The New Employee - 3
Im Hayeon. Why did this woman keep turning up everywhere I went?
How many times had we crossed paths within the span of a few short days, in a city as vast as Yichang?
It wasn't as if I were a detective obsessed with hunting down the phantom thief — one who prayed every single day for the chance to commit righteous thievery — or a producer managing the every move of this world's idol of a courtesan.
"What business does this lady have with the Yichang Literary Society?"
Maybe I should flip my thinking entirely — could this woman be a stalker? I asked the question while entertaining that idle notion.
"Th-that's none of your business."
Im Hayeon slipped something into the fold of her clothing, as if there were something she couldn't let me see.
It was exactly like someone who'd declared a diet getting caught pulling food out of the fridge at midnight and stuffing it behind their back.
From the look of the paper, it seemed to be documents. What were they?
"The lady here came to apply for the New Writer's Event, but the submission deadline has passed, so we were in the process of turning her away."
The guard answered on her behalf, scowling as though he'd been saddled with a troublesome customer.
"Ugh!"
"Miss Hayeon? Entering the New Writer's Event?"
I watched Im Hayeon glare daggers at the guard, as if to say: why are you telling him?
So what she'd hidden was her application paperwork? But why?
The Shadowless Divine Thief being a writer was meant to be an absolute secret.
The world knew her as a courtesan — but her true identity was none other than the Shadowless Divine Thief! If I had to voice her catchphrase, that's how it would go. And yet a setup where she was a writer and the Shadowless Divine Thief was something I had never once seen.
"As I understand it, the deadline for New Writer's Event submissions is still days away."
Scholar Hwang's Younger Brother, having glimpsed me eyeing the Shadowless Divine Thief with a face full of suspicion, addressed the guard in a puzzled tone.
"That's right! I made sure to check before coming! The submission period is still open!"
Im Hayeon, as if she'd gained an unexpected reinforcement, argued back at the guard with a newfound vigor.
"That is true. However, you are not permitted."
"Why not?!"
"What sort of rule is that?"
I threw in my two coins' worth. Was it that thieves weren't allowed? That courtesans weren't allowed? Were there actual eligibility requirements here?
"Where are you residing at present, young lady?"
Rather than answer me, the guard posed a question of his own to Im Hayeon.
"At an inn."
"Where exactly do you live?"
At the guard's question, Im Hayeon stole a needless glance my way, then looked away and answered with a hint of embarrassment.
"Do I really have to go into detail? I'm staying at, um... this out-of-the-way place called the Cheongnyu Inn. The cheapest room doesn't even come with breakfast, so I've been getting my meals at another inn where the mantou steamed buns are cheaper..."
Ah, the menu of my lean years. So you've been scraping by too.
"I did not ask where you were staying; I asked where you live. Did you not say earlier that you are not a woman of Yichang? Then you must have a hometown elsewhere."
"Ah... well..."
Im Hayeon twisted her head away, unable to answer. She was a runaway courtesan, after all — of course she couldn't say it.
"It is true that days remain until the deadline. But that grace applies only to residents of Yichang, whose identity verification is a short affair. Those from elsewhere were required to submit by yesterday."
"That can't be..."
Im Hayeon wore the expression of someone whose world had just caved in — like a student who had studied desperately for the civil service exam, only to forget the registration date and forfeit an entire year.
"That's correct. Anyone who is not a resident of Yichang was required to submit by yesterday."
Scholar Hwang's Younger Brother fired off a confirmation shot, driving the finishing blow home.
"No one ever told me that! Isn't there any way it could still work?"
"There is not."
"But... but this is all I have. Please. Please?"
Im Hayeon bore down on the guard with a face that looked ready to crumble at the slightest poke.
"Ah—ahem! Your face is far too close. And the answer remains no!"
The guard was a man, after all; when a beauty pressed in with such an earnest look, he flushed red and retreated a step.
"I came to Yichang with nothing but this in my sights. Please. Isn't there any way at all?"
So her reason for fleeing Wushan for Yichang had been this event, had it? Strange — she could have run much farther, yet here she was.
I watched Im Hayeon gaze pleadingly past the door the guard was blocking, her face on the verge of tears.
Pitiful, certainly. But was helping her the right call?
She'd turned down my help last time, so I could simply ignore her and walk away.
I sank into a brief deliberation, though in the end the conclusion never really wavered.
It wasn't a problem beyond my ability to solve. Besides, she was a candidate for True Heroine, at that.
Haomen had vouched for my identity, after all. Perhaps I'd lend her a hand one more time.
I'm finished.
Im Hayeon let her head fall in defeat. Where had it all gone wrong? Where had she misjudged?
The urge to make excuses to herself rose up in a rush, but she abandoned it almost at once. Excuses or not, the blame would land squarely on her own shoulders regardless.
To think she wouldn't even get the chance to attempt her one and only hope. What was she supposed to do now? Return to Wushan? She'd be subjected to every cruelty as a runaway courtesan.
Then... thieving? No. She had come to Yichang to become a writer, not to become the next Shadowless Divine Thief.
But how did one simply become a writer? There was no road. Back to Wushan, then? No. Never.
Finding no clever solution, Im Hayeon's thoughts simply spun their wheels. Eventually she climbed off the endless carousel of her own thinking and turned her gaze toward Kang Yunho.
Of all people, why did he have to witness such a sorry spectacle?
The wretchedness swelling in her chest only grew.
What if she swallowed her pride and asked that man for help? The poisonous thought took root and blossomed. He was looking to hire staff — so, just as Uncle Kwak had said, she could win his favor and get her book published.
No. That was that man's agenda. She could not accept another shred of help from him.
Before Im Hayeon could even pin down her wavering resolve, the man she hated most in all of Yichang extended his helping hand yet again.
"She resides at the Yichang Daseogak."
Im Hayeon snapped her head around at the sound of his voice.
"You?!"
"The young lady is no outsider. She is a resident of the Yichang Daseogak."
Utterly unmoved by Im Hayeon's don't-you-dare-get-involved glare, Kang Yunho addressed the guard.
"Manager Kang. I can well understand a man feeling sympathy for a beautiful woman, but carelessly vouching for someone so plainly from out of town will resolve nothing."
Couldn't it just be resolved, though? Im Hayeon was half tempted to plead one more time, but curiosity about what Kang Yunho would say next won out, and she chose to watch the exchange unfold.
What on earth was that man playing at?
"I am not lying. Miss Hayeon is my sworn brother's daughter."
"Your sworn brother's daughter?"
"She is to settle in Yichang for the time being, but with the Daseogak under renovation, I have merely been lodging her at an inn."
"Is that true?"
Accept the help extended by that man's agenda, or refuse it and cast away her one chance to become a writer?
She loathed the previous Shadowless Divine Thief every bit as much as she yearned to see her own name in print, and that made the answer anything but easy.
"...Yes. That's right."
In the end, it was the dream that won.
"If it has come to this, the matter is beyond my authority to judge. I believe I must summon a superior."
Was it because the man was a bookstore manager whose name carried weight in Yichang? The guard spoke with a troubled air.
"But I really do need to submit it..."
Im Hayeon's shoulders sagged. If the superior came, would he accept it? Did that man's word carry more weight than a superior's?
The man's answer shattered her expectations entirely.
"Then I shall pay my respects to the Chairman and make our case to him directly."
The Chairman of the Literary Society? For one instant, Im Hayeon doubted her own ears.
Wasn't that the highest authority of the very society she was submitting to? He was acquainted with someone like that?
"You would do that?"
"I shall return with good news, so wait here."
Entangled in her complicated feelings about the man, Im Hayeon could not bring herself to say please, or even you don't have to.
She could only think, once again, that the sight of him walking off with that confident smile cast her way resembled some character out of the novel she loved.
"Have you eaten?"
Having concluded my greetings and business with the Chairman of the Literary Society, I stepped back outside and called over Im Hayeon, who sat with her head hanging desolately against the wall.
"How did it go?"
Breakfast had been a lump of steamed flour, by her own account. If she'd been waiting out here all this while, there was no way she'd eaten lunch either. Might as well feed her first.
"I'll fill you in over a meal."
Without waiting for an answer, I turned on my heel.
"..."
Why wasn't she following?
"If you're about to say something absurd like refusing a meal you'd feel too indebted to accept, then I'll go alone."
She'd already hitched a ride on the group-project bandwagon, and now she wouldn't even share a table? Don't give me that spoiled-little-sister-of-the-group-project routine.
"Go, then... I'll come with you."
When I set off with firm strides, she spoke in a grudging tone and fell in behind me.
I picked out a respectable-looking restaurant and went in with her.
"So what happened?"
"They accepted the paperwork."
I hadn't even needed to see the Chairman himself. The moment I mentioned it to the staff inside, they took the documents on the spot. Connections, I tell you — the ultimate technique.
"Haah... what a relief... Thank you."
Im Hayeon pressed a hand to her chest and released a sigh of relief distilled from hours of anguish. Then, quite naturally, she bowed her head toward me.
And for no good reason, my eyes followed that hand. Whoa. Those were big.
"So you've set your heart on becoming a writer?"
The moment she lifted her head, I yanked my gaze elsewhere and asked her.
"...No one ever dreams of climbing over somebody else's fence."
Couldn't argue with that.
"Submissions close at the end of this week, and the judging results come out next week. When I looked inside, quite a few works had already been submitted and reviewed. You'd best get yours in quickly."
Since my only duty was to evaluate the finalists, it seemed my share of the work wouldn't be too crushing.
"It's a novel I've written before, so I can submit it again right away."
"Your mandu is here!"
"By the way, what was your original business with the Literary Society?"
Im Hayeon glanced sidelong at the mandu being laid out on the table, then asked.
"I've been appointed a judge for this New Writer's Event."
"...I'm sorry, what?"
Clatter. The chopsticks tumbled from her fingers.
"Miss Hayeon?"
"Huh? Wh-wh-wha-what!? Um, th-that is — you're from Joseon, after all. P-please, have all the kimchi mandu here!"
Why the sudden politeness?
"I paid for them with my own money, so I'll eat as I please."
"Ah..."
She dropped her head, apparently out of anything to say.
"You remember our agreement? The sworn-brother business stays between us."
She seemed to have drifted deep into thought, her eyes darting between me and the mandu, so I asked her.
"Uncle Kwak — I mean, the Branch Manager — promised he'd seal everyone's lips, but there's no telling how long that will hold. Be careful anyway. Just in case."
I had no desire to rack my brain over Uncle Wang problems.
If Uncle Wang had given up the Black Money as a gesture of goodwill, the odds were decent that no great disaster would follow. Still, I couldn't rule out being dragged into a nuisance like yesterday's.
Should I try hiring an employee trained in the martial arts?
Finding a martial artist to work retail was sheer fantasy — like hunting for a trilingual genius willing to work for minimum wage.
Hire a bodyguard, then?
Bodyguards didn't come cheap, either. Should I call on the Seocheon Escort Agency? I wanted nothing more to do with the Tang Clan.
Somewhere in that dizzying spiral, I noticed Im Hayeon furtively gulping down the mandu across the table. That hungry, was she?
Shouldn't troubles involving the Shadowless Divine Thief be settled by the Shadowless Divine Thief of this generation? This was hardly the moment to be eating mandu—
Huh?
A brilliant idea shot across my mind like lightning.
What if I made Im Hayeon a Daseogak employee?
I swiftly ran through her credentials.
A reader with an intimate knowledge of Dangga Pungun. An aspiring writer. Striking looks. And with a proper courtesan's education behind her, her knack for customer service would be second to none.
On top of all that, she was trained in the martial arts — no separate bodyguard required.
Wasn't she, in other words, the very picture of my ideal employee?
You there. There's a position open at Daseogak. Want the job?
The offer nearly burst straight out of my throat before I strangled it.
No. Ask her now and I might get refused. This woman was stubborn beneath that surface. One rejection, and the odds were high she'd never say yes.
What a prize of a recruit. So how did I turn her into my employee?
"Um..."
After a long while of me staring at her, she spoke up in a cautious voice.
"Hm?"
"C-could I eat the kimchi mandu too?"
"Eat them all."
Make the Shadowless Divine Thief a Daseogak employee.
The Shadowless Divine Thief, Im Hayeon.
However I turned it over, she was the finest employee candidate in all of Yichang.
"Manager Kang? I thought you had gone out for a meal?"
The moment I'd parted ways with the Shadowless Divine Thief, I hurried back to find Scholar Hwang's Younger Brother.
"About the Literary Society's New Writer's Event. I'm serving as a judge, am I not?"
A woman who held no small amount of ill will toward me — and I had to make her my employee.
Even if trouble sprang from the Shadowless Divine Thief's agenda, with the Shadowless Divine Thief's daughter on the payroll, most problems could be smoothed over.
Daseogak needed Im Hayeon.
I knew her character profile. And now I'd learned the details that had never surfaced, either.
So how to play it?
Simple. I would design the situation itself so that she became my employee.
I would use everything in my arsenal to reel her in.
"Yes, of course, sir."
"Let's have a look at the participants' personal information."
Im Hayeon.
You are going to become an employee of my Daseogak.