Like the First Snow

Soyong knows that when a woman expects to meet a man she likes, she blooms like a flower. The blush never leaves her face and her eyes glisten mischievously.

Lady Yul Mee isn’t any different from other women in that regard. She spends all her days in her room trying on different combinations of chimas¹Chima – a skirt. and danguis²Dangui is an upper garment with a white collar tied together by ribbons. The other name for this garment is jeogori.. She picks out her accessories or goes to buy new ones if she decides they don’t match perfectly with her clothes. The excitement of the young woman is understandable, even cute.

However, behind this facade of waiting for a wonderful, romantic moment hides things that no one writes about in novels. The many servants must clean every inch of the estate, inside and out.

Soyong feels like she’s going crazy. Maybe the potential suitors see Yul Mee as a pretty and charming lady, but for the servants, she is a real harpy.

All of the attendants are used to her over-the-top demands, but Soyong is different. Even if she is pretending to be a maid, she can’t let that spoiled woman order her around as she wishes. Yul Mee comes up with bizarre demands, Soyong gives her a piece of her mind. She knows she only gets away with it because both Yul Mu and Seo Hwi find it entertaining to see Yul Mee’s face turn red in anger. Yul Mu teases his young sister about it daily. The other servants have even grown to like Soyong as she has drawn the focus of Yul Mee’s ire to herself.

“I heard it’s a handsome and rich master…” Soyong hears whispers about a mysterious man that is supposed to visit Yul Mee soon.

Because of the last few days of preparations, Soyong hasn’t been able to work on her secret agenda. She has lived here for a week and all she has managed to find out is that Yul Mu has a map to the camp where his men are training, as well as a book with all the names and information about their plans.

Soyong wonders why wrongdoers are so eager to create evidence of their crimes themselves. But Yul Mu never leaves those important documents unprotected and hides everything in his safe with a huge lock on it. Soyong tried in vain to open it with a pin, but she is not particularly skilled in lock-picking.

Another interesting thing she found out in her time here is that they did not send the assassin after her – meaning there’s another party who’s after her and her family. It was almost easier for her when she knew exactly who her enemies were in the past.

Serving Yul Mee over the past few days has only made Soyong more irritated over her spare progress.

Despite her bad character, Yul Mee grew up to be a very intelligent woman. In her room, many books are placed side by side with the boxes of cosmetics and jewelry.

Soyong is familiar with the desire to read but still fit in with society’s expectations about a proper yangban lady. Before she was married, she wanted to read books and show the King her knowledge, but she was often reminded about her manners instead. All her books were the wrong ones to have because women shouldn’t know about politics or understand science. Women must be graceful flowers capable of supporting a polite conversation.

Back then, Soyong would argue, wondering how she is supposed to make interesting conversation if she can’t read “men’s” books. Her teacher explained that maintaining a conversation in her case means showing polite interest and listening to whatever the man has to say.

“Child, you shouldn’t show the men your mind, let alone show them you are smarter than them. Men don’t tolerate that,” her teacher had told her.

Soyong’s private teacher wasn’t cruel to her – she was cynical and knew how the world worked for women. She knew no one would listen to Soyong even if she had things to say.

But the King turned out to be a different kind of man. When she was accompanied by the spirit, she taught him about different governments, and he listened admiringly, despite the fact that a woman was sitting in front of him. That inspired her. She wants to feel that way again, but this time without Bong Hwan. Perhaps they could share their thoughts and plan their future for the country together?

In the second half of the day, Soyong manages to escape from Yul Mee’s silly demands to meet with Seo Hwi. Of all the new people she has met here, he is the only one who she thinks can be a real ally. He has an aura of security and support that Soyong needs right now.

She learned that Seo Hwi has worked for the Parks for the last eight years. He was orphaned as a child and worked at any house that could provide him food and shelter, but as soon as his services weren’t needed anymore, he was turned away.

When he met Yul Mu, Seo Hwi had been starving for days, unable to find any work in the village. Back then, Yul Mu was just passing by the village Seo Hwi lived in at the time and he had just become the head of the Park family after his father and mother passed away. They were around the same age and got along quite well, so Yul Mu took Seo Hwi home. And despite the fact that Yul Mu himself was struggling, he still offered Seo Hwi the home he needed.

Soyong understands why Seo Hwi is so loyal to Yul Mu after they lived through such a traumatic experience together. Soyong guesses that Seo Hwi most likely knows about the conspiracy and is working against the King as well. Since the training camp exists, Seo Hwi probably spends his days there, as he’s a well-trained warrior himself. But deep down, she feels that Seo Hwi isn’t a bad person, as it’s hard to be disloyal to the person who saved your life. She can’t trust Seo Hwi, but she wants to know him better in the meantime.

Soyong sneaks into the kitchen and steals some cookies left out from the master’s dinner and covers it in her handkerchief. Soyong agreed to meet Seo Hwi at Yul Mee’s archery training spot. Brother and sister shared this hobby and competed with each other every day. But Soyong didn’t want to practice archery, she was always terrible at it anyways. She asked Seo Hwi to teach her how to throw pocket knives instead.

Some time ago, she could do it effortlessly, but it was while Bong Hwan was with her. When he disappeared, his talents vanished too. The royal chef was delighted from happiness since Soyong couldn’t compete with him in the kitchen anymore. She tried a couple of times and she almost burned down the royal kitchen. Her ability to throw knives also disappeared. And even her modern vocabulary began to fade over time. The only exception is swearing. Maybe it’s because she likes the free feeling of using those words and she practiced it frequently.

“Mi-Ah!” Seo Hwi calls out, running towards her. “I’m sorry I’m late. I was busy with Master’s task.”

Soyong wonders if his task involved the secret training camp.

“It’s alright, I just got here as well.” Soyong smiles and holds out the handkerchief with cookies.

“What is this?” Seo Hwi takes the gift and unties the handkerchief.

“A bribe.” Soyong winks at him. When she winked at Seo Hwi for the first time he was very confused but soon started to use the gesture as well. Only, he used it in the wrong way occasionally.

“Oh, now I have to work for it, thank you.” Seo Hwi smiles brightly.

He pulls out a cloth package and hands it to her. Soyong unties the cloth and takes one of the knives inside in her hand. It is a small throwing knife and an incredibly sharp one.

“Now, take your stance,” Seo Hwi commands and Soyong straightens her back and adjusts her footing. “Now, estimate the distance to the target. Pull your hand back and remember, you should throw with enough force for the knife to reach the target with the side of the blade.”

Easier said than done. Soyong takes a deep breath and throws the knife as she exhales. The knife hits the target with the blunt side and falls to the ground.

“Aish.” Soyong kicks the ground in disappointment.

“Everything will come with experience, Mi-Ah.” Seo Hwi tries to cheer her up. “Although sometimes it seems that you are not capable of learning.” He winks and Soyong feels the urge to hit him for being tactless.

She throws all five knives she has and only one hits the target, though far from the center. One from five is all her progress since she started less than a week ago. When she just started her training, her knives didn’t even reach the target, they all fell on the ground halfway. Then she started reaching the target, and even though her knives still fell, at least she used enough force for them to cover the required distance.

Seo Hwi sits on the bench, eating the cookies Soyong brought for him. He does not hold back his critiques, making plenty of comments about the problems with her form. When he finishes eating, Seo Hwi gets up, swiping the crumbs off his lap, and goes towards her.

“Not like that, Mi-Ah.” He raises his hand and shows the correct movement of the wrist. Soyong copies him exactly, or so she thinks, but her teacher only sighs in disappointment.

“Like this.” His hand is suddenly on hers. His long fingers trace the path from her wrist to the knife that she is holding.

“Maybe you should give up?” he suggests, teasingly.

“I will not! I will learn how to do it no matter what!”

“Hmph, your stubbornness is admirable.” Seo Hwi smiles. “Good luck then, I need to go now.”

“So soon?” Soyong asks in surprise. Usually, they spent a few hours on this.

“Master is visiting a kisaeng house tonight, and I need to accompany him.” Seo Hwi winks at her and leaves. He uses the gesture at the wrong time again, but Soyong doesn’t comment on it.

• 1
  Chima – a skirt.
• 2
  Dangui is an upper garment with a white collar tied together by ribbons. The other name for this garment is jeogori.