Myeongwolgwan
In the days that followed, Mi-hyang came to the office several times more. Fortunately she appeared only when Ki-jo was out, leaving a token of affection behind her when she went. Han-su had sworn he would drive her off, yet the moment she actually stood before him his mouth froze and not a word would come. Afraid that Ki-jo, returning to his desk, might take offense at whatever she had left, he whisked the gifts away the instant she was gone — and before long the accumulated offerings filled an entire drawer of his desk. Seo-gwang, curious about what lay hidden there, took every chance to coax him.
"Han-su. Let's open one of those presents. The boss isn't going to take them anyway. We might as well have a look."
"Hyung! What are you saying? I'm just going to burn them!"
"If you're going to burn them, burn them. Why are you still holding on to them?"
"Well — I meant to pile them up and burn them all at once..."
"What? What kind of talk is that? Come on, just a peek."
"No!"
Han-su did not give in to the coaxing. When the chance came, he meant to ask Ki-jo how the things should be disposed of, and do exactly as he was told.
However quickly the gifts were cleared away, Ki-jo could tell she had been there. The perfume she wore was distinctive; a trace of it lingered in the office and gave her away.
One day, no longer able to endure it, he went to Myeongwolgwan himself. The cleanest course would have been to face her and tell her to stop seeking him out, and yet, strangely, he had no wish to meet Mi-hyang in person. It was an odd thing. Her looks were faultless — neat, complete, beyond reproach — and still he simply disliked her. Not the slightest liking stirred.
On arriving, he sent for the manager. He meant to settle the matter with the proprietress, not with Mi-hyang.
The man who presented himself bowed low.
"Welcome, President Lee Ki-jo of Cheongsan Brick."
To his surprise, the manager knew him.
"You know who I am?"
"Of course. You honored us with a visit once before, did you not?"
He remembered that single call at Myeongwolgwan? A face, perhaps — but the name as well? Ki-jo had never so much as met the man. Either the manager was blessed with a prodigious memory, or Ki-jo had become a name in this house. He judged it the latter. He had quarreled with the house's distinguished guests; the manager might well have marked him down as a man to watch.
"I would like to see the proprietress."
When he stated his business, the manager did not so much as ask his purpose. He simply led the way.
"If you'll follow me."
Even as he followed, Ki-jo could not shake a nagging unease. The man's manner was that of someone who had known all along that he would come asking for the proprietress.
Shown into the inner building where she kept her rooms, he was received with open warmth. The proprietress of Myeongwolgwan was a middle-aged woman whose looks still held a languid, seductive grace.
"Welcome. I've been wondering when you would come."
He knew who she was. Lee Seong-ryong — a woman bearing a rather masculine name, elder sister to Lee Hwa-ryong, boss of the Myeongdong gang, and a businesswoman in her own right, who ran Myeongwolgwan and Cheonghaeru, two of the city's most exclusive houses.
She showed him into the tea room, sat across from him, and studied his face without a blink. Her gaze made him uncomfortable, and yet there was a genuine liking in it, which left his feelings in a tangle.
"I'm surprised to hear you were waiting for me. Today is the first time I've had the honor of meeting you."
"Is that so? Somehow it doesn't feel like a first meeting, does it? Not to me."
Lee Seong-ryong smiled, the expression spreading soft and knowing.
Taking it for wordplay, he decided to come straight to his business. He was on the point of speaking about Mi-hyang when she opened her mouth first.
"It's that girl Mi-hyang, isn't it? Has she been making quite a nuisance of herself?"
She had said for him what he had come to say, and laughed — a soft, bubbling ho ho.
That the proprietress of Myeongwolgwan should already know every turn of Mi-hyang's conduct was strange in itself. He had no wish to press her on it. It would be enough, he thought, to make his own wishes plain.
"I believe she has gone too far. I would ask that she never come looking for me again."
"Even so, she is the ace of this house. It pains me to hear you judge her so harshly. Shall I have her called in and give her a proper scolding?"
As she moved to summon the manager waiting outside, Ki-jo spoke.
"No. That won't be necessary."
"Why? Can't bear the sight of her? She's a terribly pretty girl."
"What I dislike is the kisaeng called Mi-hyang putting on a performance in front of me."
"Oh my! So that was it."
She gave him a playful sidelong look and laughed.
"You're cross because Mi-hyang doesn't truly hold you in her heart..."
Unable to tell whether this was a misunderstanding or a jest, he resolved to speak more plainly.
"I don't know at whose bidding she approached me, but I would be grateful if you told her it is useless."
The moment he came to the heart of it, her eyes turned serious.
"You... sensed that?"
He nodded, and still he was dumbfounded. So the proprietress had known as well? Or had she been the one who told the girl to do it?
"How did you know? That the child approached you at someone's bidding?"
"Something was wrong from the first moment I met her at Myeongwolgwan."
"Truly?"
"It was also strange that she came and went from the office when so many eyes were watching."
The way Mi-hyang kept appearing at the office in broad daylight seemed meant to show someone that she was visiting the Cheongsan Brick office.
"And who do you suppose gave the order?"
"I have no wish to know who gave it. It is enough that it stops from today."
"President Lee of Daehan Yeoeop. President Lee Si-hyeong."
She gave the name without a moment's hesitation, and it was Ki-jo who found himself off balance. He was struck by Lee Si-hyeong's quickness — that in the very instant he had stormed out of Myeongwolgwan, the man had set the kisaeng Mi-hyang on him. Lee Si-hyeong, he thought, was no one to take lightly. And yet it disappointed him, too, that word of a client should fall so easily from the proprietress's lips.
"And is it proper to speak so freely of a client's secrets?"
He put the question to her almost as a rebuke.
"Well — officially, it has nothing to do with Myeongwolgwan."
She went on, her expression prim.
"Whatever our guests do here, whatever they say, we keep our mouths shut so that nothing leaves these walls. But... a private arrangement between that man Lee Si-hyeong and Mi-hyang — that, I can speak of."
A private arrangement. Because Mi-hyang had acted on her own, at Lee Si-hyeong's bidding, it had nothing to do with Myeongwolgwan? He did not believe she had told him the truth for that reason alone. The girl was the ace of the house, after all. However personal her doings, they could not be wholly cut off from Myeongwolgwan.
What had puzzled him from the first was the goodwill he felt coming from her. She had made no effort to hide her liking, and she had freely let fall words that ought never to have been spoken. Where had that liking come from? To Ki-jo, still unconvinced, she put a question.
"Do you know who my younger brother is?"
"Yes. I do."
"You do? I heard about you from him. He says he's taken notice of you."
Ki-jo was faintly startled, though on reflection it was hardly cause for surprise. When Ma-ryang had laid out the younger men of Kim Doo-han's crew in Myeongdong, the news would of course have reached Lee Hwa-ryong's ears. Myeongdong was the man's own front yard. A fight begun by the Jongno Faction on another man's ground was reason enough for anger — and yet Lee Hwa-ryong and Kim Doo-han were on friendly terms, and the Jongno men had come hunting only because Ki-jo and Ma-ryang had turned opium loose in a pharmacy in Jongno. He would have understood. But to take notice of Ki-jo over that affair? That was the point that caught him. What was he, that the head of the Myeongdong gang should have his eye on him?
"You're not particularly surprised," she said, smiling.
Had it looked that way? Since it had, he thought it better to press on all the more boldly. He knew the Myeongdong siblings, Lee Hwa-ryong and Lee Seong-ryong, were fierce of will. Nothing good would come of seeming an easy mark to them.
"If he is curious about me, tell him he is welcome to come and see me."
"Ho ho ho. Bold, just as I was told. Now I understand how you held your own before the great men of the brick works. I'll arrange for you and my brother to sit down together."
With that, she leaned her face close to his and asked, her voice gone low and familiar.
"But you truly don't remember me?"
What was this? Did the woman actually know him? He ransacked his memory for any point at which their lives might have touched. Meetings between people came about only when place and time aligned. If he and Lee Seong-ryong had met before, it was Seoul or else Busan. He could not recall this woman anywhere in Seoul, where his recent memories lay thickest, and so Busan was the likelier chance. Lee Hwa-ryong and his family would have come down there as refugees during the war.
"Was it in Busan, perhaps?"
"Yes! You've guessed it at last!"
She laughed, bright and glad. But that was as far as it went. He could learn nothing more. Even if they had crossed paths in Busan, he could not begin to guess when, or how, he had lodged himself in her memory.
"Is the child growing well?"
She asked it in a voice warm with feeling, and his predicament only deepened. He did not let the confusion show, but she seemed to see straight through him with a woman's instinct, for a flicker of a smile touched her eyes as she went on.
"You don't actually remember, do you? Ask Sunrye. Then you'll know."
She knew Sunrye? The shock of it nearly struck him senseless.
"Sunrye cherished that husband of hers so fiercely — and I see she had reason. A man who won't fall for Mi-hyang... there aren't many of that faithful kind left in this country."
Cold sweat traced the line of his spine.
"I'll see to the Mi-hyang matter, and see to it properly. The girl probably didn't want the job either. She only took it on for the money."
"I would be grateful if you did."
"And — Yeong-su's father."
Even his son's name. A small, sharp pang went through his chest.
"Businessmen, politicians, high officials — they all pass through Myeongwolgwan and Cheonghaeru, the houses I run. If anything comes in that might help your business, I'll let you know."
"Ah. Yes. If you would do that, Proprietress, I would be grateful as well..."
"Oh my, it stings when you call me Proprietress. Call me Won-chul's mother. And tell Sunrye you met Won-chul's mother."
"Ah... yes. Won-chul's mother."
"Ho ho ho ho ho."
Lee Seong-ryong, Won-chul's mother, covered her mouth and laughed.
"When the business prospers further, please make use of Myeongwolgwan often. And you'll give me a chance, won't you?"
"A chance at what, if I may ask..."
"We hear things quickly. Word is already going around that Yeong-su's father means to swallow the whole of the Seoul brick market. The only ones still denying it are the men of the brick association, if you ask me."
"Is that so?"
"You'll give me the chance to partner with Cheongsan Brick, won't you?"
"A partnership?"
"Yes. There's something I'd like us to do together."
That she was acquainted with Sunrye, and that she was offering a partnership — between the two, the goodwill he had felt from her all along found its explanation.
"Strange, isn't it, how a tie formed in Busan should reach this far. When I saw Yeong-su's father in Busan, he didn't strike me so — but looking at him now, he is a handsome man. Ho ho ho."
Praise for his looks, sprung from nowhere. She kept him off balance to the end.
"Work with an easy mind now, Yeong-su's father. I won't let that girl Mi-hyang so much as show her face near you. And I'll keep it a secret from Sunrye, too."
She smiled and winked.
He had done nothing that required her secrecy, but nothing good would come of talk of a kisaeng reaching Sunrye's ears. He exchanged a few words of idle chat with Lee Seong-ryong — Won-chul's mother — and left Myeongwolgwan.
On the way back to the office he turned his memories of Busan over from first to last, and still he could not find a single trace of her.
A fine predicament, this...
He pressed a hand to his brow. The only way to learn the truth of his tie to Lee Seong-ryong was to ask Sunrye about Won-chul's mother.