hands and once all three were merged, she allowed the ball to fall into her body.

Five minutes passed before it was safe for the yeons to ground Rose so she was able to touch others without shocking anyone. While this was happening I checked to see if any cracks could be seen in the lightning shield and I was happy to see her complete core covered. Another observation I had during this was seeing Rose’s purple nine tails along with her eyes and claws.

I was expecting hers to be the same colour as her brother so it was a nice surprise. “Moo-young she is stable so it’s safe to remove the outer barrier” current Yeon called out to me and I began to remove the markings from the walls. After this I checked on Rose and gave permission for her to move back to her bed, as she was unconscious in order to finalise the process.