The Gift - 2
"...A brush?"
Even at a single glance, Lim Hayeon could tell the brush was something special. She picked it up.
"It's nothing. Come on, let's hurry and get this sorted."
Kang Yunho betrayed no flusteredness whatsoever, waving it off as if it were of no consequence at all.
"Nothing, he says. One look and anyone can tell it's a masterpiece brush, crafted with loving care by a master artisan."
People tended to assume that all a Divine Thief needed was top-tier lightfoot arts and stealth techniques, but that was laughable.
What was worth stealing? Which pieces were genuine? Which were true masterpieces?
Trained in the culture of the highest elite as a courtesan, and schooled in a thief's education besides, Lim Hayeon possessed a more discerning eye than anyone alive.
And into precisely those hands, a masterpiece brush had fallen.
A masterpiece among masterpieces, made by an artisan who had blended only the finest qualities of premium animal hair — even she could tell at a glance that it was a gyeomho-pil, a mixed-hair brush.
"A fine brush, sure, but it's nothing. Here, hand it over."
Kang Yunho reached for the brush in Lim Hayeon's hand — but nothing, nothing at all, could be taken from the hand of a woman trained in the Divine Thief's arts.
"And what exactly are you trying to sneak past me? Haah. Is this really the time for us to be spending money on things like this?"
That flustered manner said it all. She was certain. A few days ago he'd gazed at a brush just like this one and wanted it so badly.
So in the end, he'd given in to temptation and bought it.
Lim Hayeon heaved a small sigh at Kang Yunho before speaking.
And who was it that consoled you, even treating you to gukbap?
Lim Hayeon found herself replaying the events of a few days past.
How many times had she asked the Hometown Association folk what foods Joseon people loved? She'd never named anyone in particular — she'd only wanted to know what he might enjoy eating.
Even Chef An's idle chatter had gone into the search: his story about watching a wife, pouting all the while, place garlic chives right onto her husband's spoon, and thinking, now there's a man with a wife for life. The restaurant she'd tracked down on the strength of that very anecdote.
She had even sat down to share pork gukbap with him, coaxing him along — and to think he'd gone and bought a masterpiece brush anyway.
Feeling as though her devotion had been tossed aside, Lim Hayeon fixed Kang Yunho with a faintly resentful look.
"Do you have any idea how many delivery workers' wages this one brush could pay? I'm the one who keeps the books — where on earth did the money come from for you to buy a masterpiece brush like this?"
She knew he was hardly one to spend money on himself. He might well find her heartless for saying it. But even if it pained her, this was something she had to call out.
Because these were hard times for them.
Lim Hayeon steeled herself and spoke.
"Well... it was a gift."
What kind of nonsense is that? It would have been more believable if he'd confessed to a secret stash of emergency money.
Could he have a hidden purse tucked away somewhere? This was the sort of thing that had to be nipped in the bud — for the sake of their future together, if nothing else. Lim Hayeon opened her mouth again.
"A gift? Who on earth would give you a masterpiece brush this outrageously expensive as a... ah."
The youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan.
The only woman capable of such a gift flashed through Lim Hayeon's mind.
"Ha-ha..."
Kang Yunho's sheepish smile confirmed everything.
For an instant, Lim Hayeon nearly bit clean through the inside of her lip.
"You received it from that woman?"
"...Lady Jegal Hyang gave it to me."
Kang Yunho averted his gaze, looking cornered.
She should return the brush.
She should not ask anything more.
That was the path that spared her further hurt. And yet — isn't it simply human nature to want to touch a wound that nags at you, to scratch a scab that itches?
"Hm. Giving you a masterpiece brush like this. The two of you must get along wonderfully, I take it?"
From Lim Hayeon came a snort that went past sharp — keen as a razor's edge.
A snort meant not for Kang Yunho, but to pierce the woman who had given it.
"There was that impersonation incident, remember. She said she felt she still hadn't apologized properly, so she gave it to me."
No woman gives a masterpiece brush like this as a mere token of apology.
Lim Hayeon barely swallowed the words climbing up her throat.
"Is that so?"
"I only meant to keep it. I had no intention of using it."
Looking apologetic, Kang Yunho couldn't lift his head; he just scratched at it.
Lim Hayeon knows.
She knows he is meeting the Zhuge Clan's youngest daughter in order to protect her. She knows that his heart, where she is concerned, is genuine.
Kang Yunho will not waver. But. But still...
What if the woman called Jegal Hyang is the one who wavers?
The masterpiece brush — one she could never dream of owning in her entire life — suddenly felt so terribly heavy.
"Why? It's a good brush, isn't it? Make good use of it."
In the end, desperate to put as much distance as possible between herself and that creeping anxiety, Lim Hayeon pressed the brush back into Kang Yunho's hands and stormed out the door.
The Mangeum Lord's estate.
Hm-hm-hm~ hm-hm-hm~
A silver-haired, blue-eyed beauty hummed a little tune as her brush danced across a painting.
Ink had smudged her sleeves — clothes chosen for ease of movement over elegance — and dotted her face here and there, but the woman paid it no mind. If anything, she was giggling to herself.
"The young lady met with Young Master Kang and came back, yet she isn't doing her fan dance like last time. She's just painting away, calm as you please."
One maid, emerging after watering the flowers in Jegal Hyang's room while the young lady was absorbed in her work, said this to another maid waiting in attendance.
"Ah, that's right — you haven't been on the young lady's rotation these past few days, so you wouldn't have seen it."
"Why? What happened this time?"
"The day she came back from meeting Young Master Kang, she was fluttering her fan like a bird beating its wings."
"Really? Just how happy does a person have to be to do that?"
The maids' chatter slipped through the door left ajar and found its way to Jegal Hyang's ears as well.
"Hmhm. It doesn't bother me at all."
Jegal Hyang didn't mind in the slightest.
Something truly wonderful had happened. Something so delightful she felt like she could fly away like a bird.
And that something was—
Jegal Hyang began to replay her meeting with Kang Yunho in her mind.
It's like a novel with a guaranteed happy ending~
Jegal Hyang, having arrived at the upscale restaurant first, murmured quietly so that no one else might hear.
Because soon she would be meeting Young Master Kang. He would walk in, and he would take his seat with a smile.
This was Jegal Hyang, who had always fled from the company of others — and now she was yearning for a meeting with someone who would listen to her, sympathize with her, draw close to her, and understand her heart to the very bottom.
Anyone who knew Jegal Hyang would have dropped their jaw in disbelief.
"I'll make sure the staff don't come bothering you, so take your time and look over whatever catches your eye."
Watching Kang Yunho screen her from the staff's eyes, Jegal Hyang ducked her head in embarrassment.
It feels strangely reassuring. It's nothing like being guarded by the clan's warriors~
Unseen by Kang Yunho, Jegal Hyang gave her pounding chest a few little thumps, then turned to the brushes.
The brushes she loved.
A man taking genuine interest in the things she loved.
Browsing goods without a single servant hovering at her shoulder — a first in her life.
And in the end, I slipped up again~
She had gone and floored the accelerator.
Why did she keep doing it, in front of Young Master Kang, every single time, after swearing she wouldn't? At this rate, her old claim — that a woman with zero conversational ability couldn't speak properly even when she knew exactly what she meant — was starting to sound like a barefaced lie.
Jegal Hyang blamed herself, but there was nothing to be done.
Because she wanted to look good in front of Kang Yunho. Because, strangely, he never felt like other people did. Because she wanted to win his favor by teaching him the things he didn't know.
Her lack of conversational skill. For a woman speaking properly with a man who made her heart flutter for the very first time in her life, it was territory entirely beyond her control.
"How could you be embarrassed, when you're the one teaching me what I don't know? I'm hopeless with brushes myself, so I'd love to hear you explain other things too, Lady Jegal Hyang."
Like an arrow loosed in flight, Kang Yunho's tender words buried themselves deep, deep in Jegal Hyang's heart.
I want to give Young Master Kang a gift~
A masterpiece brush fine enough to satisfy even the Zhuge Clan's youngest daughter.
To give form to the affection overflowing in her chest, Jegal Hyang at last held the brush out to Kang Yunho.
"I'm grateful for the thought, but there's no need to gift me a brush this expensive."
Kang Yunho's polite refusal.
The Jegal Hyang of old would have deflated on the spot and given up. But she wanted to give it. To someone. No — she wanted to give it to Kang Yunho, and to him alone.
"Th-the, the, the impersonation incident, the other day~"
That feeling was what let Jegal Hyang find her courage.
"The impersonation incident...? Ah. You're already set to receive the Daseogak branch's profits, so there's no need to apologize any further."
"Th-that was Grandfather's doing, though~"
She hadn't apologized properly. Every time they met, she apologized and apologized again. It wasn't enough. It was Jegal Hyang's excuse that wasn't quite an excuse.
"I understand your heart perfectly well, Lady Jegal. But even so, I'll accept only the sentiment."
"..."
The brush was far too costly for him to accept. Even as Kang Yunho refused, Jegal Hyang squeezed her eyes shut and held the brush out all the same.
"My lady?"
"..."
As Kang Yunho went on refusing, she trembled like a leaf — but Jegal Hyang's hand would not come down.
"Then... I shall put it to good use."
In the end, Kang Yunho had no choice but to accept Jegal Hyang's gift.
"Hm. Yeeees!"
Young Master Kang had accepted her gift. Jegal Hyang opened her eyes, her face glowing with joy.
Kang Yunho flinched for a heartbeat at her startlingly lovely smile — but she was far too swept up to notice that much.
I gave Young Master Kang a gift. It's not enough. But still. I feel as if I expressed a little more.
Expressed what, exactly? Jegal Hyang was too shy to put it into words, even inside her own head — but she still stood proudly before the counter, brush held high.
Take the money from her purse. Pay. Then place it tenderly into Young Master Kang's hands. It was only the small matter of buying something at a shop, but to her it was a mighty step forward.
Of course, the moment she reached the counter, that dream was smashed to pieces.
"Miss, I'm afraid you're a little short on funds."
"Th-then, wh-what if I s-sell my p-purse too~?!"
"I shall put it to good use."
She'd sneaked out of the estate in secret. She'd completely forgotten that she'd only grabbed pocket money on the way~ If not for Young Master Kang's dramatic haggling, she couldn't have bought it at all~
Jegal Hyang reminisced about the events of a few days before, which had wound up on a slightly clumsy note.
"Ehehe. Young Master Kang. Young. Mas.ter. Kang."
He was surely using it. Sitting manfully at his desk, an intelligent look on his face, about to set brush to documents — and then, startled by the feel of the brush she had given him.
Startled for an instant by a brush that followed his strength, yet glided across the page with such fluid, vigorous grace.
And then. And then. Jegal Hyang screwed her eyes shut and, bashful as a baby bird, parted her lips.
"I-I hope you'll think of me sometimes too. Ahh!"
Drowning in her own embarrassment, Jegal Hyang thunked her forehead down onto the desk.
Her head ached, but the thoughts inside it refused to change.
She hoped he would think of her whenever he looked at the brush. She hoped that this time, word from him would not come late.
Contrary to her hopes, however, both the giver and the receiver of that gift were about to think of Jegal Hyang at a moment neither of them had foreseen.
This is a problem.
I'd only accepted the thing because flatly refusing it hadn't been an option.
A young lady of one of Hubei's foremost martial clans — in modern terms, like receiving a present from the youngest daughter of a chaebol dynasty.
However pricey the brush, to that young lady it had probably felt like one of those standard holiday gift sets — the value-pack No. 5 tier, say.
Of course I knew it was a masterpiece that the giver, the receiver, and any onlooker might all see very differently. That was exactly why I'd tucked it away in a drawer.
I had certainly never intended to flaunt it in front of Lim Hayeon — Lim Hayeon, who drew no wages and shouldered every hardship there was.
And of course it had to blow up in my face.
"Lady Hayeon."
Was she less angry than I'd feared? The one mercy was that first thing in the morning, she was already in the office, working through the paperwork.
I ventured a word to her, her whole atmosphere bristling strangely.
"..."
"Lady Hayeon."
"..."
So that's how you're going to be. You know this hurts more, right?
I let out a small sigh, rose from my seat, and muttered just loud enough for Lim Hayeon to hear.
"Can't be helped, then. I suppose I'll just have to go out on my own..."
"Wh-who are you going to m— no! That's not it! Where are you going?!"
Now she reacts? Lim Hayeon shot up from her seat, startled, and stared at me.
"Later this evening there's the Joseon feast for the grand opening of the First Inn, remember. I was thinking of going to see how things are coming along."
"I already sent people ahead for everything. It'll all be prepared perfectly even without you going."
"Good work. Let's go together later, then."
"...So that's why you were going out?"
When I said it with a smile, Lim Hayeon asked, head turned away, eyes flicking toward me sidelong.
"There's nothing else. And a guest should be arriving tomorrow or the day after."
"A guest? What kind of guest?"
"One that would surprise even you, Lady Hayeon..."
"Hoeju! A visitor has come from the Mangeum Money Exchange!"
The office door swung open, and a young maidservant hurried in.
"So the 'guest' was from the Mangeum Money Exchange?"
Why say it in such a scary, bristling voice?
"Someone else... What business could the Mangeum Money Exchange have? Show them in."
"A good day to you, Young Master Kang."
A man from the Mangeum Money Exchange, immaculately turned out, entered the office and bowed to me.
"What brings you here? As I understand it, the second evaluation is still some way off."
"I haven't come today on account of the trials."
"Then why?"
Every visit so far had come with a bomb attached, so the mere words 'from the Mangeum Money Exchange' were enough to set my nerves on edge.
Don't tell me they'd come to spring some '1.5-round trial' nonsense on me in place of the second evaluation?
I regarded the man from the Mangeum Money Exchange with a somewhat tense face.
What could he be about to say?
Thank the heavens, the man smiled and delivered the news I had been longing for.
"The construction of the Daseogak branch is nearly complete. Set a date, and go take a look around it with Lady Jegal Hyang."