Three People - 4
"He had a fiancée? Does that even make sense?"
On the roof of the estate, having finished her conversation with Kang Yunho, Lim Hayeon secretly watched him drinking beneath the moon and muttered bitterly to herself.
"The master of Daseogak. Tang Hwarin of the Sichuan Tang Clan..."
A woman whose beauty rivaled her own. A martial artist of the branch line, granted the treatment of direct lineage for her talent in the martial arts. And on top of that, the true master of Daseogak — the one who had helped Hopil's talent bloom.
Unlike herself, born a lowly courtesan, this fiancée was a proper lady with not a single disqualifying flaw to her name. At the thought, Lim Hayeon bit her lip.
"No wonder he stayed so utterly unmoved, even with me right in front of him."
Any man seeing her for the first time was bound to burn with desire — and yet he had treated her with such perfect, unremarkable normalcy. Had he thrown up an iron wall with his fiancée in mind? Or had beautiful women simply become old habit, since he already had one? Whichever it was, the thought stung a little.
"Betrayal... no, I can't even call it that."
He had certainly been flustered by the whole business of having a fiancée, but for her to feel betrayed over it would be laughable. Strictly speaking, he had done nothing wrong. He hadn't seduced her while concealing the truth — if anything, he had only belatedly noticed her feelings and then agonized over the fiancée problem.
"Become the Shadowless Divine Thief, or live an ordinary life."
A man who had always chosen what was best for her. A man who, even after telling her she could give up — that she could give it all up and live happily — had stubbornly held on to her hand. And now that same man had laid out two paths before her.
She could live an ordinary life. She could cast him aside — a man with a fiancée — and live an ordinary life. That was what he had said.
Seated on the roof, Lim Hayeon sank into thought as she watched Kang Yunho gazing past the moon, thinking of someone.
"An ordinary life without him..."
The tender hand that had caught her as she crumbled atop the pavilion. The hand that had held on even while telling her to give it all up and be happy. The hand that had seemed like it would never let go had let go — for her own happiness.
After all the hardship I've endured. After everything I've done for you. Just where do you think you're going? She could say it as selfishly as she pleased — and yet.
Now, if she wished, she could leave his side whenever she wanted.
"If you're going to insist you're fine, then don't sit there moping like that..."
Lim Hayeon looked at Kang Yunho, still perched on the rock, sipping his drink with a face full of anguish. Was he reproaching himself for wavering in the end despite having a fiancée? Or was he fretting as he waited for her decision? Somehow, he looked lonely.
Ten years.
If she left his side, that lonely seat would remain empty for ten long years.
After staring at the spot beside him for a long while, Lim Hayeon let out a small sigh.
"My everyday life was here from the very beginning."
The ordinary and the extraordinary — all of it was here. She couldn't imagine another life, and she didn't want to.
Lim Hayeon thought of that manly, reassuring hand — the one that had clung to hers as if it never wanted to let go, and had only barely, at the very last, released it.
She still didn't want to let go of that hand.
Even if he did have a fiancée.
To be with him, preparation was needed. Lim Hayeon headed for the room of yet another of his women.
"An a-alliance?"
Jegal Hyang asked, watching the Lim Hayeon who had appeared so suddenly light the lamp in her room.
"Before that, let me ask you one more time. That man — Young Master Kang Yunho. How do you feel about him?"
"Yeees?"
"You said you didn't want to let him go. Neither do I. So before we talk any further, I want to hear your true feelings, clearly."
At Lim Hayeon's words, Jegal Hyang recalled the thoughts she had been turning over all day.
Even when I'm terrible at conversation, he waits for me patientlyyy. Even when my words come out clumsy, he tries so hard to understand meee. He's considerate in everything he does, and talking with him is so easyyy. We even share the same hobbyyy.
And he's even the author I admire sooo much. For someone like me, for whom talking to people was always so hard, the person I want to keep talking to — the person I want to keep seeing, keep by my side — is Young Master Kaaang.
Would a woman like me ever, in my whole life, meet such a man as a matchmaking partner again?
However long she pondered, Jegal Hyang's conclusion was one and the same.
"I-I want us to be more than contract dating, I dooo."
Even knowing he had a fiancée, Jegal Hyang couldn't help but say it, cheeks burning.
"Haa. Suddenly I want to go punch that man."
A man laden with sin. First her, and now the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan on top of it. Lim Hayeon said it flatly.
This was a world where a man of sufficient ability could take multiple wives — but that changed nothing about the problem that would always exist: the wives having to accept a man's other women.
"Hmph."
"Let's put an end to this pointless war of feelings and form an alliance."
Lim Hayeon made her proposal to Jegal Hyang once more.
"What kind of allianceee?"
"An alliance to take on his fiancée. Tang Hwarin."
"An a-alliance to take on Young Master Kang's fiancée?"
When Jegal Hyang tilted her head, Lim Hayeon began laying out why she needed an alliance.
"He's a man who never wavered, even back when he was with me. The reason he took a fake marriage meeting with you, Miss Jegal, was entirely because of that woman, too. So tell me — even if we both say now that we want to be at his side, do you think we could actually end up with him, over his fiancée?"
"Uuugh. I-I don't think we caaan."
Jegal Hyang hung her head, devoid of confidence.
Even if they tried to marry, they would need the fiancée's blessing — or the fiancée might move to marry him first. Or they might find themselves facing her outright opposition.
With every contingency Lim Hayeon described, the confidence drained white from Jegal Hyang's face.
"The fiancée we have to face is beautiful, and her figure is said to put ours to shame. Her talent was recognized by the Tang Clan and she's treated as direct lineage — and she's the master of Daseogak. She's also the lover who stood beside him in his hardest hours. And his fiancée, on top of it all."
Even as she listed it all, Lim Hayeon let out a hollow laugh.
At this point, wasn't she less a fiancée and more a perfect fantasy? If his attitude hadn't been what it was, she would have told him to stop lying.
"Aaah..."
As if struck by the finishing blow to her confidence, Jegal Hyang let out a tiny wail.
"A couple who promised to wait ten years for each other. To pry open the solid seam between those two, I'm not enough on my own. So let's ally and take that woman on together."
Jegal Hyang sat deep in thought over the proposal for a while. Together, the two of them could widen the crack in Kang Yunho's heart and pull ahead of Tang Hwarin.
Even to her, it was an attractive offer. But it wasn't entirely without reservations. Head lowered, fingers fidgeting, Jegal Hyang opened her mouth.
"...B-but I'm still his matchmaking partner, you seeee."
It was Jegal Hyang's tactful refusal.
Lim Hayeon grasped at once why she was refusing. A woman with the Zhuge Clan and Mangeum Hall at her back — she meant she hardly needed Lim Hayeon's help, didn't she?
But Lim Hayeon had no intention of giving up on the proposal.
She had learned as much at one man's side as she had in ten years of Gyobang life — and the art of persuading people, she had picked up simply by watching it done.
Lim Hayeon decided it was time to bring out the trump card she had prepared for this alliance.
"Young Master Kang Yunho is, in fact, the illegitimate son of the Tang Clan Head."
"Whaaat?"
Jegal Hyang's eyes went wide at the sheer shock of it.
"He admitted it himself, and the people of the Tang Clan acknowledged it too."
"Young Master Kang is the il-illegitimate son of that famous chivalrous hero, the Tang Clan Head?"
Kang Yunho, illegitimate son of the Tang Clan Head. That he was the child of Tang Baekho, the famed hero, was startling enough — but Lim Hayeon had prepared an even more astonishing revelation.
"Yes. Tang Hwarin. His fiancée remaining in the Tang Clan means she is a fiancée already formally acknowledged as his betrothed by his father, the Clan Head himself."
"A f-fiancée acknowledged by his parents..."
Jegal Hyang was hardly the sort to miss what those words meant.
"Think about it. The Zhuge Clan and the Sichuan Tang Clan have been at odds for generations. If his son announced he was marrying into the Zhuge Clan, would the great hero Tang Baekho smile upon it? And of course the fiancée would follow her honored father-in-law's lead and cry absolute opposition. What do you suppose that would do to his heart?"
The delicate rivalry between the Sichuan Tang Clan and the Zhuge Clan had been passed down through the generations. To be sure, they belonged to the same Orthodox faction, and were close enough to entrust one another with the treatment of a poisoned child — hardly a relationship of enmity. But like dogs and cats, like matched rivals within the same faction, theirs was a bond woven of friendship and rivalry alike.
"Th-th-th-that can't be..."
Jegal Hyang, too, grasped the gravity of the situation and could not hide her alarm.
"But ally with me, and the story changes."
"It changes?"
"He said he wants to take responsibility for me to the very end. Unlike you, Miss Jegal, who asked only about family complications and whether to keep the matchmaking arrangement — all I have to do is make my own decision, and I can be at his side."
"Eh? Hayeon-unni, h-how do you know what Young Master Kang said in his roooom?"
"I-I happened to overhear. Pay it no mind. In any case, if things go well for me, I'll be staying at his side. And when one woman opposes and two approve, naturally his heart will tip our way."
The power of pillow talk. It was Lim Hayeon's infallible strategy for winning Jegal Hyang over.
With no great clan behind her, she was free of their entanglements. And Lim Hayeon knew that Kang Yunho's present affection leaned toward her more than toward Jegal Hyang — so she spoke with complete confidence.
"Hayeon-unni approves..."
"I'll be there at his side, backing you. Even if his fiancée won't lend you her support, I will. And then he'll have no choice but to nod."
"B-but there's hardly anything I can do to help you in return, unni. Wouldn't that be a loss for you?"
The terms were too generous. Jegal Hyang asked with a faintly suspicious look.
"You see, I don't actually dislike you all that much, Miss Jegal."
"Pardon?"
"I only lost my temper at the thought of you having him all to yourself. Take that away, and there isn't a single reason left to dislike you. In fact, an alliance would be nothing but good for us both."
An ally rather than an enemy was a comfort to have — especially with a common enemy in the picture. That was why Lim Hayeon held out her hand.
"Hayeon-unni..."
Jegal Hyang gazed at her, visibly moved.
"Frankly, facing that fiancée alone is more than a little daunting for me too. I need your strength as well, Miss Jegal."
A fiancée approved by the father. Even for Lim Hayeon, besting Tang Hwarin would take reinforcements.
Looking at Lim Hayeon's outstretched hand, Jegal Hyang sank into thought once more.
The Sichuan Tang Clan. Tang Hwarin, the fiancée his father had acknowledged.
Could I possibly face her without Hayeon-unni's help? Jegal Hyang pictured the fiancée of her imagination looming over her, branding her a homewrecker.
Eeek! I couldn't withstand thaaat!
If Young Master Kang gave up, everything would end right there. She needed help after all.
"...I'll form the alliance, Hayeon-unni."
Jegal Hyang took Lim Hayeon's hand in both of hers and clasped it tight.
"Good. Let's see this crisis through together."
The alliance of Jegal Hyang and Lim Hayeon.
"H-Hayeon-unni, then what do we do about Young Master Kang..."
"Shall we do it like this, starting tomorrow?"
To face Kang Yunho's fiancée — Tang Hwarin — the two of them would play unni and little sister, drawing each other along and pushing each other forward.
Certainly, to all appearances, an ideal relationship.
The two had resolved to open the doors of their hearts and meet each other in good faith. In truth, though, theirs was not a relationship of pure innocence.
They had opened up to one another and pledged to work for each other's sake — that much was true. But each harbored, without the other knowing, a single calculation of her own.
If it were Jegal Hyang instead of Tang Hwarin...
If it were Hayeon-unni instead of the fiancée...
...and the seat of the official wife, too!
And it was the very same calculation, at that.