Night Visitor - 7
To think Lim Hayeon of all people had been taken in by a rental scam. I suppose fleecing green youngsters fresh out into the world is the same in any era, in any world.
Doesn't feel like somebody else's problem at all.
For those with nothing to lean on, this world was far too cruel. I'd known those days myself — nights with no roof to sleep under, soaked to the bone by torrential rain until dawn; days of drifting with a gnawing hunger in my belly. I'd even had the money I'd scraped together through days of honest work beaten out of me and stolen by Black Path thugs.
The one mercy for Lim Hayeon, better than anything I'd ever had, was that I already had a plan in mind.
To Lim Hayeon — utterly deflated, like a cat drenched to the skin in the rain — I proposed a piece of that plan.
"What? L-live together? With... with whom?"
"I said you and I should live together, Lady Hayeon."
Had my words not gotten through? She'd stood out in the rain so long, maybe the water had gotten into her ears.
Lim Hayeon's eyes snapped wide open, and she hastily glanced around the attic room.
"Th-there are two beds, but... s-still, how can a man and a woman live in one room?!"
You can, actually. Once you get used to it, it's less inconvenient than you'd think. I can vouch for that with certainty — I'm speaking as a man of experience.
For a moment I was tempted to correct her prejudice, but I decided to set right the more pressing misunderstanding first.
"I think you've misunderstood me."
"What?"
I studied Lim Hayeon's puzzled face for a moment.
There was no way I could pay the price of Lim Hayeon's registry.
Try as I might, in my present circumstances I could never buy out her indenture — not unless I'd found a cheat code for money in this world.
If I had met Lim Hayeon as she would one day be — the celebrated Pure Courtesan of Wuhan — we might simply have parted ways, leaving everything to vague promises about the future.
But the Lim Hayeon standing before me now was at the point before everything began, just as the heroines before her had been. Perhaps the time limit granted to her was no more generous than those given to the Poison Human or the Heavenly Killing Star.
Let's do everything I can, right now.
"For the past several days, I've been losing sleep over your problem, Lady Hayeon."
I would begin by showcasing all the effort I'd put in.
"B-because of me?"
"Not only that. I kept asking myself whether there was any way to untangle your predicament. I pounded the pavement chasing down every avenue I could find."
In truth, it had all been preparation for seeing off the Tang Clan party — but I would dress up every one of my recent absences from Daseogak as something done for her sake.
"Oh... so that's why. But wait — what do you mean, misunderstood? Weren't you saying we should live together here?"
Lim Hayeon heaved a sigh tinged with an inexplicable wistfulness, then nodded and asked me.
What is this? Something's felt off for a while now.
Worried she might be laboring under some strange notion, I opened my mouth and hurried to the heart of the matter.
"Let's move our lodgings to the printing workshop. There are a few spare rooms in its inner residence, so living there won't be any trouble."
"The printing workshop — not here?"
I nodded to her.
"Isn't your greatest worry right now that you'll be hauled off to Wuhan? If you live with me at the workshop, even Haomen won't dare drag you away."
"Why is that?"
"Because the workshop doubles as a freight yard for the Seocheon Escort Agency. Their escorts stand guard over it day and night. Even if Haomen came to take you by force, they'd have no choice but to back down before the name of the Seocheon Escort Agency."
The moment I took up residence there, Seocheon would tighten its security of its own accord. After all, it would be the dwelling of the Tang Clan Head's illegitimate son.
I could no longer count on direct goodwill from the Sichuan Tang Clan, but their indirect influence was still worth drawing on.
The only real problem was that my commute would balloon from thirty seconds to dozens of times that. If it came to the worst, I could always have Lim Hayeon carry me on her back for the trip.
"They won't give up over something like that. Daseogak could end up paying the price."
"I can simply claim I've quit my post at Daseogak. As for you, you hole up at the workshop and never set one foot outside. Left with no way to get at you, they'd have no choice but to give up — at least for a time."
Whether Lim Hayeon was inside the workshop or not — if she never left her room, how would anyone ever verify it?
No matter how far Haomen's reach extended, they would want no part of a direct clash with the Sichuan Tang Clan standing behind Seocheon.
"It may be a good plan. They still won't give up, though."
I took a moment to admire Lim Hayeon's beauty — the kind that rain couldn't wash away, if anything rendering her all the more bewitching.
This was the woman destined to become famous as one of the most stunning Pure Courtesans in all of Wuhan. Even Haomen wouldn't lightly discard such an asset.
"I'm not asking you to hold out forever. We're buying time."
"Time?"
I couldn't buy out her registry this very moment. But it wasn't as if the me of today had nothing at all to give.
Hope.
Let me give her the hope that things could yet get better.
"I intend to place a formal commission with Haomen — to investigate what happened at Wushan."
The affair at Wushan was a case brazenly tangled in murim conspiracy. Perhaps somewhere within it lay the thread that could unravel her fate.
"Why would we need to investigate what happened at Wushan?"
"When you're out prowling the night streets, Lady Hayeon, don't you think through the layout of the house, where the valuables are kept, and how you'll get out afterward?"
"That's right."
"It's the same here. Only by uncovering the truth of the case can we work out how to move. Walk into Wuhan now knowing nothing, and you'll spend the rest of your life as a Runaway Courtesan, never escaping the courtesan house."
"Learning the truth in advance..."
"We only get one life. When you must walk into hell on your own two feet, you don't just mutter that nothing can be done — you prepare yourself to fight your way back out."
You arrange means of survival. If one isn't enough, prepare two. If two aren't enough, three. That was how I had survived in this world.
Of course, since one of the original stories unfolds in Wuhan, I'd have more tricks up my sleeve if I went there in person. But there was no need to throw away home-field advantage and march into hell.
Right now was the time to build my bond with Lim Hayeon — quite possibly the true heroine.
"There are other plans I've prepared as well."
I laid out for Lim Hayeon every scheme I had spent days devising and preparing.
"...Why are you going to such lengths to help me?"
Was it because the plans were grander than she'd imagined? Because my effort showed? Lim Hayeon asked me, as though searching for some answer.
My sworn uncle's daughter. Daseogak's treasured employee. A management-track talent. My trouble-removal squad. And a candidate true heroine. I had plenty of answers.
But only one of them could raise her broken self-esteem back up.
I gazed at Lim Hayeon for a long moment, the way one looks upon something most precious, then said with conviction:
Because it's you. For no other reason than that you are you. People can find the strength to rise from the simplest of reasons.
"..."
"I can't promise it will all work out. But I will do everything within my power."
"...I'll choose to trust you."
For some reason, Lim Hayeon avoided my eyes as she nodded.
"I've drawn hot water for you — go and use it. I ordered spare work uniforms as well; just take one out of that box and put it on. There should be something that fits you."
"Y-you want me to change now?"
Lim Hayeon, struck speechless, stared at me with wide, startled eyes. Her expression said it all: This man — don't tell me this was what he'd been after all along.
"There's a screen over there — use it. I'll turn and face the other way."
"Ah... understood."
Her expression looked better than when she'd first arrived at Daseogak. She'd been drenched in despair and utterly deflated, but somewhere along the way, a light of hope had settled back onto her face.
Had I managed to plant a good impression by now?
From the attic drifted everything from the sounds of an unfamiliar woman at her bath to the whisper of cloth gliding across soft skin. It was, frankly, a rather stimulating concert, but I made a point of not letting it show.
I'd more or less adapted over the past year, after all. Better to sit still than to lose to temptation and shatter a relationship built on trust.
While I waited, I heard Lim Hayeon settle onto the bed.
She'd heard out my plans, soaked in a hot bath, and changed into fresh clothes — surely she was feeling better now?
"Kang. Yun. Ho., Manager?"
But the voice from behind me was thick with fury.
"Huh?"
"What is this?!!"
I turned around to find Lim Hayeon glaring at me, her face dark as a thundercloud.
This was bad. The qipao she had changed into put her cleavage on full display, and its skirt was short to the point of scandal.
It was one of the outfits I had once weighed as a candidate staff uniform.
"That was... in there?"
So I'd ordered it and packed it in with the rest.
"You're telling me to wear this? Now?"
Whether it was me she couldn't stand or the cloth strangling her chest, Lim Hayeon forced a hand inside the garment and wrenched it loose as she shouted at me.
What was I supposed to say to that?
"Well, qipao come in many varieties. Around Liaodong Province — Manchuria, that is..."
"People around Liaodong dress like this?"
One slip here and I'd be sparking regional prejudice or an international incident.
"Honestly, it was a trial piece that had a bit too much of my personal taste worked into it."
It was an outfit I'd loaded with far too much of my taste before barely managing to slam on the brakes.
Worn by Lim Hayeon, its destructive power was staggering. Where fabric ought to have been, my gaze seemed to drape itself in its place.
I knew I had to look away, but my eyes kept getting sucked in.
"Your... tastes?"
The light was draining from Lim Hayeon's eyes. The face of a woman who had seen something she could never unsee. No. I couldn't bring myself to raise my head for very shame.
"I'm sorry. No — I truly apologize. This was entirely my fault. Please, just put on something else."
In the end, I abandoned my incoherent excuses and could only bow my head as the unscrupulous manager who had forced that outfit upon her.
"Hmhm. All right."
Lim Hayeon let out a little laugh at the sight of me, then turned and walked back toward the screen.
There had been other clothes — why on earth did she put on that one? Was that really the only thing that fit? Considering her generous proportions in certain places, there couldn't have been many outfits that would.
It felt a little unfair, but there was nothing to be done.
"Hm-hmm~"
Without even realizing it, Lim Hayeon found herself humming a tune too soft for Kang Yunho to hear.
Men, honestly.
In truth, it had been a small prank.
Back in her courtesan training she had worn garments with far less fabric than this, so the outfit itself didn't faze her. She had only meant to ruffle him a little.
Strangely enough, Lim Hayeon didn't find it so unpleasant — Kang Yunho's gaze, unable to tear itself away from her clothes.
— "Because you are Lady Hayeon."
It really is certain — he's in love with me.
Recalling that single sentence, so laden with affection for her, Lim Hayeon smiled softly.
Lim Hayeon didn't know why, but the knowledge that someone loved her — that someone was giving their utmost for her sake — was steadily holding up a heart that had been on the verge of collapsing into despair.
Even if we do end up living together, I can't let my guard down.
Separate rooms or not, she could not relax. He might tempt her with a drink in the dead of night. He might come knocking at her door, suddenly claiming to be lonely.
The moment they agreed to merely sleep with the beds set apart, or she allowed him to "stay for just a while," they would wake the next morning gazing into each other's faces.
She knew his heart. But she had not yet granted her own.
Lim Hayeon smoothed over the face reflected in the mirror, remolding it into icy composure before he could notice anything.
"I'm done."
"How about taking the day to rest instead?"
"I'd rather not burden the other staff over one sleepless night."
At her words, Kang Yunho nodded.
"Let's head down."
The rain that had fallen all night had left her a wreck, much like the calamity that had befallen her. And yet, before she knew it, Lim Hayeon was trailing behind a man in fresh clothes, as though nothing had happened at all.
Lim Hayeon saw a single shaft of sunlight fall across Kang Yunho's back.
As if to tell her that even under the foulest skies, a thread of hope remained.
With this man at her side, perhaps she could yet overcome the trials that awaited her.
Carrying a thought she could never speak to him, Lim Hayeon descended with him to the second floor.
"Sis Hayeon!!! Are you two seriously coming down together from the third floor — where the Manager sleeps?!!!"
Perhaps this trial, at least, was one she could never overcome.