The Fake — 5
The close friend of Author Hopil. Kang Yunho.
The man who unearthed the reclusive Author Hopil from obscurity. The merchant who brought Dangga Pungun into the world. The manager of the finest bookstore in Yichang.
The close friend who risked his life, dragged off to the Sichuan Tang Clan in Hopil's stead.
It was a name deeply etched into Jegal Hyang's memory. Because he had been the very man she'd run away from at their last marriage meeting.
And now that Kang Yunho had come looking for her — to find out who dared impersonate Hopil.
"I-I-I-I-I-I'm s-s-s-so sorry!"
Jegal Hyang lay prostrate on the floor, trembling, unable to lift her head to look at Kang Yunho.
"Raise your head. Apologizing endlessly won't change anything. Author Hopil."
You swindler.
Every time Kang Yunho dropped the words "Author Hopil," they landed on Jegal Hyang like a hammer.
"I-it-it-it's just that..."
She cautiously raised her head, caught a glimpse of Kang Yunho's face, and immediately ducked it back down.
No good. I can't look at him.
She had already fled their marriage meeting, and now she'd committed the great sin of impersonation.
And the victim of the whole affair was standing right there, staring her down. Jegal Hyang wished she could crawl inside a fruit crate and disappear.
"Please, stand up. I'd like to hear why you did it. Author Hopil."
Author Hopil, he says.
A name that used to be one of pure reverence, now suddenly a lump of wrongdoing and guilt. Each word out of Kang Yunho's mouth pressed down on her chest, heavy as a stone.
What do I do? The close friend of Author Hopil has come all this way. This is too much to bear. Jegal Hyang racked her brains desperately, finally made up her mind, rose to her feet, and looked at him.
"M-my name is..."
Introductions first. Start with introductions.
"Jegal Hyang, my lady. I know."
"Ah... yes."
This is a disaster. My introduction has nothing in it except my name.
What else am I supposed to say, Jegal Hyang? I was home yesterday, I was home a week ago, and a month ago I was at the main estate.
No, wait, that's not the point. He knows my name, so why did he keep calling me Author Hopil? He must be furious. What do I do? Jegal Hyang's thoughts spiraled into chaos.
In truth, this entire situation was one Kang Yunho had engineered. What he'd heard of Jegal Hyang's passive personality — he was leveraging guilt and the initiative to seize the upper hand in the conversation. But there was no way she could know that.
Through their brief exchange, Kang Yunho confirmed two things: her personality was even worse than reported, and she genuinely, fully understood the wrongness of what she'd done.
"I understand being startled by my sudden appearance. Take a deep breath."
"Huuuh. Huuaah. I can't calm down, so m-may I do breathing meditation instead?"
"I infiltrated this place as a deliveryman, so I'm afraid we don't have time for that."
"Ah... yes..."
I put my foot in it again.
He'd spoken with such consideration, and what did she blurt out? May I do breathing meditation to calm myself? Is there even a thought in my head?
Jegal Hyang silently lamented her hopeless conversational skills yet again.
Kang Yunho caught the vibe that she wanted to crawl into a hole again, and reopened his mouth with an expression of exaggerated consideration.
"I'm not here to harm you or assign blame, my lady. I only wish to hear why you impersonated him. Would you tell me what happened?"
Jegal Hyang stole a glance at him — he seemed willing to listen to anything — and took a great, heaving breath.
Right. Jegal Hyang, you can do this much. Just tell him the whole story.
She barely kept her crumbling composure together and opened her mouth. Just explain it calmly. Calmly.
"S-so you see, I ran away from the marriage meeting. No, I mean... o-one moment, pleeease!"
Impossible.
How was she supposed to tell that entire long story? She'd massively overestimated herself. Jegal Hyang darted to the desk and dipped her brush in ink.
Writing I can do. I've sent plenty of letters.
Greetings. My name is Jegal Hyang.
I have been timid since childhood. As I am usually at home...
No, no! If I write down too much information, what then? Jegal Hyang quickly scribbled out the useless parts, leaving only what mattered, then handed the trembling letter over to Kang Yunho with an equally trembling heart.
"Your aunt and your cousin Heo Song mistook you for Author Hopil? And no matter what you said, they wouldn't believe you?"
I asked Jegal Hyang after reading through the heavily edited account of recent events.
I've seen this handwriting somewhere before. Strangely familiar.
"Yesyesyesyes!"
She nodded her head up and down furiously.
I gave her a faintly exasperated look.
She was a beauty, just as I'd heard.
If Lim Hayeon had the looks of a haughty thief-cat, all cool disdain, Jegal Hyang had the beauty of a small animal terrified that a human might reach out a hand toward it.
And her expression shifted with every single word of conversation, which was oddly fascinating. Right now it was a face on the verge of tears.
Given the personality I'd heard about and her behavior now, the odds that what was written here was true seemed pretty high.
This is one of the scenarios I anticipated. Move according to the plan I prepared.
An unexpected situation. Before she gets driven out by someone, I make her my ally.
"I was devastated to hear that you fled our meeting because you couldn't bear the thought of it."
And so, as always, it begins with piling guilt on top of guilt.
I put on the expression of a Mr. Kim who'd gone to a drinking party only to discover that not a single woman would sit next to him — a face of profound, earth-shattering woundedness.
"Ah, that — I'm sorryyyyy."
Jegal Hyang had nothing to say in reply and simply dropped her head. That's not what I'm trying to make you feel sorry for, though.
I opened my mouth again, wearing an expression of complete understanding.
"I know. Being told to marry a black-haired barbarian — the mere thought must be repulsive. Running away was probably the wiser choice."
I took a few steps closer so she could get a better view of my wounded expression.
But I couldn't push her too hard. Jegal Hyang was the type who would bolt outright if cornered.
Make myself into the wounded animal. Make Jegal Hyang unmistakably the perpetrator. She has to be the one to approach me out of guilt.
"N-n-n-no! Now that I look at you, actually—!"
"Actually?"
I stared at her, waiting to see what she'd say.
"Your face is too clooose!"
Too close a distance for a girl with a passive personality, apparently. Jegal Hyang scrambled backward in a flustered retreat, shielding her faintly flushed face with both arms.
"Heo Song — that man told me something. Hopil — that is, he said Lady Jegal Hyang had her feelings hurt because of me. So he wondered whether I had grown so presumptuous as to dare seek a marriage meeting with a daughter of the great Zhuge Clan, and decided I needed to be taught a lesson."
I clutched my chest with the expression of a man whose heart had been pierced.
"Wha?! I-I never said anything like thaaat!"
Jegal Hyang jolted and stared at me in alarm, then dropped her gaze, unable to hold my eyes.
Never said it? Doesn't matter. I'm going to keep winding up that guilt of yours.
"But the damage remains all the same. We were planning to open a Daseogak branch in Wuhan soon, and the losses are enormous. And what's more, when Author Hopil hears that an admirer of his has impersonated him, who knows how devastated he'll be..."
"Uuuuuu..."
Jegal Hyang made an anguished face, unable to contain her remorse. From her perspective it must feel unfair. But what could she do, when an even greater victim had appeared right in front of her?
And with that, she was a fully converted culprit.
Now, for the next stage...
"My lady?"
Where did she go? Jegal Hyang vanished from my sight for a moment.
"H-here..."
Somehow she was back to bowing her head deep into the floor, holding a small pouch up toward me.
"What is this?"
"I'm currently away from home, so this is all the money I have on me..."
Jegal Hyang, as though making some agonizing decision, was trying to hand me her allowance pouch.
No. I didn't ask for money. She seems like a girl born with a kind heart. A girl who makes things a little awkward for people, though.
"That won't be necessary."
"I've been diligently saving my New Year's money since I was little, so when I return home... n-no, I can't go home! But somehow! Later! I'll give you the New Year's money too!"
"Please, there's no need."
I need to move to the next stage, and here she is shrinking away already. This is a problem.
Just as I was growing slightly uncomfortable, a warrior's voice came from beyond the door.
"Ahem! Lady Hyang! That deliveryman who came in just now doesn't seem to be coming out."
A moment of deep, ringing silence.
"Wha?! Th-that's — me!"
Have I been in here too long? Jegal Hyang scrambled to her feet, her face a picture of helpless panic.
"I'm waiting, as you kindly said you would return my dishes. The food must have been to your liking."
"...Is that really so?"
"Yesyes. That's riiight."
Until the warrior's footsteps faded into the distance, Jegal Hyang and I stared at each other, unable to say a word.
Thank goodness. That was close. Jegal Hyang must have been thinking the same thing, because she let out a sigh of relief.
She could have had me thrown out, and instead she covered for me. The first phase of the operation: a success.
Now, on to the next stage.
The situation is this: she's been wronged, but she can't easily pick a side.
Author Hopil on one side, her beloved cousin on the other. Wronged and pained by the misunderstanding, but terrified of ruining her cousin's life. I could understand exactly how she felt.
But I had a plan in place for this too.
I rose, letting hostility bleed into my gaze toward the direction the warrior had gone, and spoke to her.
"Heo Song knows full well that you're a fake Hopil."
If it's hard to choose between two sides, then simply turn one of them into an enemy.
"What?"
"The guards stationed around this house. Has it never struck you as strange? This isn't a layout for defense against outside threats. It's a layout for watching you."
"That's probably because I'm so good at running away."
Of course. Given the choice between suspecting others and blaming herself, she picks herself.
But you're wrong. Keeping watch over a runaway is a parent's job — it's no reason for a cousin to stand guard.
"When I visited Heo Song recently, he blocked my attempt to meet Hopil — and I'm supposedly his close friend. A cousin keeps you under surveillance, and a close friend is turned away from a meeting. All of this points to one conclusion."
"Wh-what conclusion?"
"You are the scapegoat, my lady."
I delivered the cruel truth to her like a man unveiling a crime.
"What?!"
"It may well have been a misunderstanding at first, just as you say. But as you kept denying it, the thought must have crossed his mind — perhaps we were the ones mistaken. So why did he press on anyway? You are the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan head. Even if it were an impersonation, it would all end the moment he pinned every bit of blame on you. That's why he kept you watched."
If the Sichuan Tang Clan reigns in Sichuan, then the Zhuge Clan reigns in Hubei.
Daseogak, Mangeum Hall — even against the Sichuan Tang Clan itself, Heo Song must have calculated that if the Zhuge Clan's youngest daughter was blamed for the impersonation, the whole affair could be hushed up as a mere domestic incident.
And to Heo Song, his dusty little bookstore was a gamble worth taking anyway.
"That's right. The more I talked, the more guards appeared. S-so... so what do we do now?"
Jegal Hyang's eyes had gone wide — she'd grasped the situation.
And she's turning to me for help in this predicament. A good sign — she thinks I'm someone she can trust.
"We leave."
"What?"
"You wrote that the guards told you it was dangerous outside, that you were to stay indoors at all times. Not to worry. You are the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan head. Gather your courage and tell them you're going to your grandfather's estate. No one will dare stop you."
Jegal Hyang was currently just a guest staying at her aunt's house. But if she declared she was leaving and they forcibly blocked her path?
That would be the outright abduction of the Zhuge Clan head's youngest daughter. Who in their right mind would dare?
"Ah, th-that's, um..."
"Is it because you fear they'll arrange another marriage meeting when you return?"
"......"
Was I right?
"My lady. If there were a plan that could resolve both my predicament and yours, would you be willing to try it?"
Because there is one.
"Is there really such a plan?"
"Yes. All you have to do is grant me one favor."
"What kind?"
I studied Jegal Hyang for a moment.
Among the plans I'd considered was one that leveraged her Hopil impersonation to scuttle the marriage meeting entirely. But was that truly the best outcome?
The Mangeum Lord, testing me.
A towering figure I would never have been able to meet under normal circumstances. He seems to be putting me through hardships, but there's unmistakable goodwill buried in it — the promise of wiping out an enormous debt in a single stroke.
And he has already made up his mind to pair me with his granddaughter.
Even if this marriage meeting fell through, who's to say he wouldn't suddenly produce the young lady of the Namgung Clan, or some princess of the Mount Hua Sect?
I need Daseogak back.
I want every debt forgiven. I want to expand the business I'm building in Wuhan. I want to write more of Dangga Pungun and make my name with other novels too.
And... for a moment, a pink-haired woman's face flickered behind my eyes, waiting for me with an anxious expression.
Yes. I want to solve Lim Hayeon's registry problem as well.
Which meant I couldn't settle for simply tanking the marriage meeting. I needed something better. And I had it.
A method that would satisfy the Mangeum Lord completely while needling him at the same time.
Good for me. Good for Jegal Hyang.
I strode up to her and made my one crucial proposal.
"Let's date on contract."