The Place of Memories
"Dragging a woman into your bedroom, too. What a charmed life you live."
The words hit like an arrow of ice, straight into my chest. It was over. My hands, my legs, my eyes—none of them were faster than hers, and this was the result.
"Lady Hayeon. It's a misunderstanding."
"……Ga-ga."
Perhaps she still hadn't grasped the situation. Jegal Hyang, eyes still closed, mumbled with a hint of embarrassment.
"……I suppose that's the kind of relationship we have now, starting today?"
Oil poured onto a burning house, with absolutely perfect timing.
A voice so cold it could freeze the air itself drove straight into me.
"I know it's hard to believe. Lady Jegal can explain. My lady, please get up and tell her."
I hurriedly helped Jegal Hyang sit up on the bed and rose to my feet.
"Lady Jegal. It really is a misunderstanding, isn't it?"
"Heek! Th-that, that is, uuum…"
Hopeless. A hamster cornered by a cat with murder in its eyes.
"Lady Jegal. Don't be nervous. Just tell the truth."
Someone, please cite me the precedent that an accident during rescue operations cannot be classified as sexual assault.
Perhaps my desperate look got through to her.
Jegal Hyang glanced back and forth between me and Lim Hayeon, then rose from the bed with the expression of someone who had made up her mind about something.
Oh. Is she going to find her courage and explain?
She clenched her fists tight and opened her trembling mouth toward Lim Hayeon.
"……Young Master Kang is my, my arranged match. I, I don't think Hayeon unnie has any right to interfere, uuu."
I'm sorry, what?
Jegal Hyang and Lim Hayeon. A silence that was brief yet endless passed between their eyes, and then Lim Hayeon's face twisted.
"……Ngh!"
She bit down on her lower lip as if to tear it, then turned away.
Where are you going?!
"Lady Hayeon! Wait! Lady Hayeon!"
Where on earth had she gone?
I'd chased after her immediately, but no matter how many times I circled the estate, there was no sign of Lim Hayeon anywhere.
The sun was setting. Where could she have disappeared to?
"Lady Hayeon, are you here by any chance?"
I hurried to the Wungi Inn. If she'd left the estate, she would have gone back to where she lived.
"Sister-in-law? Haven't seen her. Hey! Anyone up on the third floor seen Sister-in-law?"
"Not here!"
"Doesn't look like she's come in."
"Right. So she's not here either."
Where could she be? As I stood there racking my brain, a few of the staff came over with worried faces.
"Branch Master, please look after Sister-in-law. Her complexion these days is dark enough that we barely recognize her."
"That's right. It seems like you've been neglecting her lately, Branch Master."
"Why is everyone ganging up on me all of a sudden?"
The moment I mentioned Lim Hayeon, the other employees crowded in close, as if they'd all been waiting for a chance to chime in.
"We know about the arranged match, too. Marrying the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan would surely fix your fortunes. But you mustn't do it."
"Exactly. Abandoning the good wife who suffered beside you in hard times once you've made it—that's a sin heaven punishes."
"Give us some certainty. That you'll never throw her away. That no matter who tries to seduce you, she's your wife. You can promise us that much, can't you?"
Without my ever quite noticing, Lim Hayeon had become a pillar of the Mutual Aid Association. It seemed the rumor that I was courting Jegal Hyang had worried them far more than I'd realized.
"Fine, fine. If Lady Hayeon turns up, let me know."
"Soso. Still not off work? Did Lady Hayeon happen to come by here?"
My next stop was the Daseogak branch, where Lim Hayeon had plenty of acquaintances.
"Hayeon unnie? No. Haven't seen her today."
"I see. So not here either."
Where on earth was she?
"Did you have a fight with Hayeon unnie?"
"No, it's not that."
"You fought. Haaah. So Hayeon unnie finally… Branch Master, have a seat here for a moment."
"Why?"
Ha Soso pointed at a freshly cleaned spot.
What could she possibly have to say?
She glanced between me and the ceiling, heaved a deep sigh, then fixed me with a look that said she was about to make a grave pronouncement.
"I know Hayeon unnie can be prickly and snappish with you, Branch Master. But still. Her feelings for you are real. I promise you that."
"Soso."
"She's just bad at showing affection. I don't know why, but someone that pretty has so little confidence in herself. So she doubts, and she gets anxious."
"Well, she has her reasons for that."
Being a runaway courtesan, for one.
"Hayeon unnie, when she's with me, she only ever talks about you, you know? Never about herself. In Hayeon unnie's heart, you're bigger than she is, Branch Master."
"……"
"Sure, the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan might look like the better catch on paper. But Branch Master—it's Hayeon unnie. Your Hayeon unnie. When you find her, hold her tight. And apologize, even if you don't know what for. Then she'll forgive you, whatever it was."
"Understood. I'll take it to heart."
Everywhere I went, worry for Lady Hayeon. What a woman, overflowing with the blessing of being loved.
I nodded and stepped out of Daseogak.
"Gilsan! Did Lady Hayeon stop by any of the franchise stores?"
If not the main branch or Daseogak, then maybe one of the franchises?
"You fought, didn't you."
Jeon Gilsan had his feet up on the desk, reading through documents, and didn't even look up as I pushed open the office door—just flicked a sidelong glance my way.
"No, what's with the interrogation the second I walk in?"
"So you did fight."
"……"
He wasn't wrong, but still.
"Knew it. I knew this would happen the moment that lunatic walked into the estate with his own woman and his own cousin in tow."
"Just tell me if she's here or not."
"You're unbelievable, you know that? You take a matchmaking meeting with the Zhuge Clan's youngest daughter, and at the same time you're planning to keep seeing another woman… no, wait. If it's Lady Hayeon, I guess that tracks."
"Hey. Jeon Gilsan."
"I'll tell you where she is when I'm done talking, so sit and listen, you punk."
Gilsan flung the documents he'd been reading aside and glared at me with pure irritation.
"……"
"It's not even like you proudly took a second woman. You just kept things vague, hedging your bets, and look where that landed you."
"If it were that easy, I wouldn't be in this mess."
In that instant, something in my chest lurched, and a sliver of my heart slipped out.
"Why can't you? You—the man who made a fool of the great Jeon Gilsan, who runs Daseogak, who discovered the author Hophil, who invented an entire new delivery culture in Wuhan and won the approval of my grandfather the Mangeum Lord himself."
"……"
"A man, my friend. Say the words. 'Be mine.' Can you not even manage that? Act like a proper male for once and make the woman grab you by your trouser hem so she can't let go. You keep dangling your heart just out of reach, playing it coy, and of course the woman collapses from exhaustion waiting for you."
"That's not the situation."
"Like hell it isn't. In the end, it's all your fault. A man who looks like he'd trade women night and day, and yet somehow he's a hopeless romantic at heart. Just make up your damn mind and go grope some breasts while you're at it."
"You sound exactly like yourself, you know that?"
"But it helped, didn't it?"
Gilsan smirked and looked me over.
"…It did."
"Lady Hayeon isn't here."
"You said you knew that already?"
Did this bastard set me up just to roast me? Franchise fees are going up starting today.
"If you've searched everywhere and still can't find her, then you already know where she went. Go look for the place that holds your memories together."
"A place of memories?"
"If a woman's love for you is real, she'll be waiting there for you to come to her."
"A place of memories, a place of memories… Ah."
One place flashed through my mind.
"Looks like something comes to mind. If Lady Hayeon stays gone, our whole business collapses. Go get her, and fast. And grope her chest on the way back."
"…Thanks."
"Yeah, yeah, now hurry up and bring her back, you enviable barbarian bastard."
Leaving Gilsan's congratulatory send-off behind me, I turned my steps toward the place that had come to mind.
Lim Hayeon.
Are you really there?
"Hah… hah. She really was here."
The rooftop of the vast, empty pavilion. The only place in Wuhan where the entire sleepless night market spread out below you.
The place where I'd given her a gift of shoes after one of our happy night strolls.
"……Why did you come?"
There sat Lim Hayeon, hugging her knees, looking utterly forlorn.
"Let's go back."
"……So I can watch that again?"
"It was a misunderstanding. I tripped, and it just happened to end up that way. Lady Jegal is remarkably prone to falling, you see."
I explained the whole sequence of events in detail, from the ga-ga onward—right up to the scene that belonged in a romantic comedy manga.
Lim Hayeon regarded me with displeasure, then turned her head away and brought up something entirely unexpected, flat and abrupt.
"……Hiding Hophil's identity was also a misunderstanding, then?"
"How did you…"
"I-I had my ways."
She peeked at the exchange diary.
One look at her guilty, prickly expression told me the whole story.
"Whew. May I sit beside you?"
The moment I sat down right next to her, Lim Hayeon deliberately scooted over by about two handspans.
She hadn't gotten up and left entirely, so there was still room to persuade her.
So she'd found out my secret. I supposed this was what they meant—you either kept a secret completely or you confessed it completely.
What should I say?
Fortunately, I had prepared for this situation.
"Do you know what it means to live in the Central Plains with black hair?"
Start by drawing out sympathy.
I gazed out at the distant Wuhan market and began, my voice bitter.
"A little, I suppose."
She could have said she knew plenty, hearing the Mutual Aid Association call her sister-in-law all day—but perhaps it was consideration for someone who'd actually lived it.
"For a black-haired wretch like me, success was a matter of survival. I had a talent for writing, but the moment anyone learned the books were written by a black-haired foreigner, no one would have read a word. It was obvious. So I decided to hide my identity from everyone."
"From me, too?"
She should have at least told her. We were together—why couldn't she have known?
Lim Hayeon's voice was thick with that quiet resentment.
She wasn't wrong. Which meant I had no choice but to take a different road around.
"It was because it was you, Lady Hayeon, that I hid it all the more."
"Why?"
I turned my head to look at her.
Had she been crying? Up close, I could see the dried tracks of tears on Lim Hayeon's cheeks.
"Because I couldn't bear to be hated by you. You thought of me as a ruthless merchant. I was terrified that if you found out I'd been running schemes under the name of Hophil, you'd be disappointed and walk away—just like today."
I reframed the lie—not as deception, but as fear. Not the same reason I'd given anyone else, but something born of affection. That was what I needed to convey.
"You confessed to that other woman, though."
"That wasn't a confession—she caught me. Just like with the Nokcheong Escort Agency case, she pieced together the clues and figured it out in one stroke."
"……"
She didn't know?
For the first time, a flicker of flustered confusion crossed Lim Hayeon's cool, guarded eyes.
"I'm sorry. If Hophil is what's been weighing on you lately, I'll go back and apologize a hundred times over."
"Forget it. Go live happily with the Zhuge Clan's youngest daughter at the estate."
Lim Hayeon turned her head away as she said it.
Why was she being so cold? Was she really not planning to let this go, even at this point?
"Why are you like this? Let's go back."
"……She's better than me, isn't she. Lady Jegal."
Lim Hayeon's head drooped, her voice deflated.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"She's the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan. A noble family, money if it's money, art if it's art, capable and brilliant. Like she said—with the power of her clan behind her, she could support you, she could… she'd do it better than me, wouldn't she."
Lim Hayeon's face was twisted tight. The expression of someone straining with everything she had to hold her feelings down.
But the feelings leaking through were more than she could contain, and tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes.
"Lady Hayeon."
"I know. I know that! There's no competing with her, not really. How could a lowborn courtesan ever beat the daughter of the Zhuge Clan? It just gets more and more miserable. ……So just leave me alone and go."
Her face, her voice—both were brimming with sorrow.
Should I get up and leave? What an absurd thought.
If she had truly meant to disappear, she would never have come here in the first place.
She had been waiting for me at this pavilion, steeped in our memories together.
Waiting to be held back.
Waiting to be fetched.
Waiting for the truth to be told.
Waiting to say what was truly in her heart.
How was I supposed to hold on to a woman this shaken?
What should I do? What should I say?
It was time to open the door to the feelings I had kept buried in the deepest chamber of my heart.
"Even someone as dense as me had a vague sense of your feelings, Lady Hayeon."
My life had been less a wall against women's affection than a Great Wall of China built around it—but lately, her behavior was impossible to miss even if I'd tried.
The way Lim Hayeon had acted, now and then, ever since I'd met Jegal Hyang.
That was jealousy, unmistakably.
Why else would she have stormed out of the estate in anger?
Why else would she be drowning in sorrow? I had no intention of looking away from it, not even for this one moment.
"It was just too hard to give you an answer. There were too many problems pressing down on us."
If Lim Hayeon began showing me affection, how was I supposed to respond?
I had resolved not to turn away any heroine I met from that point on—but when I actually believed that moment had arrived, I'd spent the whole night wrestling with it alone.
Moyong Sang-ah, whom I would have to face someday. Cheon So-hee, whom I'd promised to save. And I'd told Hwarin I would wait for her.
On top of all that, the problems piling up here in Wuhan. There was simply too much to think through.
Even if she was a heroine. Even if she loved me. Even if she knew my feelings—I had decided to focus on the problems I could solve right now.
And so, for a little while, I had chosen to play dumb.
"I want to give you an answer, Lady Hayeon. I do. But there are far too many problems for the two of us to be sitting here so leisurely, holding hands and gazing at the night sky. Don't you think?"
I carefully took her hand. However long she'd been out here, her palm was cold as ice.
"Ngh."
"Let's overcome these trials together. And then I'll give you your answer. Isn't that much enough, for now?"
I gripped her hand tight, as if I would never let it go.
Let my sincerity reach her.
Let something warm touch that frozen hand.
The hardship we'd weathered together, and the affection that had grown in me before I even knew it was there—
Let them reach your heart.
"……I'm sorry. I was only thinking about myself."
By the time her hand had grown properly warm, Lim Hayeon was resting her head on my shoulder as she spoke.
"It's all right. The fault is mine, for never telling you how I felt."
Wait for me just a little longer.
I'll save you, and then I'll answer you. That had been my conclusion.
Perhaps because her hand had warmed, Lim Hayeon's eyes looked even hotter than her palm.
Her face was drawing closer.
Wait.
Hold on.
I haven't given her my answer yet—
"You've loved me from afar since Wuhan, patient all this time, waiting—and I'm the only one who rushed ahead."
Before her face could come any closer, Lim Hayeon smiled at me with something like relief.
"……Hmm?"
What did she just say?
"What is it?"
"Who was pining after whom, exactly?"
"You, after me."
"……Lady Hayeon, you weren't the one pining after me?"
"I'm sorry?"
"…Hm?"
Where only a moment ago there had been nothing between us but shared warmth, a strange, bewildered silence suddenly settled over the space we shared.