Declaration - 7
Seduce Kang Yunho.
Watching his granddaughter flounder, wondering if her grandfather had misspoken, the Mangeum Lord cast his mind back to the conversation he'd had with Kang Yunho.
"Have you shared a bed with my granddaughter?"
Become my sole successor, and see me for who I truly am.
He had accepted the audacious proposal, and as the two of them sat sipping tea afterward, the Mangeum Lord had glanced casually at the off-guard young man and asked, almost in passing.
"Pardon, Elder?"
So nothing has happened between them. From the split second Kang Yunho doubted his own ears, the Mangeum Lord arrived at his answer instantly.
"You have lived under the same roof as my granddaughter for months now. Has no desire stirred in you at all?"
"Elder. How could a man and a woman do such a thing before they are even married?"
The utter composure on Kang Yunho's face — not a hint of guilt about him — left the old man momentarily speechless.
So the maids were telling the truth.
One of the most celebrated beauties in all of Hubei Province slept in the next room every night, and he had felt nothing? Of course, a man and woman ought to wed before such things. But they were betrothed, were they not? When a young man and woman fancy each other, youthful blood has a way of leading to accidents.
The servants had reported no great progress between them, but he had wondered — perhaps they had stolen their chances at night, away from prying eyes. Apparently the maids had it right after all.
"You look like a man who could steal the hearts of five or six women without breaking a sweat, and yet you carry on like some green boy who's never so much as held a woman's hand."
Kang Yunho gave a wry smile at the oddly precise number, but to the Mangeum Lord's eyes it looked like nothing more than the sheepish grin of a decent, honest youth.
This cannot go on.
There were not one but two beauties living beside him — women whose mere presence could make a man's eyes pop from his head. And both of them had feelings for Kang Yunho.
He could cross the line whenever he wished, in the flush of youth, so why had he not?
It must be his devotion to Tang Hwarin, that girl.
Clearly his love for his fiancée was absolute.
The reality was far more complicated — matters of the Haomen, the mutual wariness and uneasy alliance between the women — but that was none of the Mangeum Lord's knowing.
"You must seduce Kang Yunho."
The Mangeum Lord said it as though reconfirming something to his granddaughter.
"Kang Yunho. See to it that you can become his first."
He did not mean for her to cross any forbidden line. The Mangeum Lord hastened to correct any possible misunderstanding.
"I am to be Kang Yunho's first?"
"As you know, the boy already has a fiancée — the granddaughter of an old friend of mine, a sworn brother from my youth. I hear she's in Sichuan at the Tang Clan estate, recovering from an illness."
"Kang Yunho told me."
Jegal Hyang remembered how stunned she had been to learn of it. She nodded quietly.
"The two of them saved the Baekga Bookstore from ruin together and built it into the Daseogak you see today. They stood side by side through the hardest of times, so wedging yourself between them will be no small task."
"Y-yes, I-I sup-pose s-sooo."
Jegal Hyang's shoulders sagged.
"None of that! Chin up!"
The Mangeum Lord barked at his dejected granddaughter.
"Wha—? Yes, yes, sir!"
"You are my granddaughter and the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan! Carry yourself with confidence!"
"But Grandfather…"
"I did not say you must become the perfect first."
The old man's stern expression softened into a faint smile.
"Y-yes?"
"It is enough if Kang Yunho reaches the point where he resolves to wed you. Enough that he walks to the Zhuge Clan estate on his own two feet and asks for your hand, bold as brass."
Even the Mangeum Lord did not expect his granddaughter to become the complete and only first in Kang Yunho's heart. It would be enough simply for the young man to decide, gladly, on marriage.
"E-even for Kang Yunho, that s-seems like a lot to as-sk forrr."
There were the clan elders to consider, and her father waiting at home. It would never be easy. Jegal Hyang spoke as she pictured Kang Yunho making the journey to the Zhuge estate.
"If he resolves to wed you, then that is exactly what he will do. He only needs you to be his first marriage. A grown man cannot very well wait ten empty years, can he? Fill the vacant place beside him. Let him marry you now, and ten years from now he takes a second wife — the two of you can live as elder and younger sisters. Is that not good enough?"
Coveting the bride of a friend who had gone ahead of him. Whatever excuses he made, whatever considerations he offered for the sake of his old friend's granddaughter, this was his greed and his transgression.
An inescapable trace of guilt settled at the corners of the Mangeum Lord's eyes.
"Ten years…"
"It is difficult. But it must be done. Can you do it?"
These two had weathered hard times together and staked their lives for love. The Mangeum Lord could arrange the circumstances for his granddaughter, but he could not arrange the love itself.
That she would have to provide. Old Master Jang could only pray that his granddaughter would find a way to melt Kang Yunho's fortress of a heart.
"…"
Jegal Hyang could not readily answer either.
"Can you do it?"
"Y-yes."
Under her grandfather's relentless urging, she managed little more than a reluctant nod.
"Wh-what am I supposed to do?"
Seduce Kang Yunho? Jegal Hyang rolled across her bed after returning to the empty house — no Kang Yunho, no Hayeon, no one.
"How am I supposed to beat a fiancée?! I'm asking you! Howww?!"
When Hayeon-unni and I were allies, there were two of us, so I could vaguely imagine winning. I could see hope then. But now that I'm alone? There's no answer to this. None. Jegal Hyang pressed her face into the mattress and suffered.
"Seduce Kang Yunho. Me."
She recalled what she'd heard about his fiancée. A fiery, formidable older-sister type. Beautiful, no less — and with a bigger chest than Hayeon-unni.
She placed a hand on her own chest.
Standing next to Hayeon-unni, she looked roughly the same at a glance, but that was only an illusion born of Hayeon-unni's greater height. In truth, Hayeon-unni was a little bigger. And this fiancée was bigger than her?
So I can't even win on looks.
— You are my granddaughter and the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan! Carry yourself with confidence!
Just as despair began to close over her, her grandfather's words surfaced in her mind.
He's right. I haven't squandered all these years for nothing.
"I've gotten really close to Kang Yunho lately, you know. For example, recently—"
— Monopoly rules! Kang Yunho is the best! Monopoly is fun! Thank you, Hayeon-unni!
"NOT that memory!"
The trouble with her memory was that the moment she tried to recall anything, the most embarrassing recollections surfaced first. Jegal Hyang scrambled through her mortifying memories in a fluster — and dredged up the very first one with Kang Yunho.
— What's with this box…?
— Would you kindly step aside?
"It was a complete… disaster from the very start!"
Their first meeting had been a box. Looking back, she hadn't possessed so much as the first syllable of seductive skill.
Do I even have feminine charm? Honestly, isn't it all a failing grade? Crushed, Jegal Hyang buried her head in the bed.
"Okay. Think about the kind of woman Kang Yunho would fall for."
She forced the despair off her shoulders and sat down at her vanity.
Her problem was the bizarre faces she pulled; hold a neutral expression and she was undeniably the picture of a fresh, lovely young maiden. Her mother always said their daughter was the prettiest of them all — though she'd always added, pretty, yes, but past that… and worried. That part wasn't important right now.
True, her life had been devoid of so much as the first spark of allure — but she could hold a conversation with Kang Yunho now, couldn't she? That was progress by leaps and bounds. All the way to marriage, then.
She had to become Kang Yunho's first marriage partner. And to seduce a man, one must, by definition, overflow with allure.
"Yu-hoo! I am a woman overflowing with allure!"
Snapping open a fan, Jegal Hyang resolved to become that woman.
"Ooh-hoo! There you are, Kang Yunho! How about dinner tonight? One little drink after we finish work?"
She winked one eye at the mirror.
"Ooh-hoo-hoo! Oh my! My sash has come undone all by itself—"
Midway through loosening her sash, she caught sight of herself in the mirror and sank to the floor, head drooping.
"This is just a shameless woman. That's all she is. Shamelessss."
Instant despair.
The problem was that "a woman overflowing with allure" was far too broad a term. In terms of Dangga Pungun, the gap was as wide as that between the greatest beauty of Sichuan and the most celebrated courtesan of Hubei. She needed a concrete model. A specific person to emulate.
After long deliberation, one person came to mind.
Hayeon-unni…!
Perfect material. Hadn't she observed the woman plenty? Hayeon-unni had even won Kang Yunho's heart outright.
Jegal Hyang shot to her feet and threw herself into the role.
"I am Hayeon-unni! Ooh-hoo. Become Hayeon-unni. Make it obvious you love Kang Yunho while pretending you don't! Hoho!"
Was it a successful model? Something in Jegal Hyang's gaze had begun to resemble Im Hayeon's.
"Hm-hm. Just how long do you intend to keep me waiting?"
She extended a hand toward empty air. The natural way to invite a man to take your hand. Yes, I think this works. She silently cheered.
"Hm-hm. You. Tonight I'll slip in quietly, like a thief cat. Be waiting for me."
At the word seduce, Jegal Hyang began reconstructing her most vivid memory.
"Did I not say I had formed an alliance with Lady Jegal?"
Even affecting an awkward masculine voice, she threw herself into playing both parts.
"Hm-hm. So what? The one who reaches the hearth first is its master."
Seduction complete on the spot. It was perfect!
"W-wow, that was perfect! I, I actually have a talent for th— huh?!"
In the mirror. Precisely, in the mirror — through the gap of the open door reflected in it. Jegal Hyang found herself locking eyes with the very man whose voice she had just been imitating.
"Hahaha. Lady Jegal."
"Wh-wh-wh-when did you—"
She whipped her head around to find Kang Yunho standing there, wearing an excruciatingly awkward smile.
"I came about what happened today, and about being introduced to your aunts in a few days, but… I'll, um, come back a little later."
"K-Kang Yunho! N-no, wait, that's not—!"
Kang Yunho — understanding nothing of the situation, yet smiling as if he understood all of it — vanished on the spot.
Jegal Hyang was moved to grateful tears by his consideration. Though honestly, it was the situation itself that made her want to cry.
"Lady Jegal, I'll head in first."
"Y-yes."
A few days later. The occasion: introducing Kang Yunho to the Mangeum Lord's daughters — Jegal Hyang's aunts. Jegal Hyang arrived at the Mangeum estate alongside him, right on time.
And here I am, with no progress whatsoever to show for it.
For days she had been too mortified to hold a proper conversation with him. Grabbing the hem of his sleeve as he walked ahead of her was the absolute limit of her courage — and of her refusal to give up.
"Well, if it isn't Hyang. What brings you here?"
"H-hello."
As Jegal Hyang entered the gathering, her aunts greeted her with bewildered looks. And as they closed in around her, the pressure sent her instinctively searching for the one place that felt safe.
"Weren't you back home in the countryside? You've been here a while. Hmm? And who is this?"
The moment Jegal Hyang ducked behind a man's waist, the aunts — who had been ignoring him since his entrance — all turned to study his face.
"My name is Kang Yunho. I am in the midst of a fond relationship with Lady Jegal."
The matter of the succession was for the Lord himself, still absent, to announce. Kang Yunho simply bowed with a pleasant, amiable face, offering nothing more.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Hyang. What is this nonsense? You're courting a black-hair?"
"Ah, that is, well…"
Jegal Hyang was hopeless when a crowd bore down on her. Crushed by the air of accusation, her mouth simply would not open.
"Hold on. Don't tell me this is why Father summoned us today?"
One of the aunts went wide-eyed, staring at Kang Yunho.
"What?"
"Yeongyeong's brat is the only one of us without a successor candidate — until now!"
They named their absent sister — Jegal Hyang's mother — the only one of them unrepresented in this contest.
"What?! So this black-hair is—?!"
"We have come today at the Mangeum Lord's own invitation. May we sit down now?"
Shielding Jegal Hyang behind him, Kang Yunho let it be felt, subtly, that he was not a man to absorb abuse in silence.
"Has Father lost his mind in his old age?! He summons a barbarian here — to this table!"
But their fury had only just begun.
"I told you from the start — we should have shuffled Father off to the back rooms and handled things ourselves!"
"Is Yeongyeong out of her mind too? Hooking her daughter up with a barbarian?"
"Aunts. Mind yourselves."
Jegal Hyang was trembling before this sudden wall of hostility. Kang Yunho caught the malice radiating from the women surrounding them and let it wash over him smoothly.
"Where does a lowborn barbarian get off interrupting!"
"I knew something was wrong the day those scheming black-hair bastards started strutting around Wuhan!"
"Good heavens! Are we handing the Mangeum Money Market over to a barbarian bastard now?!"
Every woman gathered in that room was the lady of a distinguished house. The man before them, meanwhile, was a black-haired barbarian scraping a living from the very bottom of society.
And that black-haired barbarian dares to covet our inheritance. The daughters of the Mangeum Lord could not easily contain their rage.
Kang Yunho watched it all with a wry smile, as though the scene were so familiar it hardly merited surprise. And Jegal Hyang looked upon that face with trembling eyes.
Kang Yunho is…
Being despised. Jegal Hyang stood frozen, unable to close her mouth at the spectacle that had erupted out of nowhere.
My head is burning hot.
Why should Kang Yunho have to be scorned? The thoughts are scattering. My head is so hot.
"Lady Jegal?"
Before she knew it, Jegal Hyang was standing in front of Kang Yunho.
Where have I felt this before? Right. It's like the fight with Hayeon-unni over the true heroine of Dangga Pungun. No — it's beyond compare with that.
The anger is rising from the crown of my head.
The embarrassment that was sitting in my chest a moment ago — it's gone. I can't find it anywhere.
A white-hot fury floods my head, and from my chest surges a courage I have never once felt before.
"EXCUSE ME!!!"
Without realizing it, Jegal Hyang channeled her inner force into her voice and roared at the women heaping abuse upon Kang Yunho.
"H-Hyang?!"
Every aunt's gaze swung to her. Eep. The emotion that had finally surged up tried to bolt in an instant — but Jegal Hyang clenched both fists and, with all the courage she could muster, opened her mouth.
"Kang Yunho is my marriage prospect! S-so that means! I don't think he's someone you get to insult however you please…!"