Wing to Wing, Branch to Branch - 1
"Is something the matter?"
I had finished readying myself for an early departure and asked Lady Hayeon, who was waiting for me.
"Yes?"
"Your color looks off, is all. I heard you met with the Hyangjus yesterday — did something happen?"
She'd said she was going to discuss cleaning up after the Domun affair, yet Lady Hayeon had looked pale and drawn from the crack of dawn.
"Nothing happened."
I studied her face carefully for a long moment. No. Something had most definitely happened.
"Could it be that the Hyangjus refuse to listen to a word you say? Or that they've suddenly decided they can't acknowledge you as Mangju?"
"Not at all."
There was such certainty in her voice that I ruled that out too. Then what was it?
"Then why—"
"I-I'm just a little hungover, that's all. There's no time to waste tidying up after the Domun affair. Let's go, quickly!"
A hangover? She hardly seemed to have drunk enough for one.
When I lingered, Lady Hayeon seized my sleeve and hauled me out the door.
"You're asking us to run a gambling den?"
We had summoned the Samgu brothers, who oversaw the dock laborers, to the Wungi Inn.
"It's a den that straddles the line between legal and illegal, and right now there's no one to run it."
The Domun itself had not been dissolved, but the branch master's inner circle had been purged root and branch, not so much as a weed left behind. Naturally, the Domun Hyangju's assets — and his cronies' along with them — had been seized, and someone had to decide what to do with all of it.
"R-really?"
Choi Ilgu, eldest of the three dockworking brothers, stared at me in open astonishment.
"Have you ever once seen me feed you three nonsense?"
"B-but what exactly are we—"
"My right-hand men."
"...!"
"Trustworthy ones, at that. You've followed every order I've given without a stumble. So give it a try."
Not a single Hyangju denied my merit in the Domun affair. I had seats to spare for my own people.
Before the words had even settled, the Samgu brothers dropped to their knees before me hard enough to crack the floorboards.
"Hoeju-nim! We swear we'll serve you loyally for the rest of our lives!"
"No — Hoeju-nim, you're the blessing of the Joseon Hometown Association itself!"
"We'll serve you like our own father!"
Being moved to tears was all well and good, but still.
"The one you should be thanking isn't me."
"Sir?"
The moment I met the brothers' bewildered stares, I turned my head toward the person standing beside me.
"The gambling den belongs to your sister-in-law."
The truth of it was that with her acclamation as Mangju, she'd been granted assets befitting the title — and I was the one who'd asked that the den be run by Haomun's own, as it was always meant to be.
"Sister-in-law?"
"I received it for... various reasons. The Samgu brothers could run it well, don't you think?"
Lady Hayeon addressed the brothers with the expression of an elder generously pressing holiday money into her nephews' hands.
"We'll serve you like our own mother!"
"Um..."
Addressed so by men older than herself and built like oxen, Lady Hayeon looked faintly overwhelmed.
"You three handle the operations, but the tribute owed to your sister-in-law and the association dues come off the top, set aside first. Try any skulduggery and it's your hands and neck that'll go flying."
"We won't touch a single coin! We'll run it with total honesty!"
Keep it down, will you? You'll have every guest room in the inn ringing.
"Good. Split the dock work off and hand it to the others. Let's keep widening the places Joseon folk can stand in Wuhan, bit by bit."
"It would be our honor!"
"You'd really give us..."
"Hoeju-nim..."
The Samgu brothers were on the verge of outright weeping.
"Don't you dare cry with those faces, you lugs."
"Loyalty! Unconditional loyalty, sir!"
Having promised to find their own replacements for the dock work and bring them along, the Samgu brothers took their leave.
"To think it'd be Joseon Hometown Association men filling the Domun's empty seats."
I remarked, looking over the documents in the Wungi Inn's office.
"The Domun needs a complete changing of the guard. Better to fill it with people we can trust."
"I'd just rather Joseon folk not be relegated to the shadows alone."
Immigrants, battered by discrimination, all too often wash into the underworld. Look no further than the ethnic mafias of America — or closer to home, the Joseon people of Japan who drifted into the gambling trade.
It did worry me, a little.
"With the money the den brings in, I intend to build a proper martial hall and a school in time — places Joseon folk can attend as well."
"Aren't you overextending yourself?"
Any group's head quietly burns through staggering sums. Lady Hayeon's goodwill was welcome, but was there really any need to go that far?
"I may be Haomun's Mangju now, but I'm still the sister-in-law of the Joseon Hometown Association."
Lady Hayeon replied with her hands on her hips, as though my words had wounded her.
"Ha ha! I only meant — once you're buried in Mangju duties, I worry I'll have a hard time leaning on you."
The association work, the inn, Daseogak — none of it would have come together without Lady Hayeon's help. If she took up the Mangju's mantle as well, I had a feeling her absence would be a void I'd feel without pause.
"..."
"Lady Hayeon?"
Why had her expression hardened all of a sudden?
"Would you look at the hour. I have rounds to make — clients I haven't visited in far too long. I gave them notice in advance, so you'll be attending tonight's drinks alone."
"Lady Hayeon, that's really fine, but... why is she acting like this?"
And with that, Lady Hayeon walked straight out of the office.
Something was wrong with Lady Hayeon from the morning, that much was certain. What it was, I couldn't fathom.
When evening came, I made my way alone to the meeting place with the Hyangjus.
"You've toiled long and well. That this affair was tied off so neatly is entirely to your credit. Have a cup of my wine."
The Gimun Hyangju smiled with her eyes and held the bottle out to me.
"The moment I introduced you as standing in for that Kwok fellow — 'Ah! This one! He's the real deal!' — that's what I said! Our lucky charm! Drink up!"
"Brother Kang! Take a cup of mine as well."
No sooner had I accepted the Gimun Hyangju's wine than the Simun Hyangju and Brother Wang raised their bottles too.
"Tumun Hyangju! Isn't Brother Kang something! Brother Kang! He's your son-in-law now, isn't he!"
"Ghk..."
Brother Wang. Isn't it about time you admitted as much?
"Take a cup of mine too."
"I'll drink every last one."
Beaming, I drained, one after another, the cups the Hyangjus pressed upon me.
When the Gimun Hyangju lifted her chopsticks and began feeding me side dishes with practiced ease, the Simun Hyangju shot her a startled glance, but I paid it no mind. She was a grandmother, after all.
Somehow this felt like five department heads and a single new hire — me. Behold the office worker's ultimate weapon: the company dinner performance! Watch and learn!
I refused not a single cup, and the moment one ran dry anywhere at the table, I glued myself to the seat beside it.
"You can hold your liquor! Come by my inn sometime. Things have gone well, so bring the Joseon youngsters, bring just the Mangju, bring whoever — so long as you come, I'll feed you till you burst, full course!"
"I'll pay you a visit one of these days."
"Heh heh. And if you wish it, I could arrange a little gathering with the two girls who've been aching to meet you," the Gimun Hyangju added with a smile of her own.
"I'm sorry — what?"
What was that now?
"They're both pure courtesans who haven't yet raised their hair, but for you, they'd raise it of their own accord."
Now I remembered. She meant those courtesans who'd suddenly flung their underthings at me and fled.
"Ahahaha..."
Pure courtesans were, for all intents and purposes, the idols of the courtesan world.
Granted, they weren't of a rank that anyone would call them the greatest beauty of Hubei, as with Lady Hayeon or Lady Jegal — but when the prize on offer was a night with accomplished beauties, what man alive could help but be tempted?
There was, however, a problem.
"Do you, by any chance, frequent the pleasure houses?"
A bone-chilling voice drifted over from behind me.
"B-Brother Wang."
Damn it all. Don't smile. Whatever you do, don't smile.
"With my daughter waiting at home?"
Brother Wang, when you shove your face in that close, it's rather a lot of pressure. No — it's honestly a little terrifying.
"Ah, that is..."
"Heh heh heh."
The Gimun Hyangju watched the two of us with undisguised amusement. Damn it — I'd had my suspicions, and there it was. This was an assassination attempt.
"Father-in-law! It's a misunderstanding!"
I flapped my hands in protest of the injustice.
"Father-in-la-aw? I don't recall keeping a son-in-law who leaves my daughter lonely at home while he flits in and out of pleasure houses?"
"Heh heh heh heh."
Gimun Hyangju! I never dreamed you'd take your revenge like this! Over my father-in-law's shoulder, I fired off desperate glances at her.
— Shall I save you, then?
— Please save me. From this moment on, I shall never again speak the word 'granny.'
The Gimun Hyangju snorted a laugh and gave a small nod.
"That's enough tormenting the boy. He came by the giru any number of times, trying to resolve the Mangju's problem. The courtesans saw him at it and fell for him entirely of their own accord."
"Is that true?"
My father-in-law demanded, eyes blazing.
"It's true."
"Tumun Hyangju! You've landed yourself a fine son-in-law! What, you mean to tether him to the household? What matters is that a man keeps his eyes from wandering even while he's out in the world!"
"Ahem. Th-that's true enough. I was mistaken. Bro.ther. Kang."
Rebuked by the Simun Hyangju, my father-in-law cleared his throat and throttled down his anger. Father-in-law — for a man so hopelessly weak for his daughter, you certainly know how to nurse a grudge.
"Heh heh heh."
Gimun Hyangju! That look that says 'it wasn't just one'! Please, stop!
"Ah! Simun Hyangju. By any chance..."
With the brief misunderstanding resolved, I seized the opening to address the Simun Hyangju.
"Hmm?"
"Did something pass between you and the Mangju yesterday? Her color's been off all day, and she won't breathe a word of it to me. It's driving me half-mad."
"..."
Why did every trace of mirth just vanish from the table? Something had definitely happened.
"Couldn't say. C-come now, let's keep drinking!"
I pressed a few more times, but in the end no answer was to be had.
In the end, would I have to ask Lady Hayeon myself?
"You're still here?"
Late that night, Lim Hayeon arrived alone at the Hyangjus' gathering place in search of her lover. At the table, four men lay rolling about, pickled solid in wine.
"Said you wouldn't come. And here you are," the Gimun Hyangju remarked to the newly arrived Mangju around the pipe she was puffing.
They had all drunk from the same bottles, evidently, yet not a trace of it showed on her. So the Gimun Hyangju truly is in a class of her own, Lim Hayeon marveled, stepping up before her lover.
"It's gotten far too late. You. We're going home. Come on, up."
"Uuugh..."
"Ugh... you reek of wine. How much did you drink? Come to your senses."
Lim Hayeon shook her lover worriedly, but Kang Yunho refused to come around at all.
"Heh heh heh. A new bride if ever there was one."
"He's not usually one to drink like this..."
"It's a fine day, no? A day a man may get drunk as he pleases — he said he meant to drink until it took him all the way under."
At the Gimun Hyangju's words, Lim Hayeon looked down at her lover, sprawled in utter defenselessness.
A man whose body had yet to recover, drinking himself blind like this. He wasn't even the type to drain the cup on an ordinary day.
She had every right to be a little angry at the sight of him so far gone, and yet Lim Hayeon smiled, small and soft. What else could it mean, but that he was that glad — glad to have saved her?
"You'd best tell him soon. The longer you wait, the more all you'll reap is his resentment."
The Gimun Hyangju watched the pair in silence for a while, then offered her counsel, carefully.
"I know... I'll take him home."
Lim Hayeon gathered Kang Yunho up onto her back.
"Off you go, then."
"Hayeon. Your old man too—"
"See yourself home."
It was a cold refusal.
"Khh."
This is what raising a daughter gets you — no. Come to think of it, he had never once properly raised her at all. Wang Jongho only grew the more sorrowful.
A pink streak of starlight cut across the night sky of Wuhan.
In the art of lightfoot, Lim Hayeon had long since left walls far beneath her. Even with her lover sprawled fast asleep on her back, however fast she ran, not once did Kang Yunho's sweet slumber break.
I have to tell him.
Her body might run without a wobble, but her heart was being shaken without mercy.
She had to tell him. She had to tell him. She had to — and she didn't want to. Her steps quickened in step with the trembling of her heart.
Tomorrow. No — the day after, perhaps.
Could she truly say it? All day long she had waited at his side for her chance, but the words refused to leave her throat. Even under his gentle pressing, she could not bring them out.
Before she knew it, Lim Hayeon had arrived at the inner courtyard of the mansion.
All that remained was to lay him on his bed and return to the way things had always been. But would they truly be that way again? Lim Hayeon's feet abruptly turned to lead.
"Feeling ready to tell me now?"
A voice sounded at her ear, knocking softly upon her heart.
"You—?"
"You may set me down now."
Lim Hayeon turned — and there was Kang Yunho, wide awake. Since when?
"Weren't you drunk?"
"Doesn't a man keep a trick or two for blowing the fumes away?"
Kang Yunho had his method — one taught to him by a fiancée of his, the Poison Human of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
"Ugh..."
Lim Hayeon wore the expression of a woman thoroughly outplayed.
"Lady Hayeon."
Kang Yunho had in the meantime slipped down from her back and settled himself upon a garden rock.
"Yes..."
"There's a saying in Joseon: a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved, and a joy shared is a joy doubled."
"..."
"Even perfect strangers will do that much for one another. What could there be between us that you must guard against? If Lady Hayeon carries a worry, I mean to claim half of it — whenever she'll let me."
Kang Yunho faced his lover with the look of a man braced to hear whatever she might say.
"...I don't think this one can be halved."
Lim Hayeon let her head sink. It was not for want of trust in Kang Yunho. How could she fail to trust the man she loved?
It was only that this worry was not the kind whose pain grew lighter for being spoken aloud.
Watching her head droop, Kang Yunho smiled faintly and spoke again.
"Even if it doubled my pain — if it meant feeling the very same pain as Lady Hayeon, I stand ready to listen, whenever she wishes."
This man, truly.
How does he always find exactly the words she most needs to hear? Lim Hayeon bit her lip against the feeling surging up from her chest.
"Sometimes... I think I really ought to seal that mouth of yours shut."
"Hahaha."
Lim Hayeon carefully lifted her gaze to her lover, laughing in sheepish embarrassment.
Yes. She would tell him.
When had he ever turned away from her sorrows, ever pretended not to see her burdens? In joy and in grief, in anguish, the two of them had always held each other's hands.
Like the pair of lovebirds, each born with but a single wing, who lean upon one another to fly, the two of them had winged their way to this place together.
However cruel the tale might be, to go on hiding it would be a betrayal of everything they were.
With effort, Lim Hayeon pried her heavy lips apart and resolved to lay her secret before him.
"I... have to go meet the Haoxumen Master."