Chapter 23
“Ahh, my head……”
Her head felt like it was splitting apart.
The ceiling was spinning round and round.
Hayun lay there blankly for quite a while before finally managing to sit up.
“Ugh……”
Then, instinctively, she reached out, grabbed the glass of water on the table, and drank it down.
Gulp, gulp.
Only after drinking the water did she finally feel somewhat alive again.
“Phew.”
Hayun rubbed her forehead and muttered,
“How did I get back yesterday?”
She tried to retrace her memories, but nothing in particular came to mind.
It was the first time she had ever gotten this drunk.
Having always prided herself on not having any bad drinking habits, the current situation felt all the more shocking.
“Good grief, look at me. I fell asleep without even changing my clothes?”
She was still wearing the same clothes she had worn when she went out yesterday.
They were a little disheveled, but fortunately, there were no signs that someone had undone them or anything like that.
Hayun tried to search her memories once more.
“The last thing I remember from yesterday……”
No matter how much she rummaged through her memories, nothing came to her.
She remembered drinking with the haengsus. But after that, everything was hazy, as though a fog had descended over her memories.
“Phew… I’ll wash up first and think about it afterward.”
Unable to recall anything, Hayun got up and headed toward the well.
***
Several people had already gathered by the well.
“Oh? Isn’t that Ha-seong?”
“It really is.”
They were all the haengsus who had shared drinks with her the previous night.
They warmly welcomed Hayun.
“Hey, Ha-seong. Good morning.”
“Oh, hello…”
“How are you feeling?”
“Huh? I’m… fine?”
Her speech was awkwardly caught somewhere between formal and informal. Yet just last night, they had clearly spoken to one another without any restraint.
Once the alcohol wore off, Hayun had returned to the way things were at the beginning, as though none of that had ever happened.
The downside of alcohol was that it erased everything.
Words and actions… Even memories and promises.
In the end, Han Seong-deok, unable to bear watching Hayun like this, approached her.
“Why are you suddenly speaking formally? Don’t you remember that we agreed to speak casually yesterday?”
“Did I……?”
Hayun tilted her head.
Then Han Seong-deok said,
“If you don’t remember, I guess I’ll have to take you back to Cheongunru. I’ll feed you as much as you want again until you remember.”
At those words, Hayun’s mind suddenly snapped back to reality.
“Ah, I remember! I remember! Han Seong-deok! Your name was Seong-deok, right?”
“Huh. Looks like your memory has finally returned.”
“But how did I get back yesterday?”
Hayun rubbed her forehead as though she had a headache.
“I remember giving each of you a drink… but after that, my memory gets hazy.”
At those words, Han Seong-deok’s eyes widened.
“Didn’t Do-hyeon tell you? Do-hyeon carried you back.”
“Song Do-hyeon?”
At the revelation that Song Do-hyeon had carried her, a blush appeared on Hayun’s face.
“That annoying bastard… no, Haengsu Song carried me back?”
“Yeah. It was quite a scene. When I went to the rear courtyard, you were fast asleep in Do-hyeon’s arms.”
“Crazy, I was asleep in that guy’s arms?”
Hayun’s cheeks became so red they seemed to burn.
It felt as though the alcohol she had drunk yesterday was rising all over again.
“So I simply asked him to take you back to the quarters. Seeing you awake like this, I guess he got you back safely.”
“I must’ve been crazy. Completely crazy.”
Hayun covered her face with both hands.
The embarrassment came rushing in belatedly.
At the same time, fragments of the previous night’s memories faintly resurfaced.
The warm embrace, the dependable shoulders, the sound of breathing brushing against her ears. Everything she had thought was a dream had actually been real.
‘Could it be?’
Then, suddenly, one thought flashed through her mind.
‘He didn’t realize I’m a woman, did he?’
There were no signs that anyone had touched her body, but she still felt uneasy.
If her identity had been discovered, this wasn’t something she could simply let slide.
If Song Do-hyeon reported her, she’d have to go back to prison.
‘That bastard is more than capable of doing that.’
Thinking of Song Do-hyeon’s personality, Hayun nodded.
In the end, Hayun decided to go find him.
“So where is Haengsu Song right now?”
“Who knows? He should be in the study. He’s always been fond of reading.”
Im Sang-ok had prepared a separate space where anyone could learn to read, regardless of their social status.
Hayun was also studying Chinese characters there whenever she had the opportunity.
“The study… All right. Thanks.”
Having learned that Song Do-hyeon was in the study, Hayun immediately headed there.
***
“There he is.”
Perhaps because it was a day off, Song Do-hyeon was the only one in the study.
In fact, even when it wasn’t a day off, not many people visited the study. At most, three or four people a day.
After finishing a hard day’s work, most people thought of a refreshing cup of makgeolli first; few thought of a book they hadn’t finished reading the day before. That was why the study was always quiet.
And in the middle of it sat Song Do-hyeon.
“What book does he read all the time?”
After spotting Song Do-hyeon, Hayun approached him.
Then she held out what she had prepared.
“Thanks for yesterday.”
“What is this?”
Song Do-hyeon asked while looking at Hayun.
His reaction was quite different from yesterday, when he hadn’t even spared her a glance.
“Yakgwa.”
“Why are you giving me this…?”
Hayun squirmed awkwardly before saying,
“I heard you carried me back yesterday.”
“Ah, that?”
Song Do-hyeon turned his head away again, pretending to be indifferent.
“It was nothing, so don’t worry about it. I only did it because I lost a bet.”
Song Do-hyeon instinctively fabricated a lie.
It was a habit ingrained in him to hide his emotions.
Hayun asked with a surprised expression,
“A bet?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of bet?”
At Hayun’s curious question, Song Do-hyeon turned his gaze back toward her.
“Phew.”
Song Do-hyeon looked directly at Hayun.
“How long it would take you to pass out.”
“What?”
Song Do-hyeon spoke with a cold gaze.
“We made a bet over how much alcohol you’d drink yesterday.”
“You made a bet over me?”
Hayun looked considerably shocked by the fact that they had made a bet involving her.
“I thought you’d last at least ten cups, but you collapsed before that… Tch, what’s the use of being so weak to alcohol?”
“……!”
Hayun’s face flushed red.
Song Do-hyeon continued bluntly,
“So don’t go drinking carelessly somewhere. Unless you want to trouble me again.”
“What?”
She had gone all the way there to thank him, only for him to pick a fight with her like this.
Faced with their relationship reverting right back to the way it had been at the beginning, Hayun turned away in disgust.
“Honestly, I came all this way just to thank you, and all you can do is mock me. I’m done with you forever! Done!”
With those final words, Hayun turned her back on him.
Song Do-hyeon watched her with an indifferent gaze.
That was when…
Facing Hayun’s back, Song Do-hyeon quietly murmured,
“Im Ha-seong.”
There was no reaction from Hayun.
It wasn’t a voice so quiet that she couldn’t hear it.
It was simply soft enough that she could have let it pass without consciously paying attention.
But no matter how faint the voice was, it was difficult to ignore the name she had originally been given.
When Hayun showed no reaction, Song Do-hyeon tried calling her by another title.
“Hey, Haengsu Im.”
“What? What now?”
Only then did Hayun turn around.
Her face was filled with irritation.
“Why are you calling me all of a sudden? If you have something to say, just say it all at once. Why call me back just when I’m trying to leave?”
“…….”
Song Do-hyeon silently stared at Hayun.
Her eyes, nose, and mouth.
The more closely he examined each feature, the more excessively well-proportioned they seemed. For a man, her features were unusually delicate. The longer he looked, the more an inexplicable sense of incongruity lingered.
Under his penetrating gaze, Hayun hesitated for a moment.
“What? Is there something on my face?”
Song Do-hyeon shook his head.
“No, nothing. I must have been mistaken.”
“Ah, seriously!”
Hayun’s irritation finally exploded.
“If you stop me one more time, I’m warning you, I won’t let it slide. Got it?”
With that fearsome warning, Hayun stormed out of the study.
“Seriously, what a weird guy!”
Song Do-hyeon stared at her departing figure for a long time.
***
Some time later, it was time for the meeting in the main hall.
All the haengsus, including Daebang Im Sang-ok, had gathered together without exception.
“Now that the dried yellow croaker issue has been resolved…”
Im Sang-ok calmly began.
“Jeopjang Yoon. What goods do we urgently need to deal with now?”
Jeopjang Yoon spoke.
“There are no items that require immediate urgent attention.”
“That’s fortunate.”
“However……”
“However?”
Jeopjang Yoon scratched his head as though he had a headache.
“The overall market situation isn’t good.”
“The market situation? Why is that?”
Jeopjang Yoon explained the reason.
“Apparently, because of the continuing heat wave, people aren’t coming out to the markets at all. As a result, market merchants’ sales have apparently been cut nearly in half.”
“Cut in half!”
The news that sales had been reduced by half caused a commotion throughout the main hall.
“Unless we get some rainy weather… If this continues, we’ll be affected as well.”
“Is that so?”
“Our inventory is already piling up in the warehouses. We still have some room for now, but they’ll be completely full before long. Then we’ll have no choice but to sit around twiddling our thumbs.”
Mansang was similar to a modern-day middleman in the distribution industry.
They purchased high-quality goods from all over the country, passed them on to merchants, and made a profit from the difference.
If those merchants couldn’t make money, it was only natural that Mansang’s sales would decline as well.
No, in reality, Mansang could be said to be taking the greatest hit.
The merchants could simply stop taking any more goods, but Mansang’s cash flow, which needed to continuously circulate supplies, would become blocked.
For a large merchant organization, having its funds tied up was no different from its blood stopping.
“This is quite a serious problem.”
The atmosphere in the main hall was heavy.
Goods could be sold somehow. By lowering the price or going around personally to find buyers. But getting customers who had stopped coming out because of the heat to return was an entirely different matter.
Even now, early in the morning, the oppressive heat could already be felt. In weather like this, it would be all too easy to collapse from heatstroke after the slightest exertion.
That was why it was difficult to see people even wandering the streets, let alone visiting the markets.
But they couldn’t simply wait around like this forever. Whether by holding a rain prayer ceremony or advertising, they urgently needed to find some way to draw people back to the markets.
“Jeopjang Yoon.”
“Yes, Daebang-nim.”
“How many markets are there currently in Uiju in total?”
“If we count both the large and small ones, around thirty.”
“Thirty…”
Im Sang-ok slowly closed his eyes, seemingly deep in thought.
A brief period of contemplation followed.
After a while, Im Sang-ok finally spoke.
“Then let’s do this.”
“How?”
“Let’s have each haengsu take charge of one market.”
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