"V-Voyage?"

"Yes. My dutiful, obedient daughter, who never raised her eyes, never smelled a flower without permission, never once sought to eat anything more than she was offered, suddenly developed this audacious ambition. It made me think. However, before I decide where to send you, I must know. Why have you been so adamant about dissolving this marriage?"

Ji-na struggled to comprehend her father’s words. Was he sending her away?

Choi Si-wan closed the gap between him and his daughter. He hunched down before her. He drew her right hand, opening her palm. Ji-na cried out as a wave of unbearable agony hit her at the stretching of her arm., the gashes on her back whiplashing her mercilessly. She gasped, tears falling freely.

"You did not protest the marriage as much. Yet you are bent upon the divorce, even though you know how much I can make you suffer." He gently kept her hand back, laying it on a soft, yellow and gold cushion.

"Daughter, I do not want you to suffer. So could you not make me? I want you to tell me what you are hiding from me."

Ji-na was tired and terrified.

"Scholar Lee saved me from the men who hurt me," she said in a feeble, rasping voice, all fight drained out of her.

Her father didn't seem surprised. Instead, he gave her a smile.

"Does he know who he saved?"

Ji-na shook her head. "He has not seen my face, Father. And I did not realise it was him until the ceremony." She closed her eyes, desperately wanting to lie down to ease the pain and burning.

"So why do you want to stay away from him?"

"Because," Ji-na paused, drawing on a pain-filled breath, "he w-will know."

"But you said he never saw your face."

Fresh tears spilled. "He....he..." Ji-na sobbed, drawing a hand across her chest protectively, a fiery tide of shame drowning her pain, "saw the scratches on..on my b-body."

There was a long silence. Choi Si-wan walked away and stood before a large painting, his hands fisted behind his back. A porcelain vase covered the canvas in vivid blue and white. It was filled with flowers that were rich yet obscure in colour. A striking cotton rose lay by the side of the vase. Pink. Vibrant. Lovely. Lonely.

"Scholar Lee saw your bare skin," Choi observed. "And he was not the only one to see the daughter of the eminent scholar, Right Minister, Councillor Choi Si-wan of Jeseon, unclothed."

Ji-na half sobbed, half moaned, her skin crawling at the memory, tremors wracking her body. "I am sorry, Father, I failed you."

"So, before he could throw you out for coming to him ruined, you decided to leave him," Lord Choi observed in a contemplative tone.

"I-I'm sorry," she hiccuped.

Lord Choi returned to his daughter. He placed his palms on both sides of her face lightly. "No, no, you should not be sorry. You ruined yourself, but you saved my honour. Now, I understand. You have been doing this to prevent me from ruin. I am proud of you."

Ji-na stared at her father through the veil of tears, robbed of speech, feeling a faint thump of joy at the words she never thought her father could utter.

"We now must make sure it stays that way, right?"

Uncertain, Ji-na gave a slight nod.

"Why do you not go and rest?" Her father smiled.

Back in her room, Ji-na sagged with relief. She did not know what her father meant, but she was too tired and in too much pain to think.

She slept.

∞

Lee Seung placed the last piece of clothing in his carry chest and straightened, looking around to ensure he had packed everything.

"Oraboni, will you not think on this one more time?" Gil-ae asked.

"Looks like you are quite taken with Hanyang," Seung said. "Or maybe it is someone in Hanyang you are not telling me about?".

"Oraboni!" Gil-ae blushed. "How can you utter such improper words for your sister?"

Lee Seung walked over and placed a hand on his sister's head, patting the blue baetssi daenggi at the top of her parted hair. His little sister, he thought fondly, always the optimist, carrying forward through all obstacles with easy laughter and a sparkle in her eyes. "If you indeed find someone your heart desires, bring him to me."

"Oraboni, why are you in such a scandalous mood?"

Seung laughed, walking back to the large box lying open on the floor. "What can I do, little sister? Scandal seems to be a sweet bedfellow for me nowadays."

"Why can you at least not try the exam?"

"If you were me, would you like to work for someone like that one horned clown?"

Gil-ae burst out laughing at her brother's nickname for Lord Choi and then chided him, "You must be respectful towards elders."

"You mean I need to find more respectful names to insult?"

More laugher. "Come to think of it, his nose does look like a horn."

The siblings dissolved into another bout of laughter.

"Do you truly mean to switch to the army, Oraboni?"

"I am afraid so. I should have done it earlier. I am a better fighter than a scholar. I have had enlightenment recently. Sitting behind books and discussing how to make people who are already suffering suffer more is not something I enjoy. And anyway, Joseon needs more people to fight."

"I just wish we could do something to make Omoni feel better," Gil-ae said.

"I know, but this is the best path forward. Hanyang has nothing for us," Seung put everything he had in him to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He looked at his sister earnestly, "And I promise not to die."

Gil-ae harrumphed, and then her brows furrowed, her eyes fixed on a vague spot behind Seung.

"Out with it," Seung said. He knew his sister too well.

"Oraboni, would you not even consider speaking to sister-in-law at least once?"

Seung sighed. He creaked his neck, trying to relieve the ache of stress that had been sitting on his shoulder for the past week. Sunlight streamed through the windows, spreading the magic of light on all spaces and forcing dark corners to abandon their secrets. Jo Hee Bong had procured this small but adequate cottage for Seung when he had first moved to Hanyang five months ago. This was the only thing he would miss about the accursed capital.

The scarred man's face flashed into his mind. And the chance to hunt for his father's killer.

He had always been an optimist by nature. Even though a thirst to find his father's assassins had consumed a good part of his life, he had not let the bitterness overshadow his natural effervescence. He was wise enough to understand what happened to him was not the world's fault.

"If she had wanted to come to me, she would have, Gil-ae."

"You threatened her with divorce if she came to you. Why would she?"

Seung didn't reply. He had been furious. He could not forgive them for ruining his sister's future. However, he had also calmed down since. As Gil-ae had pointed out after he returned from a disastrous visit to King Injo's court the previous day, she was not particularly unhappy about not marrying into a stuffy Yangban family. She would be happy to marry a kind, honest villager who would understand that a few hours of imprisonment for a misunderstanding outside her control did not amount to anything. Seung had no doubt such people existed. It would not have mattered to him either, and it would be arrogant of him to think he was the only such man existing in Joseon. "I like our village so much more than this big city. Everything here is too bright, too big, too much, too everything," she had chirped.

But his pride dictated that Choi Ji-na at least made one sincere attempt at reconciling, an attempt that would be more than the dishonest letter she had written.

"Right from the beginning, she has acted strange. Gil-ae, I still do not know what she looks like."

His sister's shock came out in a loud, audible gasp.

"It's better if we forget this sordid chapter. I may return a few years later when Choi Ji-na has grown up. Perhaps, by then, she will have outgrown whoever has taken her fancy currently and behave in the fashion a good wife should."

Gil-ae's face broke out in happiness at his unexpected words. "So you do not mean to divorce?"

Seung shrugged. "I do not know what I want Gil-ae. But I do not intend to remarry even if our union is dissolved. So there is no hurry for anything, is there?"

"Oraboni, at least send her a message through Lady Kim, her best friend. Maybe she had a reason for staying out unchaperoned for so long at night. Maybe she was home without anyone knowing it. Maybe she truly has changed her mind. We do not know. Even if she likes someone else, it's not like she can remarry after a divorce."

Now that the finality of leaving Hanyang had come upon them, a strange restlessness had settled upon Seung. Marriage was a sacred act. Even though he had been treated like dirt, he still felt responsible toward the woman he married.

She has been adequately punished.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

His insides had crawled at those words. Rumours of Kord Choi being a cruel man had started filtering to him. He could not help but feel a slight wisp of worry.

From his perspective, Lord Choi seemed to have given a lot of freedom to Choi Ji-na, and she felt entitled to behave like a spoiled brat. Yet that was not how anyone who knew Choi Ji-na had described her. The puzzle didn't fit.

But then, no one really knew her well enough to form a definite opinion. He shook his head as if that would somehow disperse the cloud of confusion surrounding him.

"All right. Just one last time. And no matter what the reply, I will not stay in Hanyang."

Her sister had clapped her hands in glee and run out to inform their mother.

They had waited with bated breath for the reply.

It had arrived early morning three days later.

"Dear Husband, I am relieved you reached out to me privately. I regret the previous letter. I had to pen the false words under my father's coercion. My feelings have remained steadfast. You do not interest me at all. I do not wish to meet you. Please relinquish the thought of having me as your wife. I would have come to court, but Father prevented me. I beg you to proceed with the dissolution of our union. Perhaps, if we are fortunate, His Majesty will grant it in absentia next time. Please do not contact me again. Choi Ji-na."

The handwritten note had been similar, yet different from her previous notes, the handwriting more flowery, the language bold. Lee Seung crushed it in his hand. Anger and humiliation had swept through him anew. But more than that, he hated himself for raising his mother's hopes. Never again.

It occurred to him that not only did he not know what his wife looked like, but he was not even sure what her handwriting looked like anymore. He seemed to have married a shadow.

∞

The boat, a poetic silhouette of lines and curves against the shimmering silvery reflections on the surface of the moonlit river, drifted away from the safety of the shore. The gentle wind carried the sounds of the soft ripples the vessel left in its wake.

As the boat grew smaller and smaller, rowed by two people expertly, fading into the horizon, a man remained rooted on the riverbank, looking at it pensively. He felt something warm slide down his cheek. He had not cried since he was seven.

Kang Do had served his Master faithfully for thirty-five years. It was not just that he was their slave, but he owed his life to Lord Choi Si-wan. Beaten, brutalised and left for dead, the seven-year-old Kang Do had been rescued by Lord Choi, a mere thirteen-year-old at that time; Choi had not only rescued Kang Do at the peril of his own life but also ensured the little boy was cared for until he could limp his way back to health.

In return, Kang Do never hesitated to fulfil all the whims and fancies that his Master took to. Choi Si-wan was a good master and never trifled with help unless someone provoked him. But his cruelty seldom knew bounds when he was crossed. His first wife had been unable to give him an offspring. To dispel doubts that he was at fault, Lord Choi had Kang Do kidnap two poor women and kept them captive and raped them until they conceived. Once it was confirmed he was not at fault, Lord Choi fed the women potions that had them miscarry the babes, paid them off and silenced them at the peril of their lives. Satisfied with his findings, Choi had turned to his wife. "I will not divorce you. But I would be ashamed to be alive if I were you."

Two months later, her body had been found floating in their garden pond.

Kand Do sometimes wondered if there was something inhuman in Lord Choi. Yet just when he thought his Master's degeneration was limitless, he would be surprised.

Lord Choi had been a changed man around his second wife, Im Yoo-Joo. Intelligent, cheerful and kind, she had been a breath of fresh air in the mournful house. And for some unfathomable reason, she was not afraid of her husband, who was almost fifteen years her senior and was feared by everyone.

Lord Choi worshipped her.

Si-wan laughed more, looked years younger than his age, looked for ways to make his young wife happy and for a very short period, he did not order Kang Do to do anything unacceptable in the eyes of the law.

It was short-lived. In the third year of their marriage, she became pregnant.

Lord Choi had howled like a primitive beast and smashed his fist into the wall when she died. He had gone to see his wife's body and had looked at his newborn daughter with such feral hatred that it had turned Kang Do's blood cold. He was convinced that Lord Choi would have snuffed the life out of the baby had the lifeless hand of his beloved wife not been wrapped around her daughter protectively.

At the funeral, Lord Choi spied Yoo Joo's sister, who looked so much like his dead wife that it was scary. Within six months, he remarried.

Im Nabi, almost a split image of Yoo-Joo, was nothing like her sister. Hard, greedy, ambitious and mean, Kang Do had watched as she fed into his Master's monstrosity. He became more depraved with her, and although she hated his shadow, she welcomed it and even revelled in it. They were two sides of the same coin.

In all this, the only ray of light was Choi Ji-na. Exquisitely beautiful and painfully shy, the little girl had learned early on that the only way to safeguard herself from the vileness surrounding her was to make herself invisible. She had her mother's gentleness and intelligence, and she was kind. He recalled the day when, all of six years old, she had turned up in his small chamber with a bowl of brown mixture. "It will help your leg feel better, Kang Do." He had been overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of the little girl who thought of him as a human being rather than an inanimate means to an end.

"Where did you learn to make it?"

"Grandma makes it all the time for her maid," she had informed.

She doted on the only person who treated her like a living, feeling person, her half-brother, Choi Se-min, which is why he had not been surprised when head servant Da-Son had come with her worry days before Lady Choi was to wed.

"I think Master Se-min has been gambling again."

"Why do you say so?"

"I overheard some snippets about returning money to someone. I am scared that he wants Lady Choi to do it."

It seemed improbable that the shy, timid Lady Choi would even contemplate doing something so inconceivable. Yet, a niggling worry had taken him to her school, and he had watched in astonishment when he realised she had indeed sneaked out of there, dressed in her brother's clothes.

With an intent to stop her, he had followed her and had almost caught up to her. However, his injured leg had been uncommonly painful that day, and amidst the crowded streets, he repeatedly lost sight of her. Eventually, he spotted her on the other side of the road. Someone collided with him as he attempted to cross, causing him to stumble and be carried to the side by a bunch of bodies.

After that, there was a blur of motion around him. Shouts went up, people yelled, and someone pushed him. He landed painfully on his injured leg. He looked up just in time to see Ji-na crashing into a man, saving him from certain death from galloping horsemen in pursuit of someone.

He had lost her after that, but he had noticed the man Ji-na had saved pick up a pouch that belonged to the Choi household. Instinctively, he knew the man would follow Ji-na, and Kang Do trailed him.

His effort had taken him to the area of the gambling house, and though he had lost the blue hanbok clad man, he had heard the scream. His veins had turned to ice. He had tried to find the source of that scream, but all he could see were uninterested losers, hoodlums, deserted alleys and forbidding hills. Kang Do, terrified for her and desperate, had walked the length of the place.

Fear paralysed him when he saw the two thugs running down a hill.

The larger one was bleeding. "I told ye she be a yangban, ye should not have t'uched her," he mumbled, trying to stench the flow of blood from his mouth. "Her skin..so buttery...how we'r it to tuch?"

"Shut up," the shorter one had hissed.

To his immense relief, Kang Do then watched a familiar figure, clad in a dress she had not been wearing before, half running, half skidding down the hill, her face swamped with the jang-ot. The tall man with the blue hanbok followed her. Protectively.

Kang Do followed them to the square and watched as the two parted. He then followed a sobbing but visibly unhurt Ji-na to the school.

Or he had thought she was unhurt. Her integrity had led her to confess to her parents. And they had rewarded her honesty by burning her hand.

Cold with rage, he had returned to the gambling area and shed very little sweat finding the two thugs.

"Which of you touched My Lady?"

The giant charged. A quick slash at the side of his neck sent the brute crashing to the floor.

The shorter thug stood up from counting the nyangs on the round table in the shabby, dark chamber lit with a broken lamp.

Kang Do ran a finger on the edge of his knife and bent over the big man who was trying to stench the flow of blood from his neck with both his hands. "Whose filthy hand was it?"

"T'was him. I-I didn't tuch her, I only luked, only her boo-" he didn't get to finish as Kang Do's fist connected with his jaw. The man didn't even make a sound as he toppled over.

The shorter man, terror twisting his features grotesquely, shook with fear. "We didn't know she was a Yangban. We thought she was a thief. N-nothing happened. We didn't r-rape her. Some Yangban man came after her..." he rambled on nervously.

Kang Do walked to the side of the chamber and leaned against a broken rectangle table in a cobweb-covered corner. He tossed the knife in between the two thugs.

"You have one chance. Kill your partner. Whoever lives gets to leave."

Both men dove for the knife. Burly grabbed it and swung up, catching the shorter man in his lower stomach. He pulled it out and jabbed again, the shorter man slumping down, disbelief etched in his dying face.

The burly brute spat. "He w's a scoundrel. I told 'im not to tuch 'er."

Burly didn't see the blade coming, neatly slicing the rest of his neck. Kang Do pried open the lifeless palm of the shorter man, inserted the other knife, collected all the money in the decrepit chamber and left.

A loud splash by a flapping waterfowl startled Kang Do back into the present. He gazed pensively at the departing boat, his features creased with resignation and hope. "Stay alive, little girl. Please live."

∞

Choi Ji-na drifted in and out of consciousness. She could feel the soft breeze, the gentle moon travelling with her, like a newfound, curious companion. The stars looked down at her. Distant. Far. Like everything in her life was from her. Were her mother and grandmother looking down at her? She could not tell. She wondered what happened to someone when they died. Did they travel to another world? Or maybe they still lived with the people they loved, only that no one could see them?

But then, what about those who no one loved? Her stepmother hated her. She could live with that. Her husband despised her, but she could not fault him. But her father wanted her dead.

The betrayal had killed her spirit.

"I have come to keep my promise from yesterday, daughter. I am going to help you keep your secret forever."

She had barely woken up from a painful slumber, her fever making her hot and delirious when her father had come to her room. She didn’t see any of her maids. Instead, Kang Do had placed a tray before her with a bowl of dark liquid.

She had understood. Her terrified, questioning eyes had been answered with a smile.

A smile that reeked of death.

"Daughter, I did not do a good job raising you. After something so ruinous, you thought of staying alive....how can a woman go through such humiliation and even think of living?"

I have no use for you.

Ji-na watched the moon follow the boat steadily, her gaze riveted on the silver disc traversing the sky.

Kang Do had placed the bowl in her trembling hand. Her father had stood over her until she finished the last drop. Then, he had turned and left her without another glance.

Pausing to collect the bowl from her numb hand, Kang Do pushed a piece of paper under a cushion and swiftly followed his Master out.

This is not poison. It's the mixture your grandmother used to make. In two hours, I will come to fetch you. Do not move or breathe if you hear your father. Pack one set of clothing to carry.

She had felt Kang Do's tears drop on her cold skin as he had gently laid her on the floor at the stern of the boat, helping her to curl on her side. He was telling her something, but his voice wove in and out and came to her in fragments. "......this letter....... there......listening? .........care for you...must...please....stay alive, My Lady."

She closed her eyes. It took too much effort to think. The gentle splash and dip of the oars lulled her senses.

"She looks in bad shape, Ye-chan," she heard one of the men mumble.

"Could she be dead?"

"I am not rowing no dead body," the man named Ye-chan mumbled.

"She is a noble. We can't just leave her. The man paid us good."

"We will get into trouble if she dies."

Were they talking about her? Was she dying?

Their voices began to fade. Ji-na was vaguely aware they were still speaking.

She felt at peace.

Her husband's face materialised. Straight eyebrows furrowed in a gentle frown gracing his broad forehead, his eyes soft, a warm smile on his beautiful lips. He was so close. She tried moving her hand to touch him. His face dissolved and then came back in focus. She felt lighter. The pain was receding.

Nothing happened, child. Go home.

But there is no home, husband.

You forgot your duties, Choi Ji-na.

I tried. I tried my best. Can you take me away?

Her fingers clutched the small bundle to her chest tighter.

I even brought the dress you gave that morning with me. Can you give me another chance, Dari? I was wrong. I didn't know better.

His face moved away from her.

It's all right. Sleep.

She smiled as she sank into the welcoming embrace of the dark where there was no pain, no betrayal, no deception.