The Other Way

Something was off about Ah-hwa. Even as she spoke, her eyes followed the man walking away, and Jin's gaze trailed after hers of its own accord.

He was tall and powerfully built, a frame one rarely saw, and dressed all in black he looked as though darkness itself were walking. He did not belong at all in a commoners' quarter, far from the red-lantern district and the bustling market streets. A chill raced suddenly over Jin's whole body.

"Young miss, I think we'd better just turn back for tonight."

"Why?"

Puzzled, Ah-hwa finally looked up at her.

"He doesn't belong here at all. For all we know, he was the one following you."

Even at the edge in Jin's voice, Ah-hwa shook her head.

"Jin, he only caught me when I was about to fall. If you're finished putting things in order, let's go. A hungry baby won't sleep for long. The moment those eyes open, we'll have to feed it something."

With that, Ah-hwa started off.

"Haa."

Jin sighed, caught her by both shoulders, and turned her around.

"Young miss, the other way—the other way! That's the road we came in on!"

And that was why Jin had no choice but to follow her every night. Seol Ah-hwa had a disastrous sense of direction.

Ah-hwa, the baby in her arms, and Jin stepped into Baekjeong Village, where the butchers lived gathered together. Unlike other nights, once every ten days the village did not sleep, not even at an hour this late. Physician Jang, renowned throughout the capital, slipped past the eyes of the government soldiers with two disciples and came into the village to see the sick.

Those who lived in Baekjeong Village were the lowest of the low among the outcast class. Even when they came with money in hand, physicians often refused to look at them, and so they were always grateful to Physician Jang.

"His lordship the physician's been here a while already—what kept you so late? Hwa, you went wandering down the wrong road again, didn't you!"

Passersby called out to them one after another, and each time someone greeted her, Ah-hwa met their eyes and returned the greeting in full.

"Auntie, it's not as if I do it every day. I only got turned around that one time!"

People laughed at the wounded protest. There wasn't a soul in Baekjeong Village who didn't know how hopeless she was with directions.

"Jin, Hwa, don't just go on by—stop at our house! I boiled ox-bone broth, so eat before you leave!"

"Come by our place too! I packed a few side dishes for you to eat with his lordship. You have to stop in!"

"And the things sitting in Seok-i's father's yard—his lordship will never take them, so you two make sure you do!"

"Thank you!"

Jin answered brightly. She knew Ah-hwa had been giving everything away to others and not eating properly herself, which was why she had been staggering so often of late. Today, too, she had watched her own mother—Ah-hwa's wet nurse—sigh as if the ground might cave in beneath the weight of her worry. Just now, Ah-hwa surely hadn't merely missed a step. Worn thin, she must have swayed from dizziness.

The mere thought that she might eat her fill tonight lifted Jin's spirits. Physician Jang would no doubt answer in that blunt voice of his with a single That's enough, so Jin meant to take every bit of it and feed it to Ah-hwa.

"Hwa, where'd you pick this little one up this time?"

A middle-aged man clicked his tongue as he came over. Lately so much beef had been going into the palace that the extra work had left his shoulder aching; he had just had Physician Jang needle it and was on his way home. It looked as though she had brought in yet another child whose parents had died and who had nowhere left to go. Ah-hwa, the physician's disciple, did good deeds as if they were second nature and never so much as let it show. Knowing she could not turn a blind eye to those in hardship, he thought her remarkable every time he looked at her, young enough to be his own child. For that same reason, everyone who lived in Baekjeong Village pretended not to notice that Ah-hwa, a woman, went about passing for a man.

"The baby was crying beside its dead mother, so I brought it."

Famous in the village for his strength, he held out his hands and took the baby into his arms. The child, who had not been fed properly, barely weighed anything at all.

"You two go on to his lordship. I'll take this little one to my wife. We've got to get something into it."

"Thank you, Uncle. I'll stop by in a little while and take the baby back."

Ah-hwa bowed from the waist. In times as hard as these, sharing one's food with someone else was no small thing.

"What are you bowing for! Go on—get moving!"

Embarrassed to receive so formal a greeting, the man waved a hand and turned quickly on his heel.

"Hwa, let's go."

Jin slipped easily into casual speech. Ah-hwa was a precious daughter of what might be called the foremost aristocratic house in Cheongguk, but on nights like this, when she was concealing both her station and her sex, Jin dropped the honorifics at her request. When the two of them were alone, though, Jin spoke up to her again. If she did not even do that much, she feared she might start hoping for something she had no right to hope for.

Il-ho, Sam-ho, and Sa-ho found an inn set in a lonely spot, not so very far from the market streets and the red-lantern district. It did most of its business with guests who stayed a long while, and for an inn it was fairly large, with as many as five rooms. According to the woman who worked there, the rooms were always full, but three days ago the great market that opened in the capital once a month, and ran for three days, had ended. For once four rooms stood empty, and the place was quiet, without guests.

They sat on a wooden platform in the inn yard, eating the rice-and-soup she had brought them, and waited for the innkeeper's argument to end. The man and the innkeeper had already been raising their voices before the three arrived, and even after a quarter of an hour it showed no sign of stopping.

"I said I'll pay! There's a big score tonight, I'm telling you!"

"That's your business! I've heard that line dozens of times already! Just pay what you owe and clear out of the room!"

A private room was paid ten days in advance. The man who had kept one for more than three months had, for the past ten days, paid neither the room fee nor for the three bowls of rice-and-soup he ate each day. Now he meant to stay another ten while paying neither the arrears nor anything up front. The innkeeper told him to settle what he owed and leave; the man insisted a large sum would come in tonight, that he would pay then, and that he would go on using the private room. It was a conversation that had never been headed toward compromise.

Sam-ho looked at Sa-ho and held up one finger. Sa-ho gave a short laugh and turned his head toward the serving woman.

She was in her thirties, wiping the wooden veranda with a dishcloth for no particular reason and stealing glances at Sa-ho, when their eyes met dead on. Sa-ho smiled, slow and easy, and color flared across her face.

"Might we have three more bowls of rice-and-soup?"

How could a man that handsome have a voice so rich besides? She swallowed the sigh she could not say aloud, shot to her feet, and came over. She might simply have gone into the kitchen and ladled it out, but she came closer on purpose, wanting another look at that fine face from near at hand.

"My lord, not one bowl—three, is that right?"

"Yes. A bowl of hot rice-and-soup going down, and this empty belly feels a little warmer. It's good."

The woman twisted at the waist. She wanted to warm that handsome man's hungry body herself.

"Aigoo. Just a moment, my lord. I'll bring it right out!"

Watching her scurry into the kitchen, Sam-ho turned and whispered to Sa-ho, who was lifting the bowl to drink the broth straight down.

"Hey. The bowl that comes out as your share—I'm eating it."

Sa-ho only snorted a laugh. Wherever they went, from the first order to the last, he was the one who placed it. According to the others, when he ordered, both the quantity and the quality of the food changed. Sa-ho didn't care. Eating more was a good thing.

The serving woman was quick with her hands, and the rice-and-soup came out at once. Shielding the tray with her body so the innkeeper wouldn't catch her, she brought three bowls heaped high with meat and set them down in front of Sa-ho.

"Please enjoy it, my lord."

"We'll eat well. A lady as pretty as you must be kindhearted too, to serve us so generously."

"Aigoo. Not at all, my lord."

She twisted this way and that, then dashed back into the kitchen.

"That bastard's tongue has a stomach of iron. Look at him, calling any face at all beautiful without missing a beat."

"Shut up and eat, you pig."

Il-ho scolded Sam-ho, who was marveling even as he stole Sa-ho's bowl, and took a fresh one for himself. Sam-ho ate the heaped meat as if he were drinking it down.

They were eating in a frenzy when, with a sudden crash, the innkeeper slammed into their table as if she had been thrown across it. The table toppled off the platform, and rice-and-soup poured down all three of them, leaving them a mess.

"Is this bitch deaf in both ears! When a man speaks nicely, you swallow it and listen! Some bitches only understand once they've been hit!"

The quick man's foot came flying straight at the innkeeper.

Thwack! Sam-ho knocked the ankle aside. He hadn't even touched the rice, busy as he'd been with the meat piled on top, and now the whole thing was spilled. His cold gaze flew straight at the quick man and stuck.

For an instant the man felt killing intent, and his shoulders jerked. Twisted all the more by his own show of fear, he bellowed at Sam-ho.

"Who the hell are you, you bastard!"

"Pay for the six bowls we couldn't eat because you dumped them, you son of a bitch!"

"Ha! What kind of swindling bastard is this! Three bowls, maybe—why six!"

Sam-ho rose slowly from where he sat and stood before the quick man. A full head taller, his bulk looked more than twice the size of the lean man's. The fellow had killed plenty with a blade, yet those fierce, beastlike eyes cowed him all the same.

"Don't you even know the courtesy owed to a bowl of rice-and-soup? If there's broth left, you haven't finished it."

"Who do you think you're trying to cheat! You want to die!"

The man roared as he shoved a hand into the breast of his robe, where a dagger waited. As always, if it came to it, he only had to stab. Cutting a man's throat was an easy thing for him.

The moment the words left his mouth, his body suddenly lifted into the air and dropped onto the empty platform beside them.

Crash! Flung off the sturdy wooden platform, the man hit the ground. Sam-ho was on him at once, planting a foot on his throat.

"Ghk!"

"Look at this bastard. Doing something anyone could see coming."