Wandering Through – Vol. 1 Chapter 5 – Wedding

Author: Nikss

During the day, Nanny Yeongseon asked for news of the new woman who had come into the house.

“She must be mute. She doesn’t talk, just wriggles her hands, and that’s it, she’s a pretty face, but she’s not much use…”

“A concubine, maybe.”

“How can you call her a concubine when the master didn’t say anything!”

“He did mention that she is a mistress.”

“Aren’t you concluding too fast?”

Yiseo grabbed Nanny Yeongseon’s arm, who was beating her chest in frustration.

“You’re hurting yourself. Nanny. Stop running back and forth to the guest room and go see Youngsun. You were supposed to be there today, right? You should see your grandchild’s face.”

Four years ago, Youngsun married a maid who worked for the family and left the palace.

In the isolation and exile of the house, Yiseo had relied on Youngsun, who was her age, unusually heavily, but she was helpless to resist the blushing new bride.

“Don’t go empty-handed, please don’t let Youngsun know how badly I’m doing, but I’ve packed some dried seaweed and needle wrappers.”

Sighing heavily, Nanny Yeongseon took the bag Yiseo offered and left the house. She couldn’t help smiling at her newly married daughter and her first grandchild.

On the way out, she said she’d be back before dinner, and if anyone came to visit her in the room, she insisted that they never meet alone.

“Okay. Of course. You know I listen to my nanny, so hurry up and be on your way.”

But the sun had gone down, and there was no word of her return until the evening sunset.

I dabbled in embroidery that didn’t interest me and eventually laid it aside. With my weaving skills, I could make more money transcribing books.

There must be money in my great-grandfather’s family, but it must be in the hands of the servant.

There was nothing in the house that Yiseo could easily take away except a room and a meal.

It took a year or two for her to spend the money her family had given her.

After ten years of marriage, she had to take care of herself.

Luckily, unlike her skeletal body, Yiseo’s handwriting was vigorous and vibrant, and the books she transcribed sold well.

It was already dark outside when she looked up from transcribing the eight poetry books she had to sell.

The sunset lanterns were dying down, and she looked up to see a cold dinner sitting on the table before the door.

There was no sign of a soul inside, so they just didn’t call out.

If I didn’t eat, I wouldn’t be able to go outside because Mother Yeongseon said I would starve without her, so I rolled rice in the cold soup and scooped up a cup.

As I chewed the cold rice on the floor on the chilly night, the back of my neck felt strange.

After a few drinks, it was time to put down the cutlery.

The woman from the morning was standing in front of me. Her face was pale in the moonlight.

Yiseo looked at the woman’s full belly and asked.

“…Why are you out here instead of going to bed? You’re hardly dressed.”

“…”

The woman stared at the cold meal without speaking.

“If you’re hungry, please go to the kitchen if you want something to eat…”

The woman approached silently and grabbed the cold rice with her cold, bare hands. She shoved it into her mouth. The side dishes didn’t escape her grasp either.

Yiseo was frozen in place as the woman shoveled everything on the table into her mouth.

Her clothes were stained with side dishes, and her cheeks and lips were stained with sauces. The woman looked wistfully at the empty plate before turning her attention to Yiseo.

The woman’s red lips parted.

“Master?”

Her voice was sweet. It sounded like a sweet moan or a hoarse whisper.

Either way, it didn’t sound like it belonged on a floor that was pierced on all sides.

Yiseo frowned. But she didn’t have the heart to yell at the woman who seemed to be out of her mind, so she simply asked.

“The Master has left. Has he not told you when he will return?”

“When, when he will return…”

The woman muttered hoarsely.

It occurred to Yi that perhaps this woman was not indeed a concubine of her husband, but rather some poor wench who had lost her mind.

Not that she believed in his chastity, but that a man with a wife and a half would not want to take a concubine as his other half.

If he liked the idea of being lacking, he would have had me long ago.

Never mind. He’d rather have someone better than herself.

“Master, here…”

The woman’s eyes began to well up as she mumbled.

Soon, the woman, sprawled in the yard, curled up in a ball and sobbed. Like a child.

“Ugh, ah, ugh, agh, ah!”

Yiseo scrambled to her feet in panic.

Wobbling on her feet, she went down to the yard and touched the woman’s shoulder.

Not knowing what to say, and worried about her cold shoulder, she finally spoke, “Come on, dear. Don’t cry, go inside, yes. Even if you cry, you should go inside anyway. You’re cold. Your body is…”

“Mister!”

The woman’s hand gripped Yiseo’s wrist, and she whimpered.

“Mister. Mis…ter. Mi– Mister….”

The grip on her wrist was ice-cold. Unable to pull away, the woman who had bound her wrists laughed.

Her red lips parted, unusually clear in the darkness.

“Do you hate me so much? What sin have I committed? Our marriage is not of my choosing.”

The woman’s hand drew her closer.

Yiseo collapsed into her arms, helpless. The woman smelled sweet. Sweet enough to make her mouth water, and yet somehow fishy…

“You have been harsh to me, and it is all your fault that I am this way.”

Yiseo closed her eyes.

💫

A sweat poured down her face.

A woman crouched in the yard, pulling her close.

It was clearly a chilly night, so why did I wake up in the middle of the day?

Was I dreaming?

The midsummer heat was unbearable.

As was often the case with those possessed, Yiseo quickly forgot who she was and was swept up in the living memories of the ghost that possessed her.

She pulled at her soaked clothes.

Frowning, she tugged the hem of her skirt down, not wanting to let it cling to her sweaty skin. Her breasts were exposed, ripe in the heat.

‘How unfamiliar.’

Cradling both of them in her hands, she stared at them.

I wondered if the reddened flesh, the overflowing mass of flesh in my hands, was truly mine. It was as strange as borrowing someone else’s body.

“Eat up, why are you holding it?”

The man beneath takes a big bite out of the flesh. Her mouth gaped open at the ravenous sucking and swallowing.

“Mmm.”

We were on the floor, open on all sides. The man suckled while holding me on his stomach, and I squinted blankly as I stroked his head lazily against my chest.

‘Why was this happening?’

The head of a man who hasn’t even gotten a chance to turn a sentence rested in the palm of her hand.

That’s right. He was a bastard.

A beast with no dignity, no sense of decency, and enough of a beast to make love to me in the middle of the day on this paved floor.

So the one who’d dragged me in raised his head from suckling. I cupped his cheek and kissed him, but before our tongues could properly entwine, he pulled his lips away.

“Madam, please tell me your name.”

‘How dare you.’

She laughed softly and brushed her lips against his cheek.

‘Okay. What’s the point in not giving it to him?’

“I’m Park ….”

“That’s her name. She’s not you, and you should know that.”

The coldness in his voice was chilling, and I stared down at him, trying to see if he was the one on the floor beneath me. No, it wasn’t. Who was this guy?

I thought I knew who I was and who the man on whom I sat was, but hearing that voice confused me.

The man asked, “You don’t want to wake up, do you?”

The man’s words were becoming more aggressive, but she was relieved.

‘Ah. This must be a dream.’

“It’s not a dream.”

“Did I talk to you?”

“You’re out of your mind.”

I expected it, but there was more… A few words rolled around in the man’s mouth before he swallowed hard.

He laughed somewhat nervously. Like he was forcing a smile when he didn’t want to smile at all.

Touching the corners of his upturned mouth, he asked., “Are you enjoying yourself?”

“Are you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want to go in there?”

Still riding on top of the man, she craned her head to look at the half-open door. She frowned.

He’d probably heard and seen them grafting, which was why they’d been sprawled out on the floor, which was why…

“There’s someone in there, my husband’s beloved brother, and my husband should see him tangling with me, naked, and the day before I screwed my husband’s best friend, and yesterday I laid with my husband’s cousin, and today it’s his turn, and I must go in there.”

The words that came out of my mouth were all ridiculous.

‘Was it a dream?’

She pressed her lips together as if to soothe the man who gripped her waist so hard it hurt.

Tracing her tongue over her closed lips, she tried to ask weakly, “What can I do? It was a dream, after all, so what could be wrong?”

Slipping lips along the man’s neck, she asked weakly. His throat rumbled loudly, and his hand grabbed her chin.

Forced to look him in the eye, she saw a sudden blue tinge to his dark eyes…

“This is not a dream, this is this woman’s life, and if you do not wish to be completely consumed by the ghost that has taken over your body, you must remember your name. Madam.”

At those words, the ghost that possessed Yiseo, the woman who in life had been called more by the derogatory name of Yu-woo-dong the adulteress, than by the name of Guma, her real name, laughed so loudly.

Even Yiseo, buried underneath her, was mesmerized.