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Yoo Iseol was the first to notice.
At night, the breathtaking view opened from the height of the mountains. A white crescent moon surrounded by a galaxy of stars softly illuminated the pavilions, which turned out to be lonely, but Yoo Iseol knew that it was calm. However, for several days in a row, when she went back to her room after training, she noticed a light, a single one, in the darkness. The girl stepped noiselessly to the window where it was burning and called softly,
"Sasuk, why aren't you sleeping?"
It was just a fleeting moment. Sahyung's silhouette, like a dying candle, suddenly straightened up and shone with nobility in the middle of the dark night.
"Samae, you should rest too," a soft smile spread across his lips, like a real big brother. "It's been a few days since you've slept well. Take some incense from Soso to calm her down, she's worried."
Yoo Iseol nodded curtly and left.
As she walked through the night, the clouds parted, revealing a crescent moon. The girl looked at her black shadow, and then at the sleeves of the once white uniform — It were dirty. Yoo Iseol did not like dirt, and a long time ago, when she was still a student of the first generation, she looked at her tasahen with a searching gaze. His uniform was never stained, there was no sweat on it, only a couple of folds that Baekcheon skillfully covered. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't figure out how he did it. She gave up.
There were only three times when Yoo Iseol saw her sahen untidy.
The first was when he single-handedly fought one of the generals of the Myriad Human Houses, Yong Peng.
The second, in the North Sea, when they were almost buried under the snows of the North Sea by the forces of a demonic cult and a Bishop.
And the third, when Cheongmyeong forced them to race beyond their limits for several days in a row.
Yoo Iseol hadn't thought about it before, but…
Wasn't her sahen too concerned about appearance for someone who thinks being neat is enough? No, or rather, isn't he too neat?
***
The second people who noticed something strange were Yoon Jong and Tang Soso.
Feeling the world dancing in front of his eyes, and his stomach asking him to throw out all the excess, Yoon Jong went back inside the dining room, where there was a noisy celebration. When he reached Baekcheon, he weakly called out to him, knowing that if he sat down, he would vomit right on his Sasuk.
"Sasuk… The Sect leader and the elders are calling for you."
It was only a fleeting moment before Yoon Jong gave himself the right to yawn. As if a swan had spread its wings to take off, Baekcheon got up from the floor, straightened his hair and asked with a confident expression,
"How long have they been waiting? I need to go to Soso's and drink herbal tea to hide the fumes."
"Ah, Baeksang Sasuk has just come with a message."
"Okay," he nodded, walking out and leaving the other students lying around. "Take care of your Sasuks and Sajaes, Jong-ah."
"Y-yes…"
Yoon Jong was so fascinated by this strange sight and slightly envious of his ability to recover so quickly that he forgot for a moment about dizziness and other symptoms of a hangover. Having roused his fellow sufferers, he decided to visit Soso. After telling her about what he saw, he received only an unconvinced look:
"Yoon Jong Sahyung, how is this possible? Remember, Sasuk got drunk before everyone else. He's probably already sobered up," but she still had a slight worry about her morning patient, so she added, "Okay, let's go to the Sect Leader's pavilion and take a look."
It was not good to eavesdrop, so they only looked through the window for a short while. Sure enough, Baekcheon was sitting with his back straight and a thoughtful expression on his face. He added when the elders or Unam sasuk said something, occasionally commented, but more often listened because he was the youngest and inexperienced here. Yoon Jong and Tang Soso squatted down, whispering to each other,
"I told you, Sasuk is fine."
"It looks like it…"
Noticing his sahenjae in thought, Jo Geol, throwing his sword over his shoulder, approached them.
"Hey, why aren't you at practice?"
"Shh!"
Finally, the door to the Sect Leader's pavilion opened. Baekcheon came out of it as if nothing had happened, and Yoon Jong, Tang Soso and Jo Geol, who was unexpectedly dragged into a mini-surveillance, approached him, asking,
"Sasuk, how many fingers am I showing?"
"Sasuk, what's wrong with your stomach?"
Baekcheon just looked at them in surprise. No, what got into his Sajils?
"You've been so active since early morning," he took a step.…
Only a second passed, during which the faces of Tang Soso, Yoon Jong and Jo Geol twisted in disbelief. Their sasuke, who had just stood in front of them radiating nobility, now leaned on the pavilion of the Sect Leader and... vomited.
Yoon Jong just said,
"I told you so."
Then Tang Soso had to take his sasuk to the Medina hall because he was trying to break through the wall with his head out of shame.
***
It has been several years since Cheongmyeong stopped personally coaching students. Aigo! They are already adults, they cheer themselves up, and they won't die until he sees? But right now, Five Swords were standing in front of him with worried faces, as if one sacrifice had happened after all and they were afraid to report it.
"Well, what do you want from me?.."
Tang Soso was the first to shout, from whom Baekcheon escaped several times from the hall of medicine,
"Sasuk is behaving frighteningly! Hit him on the head!"
"Hmm? Sasuk?"
No, of course, Baekcheon was still a brat, but that doesn't mean he didn't do his job well. It seemed to Cheongmyeong that he would definitely not cause any problems. But what does he hear? Back to the old and nightmares his Sajils?!
"Sasuk is very emboldened," a smile flashed across his lips as he rubbed his fists. "Don't worry, I'll be very gentle."
After these words, the disciples realized that they had made a mistake. Cheongmyeong was the kind of person who needed to explain everything from the beginning to the end in order to avoid casualties. Yoo Iseol came forward, speaking for everyone,
"Sahyung doesn't beat us up. He's just…"
It was difficult to find a word for this behavior. Just training like everyone else, but a little harder? Just looks neat, but in too weird situations? Is he just too restrained, even when he's hungover?
"...perfect," Yoo Iseol gasped, but when she saw Cheongmyeong's uncomprehending face, she explained. "Sasuk pays too much attention to how he looks in the eyes of others."
"That's right," Yoon Jong stepped forward. "At first glance, sasuke may look decent ... but over time it scares a little. For example, recently I tried to look more dignified in front of guests, like Daesahyung of the Cheong generation, and open my eyes wider… But it's so hard to think about it all the time."
"Sahyung scolds me for being in a hurry, so I decided to focus on the correctness of the execution, not the speed… But it's so difficult!"
"I use needles instead of a sword all the time, but when I tried to give them up and didn't even take them with me... I used needles anyway!"
The disciples looked at each other with concern, to which Cheongmyeong only sighed painfully.
'And why did they start a panic? Tsk-tsk, just because of your excited faces, I'll talk to Dongryong.'
Muttering under his breath about how the children became friends, Cheongmyeong quickly reached Baekcheon standing among the students. He brushed away the perspiration on his face with a light movement of his hand, giving instructions to his Sajaes and Sajils. His white robes were perfectly clean, even the folds were very rare. His thick eyebrows were slightly furrowed, but this did not diminish the nobility of his appearance. It's like a hero from a fairy tale, just like the first time we met.
But Cheongmyeong was unhappy.
'No, why does the rest of the students stink of sweat a mile away, but this one is clean?'
When the sweaty, dirty and tired students left to train, Cheongmyeong approached Baekcheon, starting with discontent.
"Hey, Dongryong, aren't you trying at all? Where's your sweat! Sweat!"
"That bastard…"
Before Baekcheon could reply, Cheongmyeong abruptly shortened the distance, bending down and touching someone else's neck with his fingers; It was sweaty. He frowned when Baekcheon shouted in his ear,
"What are you doing?!"
"Hey, Sasuk," playful hands touched someone else's chest, getting under the clothes and touching the sweaty and heated skin. "Are you wearing an extra layer of clothes? Tsk-tsk. You know how hot it is here!"
After a fierce struggle that lasted several minutes, Baekcheon found himself completely naked, sporting only his pants. Cheongmyeong smiled, pleased with the work he had done. No, who's crazy enough to wear an extra layer just to soak up sweat? Ah, this is Dongryong…
"Now walk like that."
"What..?"
"Dongryong has not only a beautiful face, but also a beautiful body. We need to show it more often."
Baekcheon stared at him with an expressionless face for a few seconds, but then his eyebrow twitched. Grabbing the handle of the sword, he drew it against Cheongmyeong with a distorted face, shouting,
"Bastard, now your Sasuk will teach you manners!"
***
"Don't you think we did something wrong?"
"Do you think so?"
Yoon Jong, Jo Geol and Tang Soso sat with their chopsticks raised and watched for twenty minutes as Cheongmyeong took out their Sasuk. And no matter how much Baekcheon wanted to escape from this disaster that his Sajili had brought down on him, Cheongmyeong only bullied him even more, poking vegetables in his face and saying, 'Does little Dongryong not like carrots?'
"We woke up the monster," the disciples concluded.
Only Yoo Iseol finished eating and looked up at her Sahyung, noisy, with a distorted expression, a piece of food on snow-white clothes and fat on her face from meat and smiled.
'Reminds me of the old days.'
The times when Baekcheon had not yet become the 'Daesahung of Baek generation', who too flawlessly followed the image of a caring older brother and a noble disciple. Yoo Iseol remembers them faintly, but perhaps Baeksang, who was sitting with a thoughtful face, is also thinking about it?