Shopping Is a Joy
With a slightly off-the-wall idea, the men made their way up to the third floor, the women's clothing department. Deep down, each of them harbored a faint hope that Haneul might be there.
「Clomp, clomp.」
"Ahem."
"Hm-hm."
But when they reached the top of the stairs, what greeted them first—somewhat awkwardly—was a display of women's underwear.
"So this is the sort of undergarment they wear in Daehan?"
"Indeed. Fascinating, isn't it?"
With the invention of elastic bands and stretchy fabrics, underwear had undergone a revolution of its own. For men and women alike, it was triangular briefs or short square-cut trunks, while for women there was a stretchy band of cloth fitted with cups—practically indistinguishable from the modern bra.
"Hm... There were undergarments on the floor below as well, but... they were nothing like the codpieces we wear back home."
There had been men's underwear displayed in one corner of the men's clothing section downstairs, but it bore little resemblance to the padded, emphasis-heavy garments fashionable in Europe, and so it had failed to catch anyone's eye.
"The women's undergarments are quite different too."
"Hm-hm... So this is what comfort feels like?"
What was all the rage in Europe at the moment was the stays—an undergarment that cinched the upper body thin and pressed the chest flat. The thing that would later be known as the corset.
"I suppose the fashion in Daehan is to make the bosom more... prominent?"
"Ahem."
In truth, it didn't make the chest more prominent so much as let the body's natural shape show as it was, but a small misunderstanding had taken root.
"Still, if you look at the owner of this place, surely it can't be so bad?"
"Hmmmm..."
Once again, eyes glazed over in dreamy flights of imagination.
"Might not be so bad at night, at least?"
"Right?"
"Must be comfortable, though..."
"Easy to put on, too. And easy to take off."
Women's underwear of this era was genuinely a struggle to put on and an even greater struggle to remove. It was hard on the men, and hard on the women.
"And look at this sheer, see-through garment here. Anyone can tell this is for the bedroom, no?"
"Oh my. Certainly not something one would wear out of doors..."
It looked like a dress, but the fabric was far too translucent. What they had picked up was a slip—originally meant to be worn so the skin wouldn't touch the outer garment directly, but somehow a strange misunderstanding had sprung up instead. Right beside it hung plenty of silk pieces that weren't sheer at all and were wonderfully soft, but...
"Shall we buy one or two to try?"
"Why not?"
"Good grief? Why is this so expensive..."
Wasn't underwear naturally pricey? It protected delicate areas, and when it had to be made soft and with painstaking care, the price could hardly stay low.
"Oh my, gentlemen! This isn't expensive at all. Once you try it on, you'll find it wonderfully comfortable. Buy just one now, and you'll be back for more before you know it!"
A female shop assistant who had been watching came forward. She had originally expected female customers, but this turned out not to be an age when women could step outside so easily—not a single woman had set foot in the department store.
"Hm..."
"Is that truly so?"
"Yes. I wear them myself, and they make moving about so much easier."
「Swish, swish.」
And with that, the assistant swung her arms about and twisted her waist. In a corset, she wouldn't have been able to bend at the middle at all, yet she moved with complete freedom.
"And the ones you saw a moment ago can be worn like nightclothes to bed, but they're also meant to protect the skin from direct contact with your outer garments. So soft, aren't they?"
"But how are we to know if this one would be the right size...?"
A man stood holding a bra, deep in thought. Shaping the cups with his hands as he pondered—was it for his wife? A lover? Either way, he clearly meant to buy one.
"In that case, buy a generous size, and if there's extra room, you can fill it with this."
What the assistant held out was a pad of soft cotton, shaped to fit neatly inside the undergarment.
"Oh? Soft and plush—wouldn't this be warm as well?"
"Yes, and it wicks away sweat beautifully, so it's wonderful in summer too."
"Good. Two of each, please."
"Right away~ Thank you!"
For now, women's underwear sold poorly—the customers were all men buying for the women back home, an unavoidable situation. It would only be later, once women could go out a little more freely and word spread about what had sold today, that business would truly take off.
And so the men passed the underwear shop and moved on toward the clothing store.
"Ahem. I'll take some of these garments here."
"Excellent choice, sir~"
The men bought women's stockings and clothing. Garments like the ones Haneul wore—skirts so short that in the early modern period of Europe, they would have been considered practically undressed.
What on earth did they intend to use them for? Every last face was positively lecherous.
Just as they finished buying gifts for wives and lovers and were about to move on—
"Hm? What's that over there?"
"Not sure?"
What had caught the men's eyes was a display of women's cosmetics, glittering under ornate lighting.
"Do come take a look, customers~"
"Ahem."
"Shall we browse, then?"
"Let's have a look."
And there, row upon row of cosmetics in every conceivable color were laid out.
"Why in the world are there so many of the same color?"
"They're not the same! Every single one is a different shade!"
Over ten varieties of red alone sat on display, and when one of the men peered at them and muttered, the assistant practically jumped out of her skin. This is why you never ask men about shades of cosmetics—hardly anyone can tell coral from coral pink from salmon...
If women had come here, they could easily have spent a solid week in this one spot, but alas, these were men.
"If you look here, this white powder contains no lead whatsoever, so it's harmless to the body! Highly, highly recommended!"
"Lead, you say?"
The fashionable method of applying makeup in Europe was to plaster the face dead white and emphasize the lips in red. About the only things worth recommending to these men were the face powder and the lipstick.
"Yes! What you use at home contains lead, and it poisons the body."
"Hm?"
For the benefit of early modern folk who had never heard of lead poisoning, the assistant explained with great enthusiasm.
"Hair loss, tooth decay, rotting flesh on the face—and in severe cases, it can even kill you!"
"Good heavens?"
"Come to think of it..."
"There was that person who died recently, too..."
Once you start hearing a peddler's pitch like this, everything begins to sound familiar. Surely everyone had seen a bald man at some point, or known a sugar-lover whose teeth had rotted? And festering wounds were an everyday occurrence.
"So for the health of your wives and daughters, you simply must switch your cosmetics."
"Oh..."
"Shall we buy some?"
"But what exactly are we supposed to buy...?"
This was precisely why explaining cosmetics to a crowd of men got you nowhere. How could they buy anything if they didn't know what anything was?
"Which is why I've prepared this! The 'I-don't-know-what-she'll-like-so-I-put-everything-in' Box!"
A cosmetics box stuffed just in case with a little of this and a little of that, everything thrown in together. Two hand-spans long, about one hand-span wide—specially designed so women could carry it about like a handbag.
「Click.」
When the assistant opened the box, a two-tiered tray rose up, revealing dozens of cosmetics and tools arranged in neat order.
"This alone is already a work of art!"
"Oh! Now this is a box worth coveting."
With its ebony exterior adorned in gold and its interior elegantly lined in rosewood, it looked every bit a piece of luxury furniture.
"I'll take two!"
"Three for me!"
"Six here!"
Some, evidently fathers of many daughters, bought an astonishing amount. Who knew—once they went home and the women tried everything, next time the wives and daughters might come along to the store themselves.
"Hahaha! Somehow this is rather exciting!"
"Isn't it, though? There's still another floor—let's go up!"
"Yes!"
People who had been about to leave the second floor kept climbing higher, as if conquering some dungeon.
"What do you suppose is on the next floor!"
Up the stairs they flooded, arriving at the fourth floor.
"Hm? Furniture?"
"Oh? Daehan's furniture is remarkably simple, isn't it?"
If one word could sum up thousands of years of Daehan's culture, it would be this: Simplicity is supreme! A phrase Haneul was forever spouting.
Ornate things are truly lovely to behold—but precisely because they stimulate so intensely, one inevitably tires of them before long.
"But look how they've brought out the natural grain of this wood. Isn't it magnificent?"
"And this pattern—they've carved it out and inlaid something in the grooves?"
"Oh..."
How does simplicity become beautiful? By honoring the innate beauty of the material itself—in this case, cutting the wood so that only the sections where the growth rings came out most gracefully were selected for the furniture. Then grooves of various patterns were carved in and filled with gold, silver, and dyes of every shade for the finish.
"The longer I look, the deeper I fall into it..."
"Perhaps the Daehan style isn't so bad after all?"
The beauty of this kind of work was that while it didn't immediately seize the eye, it drew you in more and more the longer you gazed.
「Creak... creak...」
"Oh? What's this chair?"
Someone sat down in a rocking chair that had been set off to one side.
"Zzzz..."
"Hm?"
"Why is this fellow sleeping here?"
"He sat down not ten seconds ago!"
It was nighttime, granted, but people could only stare in bewilderment at a man who'd dropped off in an instant. The chair itself looked like nothing special—its legs simply rested on a pair of curved rockers, that was all.
"Move over, I'll try."
"I must sit in one too."
And so they began filing into the empty rocking chairs, one after another—the sleeping man's face had simply looked too blissful.
"Snore... snore..."
People nodded off left and right.
The nap itself was brief, but heaven help their backs when they woke up. Still, drool and all, they clearly looked utterly at peace.
"Is it really that good?"
"Could it be some kind of narcotic chair?"
"Maybe there's sorcery on it..."
"Are there any other chairs around?"
"Let's wake these lot up."
And so, taking turns, everyone tried the rocking chair—and every last one of them fell asleep.
"This, I simply must buy."
"What a remarkable chair."
"My mother appeared in my dream just now... first time in years. She held me in her arms..."
At the furniture shop on the fourth floor, the people poured out a considerable amount of money as well. The rocking chairs especially sold at least one or two to nearly every customer.
"The fifth floor is the restaurant, was it?"
"Since we're here, how about a bite before we go?"
"Why not? Let's have a look."
And so the people began climbing the final flight of stairs to the fifth floor.
Daehan's food was always delicious, after all.
"Let's see what the mainland chefs can do!"
The very top floor was appointed with the same Daehan-style furniture they had seen below on the fourth.
"Oh? Furnished like this, it looks quite different from the individual displays downstairs, doesn't it?"
"Doesn't it just? My goodness..."
They hadn't paid much attention when the pieces stood alone on display, but gathered together up here, Daehan's furniture seemed downright splendid.
Having come up for a meal, the customers promptly lost themselves in browsing the showroom instead.
"Ahem. Enough, everyone—let's eat."
"Shall we? Hahaha."
Some wandered back down to the furniture section, while the rest took their seats and began ordering. There was a simple menu board, crowded with all the familiar Daehan dishes.
"We've eaten all of these before."
"Isn't there anything new?"
"What about this one? Tonkatsu?"
"True—haven't seen that one before."
"There's a fried fish cutlet as well."
"Let's order it."
And so the people ordered the devil's food—the kind of dish from which there is no escape once you've tasted it...
「Clatter.」
Then the tonkatsu arrived at their tables, along with an assortment of sauces.
"Your order, sirs. For the tonkatsu, use the brown sauce; for the fish cutlet, the white. Enjoy your meal."
There wasn't much on the table: a plate with the main dish, a bowl of salad, and rice.
"Hm. Er... seems a bit sparse? Is this commoner's fare?"
"What is this, I wonder? It does resemble a steak..."
"That nutty fragrance of hot oil is whetting my appetite beautifully."
"Let's eat before it cools."
After a moment of merely admiring the food, hunger from the long shopping trip finally drove them to pick up their utensils.
「Crunch, crunch.」
"Eh? What's this?"
As he sliced into the meat, a curiously satisfying crunch met his ears. He dipped a suitably sized piece of the tonkatsu straight into the brown sauce.
「Crunch-munch, crunch-munch.」
"Gah—!"
The moment it hit his tongue, the rich, velvety flavor of the sauce flooded his mouth. The crisp shatter of the fried coating dissolving amid an exquisite harmony of spices, and beneath it all, the tender savor of the meat itself.
"What IS this!"
"Wh—!"
"Good Lord..."
「Clang!」
Utterly lost in the taste of the tonkatsu and the fried fish cutlet, the diners began devouring their food in a frenzy, dropping their utensils without a care.
"One more order here!"
"Me too!"
"And bring plenty of rice!"
As Haneul was famously recorded as saying:
'Even a rubber boot tastes great if you deep-fry it, I'm telling you?'