Chapter 21
Cheongunru.
At Cheongunru, said to be the most lavish establishment in Uiju, the melodies of gayageum and the coquettish laughter of the gisaengs drifted through the air.
The tables were piled high with rare food and liquor that one would normally have little opportunity to experience.
“Wahaha! So, do you know what this fellow said?”
“What did she say?”
The gisaengs showed interest in Han Seong-deok’s words.
“Ah.”
A moment later, he cleared his throat and began imitating Hayun’s way of speaking.
“The moment this gulbi reaches the royal table, it will be as if the fact that our Man-sang Yeonggwang Gulbi is the finest in all of Joseon has been proclaimed to the entire world. So how could anyone argue over whether it is cheap or expensive?”
“Ohhh!”
Han Seong-deok bragged about Hayun’s exploits, using the story as an accompaniment to their drinks and adding to the merriment.
“Whew, she was so confident. Just watching from the side made my chest swell with pride.”
“Oh my, she really said that?”
“Of course! It was so impressive that even Daebang himself was left speechless watching her.”
“As expected, someone with such a fine appearance and destined for greatness really is different.”
Along with their praise, the gisaengs approached Hayun.
“My lord, allow this humble one to offer you a drink as a celebration.”
“Ahem. Ah, yes.”
Hayun smiled awkwardly as she accepted the cup.
‘This is what he meant by treating us to a feast?’
She had come expecting a grand meal, only to find herself at a gisaeng house. It was a place she had never expected to visit.
Under normal circumstances, she would have immediately kicked open the main gate and walked out.
But since she was disguised as a man, and since she was the guest of honor tonight, she felt that leaving might arouse unnecessary suspicion, so she remained seated.
“Please accept a drink from me as well.”
“Ah…… yes.”
Hayun reluctantly emptied the cup.
‘Ugh, it’s bitter.’
That was already her third cup. And after that, more and more drinks continued to pour Hayun’s way.
“Haengsu Im, I have been sorry about what happened. Allow me to formally apologize here. In that spirit, let me offer you a drink.”
“If that’s the case……”
Hayun downed the drink in one go. The strong grain liquor burned as it traveled down her throat, heating her insides.
“I’m sorry too. I feel a bit awkward saying this, but I never meant any harm.”
“I understand. I understand.”
Hayun smiled bitterly.
“Oh dear, then I suppose I should offer a drink too. I was the one who teased you the most, after all.”
“That was you?”
“Please accept a drink from me as well. Let us forget all the hard feelings between us with this.”
“No hard feelings, okay!”
As the drinks continued one after another, Hayun’s consciousness gradually began to grow hazy.
Seeing her like that, the other haengsu burst into broad smiles.
“Okay? Looks like Haengsu Im is really drunk. She’s saying things that make no sense. Wahahaha!”
“Drunk? Me? Hic!”
“Haha! Now that you’re drunk, you finally seem like a normal person. You looked so stiff all this time… It was hard to even start a conversation with you.”
“Exactly. I couldn’t even make eye contact with you.”
Once Hayun began showing her loosened-up side, the others finally started treating her without reservation.
“Come on, we can’t just leave things like this. We ought to hold a proper initiation ceremony for you, even if it’s a little late.”
“An initiation ceremony?”
“Don’t overthink it. Just have another drink. Down it!”
“Understood. Hic!”
If alcohol had one advantage, it was that it turned everyone into fools.
They spilled their cups, dropped their chopsticks, and repeated things they had just said. They casually blurted out things they normally would never say.
And most importantly, when fools looked at one another, they burst into laughter for no reason.
That was why laughter never ceased at drinking gatherings.
Hayun also liked the atmosphere of such drinking parties.
If everyone could laugh and have fun, she did not mind becoming a fool herself.
Planning something, creating it, and presenting it before the public.
Unexpectedly, Hayun’s true nature was actually closer to someone who enjoyed making other people happy.
“Kuaa.”
Hayun emptied her cup in one go and looked at the other haengsu with half-lidded eyes.
“Then the seniors should each have a drink too, right? Hic!”
“Huh? Us too?”
“Of course! You think it’s fair for only me to drink? Here!”
“What?!”
Hayun poured strong liquor into bowls with a generous glug, and the haengsu could not hide their bewilderment.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you drinking? This is a drink I’m offering you. Hic!”
“Haha, looks like we’ve met our match.”
“Indeed. Judging by this, there’s no way we’re walking out of here on our own two feet tonight.”
“Down, down, down! The liquor’s going in! How long are you going to make me dance with my shoulders? Look at my shoulder! It’s dislocated!”
With Hayun completely letting herself go, the atmosphere quickly became lively. Laughter continued without end throughout Cheongunru for quite some time.
And in a world where everyone had become fools, there was still one person who remained perfectly sober…
“Tch, pathetic…”
The cup of liquor Song Do-hyeon had poured at the very beginning was still sitting untouched in front of him.
The alcohol permeating the air around him was enough to make anyone feel intoxicated, yet Song Do-hyeon maintained a perfectly upright posture without the slightest hint of disorder.
That was when it happened.
A gisaeng approached.
She seemed to have been captivated by Song Do-hyeon’s handsome appearance.
“My lord, please have a drink as well. Why are you sitting so stiffly on such a wonderful day?”
When the gisaeng brought over a fresh cup and tried to pour him a drink, Song Do-hyeon stopped her with his hand.
“I’m fine.”
“Pardon?”
“I have no need for it, so pour it for those fools instead.”
With that, he rose from his seat without a moment’s hesitation and walked outside.
Bang!
The door slammed shut roughly, and silence descended for a moment.
“Tch, there goes the taste of the liquor. What was that supposed to be?”
“That fellow’s got a sickness, that’s what.”
“We went through all the trouble of bringing him along for Haengsu Im’s sake, and he had to ruin the mood.”
As cold water had been poured over the lively atmosphere, complaints erupted among the haengsu.
“Tsk, tsk. With him being so arrogant and insolent, no wonder he’s fallen out of Daebang’s favor.”
“A fellow like that has to live alone his whole life. I’ve never seen him associate with anyone.”
“Is he so proud simply because he’s a yangban?”
At the word ‘yangban,’ Hayun’s eyes widened.
“Yangban? Haengsu Song was a yangban? Hic!”
“I don’t know. Rumor has it he comes from a fallen yangban family, but who can say whether that’s true?”
“What yangban would be doing this kind of work if they had any other choice? They’d rather starve to death.”
“Exactly! I’m telling you, you can’t trust a single thing about that guy.”
Only now did the questions that had been troubling Hayun begin to be answered.
The reason for the loneliness she had sensed from Song Do-hyeon all this time.
For some reason, she felt a sense of kinship with him.
Just like herself, who had been dropped into another world overnight, he too had fallen into a different world.
“Hmmnya, a yangban…”
With a dazed expression, Hayun looked at the spot where Song Do-hyeon had been sitting.
The cup of liquor he had poured at the beginning was still sitting there untouched.
***
“Ugh, I’m getting drunk.”
After the drinking session continued without pause, Hayun went outside to get some fresh air.
The rear garden, where people rarely ventured, was quiet and deserted.
The cool night air cooled her face, while the sound of a gayageum drifting from afar tickled her ears.
Hayun staggered and leaned against the railing for a moment.
“Phew……”
When she sighed, the hot alcohol fumes escaped along with her breath.
She had to get this drunk to forget, even if only for a moment.
The pressure of work, the task of finding the curved jade, the fact that she had been dropped into the Joseon era.
Although she pretended to be calm on the outside, an invisible pressure was always weighing heavily on her shoulders.
“Huh? Two moons? No, there’s only one.”
The full moon reflected in the lake was exactly the same as it had been two hundred years later… or now.
The only thing that had changed was Hayun’s circumstances.
That was when it happened.
“Huh?”
There was someone else standing in one corner of the rear garden besides her.
His face could not be seen because he was standing in the shadows, but his attire somehow looked familiar.
A moment later, moonlight brushed across his face, finally revealing his identity.
“Song Do-hyeon!”
Song Do-hyeon, whom Hayun had thought had returned to the lodgings, was standing in the rear garden.
A smile appeared at the corners of Hayun’s lips when she saw him.
“You bastard, you’re in for it today. Hic!”
Her alcohol-fueled intoxication, already at its peak, took control of her body.
She did not even think before speaking.
Her emotions simply burst out of her heart on their own.
“Hey, Mr. Song.”
“Mr. Song?”
“Yeah. You’re Mr. Song, aren’t you? What, are you Mr. Im?”
“What kind of absurdity is this…!”
Song Do-hyeon’s eyes were filled with unmistakable bewilderment at the form of address he had never heard before in his life.
“Tch…”
He was about to become furious, but when he saw Hayun completely drunk, he let out a long sigh as though she were pathetic.
“…You are drunk. Go inside.”
“Yeah, I’m drunk! So what are you gonna do about it? Hic!”
Using her drunkenness as an excuse, Hayun began spilling out all the thoughts she had kept bottled up until now.
“Song Do-hyeon. Don’t live your life so damn rigidly. Okay?”
“What did you say?”
“Enjoy yourself when you can. What are you going to do if something goes wrong with you later?”
“…What are you suddenly talking about?”
“No one knows how a person’s life can change overnight, you know?”
What Hayun was saying now was actually less advice directed at Song Do-hyeon than a confession to herself.
That night before she fell into Joseon.
If only she had listened when her friend Su-jin said, ‘How about leaving work early today, just for tonight?’ Or if only she had not forced herself to schedule that project so aggressively.
By now, perhaps she would have been attending the class reunion, laughing and chatting happily as she welcomed the end of the year.
Even her final thought at the moment she was struck by the truck had been, ‘What am I going to do about the work I have left?’
She had never regretted her past way of living so deeply.
Drawing upon her own experience, Hayun continued her advice.
“If you keep living like that, eventually there’ll be no one left beside you, you hear me? You’ll lose your friends, your family, everyone. Are you still okay with that?”
Perhaps because she was excited, the alcohol began to take effect even faster.
As her consciousness grew hazier, Hayun was no longer even aware of what she was saying.
“Your past? No matter how you lived in the past, none of that matters. What matters is right now. Right now.”
“…….”
Song Do-hyeon silently looked at Hayun.
An indescribably complicated emotion filled his eyes.
“So start living properly from now on. Otherwise, you’ll regret it terribly later. Remember what I’m telling you.”
“…….”
As though someone had seen straight through his innermost thoughts, Song Do-hyeon could not answer.
He simply listened quietly to Hayun’s words.
“Got it? You annoying bastard. Hmmnya……”
After delivering such a long-winded lecture, Hayun’s head slowly drooped.
Thump
And then she collapsed face-first against Song Do-hyeon’s chest.
Comments (0)