Late Night, Two Sleeping Beauties
It was the hour of night when everyone, having finished their day, had gone to bed.
"Coo-coo! Coo-coo!"
"Everyone's sleeping. Keep it down."
"Coo-coo……"
Lim Hayeon slipped in through her own window in the dead of night, warning Gugu as she entered.
The Giosugu pigeons could only be operated properly under Lim Hayeon's management. Today, too, she had finished all her duties at the inn, then taken a nighttime stroll that doubled as a patrol of the two branch locations Jeon Gilsan was running.
Of course, it wasn't as if she enjoyed moving about so late.
There was no telling when or where the Domun branch of Haomen might spot her.
It seemed the Simun branch was successfully controlling the flow of information on her behalf, but carelessness was out of the question.
She limited herself to the inn and trusted business partners, places where her safety was guaranteed—and even then, only in daylight, wearing a broad straw hat and a gauze veil over her face.
Like it or not, she was putting in unwanted overtime with the stealth arts and light-footwork she'd trained in her whole life.
"Coo-coo. Time for your bath."
"Coo-coo!"
At Lim Hayeon's words, Gugu flew gladly to the washbasin and perched there.
People generally think of pigeons as filthy animals, but that's a misunderstanding. Wild pigeons love water so much they'll bathe at the water's edge three or four times a day.
True, it's a near-instinctive behavior meant to keep predators from catching their scent, so in cities where predators are few, the habit fades and they look unhygienic—but that doesn't mean they suddenly hate water.
"Coo-coo, coo-coo-coo!"
Lim Hayeon diligently scrubbed the delighted pigeon, returned it to its cage, then washed herself thoroughly and lay down in bed to sleep.
"……"
It had been an exhausting day. Yet Lim Hayeon couldn't fall asleep.
Lately, the moment she closed her eyes, a certain scene kept rising before her.
"Jegal Hyang……"
Lim Hayeon murmured the name of Kang Yunho's matchmaking prospect. These days, whenever she shut her eyes, the image of the two of them standing before the carriage came back to her.
"Why on earth does she have to be so pretty?"
She muttered it as if utterly exasperated, to no one in particular.
In all her life, Lim Hayeon had never once believed her looks fell short of anyone else's.
And she had every right. The place she'd grown up was the Gyobang. Even there, where countless beauties gathered in training to become Cheonggi, Lim Hayeon's looks stood out unmistakably.
The teachers of the courtesans from Yichang, the courtesans from Wuhan themselves—all of them had gasped in admiration at the sight of her.
She'd been told there wasn't a woman in all of Hubei Province more beautiful than her, wherever you might look.
And it was a face like that which had unnerved Lim Hayeon at first sight and stolen her sleep.
That was Jegal Hyang's beauty.
"Why would a woman like that be set up with him?"
The Zhuge Clan. Weren't they the most illustrious martial family in all of Hubei?
Not a woman with a face too ghastly to show in public, or a widow with two children in tow, or one whose temper was so vile even her parents had given up on her.
Why set a woman who seemed like she'd accept any marriage proposal on the spot—why set her up on a match with that man?
Lim Hayeon concluded she simply could not understand the minds of the wealthy.
"It must be just the face. Her figure's probably nothing special, I'm sure."
Eventually, she hauled her sleepless body upright and stood before the mirror.
She was wearing a thin nightgown that did nothing to hide what lay beneath. There stood a woman whose figure would scramble any man's mind on the spot.
From calf to thigh—legs hardened and healthy from light-footwork training. Hips that seemed they'd spring a stray finger right back off them, and a waist that flared out into a dizzyingly wide pelvis.
And above all that, a chest that would draw any man's gaze instantly.
Of course, unlike other men who lost their composure the moment they saw her, Kang Yunho treated her chest as if it were perfectly ordinary—but that was simply him being considerate.
Sometimes, when it swayed, she could feel his gaze. And unlike with other men, Lim Hayeon didn't particularly mind his.
For no real reason, Lim Hayeon struck a pose she'd learned in the Gyobang—one designed to look charming to men.
With a woman like this before him, what man would let his eye wander elsewhere? She convinced herself of it, and lay back down on the bed.
But the anxiety didn't fade.
"There's no way a daughter of the Zhuge Clan would fall for that man."
It made it all the stranger that she was beautiful. Why would the treasured jewel of a noble house ever fall for him?
Of course, that man was thoughtful, and considerate, and—
Walking down the street together, other women did glance his way at least once—
He was endlessly mature, yet somewhere in him there was a mischievous boy—
He was dependable and witty, and whenever she handed him something that seemed impossible to solve, he became her rock—
"Mmgh."
Lim Hayeon covered her flushed face with her hand, as though someone might see.
There was no way the daughter of the Zhuge Clan could like Kang Yunho. Lim Hayeon murmured it to herself, trying to lull herself to sleep—and then a remark from one of the staff floated up in her memory.
— The match is with the Zhuge Clan. Even if his face got smashed in, wouldn't the marriage still go through?
And if she's beautiful on top of that?
"……He likes me. There's no way he'd look elsewhere."
It was surely a meeting neither of them wanted. Lim Hayeon forced herself to murmur it.
But unlike back in Yichang—
Lim Hayeon's voice wavered, somewhere, with doubt.
The Mangeum Estate.
"Hee-hee-hee-hee."
A silver-haired, blue-eyed beauty was swirling her arms in bizarre motions, a fan clasped in each hand.
"The young lady is… dancing with fans?"
"I-is that supposed to be dancing?"
If this had been the Jegal Hyang of old, the mere sight of her maids recoiling in horror at what they'd walked in on would have sent her sinking into despair and burying herself in a wardrobe. But not these days.
No—Jegal Hyang didn't care anymore.
"Why is she been like that lately?"
"You don't know? She's been in a great mood ever since she went out with Young Master Kang Yunho."
"That's right. This maiden. Jegal Hyang. I, Jegal Hyang, hee-hee-hee."
Jegal Hyang couldn't hold back her laughter at the maids' voices drifting in from outside.
"Hee. And who might that be?"
The woman who went to a restaurant with her romantic interest! Jegal Hyang!
And the two of them, alone!
Jegal Hyang twirled her fans and danced with abandon, then hid her face behind both fans and grinned ear to ear.
"I-I feel like I've climbed another rung of womanhood-oooh! Ee-hee-hee-hee!"
It was a rung of personhood rather than womanhood, but to her it amounted to the same thing.
Zero conversational ability. For a girl who couldn't even imagine going to a restaurant alone with a man, her encounter with Kang Yunho had been overwhelmingly vivid.
"S-so if I try, I actually can do it-oooh."
Jegal Hyang recalled her last meeting with Kang Yunho.
How flawless it had been.
No matter what they talked about, the conversation never broke—it flowed like the current of the Yangtze. It was even enjoyable. And this, for a girl for whom talking to people was pure burden.
"Ee-hee-hee-hee. Young Master Kaaaang. Young. Mas. Ter. Kang!"
Jegal Hyang flushed as she called up the face of the source of her joy—her matchmaking prospect, Kang Yunho.
How could anyone talk with her without flinching, without dodging the conversation, without finding her a burden?
Like a childhood friend of many years. Well, she'd never actually had a friend—but she'd read about it in books, so it must be right.
Anyway, like in the books—if she'd had a boyhood friend she'd known forever, she was sure he'd be exactly like Young Master Kang.
"So what happened with that guy who contacted you again?"
Jegal Hyang was dancing her heart out again, thinking of her nonexistent childhood friend Kang Yunho, when the maids' conversation drifted in from outside.
"Don't know. I think I should break up with him."
"Why?"
"Well. He asked to meet me, then showed up still covered head to toe in dusty work clothes."
"So? If he came straight from work, isn't that forgivable?"
"Fine if we've been dating for years. But it's barely been any time at all! Isn't that just him saying he doesn't respect me enough to even bother changing out of dusty clothes?"
"Huh. When you put it that way… yeah."
"Right?!"
In that instant, a single memory flashed through Jegal Hyang's mind.
"I… met him covered in ink……"
Kang Yunho had arrived at the estate unannounced. And Jegal Hyang, thrilled, had burst straight out to meet him.
Mid-painting, her mind set wholly on the meeting—with ink smeared all over both sleeves.
That was discourteous? That meant he didn't respect her?
Jegal Hyang's mouth fell open in horror.
'Then could it be that Young Master Kang……'
Suddenly, thoughts of Kang Yunho she had never once entertained began flooding Jegal Hyang's mind.
— He must not think of me as a man at all.
— Everything I say is nonsense. He probably just humors me until it's over.
— He brought me to a fine restaurant, and I couldn't even show the barest courtesy.
"AAAAH! AAAAAH! Noooo-ooooh! I-it's not like that, Young Master Kang!"
Jegal Hyang. Eighteen years old.
Her first romance has ended, with a single restaurant visit as its swan song.
It's over, I say.
Only one future remained for her now.
— Hyang, how old are you this year? Good heavens! Twenty-four?! What? Oh dear! Is something wrong with your body?
— Auntie Hyang! You're an old maid—why couldn't you get married?
— Can't even marry at her age. Pitiful thing.
— The burden of this household! Enough! I'll send you off as a concubine somewhere!
"AAAAAAAARGH!"
Her first romance—and the last romance she would ever be allowed—was over.
Jegal Hyang writhed in anguish.
"I-I-I have to apologize to Young Master Kang somehow-oooh."
With hands trembling from misery, Jegal Hyang took up her brush.
She had to pour her heart into it. Her true feelings for Young Master Kang Yunho.
I was flustered by your sudden visit. Next time I shall go out in clean clothes. I look forward to our next meeting. That's what she would write.
Jegal Hyang began writing her heart onto the paper.
In this season of early summer, I humbly pray that your health and spirits flourish evermore, and that your jade body rests in silken peace.
I respectfully write as midsummer deepens, praying your health flourishes unceasingly, and that peace reigns throughout your household.
"My-my sincerity is too heavy-oooh!"
Discarded immediately.
"Uuuugh."
Jegal Hyang thumped her head against the desk in anguish.
What makes a letter light and easygoing? What kind of letter should I send Young Master Kang?
What if he thinks it improper for a woman to send a love letter first, even mid-courtship, and takes offense?
And what if there's no reply?
If he thought meeting her at the restaurant in ink-stained clothes was an unforgivable disgrace—
If he's decided she's an ill-mannered woman and never wishes to see her again—
"I-I-I'll never rise again-oooh."
Jegal Hyang. Eighteen years old.
The woman who had been dancing with fans mere moments ago had crawled under her desk and curled into a ball.
"Today, I'll set the letter aside and simply tend to my heart-oooh."
First, sleep.
The letter tomorrow. No—the day after. No, wait, Young Master Kang might write first, so even a week from now is fine. Is a week too short?
Young Master Kang may be busy too, so I can wait a little longer.
The Jegal Hyang of old would certainly have given up.
She'd have accepted that clashing with people was simply her daily lot for want of conversational skill, and hidden away in some corner.
But this time was different.
"I…… want to see Young Master Kang again-oooh."
Because the experience had been so vivid. Because she had tasted her first romance.
Jegal Hyang confessed her heart honestly to her desk, face burning.
But what was she to do? She was too afraid to send the letter, yet she wanted to see Young Master Kang. Jegal Hyang could find no thread to follow.
"Miss Jegal Hyang—a letter has arrived from Young Master Kang. Shall I bring it later, if you're busy?"
In the end, it was a single letter that steadied her reeling heart.
"What?! ……AAH!"
Startled, Jegal Hyang scrambled to rise—and cracked her head against the underside of the desk.
"Miss?"
Startled by the cry, the maid opened the door.
There she found Jegal Hyang, clutching her head with tear-filled eyes, wriggling her way across the floor toward her.
"Gi……"
Jegal Hyang crawled desperately until she stood before the maid.
The maid decided she could not, in good conscience, say that the sight resembled an earth dragon slithering out to greet a long-awaited rain.
"Yes?"
"Give me the letter-ooooh!"
Beneath those tear-glazed eyes brimming with anguish—
on Jegal Hyang's face bloomed a smile that could steal the soul of any man alive.