The kitchen table held an assortment of food, there was water in a pitcher, and part of the floor was warmer closer to the kitchen. Someone had spent the time heating the furnace to kickstart the ondol heating underground in a house that had been uninhabited for over a decade. Minjae felt an overwhelming sense of loss as her gaze lingered on the roast braised beef ribs toasted with chestnut, her favourite food.

Kang Do had not forgotten it.

The previous evening, Minjae had watched Kang Do look frantically around after he read her note. She hid behind a cart of haystacks, trying to hold back her tears as she watched the old man limp across the streets and alleyways, hoping to glimpse the person who had sent the child to hand him the note. She knew by now that Ko Yoon had dropped the second note for Kang at the pre-designated place with instructions to meet her in this house.

Ignoring the food, she spread a mat and a blanket and flopped down, every nerve on edge, to wait.

The click of the locks on the main door snapped her out of the drowsy daze she had fallen into. She positioned the needles in her hands and crossed to the window, lifting the hanji curtain to scan the outside.

Kang Do had come alone.

Still, she could not take chances. Kang Do turned into the open area leading to the kitchen. His body leaned more to one side now to compensate for the lack of strength in his limping leg, though he was still as agile as he had ever been. She silently sneaked up behind him and drove the needle at the base of his skull.

Kang Do sank, his body loose and overcome with lethargy. "My Lady!" he whispered, his old, gentle eyes a cloud of confusion.

She quickly patted him, looking for weapons. She found his dagger and removed it.

Minutes later, as she sat facing the man who had saved her life at the peril of his own, Minjae felt a lump of emotions clogging her throat, emotions she didn't have time or space for. His once-black beard was now threaded with silver, and new wrinkles creased his slanted eyes. White woolly whorls escaped the knot on his head. His teeth were yellow, and a few were missing from the sides. His face looked leathered, the scar cleaving his face darker, more ominous to those who crossed his path on the wrong day.

He tried to rise.

"Sit down, Kang Do," Minjae ordered quietly. He nodded and then bowed to her. She helped him have a drink of water. "Your body will regain the energy in an hour."

"My Lady," the man's voice was gruff as if crying, "Why did you come back to Hanyang? I requested you never to come back. What could have possibly driven you to return to this place that demanded your sacrifice?"

Minjae swallowed, giving herself a few moments to collect her emotions into a tight bundle and tuck it away.

"I need answers," she said, as emotionlessly as possible. "I know you saved my life, but I do not trust you today."

The face of the man she had come to think of more as a father since childhood crumbled.

"I could die if that meant you would live, My Lady," Kang Do said, his voice heavy with emotions.

"You are my Father's slave, bound to follow his orders. So why did you defy him and not kill me?" She asked. Even though it was not the most important thing, still, she had to know.

"I hoped the monks would help you recover. Last I heard, you were safe, but I could never tell for certain, and I never tried finding more in case it raised suspicion." He looked at her wordlessly and then said, "You do not know how thankful I am to see you alive. You look so much like Lady Im Yoo-joo now, and yet somehow you are different," he remarked in a voice marked with reverence. "Have you been well, My Lady?"

"I am alive," she answered. "The question is, why?"

Kang Do again skirted the question. "Please leave this area as soon as you can. Go back to the place that has kept you safe all these years. Please, My Lady-"

"Why did Father send an imposter to be Commander Lee's wife?" Minjae cut him off, her eyes bereft of the rage that stormed inside her.

Shock widened Kang Do's jaw. "How did you find out, My Lady?"

"That's not important," she sucked in an impatient breath.

"After your grandmother died without a male heir, His Majesty deeded this house to your son if you ever had one. Your Father, His Excellency, needed to present you to His Majesty to reclaim possession of this house by proving you had agreed to the marriage and ensure your younger sister's match with the Crown Prince in a few years," Kang Do said.

"That's it? He sent her in my place because he needed this house? Don't lie to me! Father has never shown this kind of interest in any of his many properties around the country. He never even liked this house, never set foot in it when Grandma was alive. So why now?"

Kang Do shook his head. "I don't know, My Lady," he said.

"Does this have anything to do with Father killing my Father-in-law?" She asked, point blank.

Kang Do's eyes bulged, and he looked around in terror as if he expected someone to materialise out of thin air. "Shh, My Lady! I do not know how you learned this, but you must never speak of it again," he pleaded.

"I am not the child you saved all those years ago, Kang Do. Tell me what you know," Minjae ordered clinically.

Kang Do looked down as he started speaking.

With Choi Se-min's sword still twisting in his guts, Seung's father warned Se-min that his secret would stay safe as long as the Lee family lived. A very young Seung had wandered into the bloody scene, and before the child became a casualty, Kang Do had tied his eyes and hands and pushed him into a cabinet. Lady Ryu In-ah had not been home, but she knew who had been behind her husband's murder.

"Omoni knows?" It was Minjae's turn to be shell-shocked.

"It was a bargain with the devil," Kang whispered. "Two days after Lord Lee's death, His Excellency received a letter. I do not know what it said, but it had something to do with your and Commander Lee's marriage and the secret."

"It means there is something Father hoped to gain in return once the marriage was solemnised."

"When Master was ordering me to - ", Kang Do closed his eyes for a moment, his mouth turning downward, "to kill you, he mentioned another letter that he received a day before your marriage. It seemed to have information on more such letters. Then, a few months back, he received another one. After he got the possession, he had people search this house and turn it upside down."

"So Father hoped to find letters in this house? How?"

Kang Do shook his head helplessly. "He never shared."

"Grandma used to have a small chest she treasured; it's missing from her room. Do you know if Father found anything?"

"He punished one of the 'butchers' in frustration, so I know whatever he was looking for, he didn't find it."

The butchers were the code name for her father's slaves, who she now knew were his henchmen who lived in the shadows.

"Did that impersonator come to this house?" Minjae asked.

"Yes. Your stepmother brought her as a part of her training."

Minjae emitted an anguished noise. Why would it be surprising that Im Nabi would always have a hand in everything that would destroy and delete Choi Jina from existence?

"Have you met Commander Lee in the past years?" Kang Do asked in wonder.

"Yes, but he does not know who I am. I have met the woman in Ganghwa," Minjae said, an insidious feeling of jealousy ripping her at the thought that the fraud sullied whatever was precious to her.

"You went to Ganghwa?" Fear glazed his features.

"It's obvious she has been trained to impersonate me," Minjae sidestepped the question, blinking back tears, resolute to stamp out any weakness the thought brought her. Her mouth drew a straight, furious line.

"Who is she?" She asked caustically.

"She is your father's slave," Kang Do said. "She was not born as one. Her father once was a very powerful minister. He was stripped of power for corruption and conspiracy with the barbarians against His Majesty and the old deposed king. She became a government slave to His Excellency, but she was sold to someone illegally. Later, with her new Master, she trapped young men for money."

That explained her refined language and ease with servants.

Minjae laughed acerbically. "Non-existent moral compass and easily disposable, is she? And frightened into doing anything he will ask her to because she watched someone die a horrific death."

Kang dragged his sleeves across his eyes wordlessly.

Suddenly, a terrible idea occurred to her. "Did Father find her before he ordered you to kill me?"

Kang Do's leathery complexion reddened and then lost colour, but he didn't deny it.

"Five years....." Minjae's voice shook, "For five years, he trained her to be me. He slandered me so her lack of maidenly innocence would have a backstory and planted her in Dari's house. Why? WHY?"

"It's tied to your marriage, My lady," Kang said.

"Father thought I was not filial enough and hampered his quest in finding these letters with my divorce-speak. So he decided to manufacture another Choi Jina."

"Please, My Lady, don't do this to yourself. It's irrelevant. You are safe, and that's all that matters. You have a new life; don't let your past colour your future. Let it go, and please leave Hanyang and Ganghwa as soon as possible."

Even long after her supposed 'death', her father still controlled her life.

Minjae shook her head. "I must find out why Father killed Father-in-law and how my marriage is tied to this sordid business."

"I am not very sure of this, but from what I gathered, he must have a grandchild from you and Commander Lee to get the remaining letters," Kang Do's voice was anguished.

Minjae shook with rage and grief. She needed to occupy herself to stop herself from screaming.

She rose and fetched her knapsack. Retrieving a pouch, she extracted a few needles. She worked on the leg Kang limped on for the next few minutes.

"You were always a precious child, My Lady, but now you evoke memories of Lady Bak, your grandmother. She would insist on giving me herbs that would alleviate my pain," Kang Do's voice softened.

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Long dormant emotions surged through her at the mention of her grandmother, and her heart swelled when she heard the pride in Kang Do's voice.

Kang Do rubbed his neck slowly. "Where did you learn this, My Lady? You were as silent as a cat. I have never witnessed such precision with needles, not even from seasoned masters." A look of sheer horror dawned on his face. "Are you the island physician Commander Lee is rumoured to be in love with?"

Her dejected look said it all. "I thought I should tell you before Father dispatched you to kill the woman who is keeping his son-in-law away from his precious fake daughter he is hoping to get a grandchild from," Minjae emitted a brittle laugh.

Kang Do paled.

"Has Father already ordered it?" Minjae asked, suddenly feeling disembodied as if she was speaking of someone else.

"No, My Lady," Kang said soothingly, but Minjae didn't miss the hint of fear in his pale brown eyes.

"But he has discussed the possibilities," she gave a mirthless chuckle.

"It's too dangerous to do something like that away from Hanyang without drawing unwanted attention, and because you and Commander Lee are part of a local gossip, my Lord Choi could fall under the suspicion of murder," Kang reasoned. "You are safe."

"Wise choice. People would hunt him down if he touched me in Ganghwa," Minjae said with a touch of haughtiness that startled Kang Do. "But then, if that happened, Father would not stop at one murder, would he? If anything happens to anyone I love, dead or alive, I will make sure he pays through his blood." She didn't realise how much of her father's deadly determination she had inherited. "Stay away from Dari and Ganghwa. Dari remembers and will come after you if he ever sees you."

Kang Do was silent until she finished her ministrations.

"And tell Father," Minjae said as she packed away her needles and handed him two bottles of medicine, "he has nothing to fear from that lowly physician. She has ensured Commander Lee stays away from her."

"My Lady," Kang Do spoke, his sharp brown eyes briefly rising to meet hers and then lowering again in deference. "Perhaps it's not my place to say, and I apologise for my impertinence, but it seems fate has intertwined you and Commander Lee. You are fated to be together. Do not push him away."

Catching her off guard, Kang Do's wise words pricked her tender heart like the spiky ends of soft feather stems. She could almost feel the gentle, comforting touch of the feathers' soft ends brushing her bruised and lonely heart, yet they remained hopelessly out of reach.

∞

"Are you serious? If he even gets a whiff of this, His Excellency Lord Choi will hang our heads as ornaments outside of Hanyang gates," Wang Jung whined pitifully.

Following suspicious men was not how Wang Jung had intended to spend the night, but he could always trust Seung to foil his plans.

"You can turn back if you want," Seung whispered, the corners of his mouth twitching.

"Your head will feel lonely hanging out alone on that stake looking at the wilderness," Wang Jung groused reasonably, ducking back into an alley so they remained undetected. Despite all the protests, Seung knew Wang Jung would take a knife before letting any harm befall him.

And then there was this small matter of sketching suspects that Wang Jung excelled in.

They found themselves in an open neighbourhood, laid on a gently sloping hillside, with houses positioned at different levels. Paths and stone walls connected the various buildings. Choi Se-min climbed a small flight of stone steps on the side of a small connecting hill towards his destination, his eyes measuring the ground, deep in thought. Following him would have been easy had it not been for the two suspicious-looking men who followed the young man, making it hard for Seung and Wang Jung to keep up with Se-min without revealing themselves. The hilly terrain fortunately gave them enough coverage in the dark.

He had been in this neighbourhood before, Seung thought with surprise. The vegetation was a bit different, but the layout was immensely familiar. He remembered a large, tiled-roof house at the top, overlooking all the other houses, its ground covered with lush grass he had loved to grab in his small, dirt-caked hands. Faint memories surfaced of a little girl dragging a doll, trying to calm his bawling sister by offering her the toy.

Seung shook his head. Not a good time to chase memories from his childhood.

Choi Se-min stopped in front of a sprawling house that stretched impressively across the land—the same house from Seung's memories. It rose spectacularly behind its fence, sitting on an impressive elevation.

Unlike other houses, which had at least some faint light seeping through shuttered windows, this one was pitch dark. It was also the only house with no smoke from its three chimneys.

Choi Se-min checked the lock on the formidable gate, then circled and disappeared around the corner behind the stone fence wall.

"What do you think he's doing in an uninhabited house? Are there people inside?" Wang Jung whispered.

Seung watched intently as the men followed Se-min and then vanished from view. After a few minutes, the men returned, sneaking into a shadowed corner, clearly waiting for something.

Seung and Wang Jung exchanged a glance and then circled the hill to the back of the house. They found no open entrance, indicating that Se-min had likely jumped the fence. The fence itself was not too tall, but the hilly elevation made it almost impossible to scale.

Seung squinted, trying to recall the contents of the letter:

'Don't let the bolt keep you out. Bring your aunt's books as you promised. Remember the stars we collected on that last day? I could gather only half of what you did. Gather all of them together and lay them at the door where chestnuts are plenty. No more than one pair of shoes, with eyes that don't see and ears that don't hear, unless you want more scars to bear.'

"The house probably has a chestnut tree or trees," Seung whispered. They ran along the periphery and found the gnarly trunk of a giant chestnut tree, at least forty feet tall, bordering the wall. Its branches hung inside the compound, over a lone outpost building that looked like it might belong to the gardener.

Moments later, Seung and Wang Jung mounted to a roof, crouching behind its sloping eaves for an unobstructed view of the house and its grounds.

"Are you sure he went into this house?" Wang Jung asked, peering into the dark compound dubiously.

Seung wasn't just sure; he could bet his life on it.

Se-min's visit could be completely innocent. However, he highly doubted it. Meetings held in a dark, cold house, padlocked from the outside, were hardly ordinary unless they were covert in nature. The letter was filled with cryptic instructions: the front door would be inaccessible, so the chestnut tree would serve as the entry point. Seung was confident someone inside would grant him access. The significance of the stars eluded him, but the rest of the message made it clear that Se-min had to come alone or face dire consequences.

"Get a good look at whoever he is meeting with," he said.

Wang Jung's portly appearance was deceptive. The man was as stealthy as a cat and could walk on tiptoes without breaking a sweat. He climbed trees and walls like a monkey. Few people paid attention to him because he gave the impression of being inept.

Within minutes, he was gone.

Seung inched closer to the edge of the sloping eave that granted him an unhindered view. He watched Wang Jung's shadowy figure cut across the extensive grounds and take cover beneath the large, shuttered windows of the mansion. His small frame made it easy for him to bend while he tiptoed, his body plastered to the exterior wall until he disappeared from the view.

Seung wondered why the men were following Se-min. Was someone else keeping a watch on him? The men looked less like spies and more like bodyguards. In the dim light, distinguishing features was challenging, but one appeared older and muscular, the other younger and leaner but taller.

Se-min had been inside the house for at least three-quarters of an hour. They were inching towards pre-dawn. If daylight broke, they would have to abort the mission.

A thunk! broke the eerie silence of the night. Worried, Seung glanced at the mansion. Did someone catch onto Wang Jung already? Se-min could easily recognise him, having met Wang Jung at least twice.

A while later, Seung caught the portly shadow of Wang Jung racing across the compound. At the same time, another movement caught his eye. From the other side of the mansion, two figures emerged. One was Se-min, and the other was a woman swamped in a jangot. They walked close to the fence, where the two men stood, crouching in the shadows on the other side. The couple spoke for a while. Seung would give a lot to exchange positions with those two mysterious men and listen to what the couple talked about.

A soft rustle alerted him to Wang Jung joining him.

"Did you catch the woman's face?"

Silence.

Seung looked at him and found Wang watching the couple at a distance with a peculiar expression. Seung tapped his shoulder.

"Answer me," Seung whispered.

Wang shifted uncomfortably, not meeting his eyes. "It was too dark, so I could not get a proper look. And I stumbled, so I had to hurry away."

"Did anyone see you?"

Wang Jung shook his head.

They watched with curiosity as Se-min held the woman's hand and brought it to his forehead. His shoulders were shaking, and he cut a sad and lonely figure. He then swiped his sleeve across his face as if wiping off tears. Se-min was tall and well-built, and the woman barely reached his chest, yet she seemed to have a commanding presence. It was hard to tell, but Se-min looked - afraid?

"How old did she seem to be?" Seung asked.

Wang Jung cleared his throat. "I think she is quite young."

“Did you hear anything?”

"Only murmurs. They were speaking too softly,” Wang Jung said. This time Seung didn’t notice any hesitation in his voice, which was at odds with his earlier replies.

Perplexed, Seung watched as Se-min climbed the fence and descended the tree. The woman watched him leave silently and then disappear, only to emerge outside the house and walk in the opposite direction of Se-min. Alone. How did she get out? Seung shook his head.

Was the woman his lover? It didn't make sense. There were a thousand ways to meet lovers outside, but choosing an old, uninhabited mansion in the dark of night seemed peculiar. No Yangban woman would risk coming to such a place alone at night, and a commoner would not need to go to such lengths. Furthermore, no sane man would let a woman leave without escorting her to safety.

Even more surprising was that the men, instead of following Se-min, were now following the woman.

A foreboding knot twisted inside Seung. He didn't have a good feeling about it.

"Wang Jung, follow Lord Choi and see if he meets anyone else. I will follow the woman."

"Why do we not reverse it, Commander Lee, sir? I'll follow the woman," Wang Jung suggested, sounding unusually concerned.

"Don't worry about me. I can take all three down in no time if needed, but I can't draw to save my life. Find out if Lord Choi has another company for tonight and report to me," Seung said, jumping off the roof and landing on the ground with the stealth of a jungle cat. His footsteps were sure and silent, as if padded like the paws of a ferocious beast on the trail of blood.

The woman and the men had a head start on him, so Seung had trouble locating them through the winding alleys. He clambered onto a roof and began hopping across the interconnected maze of rooftops. Soon, he caught sight of them. The woman was now walking fast, almost running. She had sensed the men following her.

Heart thumping, Seung followed, trying to cut them off by circling along on the sloping eaves that would take him ahead of them. However, before he could reach them, the men accosted her.

It was too dark to see clearly, but the muscular man yanked off her jangot. There was an incoherent cry and a scuffle. The tall, younger man folded suddenly to his knees. Taking advantage of the shock, the woman kicked the other man in his belly and fled. The muscular man recovered and chased her.

Seung fished for his dagger, readying himself to charge the man. He hopped from a higher slope of a roof to the one closer to the ground. But before he could move, a tall figure wearing dark clothes and a black straw hat emerged from an alley and kneed the muscular man. The man doubled in pain. The figure caught hold of the woman's hand and dragged her to an alley.

The man had a very distinct limp.

A burn spread from Seung's chest to his head. A storm kicked up in his gut, all fury and no sound, and his senses felt crushed like a boulder smashing into him. His brain ceased functioning and ceded its power to his body, which moved on impulse - an impulse to fly, to grab the limping man by the neck so he could wring the answer to the question that had plagued him in his nightmares as long as he could remember.

The woman was his accomplice, which meant even she could know something about it.

Seung tracked their path with dogged obstinacy. He could not see them, but the air carried faint rustles and muted footsteps. He instinctively knew that the muscular man must also be following them now. Seung had to get to them before anyone else did.

He could hear the faint gushing of water. The woman and the limping man were headed towards the river. Seung mapped the area in his head, changed his route, and took a shorter one. When he reached his desired spot, he saw the duo emerge from the shadows with grim satisfaction.

The woman sprinted ahead while the tall man, despite his limp, kept up admirably. Seung was so fixated on the man that he paid no heed to the woman's back, receding away from where he was. The moonless night shrouded their features, but Seung could see the scar on the man's face in his mind as if a blazing torch illuminated it.

The limping man didn't see him coming. Seung was before him in a flash, a carefully extended leg sending the man sprawling on the ground with a loud thud. Seung crouched and held his neck in a chokehold, the dagger digging into his artery.

"No!' The woman turned.

"Stay where you are!" Seung thundered without looking up; his senses reduced to a raw nerve of pain as he choked the man tighter. Up close, his eyes met the man's pale ones that looked back at him unflinchingly.

"Why did you kill my father?" Seung's hand tightened around his neck, the dagger digging deep.

"I will answer your questions, Commander Lee," the man said, with not a speck of fear in his eyes, "But please take her to safety first. They cannot find her; they will kill her," he pleaded.

Seung saw the woman's skirts move closer and said hoarsely, "You think I care? I will kill her before they do. Now speak!" His dagger dug deep.

"My Lady, leave before they find you," the man begged without breaking eye contact with Seung.

"She moves, she dies," Seung said, twisted the man's head and threw his dagger. It sailed and nailed the woman's skirt to the ground.

The woman gasped and fell.

"No!" the scarred man struggled in his grasp. "You will regret this; you don't know who she is."

"Stop!" The woman's soft voice rang out. "Stop it, please."

Seungs blood froze as her voice penetrated the raging fog in his mind, his arm going slack. He lifted his gaze and met the incredible eyes of one woman he could never have dreamt of meeting in his wildest dreams on the banks of Han River in Hanyang on this terrible moonless night, her skirt pinned to the ground by his dagger while she looked back at him with the same self-assured intensity that never failed to sear his soul.