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Chapter 17
Impure Thoughts
“Ah, and one more thing. Watch your mouth!”
Yooji stopped walking when she reached the garden wall, turned around, and glared at Maewol.
“Talking about Lord Je-an possibly becoming the king… You’ve got more guts than sense. It’s practically like you’re putting your neck on the chopping block. What if you get branded a traitor? If you want to die, die alone. Don’t drag His Lordship into it.”
“That was just between us!”
“Us? Since when are you and I ‘us’? Don’t you hate me? You always act like you want to kill me every time you see me, and now suddenly it’s ‘us’?”
Yooji clicked her tongue and disappeared around the wall. Maewol, left alone, trembled with anger and stamped her foot, unable to calm herself.
On the short walk back from Haewol Pavilion to her shop, Iseo felt uncomfortable, as though every gaze around her was directed at her.
In Yooji’s lavish room, she had worried she might be imposing. But the gazes of passersby on the street in front of the pleasure quarters were more blatant—filled with curiosity and desire.
They seemed to wonder why a girl with a delicate face but shabby clothes was wandering around this alley.
Their eyes moved back and forth between Iseo’s fair face and her worn clothing, as if comparing them. Well, even the servant who came to escort her from Haewol Pavilion had looked far more presentable than she did.
Only after hurrying out of the alley lined with pleasure houses did Iseo finally let out a sigh of relief.
On the way back, she glanced toward the front of her shop. The storyteller who had been speaking earlier was gone; the open space was empty. It wasn’t exactly the same situation as hers, but there were oddly similar parts. As if someone had investigated her in advance.
But that couldn’t be. Why would anyone investigate someone as uninteresting as her? Of course, she did have a hidden past—but it was a past of no use to anyone.
Lord Je-an would end up with Yooji, and her brother and mother would, though struggling now, eventually be taken care of by him.
The relationship between Je-an and Yooji seemed a little different from what she had read in the book, but there was always some gap between fiction and reality.
Once everything was settled, she would leave. Go somewhere no one knew her. It might be good to start a new life in a place so unfamiliar she wouldn’t even realize this was a story world.
Having slowly sorted her thoughts, Iseo entered her shop. The long line that had formed earlier to receive celebratory rice cakes was now gone. It was late afternoon, so it made sense that everything she had prepared had been distributed.
“Maybe it wasn’t enough…”
A hint of regret crossed her face. As Samdeuk had said, “Even a king cannot do anything about poverty,” but still, it was a day of celebration—she had wanted to share with as many people as possible. But this was the limit of what she could do.
“You’re finally back.”
As she stood with her head lowered, a pair of finely crafted leather shoes appeared in her view. The white socks inside them were spotless, in stark contrast to her own dark, worn, yellowed socks.
When she lifted her head, Gwon Hoyeon was looking at her with a bright smile.
“I was worried when you said you were going far, but it seems you ended up right nearby. That’s fortunate.”
His gaze swept across the shop and toward the open back door. Even at a glance, the spacious land, beautiful garden, and well-built house looked expensive.
“How did you afford this place?”
Hoyeon asked casually, but his eyes did not leave the refined garden and unusual house. This was not a place Iseo should have been able to rent. If she had fallen into some trap, he needed to help her now.
“Oh, a broker helped me from the alley at the end of the street. The owner had to leave in a hurry and put it up cheaply.”
“Hmm… and there were no other conditions?”
Instead of answering, Iseo simply smiled and shook her head. She understood what he meant but pretended not to. Then she turned her head toward the seat Hoyeon had been sitting in. Only empty plates with crumbs and a vacant cup remained.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No.”
But before Hoyeon could finish, Yeonnyeon interjected.
“Young master came in after going out and didn’t leave again. He’s been waiting quite a while.”
After Samdeuk knocked Yeonnyeon on the head and dragged her away, Hoyeon gave an awkward smile and glanced out the window.
It was full spring now. Wildflowers peeked out from between roadside weeds where people passed by. Watching them made his chest feel strangely unsettled. Lately, it had been like this all the time.
Nothing in particular was wrong, yet his chest would suddenly tighten.
He had even visited a doctor, worried it might be an illness, but the doctor had only laughed and said it was a disease he could not cure.
“Is it a serious illness?”
“Not serious, but it’s a kind of illness doctors can’t treat—that’s the problem.”
The doctor chuckled and turned back to sorting herbs, signaling the conversation was over.
Hoyeon pressed a hand to his chest and looked at Iseo. Her neat forehead and even eyebrows looked soft, like pollen drifting in spring sunlight. He let out another long breath as his chest tightened again.
Iseo’s questioning gaze turned toward him.
“Do you have something on your mind?”
“Did you check the contract properly?”
Hoyeon changed the subject.
What worries could a carefree man like him possibly have? If anything, it would just be idle nonsense born of privilege.
A faint self-mocking smile crossed his lips.
“Of course. I was suspicious at first, but what could someone with nothing like me possibly be asked to give in return for a false promise? I even confirmed it at the government office, so don’t worry.”
“Who did you say lent you this place?”
Even now, Hoyeon could not shake his suspicion as he looked toward the neat tiled house behind the shop.
“I don’t know that either. The broker said the owner had gone south in a hurry to treat an illness and left the house behind.”
Hoyeon’s eyes narrowed. It was suspicious in many ways. After paying off debts, Iseo would have had very little money left, yet this shop and attached house were far beyond what even an official’s salary could afford.
“If anything happens, come to me.”
That was all Hoyeon could say. Iseo smiled and nodded.
But she would never go to him. He said it anyway, knowing that.
“You alone—I can take care of you, somehow.”
He hadn’t meant it that way, but it sounded almost like something one would say to a lover. Hoyeon’s face turned slightly red.
“I appreciate your kindness.”
Iseo replied in a calm voice, her expression unchanged, then bowed her head. She went into the kitchen and returned with wrapped sweets, offering them to him. Hoyeon quickly reached for coins, but Iseo gently stopped him.
“This is all I can give you for slacking off. Next time you come, I’ll prepare something much tastier. But then you must pay.”
It was a subtle way of drawing a line.
Hoyeon gave a bitter smile. She was sharp. Perhaps that was why she treated him—rumored to be a libertine who took interest in both men and women—like this. Her attitude made it clear their relationship was nothing more than customer and confectioner.
After repairs were completed on Hanseojae, Ryun moved his residence there. He had originally intended to return it when he eventually found his fiancée or her family, but once restored, the place suited him perfectly.
The location, on a hill overlooking the village, was ideal. The surrounding scenery, with a small stream winding around the base of a low mountain, was especially beautiful. Even as the weather grew warmer, a cool breeze flowed through the house.
Every corner of the house felt free of stifling air—perfect for someone like him who disliked heat.
Ryun decided to stay at Hanseojae until they returned.
Because of his move from Haewol Pavilion to Hanseojae, rumors spread that his relationship with Yooji had fallen apart, but those rumors quickly died down after the two of them rode through the capital together on horseback. Of course, what they saw and did on that horse was not for public knowledge.
While kneading dough in the kitchen, Iseo recalled Ryun and Yooji at Haewol Pavilion—how they had seemed ready to devour each other.
Then, for some reason, she remembered a spring day with falling blossoms.
From the kitchen, she could clearly see Ryun and Yooji, beautiful like a noble couple, teasing each other as they rode through the streets. It was an unbearable sight.
Iseo tilted her head. To her eyes, they didn’t look like lovers at all—but what would she know about relationships? She had never experienced one.
She had studied, gotten a job, forced herself into work that didn’t suit her, and failed. After that, romance had never existed in her life.
In the original story, they were lovers, so perhaps it was meant to be that way.
Just then, Ryun, unable to take his eyes off Yooji’s beauty, leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Passersby nearby gasped at the outrageous scene, while married women sighed in envy.
At that moment, Ryun’s eyes met Iseo’s.
It might have been her imagination, but that was how it felt. His eyes curved as if greeting her.
But Iseo’s eyes instinctively narrowed instead. No matter how little she knew about love, how could someone whisper affection to their lover and then glance at another person—even if it was a man?
She quickly looked away and focused on the dough. She placed it into a cloth-lined pot and kneaded it again. Her hands, flipping it from time to time, were unusually rough that day, though she did not notice.
After shaping the dough and drying it in a cool place, she later fried it, and the yu-gwa dough puffed up nicely. It rose well partly because it had dried properly, and partly because air had been well incorporated while kneading.
Iseo tilted her head.
She could not understand why this batch turned out so well.
The image of Ryun and Yooji passing through the streets had already faded from her mind.
