Knock, knock, knock.
“Yes?”
You thought it was the head housekeeper checking to see if you needed anything, or maybe Bora delivering some news, or even the lead singer of the tavern downtown asking your hand in marriage, but you most certainly did not expect to see Hyunjin.
“Mother says I am to spend time with you this evening,” he uttered with that blizzard voice of his.
“Please sit, my lord.”
Hyunjin was dying the slowest death by mortification and found this whole thing outrageous as hell, but there was nothing he could do about it. He made his way to the sofa diagonal to you and sat down.
“Are you hungry?”
“No,” he curtly replied without looking at you.
Upon his response, you didn’t speak for some time. The tension in the room became so palpable that Hyunjin instinctively jumped to his feet and started pacing in the room like a caged animal.
“Why are you even doing this?” he raised his voice, “Don’t you have any self-respect?”
“What part of what I do is indicative of a lack of self-respect? I’m here to teach you about marital practices for your approaching union, my lord,” you responded calmly, but your voice morphed into something dangerous in the second part of your answer, “And don’t you dare insult what I do.”
Not being used to a woman talking to him with that kind of firm voice, Hyunjin decided to take a step back and sit back down.
“What are we supposed to do here then?”
“We are supposed to converse,” you smiled at him, “Could you put that needle on this tray please?”
Hyunjin did as told, and you reached for the tray to pick up the needle. He was quite confused by the two-step action.
“Why didn’t you just ask me to hand it to you?”
“It’s an old superstition. Rumor has it people exchanging sharp objects with each other have terrible fights,” you tied the floss to the needle, “What do you think respect is, my lord?”
No one had ever asked Hyunjin such an abstract question before. He took a couple of moments to think about it carefully.
“Honor. And care. For people or things you consider important,” he answered quite seriously, “If you respect something, you should not attempt to change it, nor should you harm it.”
“Very true. A lady is to respect her man beyond all else. In return, a man is never to deny his lady’s worth. You should always appreciate and put each other first,” then you looked up to establish eye contact with him with double the emphasis on your words, “Should you fail, she will find a man who knows her true worth.”
“Says who?”
“Says your ancestors. It’s cumulative knowledge distilled from many many experiences.”
“I thought my ancestors said men were superior to women.”
“With all due respect, I refuse to believe your ancestors were of Barbarian descent.”
Hyunjin didn’t know what to expect from you, but he knew what not to expect. This. A clear display of wit and intelligence, refusing to retreat to your corner even when talking to someone of higher class.
And he found that… oddly charming about you.
“I’m afraid I don’t believe in things I don’t have clear references of.”
“Yet you are a man of God, aren’t you, my lord?”
He felt like he was shocked from head to toe upon hearing those words. Hearsay was something, but faith was something else entirely.
“That’s not up for discussion,” his voice was clearly symptomatic of acute irritation.
“I’m not discussing it. I’m merely stating a fact,” you spoke, annoyingly serene, “You do believe in God, don’t you?”
He jumped to his feet again, afraid he would do or say something he was going to regret if he spent any more time in this room.
“I’m leaving.”
“Where are you going?”
“Out!”
He harshly closed the door behind him and threw himself into the garden to calm down next to the fountain. As he was trying to appease the burst of emotions that came out of nowhere, a figure approached closer.
“Hello, Hyunjin,” Yeji sat down next to him.
Hyunjin cursed a mouthful at the circumstances he was under. If only they were different… He wasn’t even able to talk to the one person he wanted to talk to the most.
“I assume you heard the news?” she asked with a coy smile.
“Yes,” he responded in resignation, “They even announced it in the society papers.”
The two sat there quietly for some time as neither of them knew what to say. Their whole lives were supposed to drastically change in less time than a human being was allowed to be born.
“You look sullen,” Yeji finally broke the silence, “Why?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Are you upset that we’re going to get married?”
“Aren’t you?” Hyunjin finally turned to her, “For crying out loud, Yeji, we’ve been friends forever.”
“Isn’t it better than marrying a complete stranger?”
Well… Maybe. It could be. If getting married was on anybody’s radar in the first place. While the premise of wedding someone you knew seemed logical, the fact that it had to be a person you were this close to… That you were fond of in the most innocent sense of the word… That you were forced to see in another light that was impossible for you to see…
Hyunjin was sure he was going to go insane within the month over how much he was thinking about these things.
“Say, who’s that woman at your house?” Yeji hesitantly asked.
“Mother took in a maid,” Hyunjin looked into the distance as he answered, “She’s not of good health lately.”
“She doesn’t seem like a maid to me, Hyunjin.”
“What else would she be?”
Yeji was pretty restless, but she didn’t know how to word her concerns properly in a way that wouldn’t come across as offensive. One month prior to their scheduled wedding, and all of a sudden Gyeonggi Hwangs took in another maid? That alluring for that matter?
“I–I don’t know,” she shrugged, “You already have Jaehyun, and uh… She seems older than you.”
“She is.”
“And she’s beautiful.”
“What’s your point, Yeji?”
Hyunjin was clearly getting more annoyed with this interrogation that didn’t seem to incorporate any questions. Yeji opted for keeping her silence in order not to irritate her friend-turned-fiancé any longer.
“N–Nothing,” she stood up and gently squeezed Hyunjin’s shoulder with a forced smile, “I hope to see you around.”
As Yeji disappeared into the distance, Hyunjin got lost in his thoughts once again. A woman older than him, but by what? She must have been in her late twenties or something. She was indeed beautiful. Calm. Composed. Seemed to be skilled in holding a conversation. You were going to be living under this roof for the following month, yet Hyunjin couldn’t even be bothered to learn your name when none of this was your fault.
Who were you really?
© 2024 Feelfolio. ⁞ Ko-fi
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