A Welcome Gift of Severed Arms
"It should be starting about now."
The moon had already climbed to its zenith. The Haomen gathering would be underway as well. Lim Hayeon stared at the moonlight spilling across the living room window, unable to hide the trembling in her eyes.
"Hayeon Eonni, I finished everything Young Master Kang asked me to doooooo."
Jegal Hyang trudged in with an utterly exhausted expression and collapsed into a chair in the living room.
"You've worked hard. Would you like some tea?"
Lim Hayeon did her best to brush away her anxious look along with the flour dusted on her hands as she spoke.
"Hayeon Eonni, what were you doingoooo?"
Jegal Hyang managed only to turn her head, eyeing Lim Hayeon's unfamiliar appearance.
"I was wrapping kimchi mandu."
Lim Hayeon averted her gaze as if making an embarrassing confession, looking down at the wooden board.
"Manduuuuu?"
"If he comes back safely... I wanted to eat them with him."
On the wooden board Lim Hayeon had been gazing at sat a respectable row of kimchi mandu, plump and appetizing.
"D-Does Young Master Kang like mandu?"
"It's not so much that he likes mandu..."
Lim Hayeon shook her head quietly, then let her words trail off as she stared at the dumplings, as if caught in some old memory.
"...?"
"Kimchi mandu was the first food he ever bought me."
A man who had saved her life at the edge of death. When she had become a runaway courtesan, starving with nothing to eat, it was kimchi mandu he had bought her out of worry.
Lim Hayeon was kneading her memories with Kang Yunho into those dumplings, one by one.
"Ah..."
"Now that I think about it, isn't it funny? Kimchi mandu—a food born in the Central Plains but made the Joseon way. Just like him."
The food he had given her. A dumpling that resembled him.
Lim Hayeon shaped another dumpling and sank back into reminiscence.
Why kimchi mandu? Because mandu is food of the Central Plains, and kimchi is food of Joseon. Did it mean something?
She could never say it to his face, but having received a man's kindness for the very first time in her life, she had agonized endlessly over the meaning of even a single dumpling from his hand.
He was probably just worried about her, the daughter of his sworn brother. That was all.
And yet somewhere along the way, like a cat slowly warmed by kindness, she had been opening the door of her heart to him, little by little.
'Opened it far too wide, in fact—I even misunderstood.'
She had read too much meaning into small things, and bled too much over small things. She had clutched her racing heart at the sight of him, wrestled with her pride, tormented herself with the sense that she wasn't good enough for him.
Every moment she had spent with him had changed her to her very core.
She, who had never once cooked anything in her life, was now shaping dumplings in hopes of one man's safe return—just as he had once given her kimchi mandu in hopes that she would be safe, she wished for him to come back unharmed and share this meal with her.
"...To be precise, mandu is a food our ancestors createdoooo."
At Jegal Hyang's uncharacteristically sulky voice, Lim Hayeon surfaced from her memories and lifted her head.
Was she a little resentful of hearing about Lim Hayeon's private memories with Kang Yunho? Jegal Hyang didn't know it herself, but her lips had pushed out into a slight pout.
"Aww, don't hold it against me like that."
Lim Hayeon smiled gently and reached out to soothe her, but Jegal Hyang had things she needed to say too.
"I-I'm actually a little upset toooooo."
Jegal Hyang rose from her seat and bowed her head before speaking.
"Lady Jegal?"
"Y-Young Master Kang only has eyes for you these days, Hayeon Eonni, and you two just keep getting closer and closer. Meanwhile I'm stuck in the same place, and somehow he doesn't seem to fuss over me as much. It's wonderful when he praises my drawings, and I look forward to it so much, but then he rushes off to spend time with you and only you, and that makes me sad. And then I feel like such a selfish person for whining like this when you're in the middle of a crisis, Hayeon Eonni. Uuuugh! I-I don't understand myself at aaaaall!"
Even Jegal Hyang was not without her own troubles on the romantic front. She had told herself to be patient for Hayeon Eonni's sake, but it wasn't as though she had failed to feel a rising sense of crisis as the two of them drew closer and closer.
It was simply that her thoughtfulness ran so deep, and she was so poor at showing her inner feelings to others, that she had only ever simmered it down inside herself.
The heart Jegal Hyang had barely managed to hold back had been pried wide open by Lim Hayeon's stroll down memory lane.
"I'm sorry. I haven't been paying enough attention. I didn't realize it had gotten this bad."
Lim Hayeon had always felt guilty about Jegal Hyang's sacrifice, so she bowed her head and apologized at once.
"It's not e-easy to say, you knowoooo. And I don't want Young Master Kang to be disappointed in me eitherrrr."
She wanted to be loved. She didn't want to be hated. For Jegal Hyang, who found ordinary human relationships difficult enough, a romance with the person she liked was harder still.
"......"
I came into this household to make things work with Young Master Kang. At Jegal Hyang's murmured words, Lim Hayeon found herself momentarily speechless.
"I'm sorry, Hayeon Eonni."
Where a heavy burden has been clumsily unloaded, guilt is quick to fill the empty space. Jegal Hyang bowed her head to Lim Hayeon.
"Don't apologize. It just means you've grown comfortable enough with me to be honest."
"Hayeon Eonni..."
Jegal Hyang murmured the words with an expression full of gratitude at Lim Hayeon's look of complete understanding.
How could she lift the girl's spirits? After long deliberation, Lim Hayeon spoke.
"All right. Once this business is over, I won't say a word if you have him all to yourself for a while."
"R-Really?"
Color bloomed across Jegal Hyang's face.
Lim Hayeon smiled despite herself at the sight and nodded.
"I promise. Come here and make mandu with me. We'll make them together and get praised together."
She was the one who had proposed the alliance. If she had surged ahead, then now it was her job to pull her little sister along.
Lim Hayeon took Jegal Hyang's hands and dusted them with flour herself.
"Sniff. Yes, Hayeon Eonni!"
"In Joseon they say if you shape your mandu beautifully, you'll bear beautiful children. Apparently they even used to test brides on how prettily they could fold them."
If only he could come home safe today, everything would fall neatly into place.
A future where she was no longer a runaway courtesan. A future where she could dream of one with him.
"Do you think Young Master Kang will be alriiiiight?"
Jegal Hyang asked Lim Hayeon with an anxious face.
"Once we've finished all the mandu, we'll fold paper cranes too."
Lim Hayeon gave no hint of the unease in her chest, only nodded with a smile.
"Should we pray to Buddha as well?"
"We'll do all of it."
Dumplings, paper cranes, prayers. Anything and everything.
If only he came back safe today, she felt she could pray to anyone at all. Lim Hayeon joined Jegal Hyang in wishing for Kang Yunho's safe return.
"You're late."
As the host of the gathering and master of the gi house, the Gi Gate Head offered not a single word of welcome.
"I had a great deal to prepare. My, Gi Gate Head, you seem to have grown even more beautiful since I last saw you."
The Do Gate Head glared at me through the bamboo blinds as though he wanted to tear me apart on the spot, then flashed an oily smile and greeted the Gi Gate Head.
"Just take your seat."
The Gi Gate Head pointed with her long pipe at the only empty place among the five. It sat diagonally across from me—the farthest seat in the room. The Gi Gate Head's arrangement, and unmistakably a deliberate one.
"That's my seat, is it? And here I was hoping to get better acquainted with our new face."
The Do Gate Head spoke while shooting a sidelong glance at the Simun Gate Head, who was seating himself right in front of me.
"My belly's gotten fat lately, you see. Once I sit down, I hardly ever manage to get back up."
The Simun Gate Head was every bit as smooth-faced. He patted his belly meaninglessly as he spoke.
"Tsk tsk. Well, that might pass for you, Simun Gate Head, but why is our new face so heavy in the rear? My senior has arrived—am I truly expected to be the one to move?"
The Do Gate Head strode toward my seat with heavy steps, looking ready to hurl aside the bamboo blind shielding me from view.
Can't he just sit down, offer a few perfunctory blessings, and leave? He's not some relative who plays the family elder while refusing to hand out New Year's money.
This is getting awkward.
Six warriors in total had followed the Do Gate Head into the room. Each gate head was permitted two escorts, and everyone had brought their allotted pair—only the Do Gate Head had flouted the rule and brought six.
Have the Do Gate's warriors seized the ground around the gi house?
I shot a glance past the Do Gate Head toward the Gi Gate Head, and she quietly tapped her pipe twice against the ashtray.
That's right. He brought them intending to spark an internal purge if it came to that.
And here I'd thought I only needed to hold out until sunrise to have a real chance of winning. Apparently the Do Gate Head had no intention of simply waiting, either.
"Do Gate Head. Allow me to escort you to your seat."
Thankfully, reinforcements arrived to buy me time. One of the gi house's warriors stepped into the Do Gate Head's path and gestured toward the seat with an open palm.
"Hm?"
"If you'll be seated, we'll bring out the drinking table at once—urk!"
The warrior's hand, which had been pointing at the empty seat just a heartbeat before, dropped to the floor.
"Do Gate Head!"
"Who dares block the path of a sect elder? Gi Gate Head, have you been too busy tending your face lately to teach your people manners?"
Is this man out of his mind?
The Do Gate Head asked it shamelessly, wiping the dagger he'd used to sever the warrior's arm.
"What is the meaning of this?"
The Gi Gate Head demanded, making no effort to conceal her fury.
"Hm? I merely educated him on your behalf, since you're so busy, Gi Gate Head. Don't scowl—you'll wrinkle. Hey! All of you know perfectly well that anyone who carelessly blocks the path of a sect elder pays with a hand or a foot!"
The Do Gate Head shrugged and leered around the room.
"We shall keep it in mind!"
This has gone to hell.
The Do Gate's warriors answered in a thunderous chorus, but it did nothing to warm the air, which had turned icy in an instant. Killing intent thickened the room.
Open warfare, right now?
While everyone sat frozen, the Do Gate Head crossed the floor with a light, almost playful step and stopped before the bamboo blind.
"Let's have a look at our Haomen's new face, shall we? I must say, I'm terribly excited."
Every warrior's hand had drifted to the hilt of his sword. One wrong move and this room would run red.
The Do Gate Head rubbed his palms together with the giddy expression of a groom lifting his bride's veil for the first time, then swept the bamboo blind upward.
He would confirm who sat within—and no doubt order the swords drawn on the spot.
"...Black hair?"
If it had been Lim Hayeon sitting here instead of me, that is.
With the blind drawn away, I could now study the Do Gate Head's face in detail—that cunning, she-wolf's face of his.
A gaunt face under a hide of thick skin. His eyes, which had glistened with appetite, now wavered at the sight of something utterly unexpected—and watching that tremble made the whole journey here worth it.
The Do Gate boys are all rattled.
It was hard to find any change in the Do Gate Head's face beyond the flicker in his eyes, but reading the shock on his warriors' faces was easy.
"I came to a gathering meant to congratulate the new Tu Gate Head. What a rough way to offer your congratulations."
There was no need to bow to the discourteous. I turned the Do Gate Head's aggression back on him with a deliberately languid voice.
"For a man who crawled up from the bottom, I'm rather fond of etiquette. I don't forgive rude children easily."
At the Do Gate Head's light gesture, his warriors' hands slid away from their swords.
"You paid your respects to every other gate head and still didn't come, so I wondered if you simply had no intention of greeting me at all. I see that wasn't the case."
A man who treasures etiquette arrives late to an appointment? And now that he's late, what does he plan to do about this little scene? Don't tell me he intends to grovel for forgiveness. The sheer nerve of it. I turned it right back around on him.
"Ah! Is that so? Everyone's already exchanged greetings, have they?"
"The gathering was called for midnight."
The Ma Gate Head gave a small nod and took a sip of tea from his tiny cup.
"Well, I didn't know that. Ah-ha! No wonder our junior didn't come running to greet me—it was all my fault! Entirely my fault for missing the appointed hour! Hey! Who managed today's schedule?"
I was the one wearing a mask, yet the Do Gate Head turned to his men with a smile even more mask-like than mine and barked the question over his shoulder.
"I-I-I did, sir."
One of the Do Gate Head's men was shoved forward and answered, trembling like a leaf.
"You did, did you? I see."
The Do Gate Head's blade swept through the air once more.
"GYAAAH!"
That made the second arm to hit the floor today.
"Do Gate Head!"
"Seems my boy was lacking in manners as well."
The Do Gate Head shrugged at the assembled gate heads.
"What is the meaning of this behavior at a welcoming gathering!"
Utterly indifferent to the Gi Gate Head's outburst, the Do Gate Head scooped up the fallen arm, carried it over, and dangled it in front of me.
"That's why I prepared a welcome gift. Here—the gift of welcome. Or should I call it an apology gift? Feeling ready to greet me now?"
This bastard is completely insane.
Whether his head turned right or left in a past life, there was no question about it—this man was a bona fide madman.