SH | Chapter 1.4

Geum Jinsa of Asigol had been overjoyed lately, as if he might fly to the heavens. The reason was that an unbelievable marriage proposal had come from the house of Park Sihak, the mighty first-rank Left State Councillor.

The marriage partner was none other than the very son of that Park Daegam, the one who had come first in the state exam and now enjoyed the king’s full expectations.

On top of that, he was so handsome that rumors had already spread even to this rural backwater.

The handsome man had apparently finished carrying out the king’s orders and was on his way up to Hanyang. On the road, he had stopped briefly in this village and, my goodness, had fallen for Soyi at first sight. Right then and there, he hurried back to Hanyang to personally ask Park Daegam for the marriage.

It was the honor of the Geum family and, further, a celebration for all of Asigol.

There was no question, they accepted the marriage. The Crown Prince’s wedding would soon bring a national marriage ban, so Geum Jinsa and his wife readily agreed to Park Daegam’s request to hold the wedding before that.

They had been frantically busy preparing wedding gifts and the ceremony itself under the tight schedule.

In the midst of all that, Geum Jinsa even arranged marriages for the servants he kept. He did not leave out a single one of the unmarried maidservants of marriageable age.

A servant’s marriage could only happen if the master allowed it. Even if young men and women serving the same master grew fond of each other while enduring hardship together, they could not join as they pleased. Overjoyed that his daughter was marrying into a fine family, Geum Jinsa showed extraordinary generosity. He allowed all his adult unmarried male and female servants to marry whomever they wished.

Geum Jinsa’s unmarried servants thus married one by one. By the time Soyi’s wedding day approached, the only unmarried servants left were Soyi’s maid Ipbun and Donggu.

With preparations for Soyi’s wedding and the servants’ marriages as well, Geum Jinsa and his wife were truly overwhelmed. Time passed, and at last the wedding day arrived.

The morning of the wedding day had particularly fine air. Though it was midsummer, it wasn’t oppressively hot, as if even the weather were celebrating the wedding, and that made it all the better.

Clear birdsong rang pleasantly through the sky.

Blue and red lanterns hung in a row beneath the eaves. From the early morning, the household servants at Geum Jinsa’s house were moving about in a frenzy to prepare the feast tables.

Everything was proceeding smoothly. In the midst of it all, Geum Jinsa trembled with a face turned so white he looked as if he might faint at any moment.

“You useless lot! All you know how to do is stuff your faces, and yet what can you do?”

At Geum Jinsa’s roar, the family servants all dropped to the ground.

“Master! What are we to do?!”

Geum Jinsa’s wife, Lady Yeon, also fussed helplessly with a face gone white. One of the farmhands rushed up and whispered into the steward’s ear.

“Master Madam! The groom’s party has now reached the neighboring village!”

“What? How can they be moving so fast? If they’re already in the neighboring village, won’t they arrive in ours any moment now?”

“Oh dear! At this rate our whole house is ruined!”

At the steward’s cry, the Jinsa couple sank to the ground as if the sky had collapsed. Lady Yeon, who had been pounding the ground with her hands, suddenly got up.

“Rather than standing around here, we need a plan!”

“What plan can there be? Our Soyi, the one who’s supposed to be getting married, has disappeared without a trace!”

Geum Jinsa cried out tearfully at his wife’s words.

In the courtyard of the detached quarters where Geum Soyi, his precious treasure, had been staying, Geum Jinsa shouted and wiped away tears.

Everything had gone well. It had to go well.

“Master, madam! We’re in big trouble!”

Before breakfast, Seolseol, Ipbun’s mother, came running in a panic. Her voice and footsteps were both trembling. It was hard to tell whether it was fear or tension.

“The young miss is not in the detached quarters!”

“What do you mean she’s not there? You mean Soyi is gone?”

Geum Jinsa thundered like lightning. At that, Seolseol held out a neatly folded letter with trembling hands.

“T-this was left all alone in the room, and the young miss is nowhere to be seen!”

Geum Jinsa snatched the letter. Hearing the commotion, his wife, Lady Yeon, rushed over and read it too.

“To my parents. I am sorry. Your daughter has committed a grave act of filial impiety. I, Geum Soyi, truly do not wish to go through a marriage that is against my heart, even if it kills me. I intend to take refuge in the Buddhist faith and entrust my body to the Buddha. Please think of this unworthy daughter as dead. I write down the heart of your last child. I pray you live long and in health.”

“…Gah!”

“Oh my daughter, Soyi!”

Geum Jinsa crumpled the letter. Lady Yeon clutched her neck. The two of them ran to the detached quarters without a moment’s delay. When they arrived breathless, the room in the detached quarters was empty, with all the clothes and ornaments gone.

Geum Jinsa ordered the household servants to search for Soyi. The servants, answering awkwardly, had shaky, blank eyes.

“My goodness, Geum Jinsa! Where are these fools supposed to go and find Soyi?”

Lady Yeon beat her chest with a face about to explode. Geum Jinsa clutched his head with both hands. His face had turned truly pale.

“Wh-what do I do… Where am I supposed to go find her? I need to know where she went, east, west, south, or north, before I can go get her! The groom will be arriving in the village any moment, and where in the world has our Soyi gone?”

Geum Jinsa kept lamenting. Ignoring his dignity, he sank to the ground.

Just as Geum Jinsa, head bowed and hands gripping his skull, suddenly sprang to his feet.

“Eek, you scared me!”

At his lightning-fast movement, Lady Yeon, who had been crouching as well, toppled backward onto her rear.

“Madam!”

“Yes, why? Did you think of a good solution?”

A vision of flames blazing behind Geum Jinsa seemed to appear. Clinging to hope, Lady Yeon answered at once.

“Gather all the household servants in the detached courtyard right this moment!”

“The servants?”

“No time, do it now!”

“…Yes.”

Lady Yeon looked dazed and waved Seolseol, who was standing nearby, over. Soon Seolseol started running all around the house.

Geum Jinsa looked down at the servants gathered in a tight cluster in the detached courtyard. In this unprecedented situation, where the bride who was supposed to be married had disappeared, the servants’ expressions were a jumble of curiosity, interest, fear, and panic.

It was obvious they were all thinking in their own ways about why their master had gathered them and what he intended to make them do.

“Tch, not a single useful one among them!”

Looking over the servants, Geum Jinsa frowned. While clicking his tongue, he spotted Donggu staring blankly at the ground.

“Yes! You there, come here!”

“Huh! …Yes, yes? You mean me?”

Donggu was still blankly unresponsive, so Eokman, standing beside him, quickly elbowed him in the side. He hit so hard that Donggu let out a shrill yelp.

When Donggu glared at Eokman after being struck out of nowhere, Eokman blinked rapidly and pointed ahead. At that signal, Donggu quickly replied.

“Your name is Donggu… was it?”

“Yes, yes. That’s right.”

Geum Jinsa looked Donggu over from head to toe, then nodded.

“Good. You follow me. Everyone else, get back to your own work!”

Donggu looked around questioningly, but no one else knew what was going on either. Scratching his head, Donggu followed Geum Jinsa.

The sky was so clear, yet Donggu felt as if dust had settled in his chest, making it scratchy.

He found it strange that the weather was so endlessly fine, as if celebrating the young miss’s wedding, and it somehow made him feel sad.

Why did he feel this way? Donggu tilted his head.

And then, when he heard Geum Jinsa’s roar echoing through the whole house, he hurried along with the other servants.

The young miss Soyi had disappeared. Ipbun, who had always clung to Soyi like needle and thread, was also nowhere to be seen.

Ever since the marriage with the son of the Left State Councillor’s household in Hanyang had been arranged, not only Geum Jinsa’s house but the whole village had remained in a festive mood. Geum Jinsa and his wife were naturally floating on cloud nine, since their daughter’s future path had opened into a road of flowers. The villagers’ excitement was simple curiosity, the chance to see close up the son of a mighty family they would never normally get to see in this backwater.

Donggu, too, had been floating around in the atmosphere sweeping through the village, giddy and dazed. He watched Geum Jinsa and his wife, thrilled with joy, pair off the servants, and his heart filled with anticipation.

Young miss Soyi herself had only been calm. She had been as quiet as a tree standing still amid a flurry of flower petals blown by the wind.

Donggu thought that was just her personality. So even when the day of his own marriage approached, he thought she was simply being graceful and composed.

But even if it was the young miss, she must have realized, seeing the household servants pair off one by one, that Ipbun beside her was also a young woman of marriageable age.

Donggu had thus waited in a dream unlike Geum Jinsa and his wife’s, one full of dazzled hope. He watched his peers, around the same age, grow topknots one by one and waited for his turn to come.

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