SH | Chapter 1.8

“…!”

The removed jokduri rolled across the other side of the floor. Donggu’s heart rolled around in his chest just like it.

It felt like his heart might leap right out of his body. Donggu unconsciously braced both hands on the floor and scooted back with his hips.

He had also lifted the head he’d been bowing without realizing it, and his mouth opened wide. Yoongong, whose hand had been moving toward the front of Donggu’s jeogori, froze again at that reaction.

“If we just sit here like this, the people peeking from outside won’t leave.”

At Yoongong’s words, Donggu looked toward the wooden paper door. The thin paper was still riddled with holes here and there. The bright moon, the blue lanterns hanging all over, and the candle inside the room all combined so that the eyes peering through the holes were clearly visible.

The gaze, full of curiosity and mischief, glittered so brightly that Donggu felt like filthy language was about to burst out of his mouth.

The lips painted with red rouge trembled slightly, then pressed tight. Seeing Donggu’s expression, the corners of Yoongong’s mouth rose quietly.

The sound of rustling came, and the room was instantly plunged into darkness. Startled, Donggu stared at Yoongong with wide eyes. Through the light coming in from the paper door, the shape of the man was faintly visible. The way he gathered his wide sleeves looked almost as if he had whipped them around to blow out the candle.

“Goodness, the light in the bridal chamber has finally gone out.”

“Everyone, let’s go home.”

“Hey, woman! Did you spread honey on those holes or what? Stop peeking and get up!”

“That woman never knows what enough is.”

“Why am I the only one being cursed at? Lady Namsoon is standing right there too!”

Small noises drifted from outside the room as the people began to leave. The woman who had been scolded in a hushed voice protested resentfully. Still, she seemed to realize she had been peeking, because she grumbled in a low voice.

Geum Jinsa’s servants had been skillfully changing the subject whenever something dangerous came up so the villagers wouldn’t suspect anything during the wedding. They also naturally guided the people who were spying on the bridal chamber to leave it.

Thanks to their efforts, the people left without complaint. The quiet chatter slowly faded, and after a while, silence settled like a lie. The sound of people vanished, leaving only the black holes behind.

Gulp.

Once the onlookers outside had all disappeared, Donggu’s throat quickly dried up. He swallowed dryly without meaning to. His throat felt parched and scratchy.

No! It’s okay even if they stay until dawn, so come back! Don’t let this situation continue! Peeking into the bridal chamber is a good tradition! I don’t want to sleep!

Donggu cried out miserably in his heart.

“…At last, we’re truly alone now.”

In the dim darkness, Yoongong’s low voice resonated softly like candlelight.

“Shall we continue what we were doing, just the two of us?”

Yoongong’s large hand, stained by darkness, reached toward him. Donggu found that hand terrifying, like a changgui swallowed by a tiger. His lips trembled.

He could see himself being beaten with a club in the middle of the magistrate’s office. His desperate screams begging to be spared were buried under the thunderous sound of the beating as it split the sky. Blood and flesh burst and sprayed everywhere. In the pool of blood, he was dying.

At the vividly unfolding image of his future self, Donggu swallowed dryly.

Even if he somehow got through tonight by saying he was embarrassed and awkward because it was the first night of his wedding, the danger would keep coming. And every time, he wouldn’t be able to keep avoiding that changgui-like hand of Yoongong’s. Donggu bit his lip hard. The image of himself, beaten into a bloody pulp beneath the club, floated before his eyes.

Even now I’m frozen solid because it’s hard enough just to avoid him, and you think I can somehow get through it?

He wasn’t a pheasant with its head buried in a bush. Donggu scolded himself for being such a fool. He couldn’t avoid this. He didn’t even have an excuse to avoid it. There had to be some way, though not necessarily. But Donggu knew himself. With his stone head, he wouldn’t find it.

“I-I’ve committed a death-worthy crime!”

Without hesitating further, Donggu flattened himself to the floor. The bride, who had been crouched until now, suddenly threw herself into a full plea for mercy, and Yoongong looked bewildered.

“What are you doing? Please get up!”

With a face full of panic, Yoongong tried to lift Donggu by the shoulders. At that solid grip on his shoulders, Donggu’s face turned even bluer. Fear washed over him as if a tiger had bitten him. Donggu pushed himself lower with even more force.

“T-to be honest, I’m a servant of this house who was ordered by the master’s lady to take the young miss’s place when she suddenly disappeared and go through the wedding!”

“…!”

“I truly committed a death-worthy crime! The family of the noble gentleman whom young miss Soyi was supposed to marry is so exalted that Master and Madam were terrified their household might be harmed, so in desperation they dressed me up like young miss Soyi and…”

Donggu pressed his forehead to the floor and recited everything in detail. Guilt and fear tangled his words into a total mess. The high-ranking new groom, Yoongong, whose thoughts were impossible to read, waited quietly until Donggu finished speaking.

“…So this lowly one committed something he never should have dared to do! I’ve committed a death-worthy crime! Please, spare my life!”

“Hahaha!”

Donggu’s eyes flew open when he heard laughter from the bride, who had been tightly shut-eyed and trembling while confessing his crime. He had thought Yoongong might wave a sword and declare that he had been toyed with, but instead Yoongong laughed brightly. The sound of laughter filling the room left Donggu speechless.

What is this? What does that laughter mean? At a time like this, he should be furious and threatening to punish me immediately! Why is he laughing? They say some people laugh when they’re overwhelmed, but could he possibly be crazy?

Still bowing his head, Donggu rolled his eyes wildly. Watching Yoongong’s hand moving toward the front of his jeogori, the world went white.

He was sure that hand would strip the clothes off him in no time and expose his male body. The moment he thought of being hauled away and flogged for daring to insult a nobleman, unable to say a single word before dying, his body moved first.

Even if he died, he wanted to offer at least some explanation. So he flattened himself even more.

He had only done it because he was told to, because he had no choice. He was merely a lowly servant, with no power and no schemes of his own.

…If he confessed he was a man first, wouldn’t he at least be pitied a little? That was the petty calculation hidden inside Donggu’s confession.

“So that’s why you kept your head bowed like that. I thought my bride was simply very shy.”

“P-please, with your broad mercy!”

“Why would I harm my wife? Whatever the circumstances, we held the wedding before the villagers. That means whoever you are, you became the wife of this Park Yoongong.”

“…Yes?”

Donggu lifted the head he had been pressing to the floor. He couldn’t understand what he was hearing. Blinking, he looked up and asked again.

Even through the dim darkness, it was clear.

The high-ranking new groom was smiling.

Very brightly.

“I, it may be hard to tell because it’s dark, but this lowly one is a m-m-m-man! A man! Even if I’m lowborn, how can a man become the wife of a noble household?”

My voice is clearly a man’s if you just listen! Even if a woman’s voice is rough, it’s not this rough! It’s not much lower than yours! Listen properly, I’m telling you!!

A sharp bell rang deep inside Donggu’s head. He felt a danger greater than simply violating the rules of rank. Something terrifying and shapeless seemed to be opening its mouth.

“That’s not a problem. Did you not already show the people that the wife became my wife under the name Geum Soyi? Of course, as a woman.”

Cold sweat ran down his back. No matter what Donggu said, the new groom simply insisted that he was only Geum Soyi, the daughter of Geum Jinsa, who had undergone the proper marriage procedure before everyone’s eyes.

As if that alone were the truth and the correct answer.

“So of course, the wife will neither die nor be punished.”

“…B-but if my lord father finds out about this…”

Donggu desperately looked for a way out. He had no choice but to substitute for young miss Soyi because circumstances had forced him to, but no matter how he thought about it, he could see the future far too clearly.

Even if he wore women’s clothes and powdered his face, he would still look like a man. Today was a wedding day, so it was manageable. He had layered on all kinds of clothes, with a jokduri, hairpin, and danggi, all sorts of flashy ornaments.

People had simply thought he looked a little big because of the wedding robe and let it slide.

But everyday clothes would be a different matter. Just thinking about the maidwear of the Geum Jinsa household madam told him that much. With his broad shoulders showing through a delicate-cut jeogori, wouldn’t suspicion come immediately?

No, they would surely conclude it before there was even time for suspicion.

Donggu got goosebumps, imagining himself locked in a dark prison and dying after all manner of torture for a serious crime against the state.

“There is nothing for you to worry about. Even if my father finds out, nothing will happen to you. If the Left State Councillor Park Sihak, who can make even birds fall from the sky, were known to have been fooled by a mere jinsa into taking a male servant as a daughter-in-law, wouldn’t he lose far more? So there will absolutely be no public punishment, and not even private punishment.”

It felt like finding the only possible escape route, only to see it buried under a collapsed mound of earth. He felt as though he was kneeling hopelessly before it. Donggu’s black eyes wandered through an invisible illusion.

No matter what he said, it was useless.

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