Delivery Mishap - 3
"An exchange diary?"
Jegal Hyang tilted her head at a word she had neither heard nor seen before.
"You trade diaries with a man you're courting. It's a method recommended for couples who have little time together, or for whom conversation doesn't come easily."
"Sh-showing your diary to another persssson?"
Letting someone read a diary filled with her most private thoughts? Jegal Hyang barely caught her gaping mouth with her hand.
"You write about what happened that day, open up what's in your heart, jot down your impressions of each other's entries — the story of yourself. Little by little, you come to know each other, day after day."
Explaining the exchange diary piece by piece, Sibi laid out her full opinion of just how wonderful the practice was.
"M-my own diary... t-to Young Master K-Kang...?"
Revealing even her own diary? The world of romance was far too dizzying. Jegal Hyang could not contain her astonishment at this realm of men and women she knew nothing about.
An exchange diary with Young Master Kang.
Jegal Hyang decided to try imagining it — trading diaries with him, just for a moment.
Jegal Hyang: I tried drawing a portrait of you today, Young Master Kang. I accidentally smeared the ink. I am heartbroken. I shall enclose it, so please have just one look.
Kang Yunho: The ink may have smeared, but the heart behind it comes through clearly. Thank you.
"Hee hee."
In that instant, Jegal Hyang failed utterly to contain the laughter that slipped out of her.
"Every time you come home, you fret over not having managed more than a word with Young Master Kang. An exchange diary would spare you some of that."
"I-I'll g-give it a tryyyyy."
Come to think of it, it sounded like a rather fine ideeee. Jegal Hyang nodded.
"If the two of you do end up together, don't you forget who made it happen."
Sibi, who had offered the advice, was herself courting with marriage in mind — at an age when every extra coin of dowry counted.
"Ah... yes..."
Jegal Hyang resolved to give her a raise if things worked out, and turned her ear to the maid's next piece of advice.
An exchange diary — what a truly wonderful idea.
With that, she could write down the words so hard to say aloud. She could make up for all those conversations with Young Master Kang that had ended too soon.
Even the words that welled up in her chest but never made it past her lips could finally be spoken. Inside the carriage bound for the Daseogak branch, Jegal Hyang turned over every advantage of the exchange diary that Sibi had extolled.
Now, once at the branch, I'll suggest it to Young Master Kang — an exchange diary... a diary... a diary?!
Jegal Hyang's gaze, wandering through a pleasant dream, snapped back to reality. Among the exchange diary's countless virtues lay hidden a single flaw.
A flaw so devastating that only now did it surface in her mind.
"H-how am I supposed to bring that up with himmm?!"
Jegal Hyang clutched her head and wailed.
Young Master Kang is such a busy man. The delivery business, the Daseogak, his duties leading the Hometown Association too. He's always too busy for even a proper conversation — so where would he find the time to read a diary?
"I'm such a fooooool."
If she'd been the sort of person who could propose an exchange diary in the first place, she would have been chattering away with Young Master Kang at Daseogak all along. Why had she never thought of that?
Still — should she dare? For one brief moment, Jegal Hyang wavered.
If Young Master Kang showed even a hint of displeasure, I would never, ever recover.
It would be a mouse trying to bell the cat. How could anyone possibly do such a thing?
"We've arrived at the Daseogak branch."
It was a short dream, but a lovely oneeee.
At the coachman's call, Jegal Hyang climbed down from the carriage with slumped shoulders.
After all, opportunity has a way of arriving from the unlikeliest of places.
"The b-books were stolen?"
When Jegal Hyang arrived at the Daseogak branch, Kang Yunho greeted her with a face brimming with apology.
He seated her and calmly laid out the situation. A Seocheon Escort Agency vessel had been discovered drifting with not a soul aboard — a ghost ship — and all of Wuhan was in an uproar over it. And the branch's books had been caught up in that very incident.
"Lady Jegal. I have no face to show you."
The branch's owner was, after all, Jegal Hyang herself.
What had happened today was, in the end, a delivery accident. As the printing house and bookstore party to the deal, Kang Yunho offered her his formal apology.
"How is any of that your fault?! It's the Seocheon Escort Agency's!"
Lim Hayeon snapped at him, evidently displeased to see Kang Yunho bowing so politely over someone else's blunder.
Had anyone witnessed the scene, they might have called it a lover shamelessly covering for her sweetheart's mistake. But among the three people in that room, not one had eyes sharp enough to see it.
"Lady Hayeon. Choosing that escort agency was my mistake. I'll see to it that nothing else goes wrong before opening day."
Kang Yunho waved Lim Hayeon off and bowed his head to Jegal Hyang once more.
"I-I'm f-fine with it tooooo."
To Jegal Hyang, opening the bookstore had only ever been a stepping stone toward her true purpose, so Kang Yunho's apology felt more like a burden than a comfort.
"We're gathering information on our own right now and tracking the missing cargo."
"Informatiooon?"
"We've narrowed the likely spots down to fifteen or so. Keep whittling that list down with the reports coming in, and I believe we'll find the culprits."
"B-but you have so much else to doooo."
"Problems don't run away just because I do. All I can do is meet them head-on and fight my best."
Jegal Hyang stared blankly for a moment at Kang Yunho, so composed and unshaken in the face of crisis.
He's too dazzling to look atttt!
Here was a young master in a different league entirely from a girl who fled rather than face meeting one person. For an instant, Jegal Hyang wanted to cover her eyes.
And if this makes him even busier, he'll never get around to keeping an exchange diary at all. ...Hold on?!
This was her chance.
In that instant, a single thought shot through Jegal Hyang's mind.
"Y-Young Master Kang."
"Yes?"
Seizing an opportunity demanded courage.
Fists clenched tight with nerves, cheeks flushed scarlet, Jegal Hyang mustered her courage and broached the matter.
"C-could I... m-might I have a look at that information?"
Now, what manner of family was the Zhuge Clan?
Were they not, in essence, the walking office-automation suite of the wuxia novel?
There was even a saying in the genre: when you couldn't be bothered to do the thinking yourself, just toss the problem to anyone with Zhuge Clan blood and an answer would pop out on its own.
Rumor went that if the Zhuge Clan vanished from a wuxia world that still had its Murim Alliance, what remained would be nothing but sword-swingers with nothing between their ears.
The clan owed its standing as the foremost house of the martial world entirely to a lineage of all-time-great, munchkin-tier ancestors — but the fact that they were the most complete blend of pen and sword in the genre was beyond dispute.
Naturally, not every last member was a genius, but this was a family that possessed, at the very least, a millennium's worth of accumulated know-how.
And the youngest daughter of that very Zhuge Clan had offered to help. Naturally, I did not refuse.
"Humble quarters, but please, come in."
I returned with Jegal Hyang to the office at the inn where all our gathered intelligence lay in piles.
"So this is your o-office, Young Master K-Kang?"
Curious as could be, Jegal Hyang swiveled her head every which way, drinking in every corner of the office.
"Haha. A humble place — bedroom and office in one. I'll bring the information over to you. Take Lady Hayeon's seat."
"You're giving her my seat?"
Lim Hayeon's head whipped around, eyes gone wide, to glare at me.
There were only two chairs in this room — hers and mine. What else was I supposed to do?
"Huh? A pigeon?"
Still exploring the office in wide-eyed wonder, Jegal Hyang discovered Gugu inside his cage.
"They say he's the cleverest of the Giosugu messenger birds. Gugu, pay your respects."
Perhaps I'd have him show off a trick or two, to lift the mood. Lightning Flash might be beyond him, but a little sand-scattering or a body slam seemed within his reach.
The moment I freed Gugu from his cage, he flew straight for Jegal Hyang as though he'd been waiting for this all along.
I had never once seen him approach a stranger first. Well — Jegal Hyang certainly did look harmless.
But Gugu's next move was beyond anything I expected.
"Gugu! Gugugugugugugu!"
Gugu unleashed a Body Slam on Jegal Hyang.
It was super effective!
"Ahh! Wh-why is the pigeon—!"
"Gugu! What do you think you're doing!"
Did that bird finally want to become a pigeon skewer?
Gugu pecked away at the crown of Jegal Hyang's head until I pulled him off, then promptly flapped over to Lim Hayeon's shoulder.
When I gave the skewer-in-progress an incredulous look, Gugu spread his wings as if he too had words to share.
"Gugu! Gugugugugu! Gugu-gut-gut!"
Why was he pointing his wings back and forth between Lim Hayeon and Jegal Hyang? Why was he ruffling himself up in such a huff?
Don't tell me — how dare you leave your master behind for some new woman? Was that what this was about?
"Gugu, I can guess what you're thinking, but it's truly a misunderstanding."
"Gugu! Gugugu! Gut!"
The situation was obvious. Excuses are a sin. Why was that bird speaking in pigeon — and why did I feel like I could actually understand him? No matter how I looked at it, that bird was no ordinary spirit beast.
"Hmph!"
Lim Hayeon, must you scoff at me too? And why were you sneakily cooing that Gugu had done well while petting him?
"Not you too, Lady Hayeon... Lady Jegal. I am so sorry. Are you hurt?"
Was she hurt? Gugu's absurd stunt had delayed my checking on her wellbeing until now.
"Yes... I've been attacked by crows and the like while walking down the street before, so I'm all right..."
On the verge of tears, Jegal Hyang rubbed at the top of her head as she spoke. A glance at her crown showed no wound. Thankfully, the pecks hadn't been all that hard, it seemed.
"Crows?"
"Yesss. Once I was simply gazing out a window, and a hawk came knocking at my door. It chased me even after I changed seats — I think it mistook me for prey."
She wasn't some grad student at death's door, for heaven's sake.
"Haha... I'll bring the information over. Please, take your seat."
"If I s-sit in the chair Young Master Kang sits in... is that... o-okayyyy?"
Looking somehow embarrassed, Jegal Hyang stared at my chair.
"Ugh! Enough. Just sit in my seat."
Lim Hayeon hurriedly tidied her spot and promptly offered the chair over. If she was going to cave anyway, she could have done it from the start instead of digging in.
"Yesss."
Jegal Hyang's eyes flicked back and forth between my chair and Lim Hayeon's — and then her shoulders sagged, as though something had disappointed her.
"If you need anything at all, just say the word."
"D-do you happen to have a mapp?"
"A map of Wuhan? I do have the ones we made for the delivery service."
We kept them on hand so the couriers could double-check exactly which building and which door they were delivering to before heading out.
"Ah, th-those won't do... I need a map of the whole Wuhan regionnn."
"There's one over at Gilsan's establishment. I'll fetch it. Lady Hayeon — give her the maps we have for now, and lend her a hand while I'm gone. I'll be back shortly."
"I could go instead, you know."
"Would you?"
"Well... hmm... No. Never mind. Go on."
Lim Hayeon made to leave, then paused, glancing between Jegal Hyang and me, and stopped in her tracks.
"All right, then."
Wresting a map away from that rascal Gilsan beat sorting paperwork anyway, so it suited me fine.
Leaving the two of them to it, I headed straight for Gilsan's establishment.
"Lady Jegal — I've brought the map. Hm? Lady Hayeon?"
That took longer than expected. I'd noticed it back when he was drinking, but that rascal Gilsan really did have far too many words in him.
When I returned from Gilsan's with the map, I found Jegal Hyang sprawled face-down across the desk and Lim Hayeon watching her with a look of pure, dumbfounded awe.
"Wh-what is with that girl."
Lim Hayeon asked me, looking utterly floored. What on earth had happened here?
"What happened?"
"Hee hee. Young Master Kaaaang."
Perhaps my voice had reached her; with tremendous effort, Jegal Hyang lifted her head.
Exhausted — yet wearing the expression of someone who had achieved something. No. Surely not.
"Did you... by any chance... make some progress?"
This was information that Hayeon and I had wrung out of ourselves just to get sorted and filed.
The Haomen's intelligence, and the Hometown Association's intelligence. Cross-analyzing the two to produce results should have been impossible — but then again.
If anyone could, it was the Zhuge Clan.
A delightful premonition flashed through my mind.
"Yesss. I found a clewww."
And Jegal Hyang answered that premonition in kind.