Opening the Gate - 5
A shocking truth, as a rule, requires ample time before it can be understood.
After a silence brief yet deep enough, my confession finally reached her.
Jegal Hyang's eyes began to tremble, and before long her mouth fell open as though a bolt were sliding free of its lock. The hands that had been clutching her robe shut in embarrassment flew up instead to cover a mouth that shock had left hanging wide.
"Is it r-really true—young Master Kang is Author Hopil?"
Her voice brimmed with the astonishment of a woman who had just untangled a riddle she had believed beyond all solving.
"Yes. I am Hopil. I wrote Dangga Pungun to raise Daseogak up from nothing, and the reason the pen name is Hopil in the first place is that its owner is, after all, a barbarian scribbler."
I nodded openly, affirming her deduction in full.
Case acknowledged, Great Detective Jegal Hyang.
Jegal Hyang stared at me with eyes that refused to believe, and then her legs began to buckle beneath her.
"A-ah, th-then that means... Author Hopil is young Master Kang, and young Master Kang is Author Hopil, and young Master Kang is the very man I'm matched with, which would make my favorite author in the whole world my own marriage prospect, and so that would mean—urk—"
"Miss Jegal!"
Had the shock sapped the strength clean from her legs? I shot up from my chair and caught her just as she pitched forward.
"Ah..."
"Are you all right?"
Well, it was a shock, I suppose.
"I'm f-fine, but I'm not fiiiiine!"
Perhaps our faces had drifted too close together. Jegal Hyang's voice was steeped through with mortification.
"Miss Jegal. No closing your eyes—up you get, now."
Why on earth did you close them?
"Yeees..."
I settled Jegal Hyang into the spare chair and scratched my head.
"To be honest, I half expected you to have worked it out from the very start."
"Ye-es?"
"The Mangeum Lord already knows, you see."
"Ah."
"He did ask me to keep it quiet, but I never dreamed he would expect me to hide it even from you, Miss Jegal—a devoted reader of Dangga Pungun, no less."
To think the very man scheming to yoke me and Jegal Hyang together would prove capable of keeping a secret. Honestly, that part had surprised me a little.
"My grandfather is a merchant, and a merchant knows the worth of his word, you seeee."
Really? The 'my rules bind everyone but me' brand of trust? Not the signature Mangeum Lord blend? For a heartbeat I had a great deal I wanted to say, but I swallowed it.
"If you have any questions about Hopil, I would be happy to answer them."
"When does Volume 4 come ouuut?"
"..."
"When does it come ouuut? I want to read Volume 4, pleeease!"
Jegal Hyang's eyes were relentless.
Of every question in the world, she had to pick the one most difficult to answer.
"The first draft is finished. Once affairs in Wuhan are settled, I intend to see the rest through to print."
I'm not on a year-round publication schedule, you know. Kindly forgive this author's real-life delays. It will be written soon.
"I have another question toooo."
I answered a long string of Jegal Hyang's simple, answerable questions, confirming yet again that I was indeed Hopil.
Well. Time to swear her to silence.
How should I play it?
"And with that, Miss Jegal, you and I now share a secret."
Let's run with the just-between-the-two-of-us concept.
I arranged my face into the expression of a man gazing upon someone utterly trustworthy.
"A secret... with young Master Kang."
Jegal Hyang clasped her hands together at her breast and gazed up at me, wonder-struck.
"For the time being, I would like to share this secret with Miss Jegal and Miss Jegal alone."
"Yes. Of course, of course. But—ummm."
I beheld Jegal Hyang, who by all rights ought to have been glowing with the happiness of a person trusted.
The friendly smile of a puppy cherished by its master.
"Yes."
But today—
it looked far less like a puppy's smile than a fox's.
"You won't be telling Hayeon Unni about this... will you?"
"Hee hee hee."
"Miss Jegal? Did something happen?"
The next day, at the Daseogak branch, Im Hayeon asked, eyeing Jegal Hyang, who was off to one side in full bloom of giggles.
"Nothing at all."
"...Out with it."
Im Hayeon advanced a single step toward me, brows drawn together, for all the world like an interrogator.
"Rather harsh treatment for a man from whom not one grain of dust would fall, even shaken down."
Jegal Hyang is in a good mood, therefore I am the culprit?
Guilty as charged, of course. Though having my crime discovered in the very act made it feel, if anything, more unjust.
"Otherwise, what would explain the suspicious grinning since first light..."
Im Hayeon studied me with a dubious squint, like a detective hunting for evidence on a suspect.
When I shrugged as if to say I knew nothing of the sort, she gave up almost at once and turned her gaze toward Jegal Hyang instead.
What was I to do?
After seeing Jegal Hyang home the evening before, I had agonized through the whole night.
Should I reveal Hopil's identity to Im Hayeon?
Ask me to name the most trustworthy woman in my life, the one I leaned on most, and the answer was Im Hayeon without a moment's hesitation. I had already bared my secret to Jegal Hyang—what conceivable reason remained to hide it from Im Hayeon?
Wasn't telling her simply my duty? I turned the question over countless times.
Somehow I suspect that coming clean would earn me a curse rather than a confession of love.
"Hey, Hopil." "What is it, Kang Yunho?" Playing one man in two roles before Im Hayeon, I had stacked up rather a lot of things to feel guilty about.
Before Jegal Hyang, it had been merely a concealed identity. Before Im Hayeon, it had hardened into an outright lie.
Far too late for that now. Shelved—for the time being.
I would wait for a day when Im Hayeon's mood ran sweet enough to forgive a lie, and bring it out then.
"Isn't today the day you teach the Hometown Association children?"
"I do have to head over soon, but the grand opening is barely days away."
"There's hardly anything left here that needs your eyes, is there? Go and come back with an easy mind."
"Still..."
"Unni, trust your staff and don't you worry. Go on and come back safe!"
As the two of them talked, Ha Soso, one of the managerial staff, had drawn near.
"Soso? Will you be all right?"
"Unni, just believe in me. I'll make sure the manager doesn't slack off for a single moment."
And here I'd been planning to palm the morning's work off onto the staff and take it easy. Had I been caught?
"Then I'm off."
Im Hayeon gave Soso's shoulders a single reassuring squeeze, as if entrusting everything to her alone, and soon left Daseogak.
"Hee hee hee. Manager. Work faster, please."
Right. With a watchdog on duty, best behavior it is.
"The grand opening is only days away! Everyone, let's run a practice round—half of you customers, half of you clerks!"
"H-here is one iced Americanooo!"
"My, how proficient you've become."
I said, taking the coffee Jegal Hyang had brewed with her own hands. There had been a time when the mere act of taking an order flustered her—truly strides of progress.
"Hehe. Yes. My heart still pounds, but I can manage at least this much nooow."
"If you would rather not, there is no obligation to stand at the counter."
The daughter of the illustrious Jegal Clan hardly needed to volunteer herself as a shop girl.
"Th-this is the only way I can be of help to young Master Kang, after aaaaall."
"Haha."
Though with a beauty like Jegal Hyang at the counter, sales would climb on her face alone, so I could hardly talk her out of it in good conscience.
"Hmmmmm."
A distinctly disapproving sound drifted over from behind me.
"Soso?"
"Manager. Shall I go tell Hayeon Unni?"
"Miss Jegal and I were practicing order-taking."
And slacking off a bit while we were at it, true.
"Hmmmm. Then this round, I'll take the customer's part. Miss Jegal. I may place an order, yes?"
"Ah... y-yes, of course! Order as much as you liiiike!"
"One large cappuccino, please."
"Yes. One large cappuccino."
Timid though she was, Jegal Hyang would never commit a catastrophic error.
Difficult jargon, complicated customizations—I had streamlined the ordering process so that no one could trip over it, all but erasing every factor for mistake.
"Ah! Special requests on one's coffee are permitted, are they not?"
Ha Soso was, however, an employee of Daseogak—and she knew precisely where the blind spot of my reformation plan lay.
"Pardon? Y-yes."
"Change the milk from regular to low-fat, please. And don't slap the foam on like crab froth—pile it high and luxurious. Add cinnamon as well. Half a spoonful of cinnamon, and none of your half-hearted dusting—lay it down as though the Milky Way were drifting across the night sky. It mustn't be under-sweet either, so one and a half spoonfuls of syrup. Oh, and—"
"A-ah, th-th, w-w-w-wait, one moment pleeease! Milk—switched to low-fat. Syrup—one and a half spoons. And the foam is—i-in what manner...?"
Jegal Hyang scribbled the order down in a voice cracking with panic, then bowed her head and peered up at Ha Soso through her lashes alone.
"Haaah. Are you really staff? What sort of clerk agrees to take an order and then forgets it? Honestly, so annoying."
Um. Soso?
Why were you talking not like your usual self, but like some office drone bullied raw all day, venom honed to a fine point, descending upon an innocent coffee shop to unload it on the one soul beneath you?
"Hik! Ah... w-well, that is..."
"Haaah. Listen here, missy. I'll say it once more, so you had better—Ack!"
The document bundle in my hand came down at once upon the crown of Soso's head.
"Soso. Even method-acting a nightmare customer has its limits. What person on this earth orders like that?"
"Manager Kaaang! This is the exact order of the customer who went down in legend at the Daseogak main branch!"
Her performance apparently concluded, Soso clutched the top of her head and spoke with a face crumpled on the verge of tears.
"Everyone! Daseogak is not Daruka! Accommodate the customer by all means—but if an order crosses the line into absurdity, refuse it. And if a fellow employee is drowning, step in at once."
Keep the orders flowing—that was how drink turnover climbed. The ridiculous ones could go place their orders at Daruka.
To the employees whose eyes had all swiveled our way, I decided to drive the lesson home once more.
"Yes, sir! Understood!"
"Miss Jegal. In practice, orders like that hardly ever come in. Don't fret over it. ...Miss Jegal?"
I turned my head to find Miss Jegal's face gone white as paper.
"Aaaaah..."
Well. She had broken.
"Hee hee... sob... Someone like me truly is beyond saving. How could I ever be of use to young Master Kang? That's right. There are things in this world that no amount of effort can fix. How could anyone expect..."
"What's the matter with her?"
Evening, after closing. Im Hayeon glanced sidelong at Jegal Hyang—seated in the living room, murmuring in a voice from which the soul had plainly departed—and put the question to me.
"Soso played a prank disguised as order practice. The shock must have run deeper than I reckoned."
"I was too confident in myself..."
"Miss Jegal. I understand your heart, but if the work is too much for you, why not give up the counter on the second floor?"
Her efforts were admirable, but no work was worth carrying as a crushing weight.
"Then I would be no help at all to young Master Kang's work..."
Jegal Hyang spoke with her head bowed, eyes averted from me, voice heavy with apology.
"Must you be of use? You may simply live here in comfort. The manager and I will see to everything between the two of us."
She wasn't wrong.
Between providing the Daseogak branch and this residence, Jegal Hyang had already given more than her share.
"Nnngh..."
A thin groan of anguish escaped Jegal Hyang.
Had that come across as 'you're useless'? Now what? Ought I to order her back to the counter after all?
Jegal Hyang was a woman ill at ease with people, and to deal with people was, for her, to be wounded by them—it could hardly be helped.
Her looks, granted, were an unmistakable asset for publicity.
Hold on. Publicity?
In that instant, a splendid idea flashed through my mind.
"How would you feel about trying your hand at promotional artwork?"
"Promotional artwork?"
"With Miss Jegal's exceptional talent for painting, we hang a grand piece here at the branch by way of promotion. In short—you would be painting the official art of Dangga Pungun."
"M-me? The official art of Dangga Punguuun?"
Jegal Hyang rose to her feet, eyes wide with astonishment, and stared at me.
"Is Miss Jegal's painting truly that fine?"
"I have seen the work of countless painters, yet never once a style that suits Dangga Pungun so perfectly as yours."
"Heheh. It is really not anything so grand as aaaall that."
Jegal Hyang waved her hands in bashful denial, but the grin spreading across her face made a shambles of whatever composure she had hoped to keep.
"If paintings of Dangga Pungun hang within Daseogak, even those laying eyes on the books for the first time will find their interest kindled."
"But Dangga Pungun is Author Hopil's writing. Shouldn't portraits of his characters first receive Author Hopil's blessing?"
A razor-sharp point from Im Hayeon, that.
"Publication and promotion are matters entrusted wholly to me. It's quite all right."
Hopil had given his approval just this very moment.
"Hee hee hee."
"Miss Jegal? Why are you laughing?"
"N-nothing at aaaall!"
"With talent of that order, painting is clearly the better post for you than counter work. Leave the running of Daseogak to the manager and me."
Im Hayeon's brow creased faintly at Jegal Hyang's snickering, yet she stated the plain truth without a flicker of retreat.
"Nnngh..."
"Starting today—if you were to paint a piece worthy of a grand hanging scroll, how long would you need?"
"Bearing the opening date in mind, I believe a piece with two figures would be within my reach..."
"Protagonist Dang Jeong and one further character, then. Which leaves only the question of who the final figure should be..."
The Two Flowers of Blue and Red were a pair out of Volume 3—they were out of the running.
"Du Eunghyang, of course—Hubei's Number One Courtesan."
Im Hayeon answered me wearing the expression of a woman who had not spent even one heartbeat in deliberation.
"Sichuan's Number One Beauty, Gu Sookjeong, or Hubei's Number One Courtesan, Du Eunghyang. You would do well to weigh the two."
"Weigh them? Is there a single reason to? How would a woman possessed of nothing but a pretty face ever earn that place? Obviously the official wife of Dangga Pungun! The woman Dang Jeong loves most in all the world—Du Eunghyang!"
Had the words 'official art' set her alight? Im Hayeon was running at full diehard-fan wattage for the first time in an age.
"Du Eunghyang, is it."
Truthfully, so long as she was painted beautiful, I hadn't much stake in the outcome.
"Nnngh..."
As I deliberated, a sound of torment rose from beside me.
"Miss Jegal? Are you unwell somewhere?"
The Jegal Hyang of any ordinary day would have hung back—even from a moment that called for her own opinion to be honored, her own talent to be displayed.
For her, it had always been easier on the heart to listen in silence and nod along than to offer her thoughts to another.
"Um... ex-cuse me..."
"Have you something to say?"
Jegal Hyang drew in a breath, clenched both fists tight, and lifted her head.
The dragon's reverse scale.
The Crouching Dragon. Even Jegal Hyang—descendant of Zhuge Gongming, youngest daughter of the Jegal Clan—possessed a place that must never, ever be touched.
I cannot retreat nooow. I have to wring the courage out of my very bones.
I have to say it.
And toward the woman who was not her betrothed but her rival in love and rival in all things, Jegal Hyang declared, resolute: