Face-to-Face with the Rival — 2
"The Hometown Association is sending a carriage for us. They said it'll be here soon, so wait for them."
The next morning, Lim Hayeon opened the door to my office.
"Everything is ready. Hmm? Uuuuuuuuhm?"
What is this. Did my eyes deceive me? I rubbed them, but no — I was seeing exactly what I thought I was seeing.
"Wh-what is it?"
When I stared at her with a bewildered expression, Lim Hayeon twisted her body in embarrassment.
"Off to a wedding somewhere, are we?"
Full battle dress, as if she were a girlfriend attending her ex-boyfriend's wedding.
She was a beautiful woman on any ordinary day, but today she seemed to radiate light from every inch of her body — enough to fluster even me, who saw her face all the time.
"I didn't know where we were going today, that's all?"
Lim Hayeon lifted her chin like a model, her tone a touch disgruntled.
"It's the Daseogak branch, isn't it. Ah, I see......"
Today was the day Jegal Hyang and the people from Mangeum Hall would arrive. Since I'd be attending as the representative of the management staff, it was better to dress up than to be taken lightly, I supposed.
I nodded at Lim Hayeon.
"If you knew that, you should have dressed up from the start."
Lim Hayeon shot me a knowing smile and hurried out the door with quick little steps.
"Sister-in-law, are you coming down with a cough? Gah!"
"Why do you keep startling me? Hrk! Sister-in-law! Are you and the Association Head going somewhere nice?"
"N-no, we're not!"
Still, did she really need to dress up to that extent?
"Young Master Kang. Welcome."
When I arrived at the Daseogak branch, Jeon Un-yeop and several people from Mangeum Hall were already waiting.
So busy normally, and yet he'd come out in person — curious, no doubt, about what demands I might make.
"And Mangeum Hall has been waiting as well. Where is Lady Jegal Hyang?"
"She will arrive shortly. B-but, um, who is the young lady beside you?"
Jeon Un-yeop asked with a startled face, looking at Lim Hayeon, who stood cautiously behind me.
"Ah, ha. She's an employee who works under me."
"Oh ho. An employee, you say?"
Jeon Un-yeop looked Lim Hayeon up and down repeatedly, as if he couldn't believe it. Surprised, is he? Even I, who see her every day, am surprised.
The dressing-up had clearly done its work. Right now, if Lim Hayeon made some unreasonable demand, any man would probably nod along before he knew it.
Well then, shall we have her introduce herself?
"Lady Hayeon?"
Where was she even looking? Lim Hayeon kept glancing around as though searching for someone.
"What is it?"
"Why are you so restless?"
"There's something coming."
Who was she looking for? Following her gaze, I turned my eyes and spotted a carriage in the distance.
"There it is!"
So it had finally arrived.
A magnificent carriage came to a stop in front of Daseogak.
A top-grade carriage that anyone could tell carried a person of high standing.
Even the horses pulling it had manes with a glossy sheen — even a man with no eye for horseflesh could tell they were fine steeds.
When the carriage door opened, a woman with silver hair streaming in the wind stepped down.
A woman who could turn even the finest carriage into mere wrapping paper.
The youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan.
Jegal Hyang.
"Why on earth would a woman like that......"
Behind me, a familiar voice could be heard swallowing a groan.
At the sight of the silver-haired, blue-eyed woman, everyone around fell silent for a moment, simply staring.
"Young Master Kaaaaang. Hyaah!"
Jegal Hyang tried to run toward me — right up until she misstepped and went sprawling.
"......"
A beat of silence settled over the surroundings.
"Lady Jegal! Are you all right?"
If even I was moving, someone had to. I dashed over quickly.
"Hff. I'm fine. These are comfortable clothes, so it doesn't matter if my legs get a little dirtyyyy."
No, I asked if your body was all right.
"I'm relieved it seems you aren't hurt."
"Yesss. Young Master Kaaaaang. Huh?"
Jegal Hyang swayed closer to me — but then she stopped in her tracks, her face going pale with shock.
The reason being:
"Hello there."
Lim Hayeon had stepped between me and Jegal Hyang with a smile on her face.
Wow. That is a genuinely astonishing customer-service smile.
A strictly professional smile with not a single personal feeling in it. The kind of face that makes you suspect that if you peeled away the wrapping paper, you'd find a lump of pure malice inside.
Jegal Hyang couldn't meet Lim Hayeon's eyes and shot me a pleading look instead.
"This is Lady Lim Hayeon, an employee of the Yichang Daseogak who assists with my business here in Wuhan. Lady Hayeon — this is Lady Jegal Hyang, my arranged marriage prospect."
"......"
"Lady Hayeon?"
At my words, Lim Hayeon turned her head so that only I could see her face and stuck out her lips in a pout. What on earth was she dissatisfied about now?
"Hello. My name is Lim Hayeon."
Lim Hayeon fixed her expression in an instant, then greeted Jegal Hyang with that customer-service smile once more.
Only the two carriages blocked the view — if any passersby had seen this, they'd have gasped and a crowd would have gathered on the spot.
Lim Hayeon, the finest courtesan of Hubei, and Jegal Hyang, whose beauty rivaled hers. The two of them standing side by side was like a living painting.
"Ah, I, um, that is......"
"......"
The only problem was that the painting looked less like a serene landscape and more like a poster for a mixed martial arts bout.
Lim Hayeon was regarding Jegal Hyang with a gaze that carried a distinct note of disapproval.
Jegal Hyang, for her part, couldn't withstand that gaze at all. She darted her eyes this way and that, finding nowhere to rest, until at last they sank to the ground.
It was like watching a hamster who'd spent a happy evening stuffing herself with sunflower seeds and sleeping in late, only to wake and come face to face with a haughty, freshly-groomed cat.
"Hyih! I, um, I'm, I'm, I'm Jegal Hyangyyy. Th-that is, I'm sorryyyy!"
Unable to hold out against the gaze any longer, Jegal Hyang self-destructed.
"......Pardon?"
Lim Hayeon blinked in confusion and asked her to repeat herself.
"Haha. Lady Hayeon, Lady Jegal is simply a bit on the reserved side. Lady Jegal?"
"Ah, th-that's, yes!"
"Lady Hayeon tends to be rather cool and brusque with people she's meeting for the first time. Please don't take it to heart."
"Wh-when have I ever—"
Since the very first time we met?
"Ah...... Yesss."
Only then did Jegal Hyang seem to realize she hadn't actually done anything wrong, and she let out a sigh of relief.
"Shall we go inside? Hmm?"
Who was grabbing me?
I turned around to find Jegal Hyang clutching my sleeve. At the sight, Lim Hayeon flinched and seemed about to say something — but Jegal Hyang's next words came faster.
"Th-the key, I have the keyyyy."
"Ah, ha. Then let's go in together."
"Hff. Yesss!"
That was why I'd called for Jegal Hyang in the first place — the key. I'd completely forgotten. Holding the sleeve of Jegal Hyang, who clung to mine, the two of us opened the door of the branch together.
Lim Hayeon — why aren't you following? She watched the two of us opening the door together in silence, her expression unreadable, then finally moved.
"......Hmph! I'm coming too!"
"There's a threshold on the path leading from the book warehouse to the display shelves. We'll be hauling carts back and forth, so we should ask them to remove it."
"When goods arrive from Yichang, they'll go straight into the warehouse. Better to have them carve out a separate passage for deliveries so the staff don't run into customers."
"When the customers crowd in, the shelf area will get packed. We should have a stanchion set built in advance so we can form lines."
That's Lim Hayeon for you.
When she first stepped inside the branch, she'd seemed momentarily speechless — as if she could already see the long road of hardship ahead, given the scale of the place.
She glanced back and forth between me, chatting with Jegal Hyang, and the Daseogak building itself, let out a small sigh, and then threw herself into the work.
"The books should be arranged by subject, like at the main Daseogak."
"That was the plan."
"Even if the books are sorted by subject, won't we need to train the staff in advance so they can tell customers where everything is?"
"Mangeum Hall agreed to provide the staff. We'll recruit them quickly and see to their training."
"Then that's settled. At this point I have nothing left to point out...... What is it?"
Lim Hayeon turned at the sound of footsteps and addressed the woman who had appeared, her voice edged like a blade.
"Ah, um, that is......"
The person who had appeared behind us was Jegal Hyang. She shuffled hesitantly toward me.
I'd told her to sit to one side. Was she bored?
"Lady Jegal, did you have something to say?"
"The bookshelves...... the bookshelves mounted on the wall seem too high."
Jegal Hyang, head bowed, stretched out an arm to point at the shelves.
"Hm? They seem fine to me?"
"Ah, that, if you think they're fine, Young Master Kang, then they're fineyyy."
So the moment I object, she just caves?
There was something dissatisfied in her voice. With a personality like this, it was better to figure out her intent than to press her.
I studied the wall-mounted shelves for a moment. The height seemed fine — so what was the issue?
Then it hit me. In that instant, I understood.
"You're right — they do look a bit high for women to reach up and grab."
When I turned my head, I caught a flicker of chagrined embarrassment cross Lim Hayeon's face.
"Yes, yes! Exactlyyyy. Even if there's a book I want to read, if it's too high up, it'd be so hard to get it downnnn."
Not only I, but Lim Hayeon as well — true to her mastery of lightness skill, was tall for a woman.
I'd nearly missed an important point there.
"Replacing all the furniture would take time, so we should stock some light but sturdy step stools. And since they could be dangerous, we'll post a notice asking customers to have a staff member fetch books down for them."
"Th-that sounds good to meeee."
"I was only thinking from my own perspective, so I failed to catch these difficulties. I'm truly glad Lady Jegal came along."
For Jegal Hyang to approach on her own and voice her opinion.
It must have taken enormous courage on her part. In moments like this, the proper thing to do was to lift her up.
"Hff-hff. Yesssss."
For some reason, her smile made me want to pat her on the head.
"Hmph. There's something else too. Come here!"
There wasn't, a moment ago?
Lim Hayeon seized my sleeve and promptly dragged me off somewhere else.
"No matter how I look at it, the equipment is good but the space is awkward."
"Isn't the equipment flow fine? It's almost identical to Yichang."
"The branch is bigger than Yichang, isn't it? If more customers come, we'll need more staff, and then this space might not be enough."
"I hadn't thought that far."
"The second floor is spacious, so why not expand the kitchen area a little instead?"
"I'll take all of this and discuss it with Lady Jegal."
"......Fine. Then that's that."
Jegal Hyang watched in silence as Kang Yunho and the pink-haired woman bickered from a distance.
'You don't know the first thing about running a bookstore, do youuuu.'
Somehow, she felt left out.
She had come thinking it would be a pleasant outing to the branch with Young Master Kang Yunho, yet all she'd done was play gatekeeper.
She'd decided this couldn't go on, worked up her courage, and even offered a suggestion — only to receive a single word of praise before being dragged off again by that woman who knew nothing about her beloved.
'You haven't forgotten about me, have youuuu?'
Watching the two of them, Jegal Hyang felt a strange tightness settle in her chest.
"Let's all take a break with a nice cool drink. Would you like one as well, Lady Jegal?"
Only now did Kang Yunho seem finished with his business. He came over to Jegal Hyang and asked with his usual gentle smile.
"Hff. Yesss."
So he hadn't forgotten after all. Jegal Hyang answered with a joyful heart.
"I'll make you the first cup, Lady Jegal. Shall I make it myself today?"
Kang Yunho stepped behind the second-floor counter, fiddled with the equipment, and asked her.
Are you being considerate because you think I'll make a mistakeeee? There's no need for that.
Jegal Hyang strode confidently up to the counter. She had practiced so much for this.
Standing before Kang Yunho, who waited for her answer, she took a small, steadying breath to calm her pounding heart.
Today, once again, I'll be Young Master Kang's first customerrrr.
"Hmph."
Somewhere nearby, a flustered voice reacted to the sight — but Jegal Hyang, keyed up for her order, paid it no mind.
"Ah...... an Americano. Not a short size, a t-tall size, with one extra shot, and, ah, iced, pleaseeeee."
"Haha. Yes. Order received."
Even Kang Yunho hadn't expected such a relatively practiced order. He raised his eyebrows in surprise, then smiled and took it down.
"Hff-hff."
I did itttt. Now I never have to show you that embarrassing side of me againnnn. Inside her chest, Jegal Hyang did a triumphant fan dance.
"Oh dear. It seems the staff have used up all the ice."
Right up until the order was voided, that is.
"Ah......"
"Lady Jegal, could you wait just a moment? I'll send someone to fetch more ice."
"Yesss."
"Is that really necessary?"
One person's failure is another person's opportunity.
A pink cat that had been lying in wait for just such a gap slipped behind the counter with practiced ease.
"Lady Hayeon?"
"Everyone looks thirsty anyway. We can rest and have a cup of tea, can't we? When the ice arrives, we'll just have another round then."
Summer or not, that didn't mean people only drank hot tea. Lim Hayeon set the kettle on the stove with practiced movements as she spoke.
"Then let's do that. Lady Jeg......"
"You go sit down and rest too. This is my job."
"No, still—"
"Manager Kang Yunho, go outside and see to your business."
No way was she letting him watch. Under the guise of consideration, Lim Hayeon shooed Kang Yunho out from behind the counter.
"What would you like?"
Lim Hayeon asked Jegal Hyang, wearing a smile of victory disguised as customer service.
"Pardon?"
"There's no ice, so an iced Americano is out of the question. Will you order something else?"
Why does practice suddenly feel like the real thingggg? Jegal Hyang thought, staring at Lim Hayeon's somehow overwhelmingly intimidating smile.
Should I just say no thank youuuu? Jegal Hyang stole a glance at Kang Yunho, who was watching with a worried expression.
'N-no, I can'tttt. I can't let myself be branded the woman who can't even order a single coffeeeeee.'
Jegal Hyang steeled herself once more and turned her eyes to the menu.
"Th-then I'll have something else. A caramel macchi...... ah, no, that, um, I......"
It wasn't as though she hadn't anticipated various contingency scenarios. But the opponent was coffee — a formidable foe.
From what Jegal Hyang had researched, there were extra syrups, decaf options, chocolate chip add-ons — far, far too many things to request.
For her, lacking in conversational ability and hopelessly timid, wading through every last obstacle to place an order was out of the question. Better to minimize simple mistakes. That was why she had chosen to order an iced Americano.
After all, by long tradition, no proper teahouse could possibly be without an iced Americano.
'What on earth am I supposed to orderreeeeee?'
Jegal Hyang's eyes, fixed on the menu, grew steadily dizzier.
"The people behind you need to drink too, so please order quickly."
"Hyiih! Ah, I, um, that is......"
Everyone was watching her. The moment Jegal Hyang realized this, she grew even more hopelessly lost.
She didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Young Master Kang. The others were watching too. And on top of that, a time limit.
'What do I doooooo?'
Her mind overloaded, she finally blurted out the order that was somehow both familiar and utterly unfamiliar.
"Ah, an iced Americano. Make it hot, pleaseeeee."