Minjae went still.

Sounds magnified, and the perception of time stretched, unfolding with agonising slowness. Every movement sharpened into a shard of feeling—the scarce droplets falling across from them on the rugged surfaces, the easing of the wind to a breeze, a wrap of gentle touch on the skin, the clouds floating leisurely, giving way to the pink and purple of the sky. Minjae's raw senses picked up the soft thuds of her fast heartbeats, and she had the strangest sensation of falling into an abyss.

Her muscles stretched across the cheekbones, her lips forming a listless smile. "Dari, I must say this is the most impressive suit I have ever received. It sounds quite sincere, too. Unfortunately, I would not be interested even if you had a name to give me."

Her reply raised a thick eyebrow. "What if I said you don't mean any of it?"

Minjae lifted a graceful shoulder, gave him a tight smile and looked him in the eye. "You can believe whatever you choose," Minjae said calmly.

If Seung was disappointed, his impassive face betrayed nothing. Instead, a lean, muscled shoulder rested against the closest rocky surface. "Why did you come here with me?"

"I was curious and wanted to spend time with your horse," Minjae said.

"I see."

"No, you don't see!" Her voice rose. She lifted her chin. "I am not interested in you!"

Seung took a long step, bringing himself face to face with her. "Repeat it," he said, his voice velvet soft.

Uncertainty flashed in her eyes, and she turned away.

"Why should I? This is silly! What's in there for me?" Her tone was clipped.

"So you are interested but want to bargain?" He asked wryly.

Minjae closed her eyes. Why was she unravelling so?

"Why would I want to commit to something so vague?" Minjae said, wanting to sound nonchalant. Seung didn't miss her averted eyes, a downward shift to her shoulders and an unnaturally loud ring to her usually gentle voice. "I have never claimed to compete for the chastity gate, but that does not mean I take on any company available. I am independent and can always find company if I want to. All kinds of company!" She said with an emphasis that made Seung cringe and smile simultaneously.

"Having my company will never interfere with your independence, Kim Minjae. By now, you should know I am not quite like my peers. Believe me when I say I understand your reluctance against long-term commitments. I have never made any, either. But would it be so bad if we tried it? I am not binding you to anything. Or do you believe a man and a woman cannot be together without giving a name to their relationship? What are you afraid of?"

My past.

"Nothing. Maybe I am interested in someone else," Minjae said, her spine stiff.

"True. You could be. But are you?"

Their eyes met. Seung held her gaze unwavering.

Memories sliced through her heart, her breath laboured, jabbing through her heart painfully, mercilessly, breaking through the facade she had erected so carefully over the years.

Her lashes swept down on her revealing eyes.

"I—I can't," she turned away and ran past him, her desperate footsteps muted on the smooth, wet floor.

She didn't get far. Fiercely possessive fingers encircled her wrist.

"Minjae, wait!"

She tugged at her hand but kept herself from looking at him.

"All right, as you wish. I will not force you. I am sure you have your reasons. But can we be friends?"

"Friends?"

Seung shrugged. "I do not see why not. It is also a relationship, though not the kind I had in mind."

Minjae blushed to her roots. "It can never be friendship if you are already coming in with the expectation that it will eventually be something more."

Seung let go of her hand and looked over at the sea. The grey was swirling away, the golden beams fighting through the foggy mist to shimmer on the cascade of the waterfall.

A soft smile played on Seung's lips. "Up in the north, I once came across a wild cat. I saw it sitting across from the road, longingly gazing into my one-room chamber. I gave it milk and made a small bed of straws. It refused to budge from its spot, though, no matter how much I whistled and called at it. God, you are stubborn."

The silence that followed his words was broken by something unexpected. Birds twittered, and a faint cry of pain whistled through the mellow breeze.

Every muscle in Seung's body tensed. He dropped his voice. "There is someone here. I will go check it out. You follow me slowly. If you sense danger, hide. I will find you."

Leaping with alacrity, Seung covered the ground and ate up the steps, hoping Minjae would follow his directions.

It took him barely minutes to reach his horse and see two small figures scrambling away, one nursing his rear. Their tiny legs were no match for Seung.

He seized them both by their collars, hoisting them into the air.

Two pairs of legs flailed helplessly. They squealed for forgiveness for crimes Seung didn't know about.

"Why did you run away after seeing me?"

He dropped them to the ground and stood over them. "What happened to your butt?"

The older of the two, barely a lad of ten, rubbed it desperately. Two wet tracks cleaved the grime of dirt-covered cheeks. "The beast bit it!" He spat.

"Were you here to steal the horse?" Seung raised his brows.

"We ain't no thief. We just wanted to see him walk."

Hiding a chuckle, Seung wore his most stern look. "How did you find us here?"

"We followed—" the younger one started, but the older one hit him in the stomach. The little boy grunted in protest.

"We just came to play and saw the horse," the older one supplied too quickly, his eyes darting sideways.

A cold shiver made its way down Seung's spine. He delved into his sleeve and retrieved a shiny coin.

"I am the Commander of this island. Tell me the truth, and I will let you go with this coin. If you lie, I will haul you to prison and -"

With eyes bulging in shock, the boys bent over their knees. "Let us go. We followed you because the lady said she would give us a cup of beans."

"Lady? What did she ask you to do?"

"She told us to tell her what we see. But we dinna see you, but we see the horse, so we pet it and try to make it walk, but it dinna like it, so it bit me -" the boy rambled on in fear and hope.

"Will you recognise the woman if you see her again?"

The boy lifted his hands and hooked them over his head, with fists down by the sides of his face in illustration. "Her face was covered," he explained.

Seung knelt and brought his face to the boy's level. "If you follow my directions, I will give you another coin, twenty cups of rice and ten cups of beans."

The dirt on their faces couldn't dim the luminosity of their small, shining eyes. The boys bobbed their heads vigorously.

"What are your names, and where do you live?"

Minutes later, Seung looked ahead, a pensive expression on his face, his hands encircling Minjae protectively as the horse trotted slowly, its muscles moving with rhythmic precision under their weight.

"Why do you think those two children followed you?" Minjae asked. She would die before admitting it, but it felt nice to have his arms around her. They reached the edge of the forest too soon.

He hoisted her down effortlessly.

Seung had not spoken a word.

Minjae felt out of depth. Their meeting had gone from personal and intimate to distant in a flash. She was not sure what to make of it. But then, she had never been this torn with her feelings.

She lapsed into silence as she fell into quiet steps by his side towards the village. Seung held the horse's reins in his hands, the gentle clopping of hooves echoing around them softly. Without looking at her, he asked, his hands gently running down the soft skin of the horse's crest, "Are you going to kite flying tomorrow?"

Minjae shook her head. "No, I must make a few urgent house calls for my patients. Also, the boats that arrived yesterday must be unloaded of their haul, so many women would have to stay back as well."

"Who did you go to visit today?"

Her face blossomed like the red of crimson peonies. "Kisaeng Han," her voice was barely audible.

He nodded. "Come to my chambers tomorrow around noon," he said, his expression inscrutable.

Her brows furrowed. "I am afraid not. I will not -"

Seung turned, his gaze dark and turbulent. "Those children were not following me, Kim Minjae. They were following you."

Her intake of breath sounded loud to her ears. "Did they tell you?"

Seung shook his head. "Those children came on foot, so they could not have followed me. The place I met you had no one around, and these two possibly hid behind bushes when Inspector KA met you. They possibly followed you from the village."

Her fingers automatically raised themselves to rub her forehead, which now hurt a little. "Do you think someone has caught the wind of our operations, Dari?"

"You are playing with fire, Minjae. The operation you run can be compromised on many levels and used in ways you cannot imagine."

"There are knowledgeable people involved, Dari, some more senior and experienced than you!" She countered hotly and then blushed.

His lips curved up in a tight smile." Do you mean Captain Park Jo Suk? Or Monk Choi?"

Aware that her mouth hung open quite unattractively, Minjae shut it quickly. Minjae knew it was futile even to ask him how he knew, but she needed to. "I am sorry, I meant no disrespect to you, Dari. How did you know?"

"You should be more worried about who else knows. Ganghwa is a small island where residents love to gossip. Do you think I didn't hear of your so-called relationship with the Captain? It was easy to piece it from there. Out of twenty-seven monks, three are from Tosan. Two have recently joined, so that leaves Monk Choi."

Her ears burned. "If - if you already heard about Captain and me, why have you been pursuing me?"

A ghost of a smile raised the corner of his lips. "Because your heart is not engaged with him."

Minjae raised a stubborn chin. "You cannot know that for sure!"

"If not true, then why do your eyes talk to me differently, Kim Minjae?" He asked softly. Without waiting for her answer, he ordered, "See me tomorrow in my chamber at noon. Take the market road and the path through the hospital; it's the most crowded. Make sure no one follows you. Do not go out tonight; always have someone reliable next to you when stepping out. Also, if you have to go to the other villages, take someone with you."

She crossed her arms tightly over her chest and set her mouth in a thin line, her muscles wound in tense knots.

She reminded him of a wary gazelle.

"Minjae, I am only trying to help you. I do not understand everything yet, but I can sense danger. I speak to you as someone responsible for the safety of this island and its inhabitants."

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Minjae looked away and started walking without another word. Her chest felt tight. She looked ahead, treading the soft path towards the village, unseeing the green foliage around them, her pores alive and awake with awareness of the amazing man walking by her side.

A man who had her heart. A man who could never know.

It was her secret, and it would stay that way. Her existence depended on it.

"I will come first thing tomorrow morning. It will be safest at that time," Minjae bowed to him, disappearing down the street to where her house stood.

O Mahn Sik grinned at his comely wife, his large hands knotting the ropes around the stakes with surprising dexterity. The boats bobbed in happiness on the gentle laps of the ocean, forgiving it for the tumultuous throes of fury it had subjected them to only hours ago.

Kim Da Bom glowed pink under her massive, swarthy-skinned husband's appreciating eyes. Her dress was drenched in saltwater, her wet feet coated with coarse sand, and her expert hands deftly adjusted the ropes that secured the boats.

"We made a good catch, wife. We have two large hauls of jo-gi (yellow corvina/croaker) for which the nobles will pay good money."

Da Bom flashed her famous smile at him. Young Kim Da Bom had been a lyrical beauty, her dancing drawing scores of admirers at the Kisaeng House, where O Mahn Sik had met her fourteen years ago. Tall and lissome, the sixteen-year-old Kim da Bom had bewitched her audience with her moves, but it was her wide smile, with a perfect set of teeth and two enchanting dimples, that had mesmerised him. The eighteen-year-old had decided on that day he was going to marry her.

"Don't they look adorable?" Im Ji Won gushed, nudging Minjae.

"Look! There is a rainbow!" A child interrupted happily, dancing and clapping her hand at the vibrant arc across the canvas of the sky, a magnificent spectrum of colours stretching from one end of the horizon to the other.

Minjae smiled at Im Ji Won, and looked at the couple she owed so much to. O Mahn Sik and Kim Da Bom were the rainbow of her life. However, a slight twinge pinched her heart as Seung's face intruded on her thoughts. Stop! She bit her cheek to prevent herself from fantasising about the impossible.

Minjae and Im Ji Won joined the women, sorting the catch that the men unloaded in batches after securing their boats. Each had a basket on their side as they quickly worked through the pile before them. With practised hands, the women expertly sorted through the freshly hauled fish, each meticulously examined for size, species, and quality, their movements swift and efficient.

Some women deftly wielded sharp knives, skillfully filleting larger catches. Minjae knew some of them would appear on the inn's menu in the evening.

"O Mahn Sik, you did well with gudeungeo (mackerel) and myeongtae (Pollack)," Aunt In Dah hollered, never miserly either with her praise or her cooking. At forty-and-five years, Aunt In Dah was a petite, sharp-featured woman with steel for a spine. She had never married; instead, she chose to care for young Kim Minjae and her brother Kim Sun Woo. Their mother's younger sister, Jung In Dah was fifteen years older than Da Bom and had been in love with her brother-in-law, Kim Seo Jun, for as long as anyone could remember.

In Dah had stepped in when her older sister had died in a freak accident that had also sent Kim Seo Jun into a coma for more than a year. Kim Minjae had been three, and Kim Sun Woo was only a few months old. Unable to sustain the family without an income, their grandmother sold Kim Da Bom to the Kisaeng house. When Kim Seo Jun recovered, already heartbroken from losing his soulmate, the loss of his daughter to a disreputable life had all but broken him. He refused to speak with his mother and ignored In Dah, never forgiving them.

In Dah had made peace with his hatred and didn't let it discourage her from caring for the youngsters. She raised Sun Woo as her own. At nineteen, Sunwoo had grown up to be a fine lad and had a knack for the sea, sailing with his brother-in-law from a very young age.

"You can preserve enough to last the entire village through the next winter, Aunt In Dah!" O Mahn Sik gave Aunt In Dah his most enchanting smile.

Sun Woo sat beside his Aunt, an adoring expression on his face.

"Aunt In Dah has pickled the jar of kimchi for you," Minjae told him fondly and watched with indulgence as he threw his arms around the woman who was the only mother he had known since birth.

"Nam Da-Mi, did you get the candles and the yarns? Get the rest of the girls to prepare the prayer table for the night," Kim Da Bom instructed the petite girl. Minjae watched Da Mi with interes as she hurried away. She was still distant from Minjae. She would have to speak with Da Mi soon.

Fishers would gather at night to offer prayers and sacrifices to divine spirits to keep the men and food safe from the storms and to prevent the spirits from subjecting the islanders to their divine malevolence.

Their kitchen would teem with fish that evening, and people would sweep in on the morrow to get them fresh in the markets. The best of the lot, of course, would leave for Hanyang. And KA Min-Kyu would be hovering on each basket, greedily eyeing to pilfer money through as many penalties as he could muster on minor pretexts under the guise of 'inspecting' them. The tax inspector from the Governor's office would be there, too. He was a kindly, honest man and did his best to minimise the damage Inspector KA caused to the poor fishermen.

At least tomorrow, KA would be too busy to follow her.

Was he the one to have her followed, though?

Tip-toeing, Minjae returned the jar of soy sauce to its shelf, picked up the spatula, and turned the fish over with soft hands, mixing the garlic, onion, and chilli paste seasoning with the oil over the fish raised on a bed of onions and daikon. It was still dark, and loud snores made the early hours seem more lazy than they were.

Minjae stoked the fire, her mind travelling to Seung. She was curious about so many things. Did he rise early? Did he like his tea hot? Did he love spicy food, or did he like his food bland? She gave the fish she was cooking a once over. She would know soon. Minjae carefully mixed the grounded fish in the bowl before her, sprinkling a liberal quantity of soy sauce.

"I know you like cooking, my dear little sister, but I have never seen you in the kitchen this early, ever," Kim Da Bom's muted voice cut through the pristine morning silence like a blade. Minjae jumped, and the spoon in her hand clattered to the floor.

"And I have never seen you rise this early when brother-in-law is home," Minjae retorted tartly. She picked the spoon, wiped it, scooped the fish mixture onto a bed of rice, and transferred the ball to a box, neatly arranging a few more next to it.

Kim Da Bom trotted to the jug of water and poured herself a bowl. Her sleepy eyes became large as saucers. "You are cooking Jogi? For whom?"

Minjae wasn't sure how to explain the heat that seared her cheeks and ears in the cold of the dawn. "It's for a patient," she said, a little too offhandedly.

"Are you insane? Should your patient not be paying you? You are cooking a fortune for them. That fish is one year's worth of treatment for most!"

"I have already kept the money in the box for this fish, so no need to worry. And it's tax-free money," Minjae said defensively.

"Don't be silly!" Gulping the water in one go, Da Bom kept the bowl down and then whisked the spoon out of Minjae's hand, dipping it into the fish cooking on the stove. She closed her mouth on the spoon.

"Minjae, you need to cook more. This is divine."

Minjae snatched the spoon back. "No more steal tasting. I need this fish cooked to perfection."

Kim Da Bom grabbed Minjae by the shoulder. "What is going on, Jaeyiya? You have been behaving strangely for the last few days. And you are acting out of character. Last night, you kept looking around the inn as if waiting for someone and didn't even notice the crowd you usually run away from. You conveyed the wrong orders and delivered them to the wrong tables. You haven't done that since that first month you started helping me out."

Instead of answering her, Minjae raised her shoulder, half rotated it to slide out of Da Bom's grasp, took the pan off the small mud stove, and gently transferred the fish to a medium-sized pot. She cut a path diagonally to the other end of the kitchen, returning with a cloth. She laid it on the floor, placed the pot in the centre, pulled two corner ends over each other and secured them, repeating the process with the remaining two ends. She then took the blowpipe and blew into the fire, crackling steadily in the stove. She pushed a few more pieces of wood into it.

"The fire will hold strong for at least a couple of hours. I am going to boil some water. You can use it for a bath if you like. I took out the tub last night and kept it by the wall of your room. Brother-in-law might need it. I also saw some sores in his arms. Run it by Abuji."

Kim Da Bom rolled her eyes. "Stop being my mother. And don't you dare evade the question," she warned. "Is it the new Commander?"

Minjae was not surprised Kim Da Bom had already caught on to it. Still, she wasn't the one who divulged anything private unless it was a matter of life and death.

Arranging her face in a placid expression of disinterest, Minjae placed the cauldron of water on the stove. "What makes you say something so outlandish?"

Kim Da Bom looked fetching in the misty glow of the lantern lights. Her tall, voluptuous form was clad in a cream hanbok, her hair running freely down her back. Minjae always thought she was someone created to be loved by men. However, underneath that beautiful body lay a mind as sharp as a cat's claw.

"Suji isn't the only one who has noticed a few things, though she is the one who talks the loudest" Kim Da Bom studied her nails, picking a speck of dirt from underneath them. She walked over to a large jar, took out a small clay pot and filled it with freshly made kimchi Aunt In Dah had deposited in their kitchen the previous morning. She handed the pot to Minjae. "Is he someone you know from before?"

Minjae's hands slipped from the pot, but Kim Da Bom had not fully let it go, so it lived to see another day. Ashen, Minjae kept her eyes lowered. "Minjae!" Worried, Kim Da Bom clasped her wrist, peering closely at her.

"I need to go, Unnie," Minjae picked up the wrapped pot and placed it in a cloth bag, sliding the small pot of kimchi inside it. Next, she placed the box of rolled rice and fish.

"Not before you tell me what is making you lose your sleep at night. You have barely eaten anything in the last few days."

Minjae looked at the older woman, her gaze stark with emotions. "I am trying to snatch moments of reality from a world of illusions. Please don't ask any more questions. It's best if you didn't know."

Kim Da Bom watched the young woman leave, her lips pursed thoughtfully. She poured another bowl of water and carried it to her chamber.

"Where did you go?" Her husband murmured sleepily, dragging her beside him and pulling the cover over them. O Mahn Sik did not wait for an answer, kissing her lips deeply. She felt soft and warm. She felt like home. "I missed you, wife," he said.

"I missed you too, my beast," Kim Da Bom sighed against him as the big man entered her, his movements urgent, rough, rapturous. She wrapped herself around him, his coarse beard tickling her skin, her long-deprived body loving the attention.

As they lay spent, O Mahn Sik clasped her hand in his. "Why the crease on your forehead, my beautiful wife?"

"It's Minjae."

"What happened? I thought she was doing fine. She looks well settled in now. She has at least grown some flesh and does not look like a skeleton anymore."

Kim Da Bom swatted her husband's hand. "Don't be mean!"

O Mahn Sik sighed. Minjae always reminded him of a shy, fragile fawn. Albeit one with a very beautiful face, but still a fawn. He was pretty fond of the chit and felt protective of her like a big brother. "What is worrying you?"

"I do not know. Minjae has been behaving differently. She seems...lost somehow. I think she is interested in a man."

That surprised O Mahn Sik. He locked his hands beneath his head and looked up at the ceiling. "Kim Minjae? You must be wrong. She looks at all men as if they have crawled from under a rock."

"She does not!" Kim Da Bom was instantly defensive.

"Look at you, woman! For someone who once wanted to kill her for existing, you can now kill for her. I accept Abuji and me as exceptions, and she has bestowed a few kindly looks on Captain Park, but you know it's true."

"So you don't think there was anything between Captain and her?"

"Nah!"

Kim Da Bom chewed on the thought.

"Quit overthinking and come here. I need you again."

"Sheesh! Minjae prepared for your bath. It will be ready in an hour."

"I can think of using that time for some interesting things I have been fantasising about in the last two months of hanging out with those boors at sea, and I am already dreading heading out next week. So let's not waste time."

"You are a beast!" His wife cooed delightedly and forgot all about Kim Minjae as her husband swaddled her with his body.

Seung gaped at the spread in front of him. "How early did you rise to cook all this?"

Minjae trampled a smile, arranging her face into serene lines. "I rise early and need sustenance. Given I didn't know how much time I would have to spend answering your annoying questions, I decided to ensure I didn't spend the time irritated and hungry."

Her face was fresh and dewy in the breaking dawn lights, the graceful curves of her high cheekbones reflecting twin peaks of infused glow. She was clad in an unusual shade of pale pink that looked so soft that it could almost be white. Seung felt a spurt of warm emotion rushing through his blood.

"Ah! I agree. Being hungry can add to one's vexation. But I do have food here, you know."

"I didn't know you fed people you brought in for questioning," Minjae quipped.

"What do you take me for? Moreover, I don't bring people here for questioning. I only bring friends here," Seung said, and she could tell without looking at him that he was smiling.

Seung's attendant arranged plates and cups on the large table between them. Minjae poured them tea once the man closed the door behind him.

Minjae held her breath as she watched Seung spoon in a mouthful of fish. His eyes widened. "You cooked this?" Without waiting for her answer, he dug back in, eating with a gusto that brought a smile to her face. "This is incredible. Your husband must have been the stupidest man on this planet to let someone like you leave," Seung observed between mouthfuls.

His spoon froze midair, dismay filling him as the pink of her hanbok transferred to her cheeks and then receded with the same speed as it had climbed.

"I am sorry, Physician Kim, that was dense of me," he said.

Minjae shook her head. "It's all right, Dari. I do not mind. If I had been smart enough, I would not have been in this position in the first place."

"Minjae, you need to stop blaming yourself for being a victim. It might not have even occurred to you that you could do things differently."

Minjae gave him a sad look. "Yes, it never occurred to me that I could do things differently back then."

"You were a child," Seung said kindly.

"More than that, I was naive and thought I was doing what I was supposed to do. I was ready to endure—" she cut her sentence short, returning her focus to the plate of food before her.

The next couple of hours flew by. Seung could not help but admire her spirit and courage. He had pieced most of it together, but to hear her say it felt different.

Using the gold Minjae had managed to smuggle with her when she escaped, she had joined hands with the local temple monks and saved young abused women wherever in the country they could. They mainly used navy ships run by naval Captain Park Hyun Ki to bring the girls to the island to escape the notice of authorities at Ganghwa and set up safe passage through small boats across the East Sea and the rivers running through the country. Five powerful noblemen helped their cause, and several commoner families whose daughters had been rescued eventually joined the cause.

"That is why you could send help to Wonsanjin so quickly," Seung observed.

"Yes. Places are faster to reach if we use different modes of transport for each leg."

"What made you start this?"

Minjae reached for a teapot and poured Seung a cup before filling the delicate white china on her side of the table. She nursed it gently in between her palms.

"I came upon a young girl once in the woods behind the temple in Mount Taekbasan. She was being -" she paused, looking down and staring at the two leaves that had made their way to her cup - "she was being punished for her crime. Her crime had been to fall prey to the master of the house's lust, get violated by him, and bear his child, only to face retribution when her pregnancy became evident. They were doing it on the orders of the master's wife in a forest so they would not be discovered."

"How did you stop them?" Seung was fascinated.

A tremulous smile crossed her face, her eyes soft, her face acquiring the gentleness of a very young girl. "I made so much noise that the men ran away. The next morning, with Abuji and the monks help, we hid the girl and created a story of her escape. She stayed with the monks for a month before they found a place for her and sent the child to be raised as an eunuch in the Palace. It was the best we could do at that time."

Seung nodded.

"How do you place them?"

"We kill their present self and give them dead people's identity," Minjae said, confirming the last of Seung's hunches.

"I know you have more than one conduit on the island. I have figured out most. But it's not always possible to meet in the forest."

Minjae sighed.

"It's Kisaeng Han, isn't it?"

"And two others," she said. Then she raised her eyes. "And my Abuji, my sister and my brother-in-law. Nam Dami was the first woman I sheltered in Ganhwa. She was rescued by boatmen in Hanyang."