Closed-Door Seclusion — 6
"It would be wonderful if Yukiko had poison-school martial arts like Dang Jeong!"
Yukiko announced to Cheon Sohee the resolution she had reached after devouring Dangga Pungun over the past several days.
"An assassin leaves no trace."
"No. 5 has no sense of romance at all! Even the ninjas of Dongyeong each had their own secret art—multi-shadow clone jutsu, wind shuriken, lightning cleave—every last one of them!"
Yukiko formed hand seals as though she were a ninja of Dongyeong herself, showing off moves that had never once been seen in the living world.
"What even was that?"
"Such things exist! What do you think, Red Rakshasa?"
When Cheon Sohee responded to her dazzling display with all the enthusiasm of a stone, Yukiko called upon Dan Seowol like a general begging for reinforcements.
"What was that you said?"
Dan Seowol, sunk deep in thought, had lost the thread of the conversation entirely.
"Red Rakshasa, is something the matter? Your complexion has looked dark for days now!"
"Is something wrong?"
Cheon Sohee asked too, a flicker of worry in her eyes.
"It's nothing. Why, the day has already darkened."
Dan Seowol shook her head at the two curious faces and let it be known that it was time to adjourn.
"I'll be off."
"Today was another delightful Dangga Pungun discussion! I look forward to tomorrow!"
Dan Seowol watched in silence as her disciple and Seolja bowed and took their leave, then before long let out a quiet sigh.
"...What am I to do about this."
Her disciple's beloved, living under one roof with another woman.
It had barely been any time at all since he sent her disciple a letter professing his love. Just what in the world was going on?
When Dan Seowol demanded a detailed account of Kang Yunho's circumstances, yet another report came flying in.
SUBJECT:Im Hayeon
ORIGIN:Unknown
HAIR:Pink
EYES:Blue
APPEARANCE:EXCEPTIONAL
The Red Rakshasa's gaze came to a dead stop on the final entry.
"Appearance: exceptional?"
Because Salmak recorded its targets' particulars in exacting detail, appearance was rated as well. The usual scale ran high, middle, or low. But exceptional?
Even the Red Rakshasa could hardly contain her astonishment.
"Looks that could stand beside my disciple's own..."
The grade of exceptional was bestowed only upon a face that truly demanded special mention.
Seolja was a beauty in her own right, yet by Salmak's yardstick she rated a mere high. It took looks like her disciple's—already fit to be proclaimed the finest beauty in Joseon before ever reaching full bloom—to earn the top grade.
Only then did Dan Seowol piece together the shape of the situation.
A woman of exceptional beauty, cohabiting with her disciple's beloved. If that were true, how could even he keep his heart from wavering?
"If she hears this news, she will not take it lying down."
Perhaps she ought to stop passing along whatever else came flying in from Yichang, at least for a while.
The heart of a man called Kang Yunho must not be allowed to change. Dan Seowol was a bundle of nerves, terrified that her disciple—who had only just found her path—might lose it all over again.
"Red Rakshasa. A letter has arrived from Yichang for your disciple. The Yichang branch head also sent a message he wishes conveyed to you."
As Dan Seowol paced her room, gnawed by worry, an assassin knocked at the door.
"A letter, you say?"
A letter, from a man living with another woman.
"Don't tell me it's a farewell letter."
Dan Seowol stared at Kang Yunho's letter with wide, alarmed eyes. If her hunch was right, this was truly grave. Should her disciple read it, something beyond undoing might come to pass.
If so, this letter must never reach the girl's hands. Wearing a look of deep suspicion, she eyed Kang Yunho's letter, then read the small note the Yichang branch head had sent her.
Young Master Kang Yunho is already roughly aware of how things stand. Rest assured—simply show her the letter.
"What in the world...?"
"Oppa is living with another woman?"
The shocking news slammed into Cheon Sohee's mind.
Oppa, sharing a roof with another woman. Cheon Sohee's eyes went perfectly round at the news she could not bring herself to believe, and her mouth refused to close.
"Yukiko, greatly shocked! Abandoning a beautiful lover like No. 5—what is the meaning of this! That man! Could he be a lecher?!"
"That woman. Who is she?"
Deep in her heart, Cheon Sohee's faith in Kang Yunho did not waver.
This was the oppa who had only recently sent her a letter declaring his love. It couldn't be Yunho's fault. Oppa would never do such a thing.
It must be the same situation as Dang Jeong in Dangga Pungun.
Clearly, the woman living with him was at fault. Cheon Sohee knew this well, having received her education through Dangga Pungun.
Even when a man's heart is set on a single woman, temptation exists.
Even knowing Dang Jeong had eyes only for Gu Sook-jeong, Sichuan's Number One Beauty, there was Du Eunghyang, sidling close with her honeyed wiles. It would surely be that woman's fault.
A woman like Du Eunghyang. Just who on earth are you? Something sticky and black as tar came welling up from deep in Cheon Sohee's chest, riding on her voice.
"Hiiiiek! Th-the Cicada Molting Art! It's, it's activating!"
"Stop carrying on and read this."
Dan Seowol, as though it were nothing at all, drew a letter from within her robes.
"What's this?"
"A letter from your oppa."
It had all begun with a small suspicion on Kang Yunho's part.
What if Salmak was reporting his circumstances to Sohee? What if Sohee had been receiving word of him all along? What if she learned he was living with Im Hayeon?
Kang Yunho had written to Cheon Sohee before his move to Wuhan, while he was still in Yichang—before he had come to understand Im Hayeon's heart, back when he had believed there was nothing to be misunderstood.
To smother the situation before it could catch fire, Kang Yunho resolved to send Cheon Sohee a letter at once.
"Give it here."
Cheon Sohee snatched the letter with sharp eyes. The letter bearing Kang Yunho's explanation.
To my beloved Sohee,
As always, it said he loved her. Even while living under a roof with another woman, he had written to say he loved her.
There had to be circumstances behind it, just as she'd thought. A single shaft of light pierced down into the frost-bound heart of the Heavenly Killing Star.
Of course, even that opening line was steeped in Kang Yunho's scheming.
Sohee, I'm writing because something strange has happened on my end as well. Do you remember Uncle Wang from the drapery shop? A while back, I came to meet Uncle Wang's daughter.
"Uncle Wang?"
Cheon Sohee cocked her head at the unexpected name.
"You know this man?"
"Yes. Oppa's benefactor."
He was the man who had helped Oppa countless times back in his street-storyteller days. Cheon Sohee remembered the man from the drapery shop too.
Had Kang Yunho witnessed this, he would have smiled a fond, contented smile. It was no longer a secret she kept alone, but common ground shared between the two of them—a wedge that quietly melted her guard away.
It was the very same method he had used since the day he first met the Heavenly Killing Star.
She was an apprentice courtesan, they said, and had run away from the Gyobang. When I asked about it, she curtly told me she'd severed ties with Uncle Wang long ago, and I found myself fretting over what to do—she was my benefactor's daughter, after all. And then, Sohee, your face came to mind.
"My face...?"
A woman he didn't know. No—why would her face come to mind, when he was living with Uncle Wang's daughter from the drapery shop? Cheon Sohee sank deeper and deeper into Kang Yunho's letter.
A girl like a wounded stray cat—hurt by the world and bristling with wariness, yet aching for a helping hand. It reminded me of the day we first met. Perhaps because she's your age. Your image kept flickering before my eyes, Sohee. I simply couldn't bring myself to look the other way.
"You thought of me, and so you helped her?"
The reason he had helped the woman was neither her pretty face nor her fine figure. Still less was it that his feelings for Sohee had cooled. He had helped her because Sohee came to mind.
Cheon Sohee half understood Kang Yunho's words, and half found them unsatisfactory.
Because she came to mind? Then didn't that make her merely a stand-in?
Kang Yunho had anticipated precisely this thought, and so he struck at once.
You should see how she grumbles her way through every chore. But the more I watched her, the more I thought only of you—steady, dependable Sohee. You were far more grown-up than she was.
The letter went on and on, insisting that Cheon Sohee outshone Im Hayeon, every line steeped in Kang Yunho's affection.
"Hup! No. 5 is smiling!"
Cheon Sohee hastily kneaded her cheeks back into shape.
My business flourishes by the day, so I've taken a house of my own in Yichang. As it happened to have plenty of spare rooms, I gave one to Uncle Wang's daughter, who had nowhere else to go.
Nor had Kang Yunho forgotten, within the letter itself, to write Im Hayeon as nothing more than "Uncle Wang's daughter"—while Cheon Sohee remained "Sohee," a word laden with affection.
"Then why is she living with you?"
Cheon Sohee could accept the circumstances, but the cohabitation itself still refused to make sense. Kang Yunho had predicted this too, and the letter flowed on.
I bought that big house so that you and I might live together someday—surely lending a single room to my benefactor's daughter was no great burden?
Bury an issue with an issue.
To Im Hayeon, he was merely lending a single room. With Cheon Sohee, he would be living together—the two of them alone. The same words, yet open to entirely different readings.
"Living together with Oppa..."
The effect was devastating. Cheon Sohee, without realizing it, had already begun to picture a future spent under one roof with Kang Yunho.
If even the smallest of fates entwines so strangely, what of yours and mine?
"Oppa's fate and mine."
Cheon Sohee murmured the words, her face flushing red.
My book grows more famous by the day. Dreaming of the day you and I will share one roof, I write this letter from the house that will one day be ours. Stay well.
The letter closed on words brimming with affection, but Cheon Sohee's thoughts showed no sign of ending.
That's right. In this vast Central Plains, Oppa and I found each other again in the end. To save me, Oppa is striving even now, at this very moment.
A destiny no mere drapery shop's daughter could ever hope to compare with.
"So she was the drapery shop uncle's daughter."
Only now did Cheon Sohee murmur, sounding faintly relieved.
Come to think of it, this seemed fine. Wasn't he Oppa's benefactor? Better yet, the man who had dealt with every woman she'd knocked out, sighing all the while yet never once uttering a word of complaint.
She hadn't paid him so much as a coin for the favor, after all. Lending his daughter a single room was easy to permit. Because, just as Kang Yunho had written—
Oppa's destiny is me.
Cheon Sohee nodded in satisfaction.
"Finished reading?"
At her master's question, Cheon Sohee stowed the letter away like a treasure and rose from her seat.
"I'm going to train."
Even at this hour, Oppa was toiling for her sake. She could hardly keep lounging about just because her closed-door seclusion had ended.
Cheon Sohee headed straight for the training grounds.
"What on earth just happened? I was certain she would be furious!"
Yukiko stared, astonished, at the door through which Cheon Sohee had swept out.
"So the Heavenly Killing Star's man truly is worthy of her..."
Dan Seowol was equally dumbfounded. She had been told to rest easy—but never had she imagined the girl wouldn't throw even a single fit of jealousy.
"Told he's living with a woman, and she takes it in stride! Author Hopil must write letters as well as he writes novels!"
"He seems to handle that child better than I do—and I've trained her since she was small."
All she could do was click her tongue in genuine awe.
"Ah, our Red Rakshasa graces us with her presence. Did the letter serve you well?"
The Salmakju, Dan Se-ak, asked his younger sister as she stepped into his office.
"Thanks to the letter, my disciple's small misunderstanding was cleared up."
"Say the word anytime. The Yichang branch head is a member of the Tea Book Club—he was already extending favors before I even asked."
Thanks to which, the new releases arrive in fine condition as well. Dan Se-ak laughed cheerfully at his sister's exasperated expression.
"What reason could you have for summoning me so suddenly?"
"A new assignment."
At the word that left the Salmakju's mouth, the Red Rakshasa's face instantly creased into a scowl.
The Red Rakshasa does not accept missions from Salmak. For him to speak of an assignment anyway could only mean there was a task intended for someone other than her.
"Salmakju, my disciple is at the stage of polishing what she has attained. You promised to give her time."
"Don't start scowling before we've even begun. If you mean to charm some pretty young husband with that face of yours and present me with a nephew, you had better think about reining in that Red Rakshasa temper of yours."
"I'm leaving."
The Red Rakshasa turned on her heel, making it plain the conversation was over.
"Some amusing commissions have come in, and I wanted to share them with you."
"Amusing commissions?"
The Salmakju had summoned her over amusing commissions? Curiosity stopped the Red Rakshasa mid-stride, and she turned back.
"An escort commission—begging us for protection from an assassination threat."
The Salmakju lifted a single document, his expression alive with interest.
"An escort request, to Salmak of all places. Did they simply knock on the wrong door?"
"The sum was enticing enough to climb all the way up to the main hall."
"It is certainly an unusual commission."
Salmak's fees were steep. Retaining an assassin as a long-term bodyguard would cost a fortune—just who on earth had placed such a request?
"The other is an assassination commission. The cleanup afterward is a headache, but the pay is considerable. That one's fun too."
"Doesn't that sound like an ordinary commission?"
It was routine work, not anything amusing.
Smiling at her question, the Salmakju raised a commission document in each hand. Then, with unmistakable relish, he crossed the two papers into an X.
"Both of these commissions point to one and the same person."
The Red Rakshasa grasped his meaning at once.
"Target of an assassination and target of an escort?"
"Exactly. That's what makes it fun. And both pay handsomely."
A commission the master of Salmak himself deemed high-paying. And the same person was both escort target and assassination target. Sensing that this affair was anything but ordinary, the Red Rakshasa asked with an intrigued look.
"...Who is it?"
"Do you know Moyong Sang-ah of the Moyong Clan?"