Cheong Myeong's entire body froze as his senses caught a terribly familiar, nostalgic scent in the air. His once-stable heartbeat quickens with every passing second, its unbearably loud sound drumming on his ears. He was never one to exaggerate, yet, at this moment, he couldn't help but to feel that a second seemed like an eternity.
"––...ng... Oi, Cheong Myeong?"
The voice of his classmate, a boy his age, forcefully brought him out of his reverie as he blinked once. Twice. Three times.
Without as much as a reply, Cheong Myeong turned around: no luck – there was a large crowd of people behind them as they've just walked out of a busy shopping area, and he wasn't able to identify from where he'd smelled the soft, familiar scent.
"What's up with him? Did he fail today’s chemistry test or what?"
The perplexed voice of his classmate made Cheong Myeong turn around, as he promptly kicked said friend’s leg, no holds barred. His mate groaned in pain as he fell to his knees, eyes tearing up.
"What was that for!?"
He yelled, but his complaints fell on deaf ears as Cheong Myeong already resumed walking. A sense of déjà vu overcame Cheong Myeong, but he shrugged it off. Must’ve been his imagination.
"...What's wrong?"
His other friend followed suit as he cautiously asked, not wanting to provoke the young man any further.
"Nothing."
His friends all looked at each other in confusion. Just what could be running through the troublemaker's head now that could turn him deathly quiet and deep in thought?
· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·
"Cheong Myeong!"
The faint, soft, sweet smell of osmanthus caught Chung Myung’s attention as a modestly fashioned young woman gleefully ran towards him.
Cheong Myeong narrowed his eyes dearly towards her as he called her name – and oh, how right does her name felt rolling on his tongue. He held out his arms, and the young woman smiled brightly, jumping into his embrace. Unable to contain his excitement upon seeing her again after a month of being apart, he spun around in place as he embraced her, tightly.
"Waa, stop––! Cheong Myeong––!"
Her clenched fists hit Cheong Myeong's back multiple times, but of course, he could barely feel such feeble... attacks, if you can even call it that. After all, he is none other than the almighty Plum Blossom Sword Saint - the martial artist whose name rang through the land for his strength and countless exploits. He laughed as he tightened his embrace.
"Cheong Myeoooooong!"
She pleaded again, and this time Cheong Myeong stopped cold, with a large grin on his face. However, it doesn’t seem like he will put her down any time soon – he seems content holding her up in his arms.
A bit ticked off, she pinched Cheong Myeong’s cheeks with both hands, “Wipe that grin off your face, dummy!”
“You’re so heartless! How can I not smile after reuniting with my sweetest lover!?”
Her eyes widened as a flush of red spread on her cheeks. Cheong Myeong grinned once again as he let her down and leaned down for a soft kiss on the lips.
Cheong Myeong knew that she’s weak to his touch – perhaps even his existence in general – so even if she had an exasperated expression just a few moments ago because of his antics… see, now she has a tender smile, one so familiar and comforting to Cheong Myeong.
“Welcome home.”
“…I’m home.”
· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·
Cheong Myeong turned around in his bed as he reminisced the long, long past. He couldn’t forget the familiar scent of osmanthus even after he got home, showered, and laid on his bed. That’s to be expected: after all, it was the scent of his cherished person, to whom he couldn’t say proper good-byes before he fell after the war with the Heavenly Demon Sect. If only he was given one more chance to meet her, then for sure, he would gently caress her hair, embrace her, and…
Pfft, what a funny thing to think of.
He scoffed to himself – one more chance? Right now, he’s living not his second, but third life. After his first death, he thought it was the end for him: his life cut short, without being able to protect anyone, after losing everyone he held dear right in front of his eyes. Yet, the next moment he opened his eyes, it was in the body of a child beggar, a hundred years after he passed. In that lifetime, he managed to bring back Mt. Hua’s former glory and more, atoned for all of his past sins of ignorance and sloth to the sect, and finally naturally closed the pages of his life after making countless histories. And just as he thought he could finally rest, he woke up again, and even worse, hundreds and hundreds of years has passed since, and now everything around him looks nothing like what he remembered.
Oh, how surprised he was when he learned that “sects” are merely relics of the past, studied only in schools as a part of history long gone.
But of course, owing to his extraordinary adaptability and… “people skill,” he managed to live quite well up until now – in his first year of high school. He made friends – apparently, nowadays that’s how you call your underlings – has a loving family (though at first it felt… strange), and led quite a carefree life.
Yet, sometimes he’d think back on his exploits in the past and feel an indescribable loneliness creeping in his skin. In this world, well, this era, technology has advanced far beyond his imaginations, and martial arts has regressed from being the centre of the world into merely past time for some – although of course, from the information he retrieved from the “internet,” he found that a rather sizable amount of people still dabbles in martial arts very seriously… just not on the same scale as the people of his time did. In any case, it was like you were sent to another universe altogether. If he didn’t have the memory of the previous owner of his body, he would’ve been a complete mess.
Cheong Myeong shook his head to ward off all negative thoughts. Again he thought of the scent, and despite how unrealistic it was, he couldn’t help but to hope that maybe, maybe it was her. In this life, maybe, she also got reincarnated, and was somehow living in the same area as him, and they’d be able to reunite and just maybe… Cheong Myeong would be able to convey the things he failed to two lives ago.
“Pfft. What’s with that?”
Maybe he’s finally lost his mind from living a bit too long. It wasn’t like him at all to mope around and cling to the past – and when tomorrow comes, he’d probably have settled it within himself and stop thinking about it altogether. But for now, for now… he’d like to give himself up to the blissful memories, at least until the next time the sun rises.
· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·
CRASH!!
“…!? Cheong Myeong, what are you doing!?”
The exasperated voice of the homeroom teacher rang through the classroom.
“Ouch, ouch…”
Cheong Myeong reached his hand to his sore backside as he stood up. Just now he fell from his chair in class, quite comedically, out of sheer surprise: who wouldn’t? After all…
“Oi, Cheong Myeong, just ‘cause she’s cute you don’t have to fall down like that!”
“That’s a romcom manhwa protagonist move right there!”
His classmates teased, and the others laughed merrily. Meanwhile, the girl standing in front of the classroom tilted her head in confusion.
Cheong Myeong glared full force at his classmates in response, eyes going from the right to the left. All of them cowered in fear and fell silent in an instance: This also felt like déjà vu, he thought, but that’s not important right now.
Cheong Myeong coughed and sat back on his seat.
“Go on,” he urged the teacher to continue.
“…Ahem,” The homeroom teacher cleared his throat, “Now, please introduce yourself.”
“Umm, it’s nice to meet you guys, I’m…”
As the girl voiced out her name, Cheong Myeong felt a thunderbolt falling on him – it’s her, with the exact same name she had hundreds of years ago. Even her smile didn’t change at all from how he’d remembered it. If something changed, it would’ve been how she’d lost her aura of maturity and wisdom – and that’s because she is a child right now, but even that childlike demeanor felt indescribably lovely to him.
“It’s her.”
Cheong Myeong held a hand to his chest, feeling it beat faster, faster, and faster. Everything seemed to slow down until the teacher spoke.
“Welcome to the class. Oh, and before I forget, anyone wants to volunteer to help her get used to—”
Cheong Myeong had never shot his hand up as fast as this in all three of his lifetimes.
“ME! ME! I DO!”
His friends all laughed and teased him for his boldness, but he really, sincerely, couldn’t care less.
She was someone he’d let go without notice in his first life, and someone he didn’t even get to ever meet in his second. So in his third life, with this stellar chance bestowed upon him, he’d make sure to spend with her all the peaceful time of this era, showering her with his love and attention, to make up for all the time they’ve spent alone.
This time, I won’t let anything keep us apart.
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