The Way of the World
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
“Just a little more, a little higher!”
“To the right! No, to the left!”
The inner courtyard of Chwiseondang was in utter pandemonium.
What on earth is going on?
Returning from an errand at Sungyeongdang, the sight that greeted my eyes was Sun-rye furiously battering a persimmon tree with a bamboo pole nearly as tall as herself.
“Augh, my arms are about to fall off!” Sun-rye let out a long, wheezing groan of despair.
“I don't doubt it. What are you even doing, Sister?” Seol-hyang asked, looking on in bewilderment.
Sun-rye paused just long enough to huff out a reply. “It’s an order from Head Court Lady Han! She told me to strip every last persimmon from this cursed tree! Hah, but how am I supposed to do that when the branches are halfway to heaven?” Sun-rye threw back her head and shrieked in outrage. “Damned soft persimmons! Why did one have to go and splatter right on Her Ladyship’s head of all places, making us go through this circus!”
The other court maids standing nearby burst into fits of snickering and giggles.
……I am so, so sorry. Truly, I have committed a mortal sin.
Tiptoeing over to Sun-rye, I reached out and gently tapped her around the waist.
“Sun-rye Hamanim.”
“Hm? What is it, Bong-bong?”
“The persimmon tree is way too tall. Knocking them down looks really, really hard. You should stop now.”
“Right? Even you can see it's completely hopeless, can't you? That settles it! Court lady’s orders or not, I can’t do this!”
Sun-rye hurled the long pole onto the ground with a resounding clatter.
Before long, twilight drifted softly over the courtyard of Chwiseondang. High up on the branches, the ripe, glowing red persimmons swayed gently in the whisper of the evening breeze.
Night cloaked the palace grounds, accompanied by the lonely hoot of an owl.
Fwip!
A pebble hurtled through the cool night air from out of nowhere.
“Bullseye.”
The tiny murmur was so faint it was barely audible.
Fwiiip—
“Bullseye again.”
In the blink of an eye, five or six ripe persimmons tumbled from the boughs, landing on the dirt with wet, satisfying splats.
“Heh.”
Letting out a proud little snort, the diminutive shadow turned and vanished soundlessly back toward the sleeping quarters.
……And when the next morning dawned:
“Good heavens!”
“Where did all the persimmons go?”
“Are we possessed by a ghost? Or did a dokkaebi pay us a visit?”
Finding the persimmon tree stripped down to barren branches overnight, the court maids were thrown into complete and utter turmoil.
Naturally, not a single soul noticed the little “bundle of blessings” standing in the corner, a triumphant smirk tugging at the corners of her lips.
“Ouch! That stings!”
“Just hold still for a moment. We have to make you look pretty, very pretty!”
“Gently, please! You’re pulling out all my hair!”
Inside the room Seol-hyang and I shared, a fierce, high-pitched struggle had been unfolding since early morning. Which is simply to say: Seol-hyang was braiding my hair.
“There, all done! My, look at how lovely you are. Shall I fetch the hand mirror so our Bong-bong can see?”
“I don't need to look!”
“Why not?”
“Because I already know Hamanim made me look pretty.”
“Aww, how does such sweet talk come out of that little mouth?” Seol-hyang giggled, gently pinching my cheek.
I was undergoing an unusually meticulous grooming session, all because the Great Hall Court Lady was scheduled to come and escort me to Daejeon. Under Seol-hyang’s enthusiastic fussing, my hair was parted and rolled neatly into the traditional twin-looped saeangmeori style, adorned with a bright crimson daenggi ribbon. To top it off, Seol-hyang slipped a quilted vest over my shoulders.
Honestly, this vest is a bit much for a mere apprentice maid to be wearing.
Unlike the plain, coarse cotton vests ordinary maids wore, mine was crafted from fine quilted silk. The one who had gifted it to me was, of course, Jang Hui-bin.
Well, if they tell me to wear it, I wear it.
It wasn't like I had much of a choice anyway. At any rate, there was still some time left before the Great Hall Court Lady arrived, so I sauntered out into the courtyard for some fresh air.
Morning was typically the busiest hour of the day for palace women. For that reason, I had expected the yard to be deserted, yet a familiar figure stood in one corner of the grounds.
Glare!
Well, look who it is. Yong-hee.
Talk about convenient timing. Despite my best efforts, running into Yong-hee had proved surprisingly difficult until now. At ten years old, Yong-hee was assigned to menial chores inside the inner kitchen, the Naesojubang. That meant she rarely set foot outside its steaming thresholds. I, on the other hand, was primarily saddled with odd jobs and errands running back and forth across different compounds, so our paths hardly ever crossed.
Sensing an opportunity, I stealthily padded toward her. Just because I hadn't been able to run into her in person didn't mean I had been sitting on my hands. Over the past few weeks, I had diligently gathered intel on her through quiet observation and court gossip.
Age ten. Hails from a wealthy jungin family. Fiercely proud of her middle-class status. Recently had a falling out with Bok-hee.
And……
A rotten, nasty brat.
Granted, that last assessment was tainted by a bit of personal bias. I'll admit that much. In truth, Yong-hee’s reputation within Chwiseondang wasn't particularly glowing. Put generously, people called her sharp and quick-witted with money; put bluntly, she was seen as a thoroughly selfish child who cared for no one but herself. That was the consensus around the compound.
And Yong-hee wasted no time in proving that my assessment was spot-on.
How?
With that three-inch tongue of hers.
“Tsk. I feel sorry for the silkworms.”
Excuse me? What kind of unhinged remark is that?
“That vest you’re wearing was spun from the cocoons of poor silkworms,” she sneered. “To think their silk ended up being wasted on a tubby, lowborn slave. What a pitiful fate.”
Oh. Now that was a remarkably creative piece of sarcasm. Yong-hee seemed utterly convinced that I was of government slave stock. Considering how many court maids were indeed recruited from government-owned slaves, it wasn't a totally baseless assumption, but still……
Excuse you, missy. I come from yangban nobility.
In fact, my lineage might belong to an extraordinarily distinguished clan for all she knew. I knew full well that fussing over caste and bloodlines was pointless, but the sheer venom dripping from her use of the word “slave” was grating enough to get under my skin.
So, I decided to give her a little taste of her own medicine.
“Too bad for you, Hamanim.”
“What’s too bad?”
“You don't have any silkworms to feel sorry for you.”
In short: Your family doesn't have silk clothes like this, do they?
Yong-hee flared up instantly, her face flushing red. “Hey! If you came to my house, you'd see closets overflowing with silk! Where does a filthy little beggar like you get off……”
“What good is having mountains of silk at home? You’re the one stuck wearing rough cotton every single day, Hamanim.” I casually delivered another stinging barb. “Between a maid who gets to wear silk and a maid who doesn't, which one do you think is the real beggar?”
“You little—!”
Whoa. That was unexpected. I hadn't anticipated that she would actually try to haul off and slap me across the face.
“……?”
I distinctly saw her palm whipping toward me with terrifying speed, yet before my brain could even process the danger, my body moved on pure instinct. With a smooth, effortless tilt of my head, I ducked right under her swinging arm.
Whoosh—
A gust of displaced wind brushed past my cheek.
……Am I a secret martial arts master or something?
While I was busy being flabbergasted by the superhuman reflexes of my four-year-old body, an icy voice cut through the courtyard.
“What are you two doing?”
Stepping into the yard, Seol-hyang stared at us, her eyes narrowing dangerously into cold slits. Between the shock of having her strike dodged and the sudden appearance of a senior maid, Yong-hee panicked visibly, shifting on her feet in sheer terror.
If that was the case……
This is an opportunity in its own right.
Acting as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred, I chimed in with the sweetest, most innocent voice I could muster.
“We’re not doing anything! I was just chatting with Yong-hee Hamanim.”
“Chatting about what?”
“About what we’re going to eat on Daeboreum, and about Jwibulnori!”
“Is that so? Yong-hee, have you finally decided to be nice to our Bong-bong?”
“……Y-Yes,” Yong-hee squeaked, her voice shrinking to a meek crawl.
“Well, that’s wonderful to hear. Play nicely and don't fight, you two.”
Relief washed over Seol-hyang’s face, and she bustled away toward the kitchens.
“…….”
Yong-hee stared at me, dumbfounded. She had clearly expected me to tattle on her the instant Seol-hyang showed up.
“What…… what are you?”
At her bewildered question, my expression turned deadly serious.
“Yong-hee Hamanim, why do you hate me so much?”
“…….”
“I never did anything wrong to you. Why do you hate and bully another court maid serving in the same hall?”
“Th-That's because! Because you act so obnoxious!”
“I didn't do anything obnoxious. That day, I was just putting up the Chuncheopja scrolls.”
“…….”
“You told me I was abandoned by my parents, and just now you tried to hit me.”
Glaring at me, Yong-hee suddenly shouted, “Look at you! See how irritating you are! Acting like you’re some kind of royalty when you’re just a tiny shrimp, snapping back and talking down to your seniors!”
Watching the thoroughly agitated girl pant for breath, I fell silent for a beat. Then, I spoke in a quiet, measured tone.
“Shall I take a guess at something?”
“Guess what?”
“You’ve heard those words before too, haven't you, Hamanim?”
“What words?”
“That you’re a child abandoned by her parents. That your family didn't care about you, so they just dumped you in the palace to become a maid.”
“…….”
The blood drained from Yong-hee’s face, leaving it ash-white.
“That’s why you said it to me, isn't it? Because someone said it to you first, and you just wanted to fling the exact same pain onto someone else.”
“…….”
“Am I wrong?”
Yong-hee stood entirely frozen, her tongue tied in knots.
Yes. I knew it. For a ten-year-old child to casually throw around a taunt like “abandoned by your parents,” it was far too venomous and twisted to have been purely original. Children are mirrors of the adults around them. Yong-hee already knew intimately how deeply those words could wound—because she had suffered through them herself.
“H-How do you…… know that……?”
Instead of flaring up in denial, she inadvertently confessed. In the end, a child was still just a child.
“Yong-hee Hamanim.”
“What.”
“I don't hold a grudge against you. Anyone can make a mistake once.”
“…….”
“But people who know something is wrong and still repeat bad deeds a second or third time…… they never, ever get what they want.”
“What are you even talking about?”
“That is simply the way of the world. You might think doing bad things will earn you something grand, but it never turns out that way.”
“Y-You…… what on earth are you saying……?” Yong-hee’s voice trembled uncontrollably.
“Do you know what eventually happens to people who sneak around doing wicked things in secret?”
“……What happens to them?”
I put on the most solemn, gravest expression my toddler face could muster.
“They disappear. Just like that.”
Then, raising my small hand, I drew a slow, deliberate line straight across my neck.
“Y-You, you……!” Now, even Yong-hee’s fingers were shaking violently. “What do you know?! Why are you saying this to me?!”
“I don't know anything. I’m just repeating what Head Court Lady Han said, word for word.”
This time, I used Court Lady Han’s name as leverage. It was a calculated gamble—a seed planted to make Yong-hee believe that Court Lady Han might have already caught on to her role as a spy. Judging by the way Yong-hee bit her trembling lip until it nearly bled, the gamble had paid off handsomely.
It was time to deliver the finishing blow.
“Hamanim.” Stepping closer, I whispered right into her ear. “They say court maids who spy for other palaces vanish without a sound, so quietly not even the mice or birds notice.”
“……Gasp!”
I took a step back, meeting her wide, terrified eyes with a gaze full of innocent candor. “Still, I believe that you’re a good person at heart, Hamanim.”
“…….”
“Even if you hate me, I trust that you won't do bad things anymore. So I’m going to be nice and get along with you!”
I flashed her a radiant, picture-perfect smile.
Right on cue, as if the heavens had staged the timing, Court Lady Han’s stern voice echoed from across the compound.
“Bong-bong! The Great Hall Court Lady has nearly arrived! Hurry on out!”
“Yes! I’m coming right away, Court Lady Mama!”
Leaving Yong-hee standing frozen like a stone statue in the middle of the yard, I turned on my heels and scampered off across the courtyard, my little feet pattering cheerfully in the morning light.