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there is a secret that one of the third-grade disciples has been hiding.

chung myung knows, and she knows that he knows.

how?

it's because she told him, not completely by accident, but it was close enough. she wasn't really expecting him to believe her, but he did. the world was a strange place, truth was stranger than fiction. he was a man from the past century reborn into another body with his memories intact, so finding someone who comes from the distant future wasn't that far-off a possibility. though, she's never told him how far into the future she had come from.

would he believe her?

if he hears of a time where humans no longer lived on land, but rather in places among the stars in the night sky — or how in her time, martial arts was an obsolete and forgotten craft replaced by weapons that didn't need one to run or move around, with some even allowing one to use them from the safety of a faraway place...

what would he say to that?

is mount hua still standing?

she feels that might be the question he'd ask her. and if she said no, what then? maybe he'd try to change the outcome of something that was the result of the passage of time and of technological progress. or maybe he'd pick apart her memories and find clues of remnants of their existence. or he might just accept this fact quietly.

the truth was, there was a possibility that mount hua might still be standing. maybe hidden in some corner of the universe where the land was more peaceful and the disciples swung their swords in trained synchronisation under the towering plum blossom trees that were in full bloom. she wouldn't know about it though. her corner of the universe wasn't the greatest place to be, always fighting to live for one more day does put quite a toll on someone's psyche.

she rubs the tips of her fingers together.

again, nothing happened.

that makes it the 5894th day. she scratches the numbers down on the makeshift notebook made out of scrap papers, all filled with rows upon rows of tiny etchings. she wasn't too worried about the fact that nothing was happening, in fact, it might be better this way. she hated the idea of having to explain herself if things did begin to happen.

stop spacing out.

right. she was supposed to be helping with dinner at that moment… oops.