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CHAPTER 05
Early in the morning, Chohee headed straight down to the inn’s lobby.
Over the past three days she had stayed there, she had checked repeatedly, but there was still no news of her brother.
Even so, she refused to give up hope.
Maybe he had come during the night.
“Chohee, listen carefully. I have something I must stay behind to handle. You just need to go to Sinuiju first.”
He had clearly told her to go ahead first.
Her brother was not someone who broke promises.
He said he would follow after her, so if she waited, he would come eventually.
Then why did this anxiety keep rising from deep inside her heart?
The faint smell of gunpowder that had clung to her brother only made her more afraid.
No. That couldn’t be it.
Chohee bit her lip.
A gun? Impossible. Her brother wasn’t reckless enough for something like that.
“Miss from Gyeongseong! You’re awake?”
At Bok-i’s cheerful greeting, Chohee lifted her head and forced a smile.
“Bok-i, good morning. Did my brother happen to come by last night?”
Bok-i shook her head firmly.
“No one from Gyeongseong came last night either. Miss, I don’t think anyone from Gyeongseong will be arriving for a while.”
“I suppose that makes sense. The station was destroyed after all…”
News that Sinuiju Station had burned down—and that a train explosion had caused it—had already spread through special editions of the newspapers.
Since Chohee had witnessed it herself, she had no choice but to accept that she likely wouldn’t see her brother for some time.
“But Miss from Gyeongseong. Are you planning to stay tomorrow too?”
“Probably. Why?”
“A group reservation is coming tomorrow, so if you’re staying longer, it’d be best to pay in advance.”
“Oh, I see.”
At Bok-i’s explanation, Chohee hurriedly pulled out her wallet from her coat pocket. Inside were only a few bills and some coins.
Even if she ate only one meal a day, it was enough money for merely three or four more nights at the inn. If she skipped meals entirely, perhaps she could survive a week.
Chohee bit her lip tightly.
She was running out of money.
She’d already been struggling financially after losing her job. In her rush to flee Gyeongseong, she hadn’t even brought her emergency savings.
Soon she would have nothing left.
And not just money—she might soon end up sleeping on the streets as well.
She had no idea when her brother would arrive, but until they reunited, she needed to remain here.
And what she had was nowhere near enough.
Watching her hesitate, Bok-i gave an awkward smile.
“Miss… are you short on money?”
“N-no!”
Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she quickly pulled out some coins and placed them on the counter.
“I’ll stay one more night.”
“Understood.”
“Um, Bok-i… perhaps…”
Chohee leaned against the counter, determination filling her eyes.
“How would I go about finding work around here?”
“Work? Work for you, miss?”
“Yes. A lot of foreigners come through here, don’t they? I thought maybe I could find something. I can speak foreign languages fairly well.”
“Hm… there is a job board over there, but I haven’t seen anything like that posted.”
Bok-i pointed outside the counter.
On one wall hung various notices—not only job postings, but advertisements and missing-person flyers as well.
“So there was something like this.”
Chohee carefully looked through each one.
Unfortunately, there was nothing involving English or French. But several places were looking for laborers.
“There are postings looking for workers here too!”
“I doubt there’s anything suitable for you, miss. Most of them are looking for kitchen helpers.”
“I’m not in a position to be picky anymore.”
With her money dwindling away, she had to take whatever work she could find.
Alone in Sinuiju, she needed to survive somehow until she could see her brother again.
For that, she was willing to do anything.
“This is enough.”
Chohee smiled gratefully at Bok-i.
“Couldn’t I at least do cleaning work?”
“Sorry. Things aren’t good for us these days either. We need someone who can cook and clean. Miss, you don’t look strong enough for that kind of work.”
Rejected yet again—this time from the eleventh restaurant she had visited—Chohee stood there in despair.
Too exhausted to walk any farther, she collapsed in front of the very restaurant that had just turned her away.
Several flyers from the inn’s job board were clutched in her hands.
With every rejection, her confidence slowly crumbled.
Sighing deeply, Chohee buried her face in her knees.
Had she lived her life the wrong way?
Originally, women in Joseon did not work outside the home. Managing the household had long been considered the greatest virtue.
Only after Japan forcibly seized the country and poverty spread did Korean women begin working outside. But most became merchants or kitchen workers in restaurants.
None of those things had ever been Chohee’s world.
She had been a teacher.
Though poor, she had always taken pride in being an educator.
She filled minds, not stomachs.
No matter what the neighbors said, that had been the one thing allowing her to walk proudly with her head held high.
But now she wasn’t sure anymore.
Had that path been the wrong one all along?
Principal Frey had told her not to lose herself.
But in the face of poverty, even that felt like a luxury.
“I’m about to starve to death. What good does any of that do?”
Chohee sighed again and raised her head.
Holding back the tears in her eyes, she slowly stood up.
The sky was beginning to glow red with sunset.
“This is really the last one.”
Carefully folding the flyers together, she pulled out the final remaining one.
The only place she hadn’t yet gone.
She gripped the paper so tightly it crumpled in her hand.
Her determined steps finally stopped in front of a building with red lanterns hanging beside its entrance.
Chohee inhaled deeply.
“It’s okay, Chohee. You can do this.”
After hesitating before the door and taking several deep breaths, she finally entered the establishment she had desperately hoped never to set foot in.
Chohee began working at the pleasure house.
Her duties were simple.
She washed the kimonos worn by the geishas, cleaned filthy rooms, swept the courtyard, and carried dishes from the kitchen.
For a full day’s labor, she earned fifty jeon.
Just enough to pay for one night at the inn and barely afford a single meal afterward.
Still, Chohee endured it.
She only had to hold out until her brother arrived.
She could forget her pride. She could forget the exhaustion.
“Ahh… my back…”
A week after starting work there, Chohee straightened her aching back while pounding laundry with a wooden bat.
A groan escaped her lips automatically.
Her once-soft hands were now swollen and blistered from endless washing.
Rubbing her tired eyes with reddened fingers, she sighed. No matter how much she washed, the laundry never seemed to decrease. She barely slept anymore.
“No wonder the last girl ran away after only a month.”
There was always a reason even desperate Koreans avoided certain jobs.
If only she could close her eyes for just a moment.
Her eyelids already drooping halfway shut, Chohee shook the water from her hands.
The guests wouldn’t arrive until evening anyway.
If she rested briefly in one of the guest rooms until then, no one would notice.
Too exhausted to pay attention to her surroundings, Chohee hurried into a dark, unoccupied room and lay down.
“Just for a little while. Just a tiny nap.”
The moment she finished speaking, sleep overtook her.
Dressed impeccably in a matching white suit, Dowoon lingered outside the pleasure house.
He looked completely relaxed on the surface, but inwardly he was burning with anxiety.
A week had passed since the explosion at Sinuiju Station, and as Dowoon had feared, things were spiraling toward disaster.
“We’re not suspecting you, Mr. Lee. But you understand what happened at the station… There’s been an order to avoid gatherings with Koreans for the time being.”
“Mr. Lee, aren’t you acquainted with Mr. George? Have you heard he was summoned by the police bureau? Foreigners can’t be trusted after all.”
Once news spread that the station had exploded and Japanese people had died, the Japanese businessmen who once associated with him all began avoiding him.
No matter how friendly they had acted before, a Korean was still just a Korean to them.
Because those connections vanished overnight, all the information he had secretly been collecting was cut off as well.
Even the Provisional Government of Korea could not escape the consequences.
The destruction of Sinuiju Station had been the first step in stopping resources from being funneled into Manchuria. The second phase of the plan still needed to proceed carefully—but now their intelligence network had collapsed.
“I have to win them back somehow.”
Dowoon calmed his rising impatience and thought carefully.
Tonight, Shige Minamoto—the leading Japanese businessman in Sinuiju—would be visiting Hongwongak.
He came every Thursday.
Minamoto was Dowoon’s last hope.
How many bribes had he fed the man over the past three years?
Creak—
The sound of a rickshaw stopping echoed out as a familiar figure stepped down.
Instantly, Dowoon’s worries vanished behind a flawless mask-like smile.
“Mr. Minamoto!”
“Oh, Mr. Lee. What brings you here?”
Minamoto asked in surprise.
Short and gaunt, he appeared to be in his mid-thirties. With snake-like narrow eyes and thin lips curled upward, he looked perpetually scheming.
“I happened to have business here as well, and when I heard you’d arrived, I came out to greet you.”
Wearing an effortless smile, Dowoon naturally guided Minamoto inside the pleasure house.
“Haha, you? I thought you disliked places like this.”
“How could that be, Mr. Minamoto?”
Several women were already waiting inside the room they entered.
Rather than dressed properly, it looked as though they were barely clothed at all.
Dowoon seated himself among them as though entirely accustomed to such places.
Minamoto had already settled himself between the women, one hand wandering toward a geisha’s chest.
His previously sour expression slowly brightened.
Dowoon recalled Minamoto once saying alcohol tasted best with women beside you.
Suppressing his disgust, he played along smoothly.
“Surely there’s no faster way to relieve stress than drinking sake among geishas?”
“Haha, Mr. Lee! At last, someone who understands me! Keep this from my wife, of course. You know how society views our marriage.”
Minamoto laughed in satisfaction.
Maintaining his fixed smile, Dowoon poured him another drink.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, he cautiously shifted toward the real subject.
“By the way, have you heard, Mr. Minamoto? About the American Martyr Company entering the railway business?”
The smile instantly vanished from Minamoto’s face.
“Hahaha! Pour me another drink!”
The loud laughter slowly pulled Chohee from sleep.
Even after opening her eyes, the room remained dark, and she rubbed them groggily.
“…Why is it so dark?”
She slowly sat up.
As her eyes adjusted, she realized the room around her was empty.
She must have slept all the way into the evening.
Chohee hurried to stand, but loud laughter erupted again from the brightly lit room next door.
“Hahaha!”
“Are guests here already?”
If someone discovered she had fallen asleep in a guest room, the madam would surely scold her.
Trying not to be noticed, Chohee tiptoed quietly toward the door.
But then she froze.
The laughter coming from next door sounded strangely familiar.
I’ve heard that voice somewhere before…
