The Second Stanza - 관습도감 (Royal Stanza)
Read from the beginning.
NOTE: AN ENGLISH-KOREAN GLOSSARY HAS BEEN PROVIDED FOR REFERENCE AT THE END OF THE ENTRY, AS WELL AS ADDITIONAL READING.
-THE SECOND STANZA-
Night had fallen.
Minhyuk looked worriedly towards where their cart was parked. The stowaway was nowhere to be seen.
“Did she really walk?”
Yonghwa glanced up from tending the fire, and shrugged. “None of our business.”
“It’s going to take her a long time to get back.”
He merely shrugged a second time before ladling some of the porridge into a wooden bowl. “Eat.”
Minhyuk accepted it. “I wonder why she was on our cart in the first place.”
“Who knows? Maybe she really was going on a joyride.” Yonghwa frowned into the fire.
“Mmm. And you believe that?”
“Like I said. It’s none of our business.”
Minhyuk shrugged and started eating.
Yonghwa stood up suddenly.
“Where are you going?” Minhyuk looked up.
“I’ll be back soon.”
---
Hyun tripped on a stray branch. Her gomusin had ripped, and her tender feet were exposed to the rocky ground. She winced as a small cut started to ooze blood.
She struggled to her feet. Hands held out in front of her, she waded her way through the darkness. She had never been in perfect darkness before; there had always been a servant there to light the way with a torch. It was painfully slow, inching her way through the murky night step by step, but she had to get home before anyone realized she was missing.
Silently, she cursed the two sorrikkun that had refused to help her. Although, she did admit, it was her fault for foolishly jumping onto the cart in the first place…
---
The procession passed through the gates of the 관습도감, coming to a halt in the middle of the grassy square.
The entire student body was assembled to welcome the new Administrator.
Through the window, Park Yun gazed at the massed students, lined up in perfect formation, one behind the other, side by side. He felt dry sweats roll down his forehead.
It was an acknowledged fact that he, Park Yun, was one of the foremost music theorists in the peninsula; even the Great King Sejong had said something to that effect when he had requested his audience at a special meeting of the Ministers.
Had that only been a week ago?
After he had received his assignment as the new Administrator of the 관습도감, he had spent many sleepless nights. He had no experience in teaching; he generally left that to his older students while he locked himself in his study, penning his latest collection of Confucian musical theory.
And yet, here, he would have his greatest responsibility in nurturing the young students here to future success. It was, to be quite frank, a job where life or death - literally - hung in the balance.
He got the chills just thinking about it. He watched the other professors, his understudies now, give the prepared speech.
Behind her father, Shinhye peeked through her own window. The first thing she noticed was how many students there were; from a glancing head count, she would guess there were approximately one hundred or so faces staring back at her.
One lucky student would be granted the title of Royal Musician. The others would go on to be scholars, government officials, and private musicians that performed on request.
So this was going to be her home from now on. She slowly nodded to herself. She - along with her father - would have their own private quarters at the back of the campus, along with the other professors.
This was going to be interesting.
---
After his night eyes had settled in, Yonghwa set off in search of the stowaway.
“Mistress!” He called to the darkness.
What am I even doing? He thought to himself. She would probably be back home by now.
He nodded. Yes, she would be perfectly safe. Of course she would. No doubt about it.
He set off at a run.
---
Hyun slumped against a rock, catching her breath.
She didn’t know where she was anymore. She wasn’t even sure if she was on the road or not; her eyes were next to useless in the forest.
A breeze blew through the trees, scattering the autumn leaves around her feet. She shivered and hugged herself.
Her predicament notwithstanding, it was peaceful here, she thought. No angry mothers to beseech her to find a husband, no noisy beggars that clamored around her feet for a single coin.
She quietly started humming to herself. It was a few minutes before she realized she was humming Arirang.
It was the song that the sorrikkun had sung earlier. Her cheeks flushed at the thought. No matter how good his voice had been, the nerve with which he had directly confronted her was enough to make her stop humming immediately and kick at a loose stone in frustration and embarrassment.
The stone rolled unevenly down the hill. Something rustled. She squinted through the darkness.
A deep rumbling growl carried itself through the air.
Hyun paled. Was it a Sansillyeong? She had heard the childhood tales about how they roamed the mountains, looking for the person who was the very incarnation of the gods of old to join them.
Somehow, she didn’t think so.
Getting to her feet, she slowly started backing away from the source of the noise.
Struggling to see through the pitch-black darkness, she carefully took one step backwards after another.
Suddenly, she shrieked as the ground seemed to disappear from beneath her feet. She whirled her arms around for balance as she tumbled down the hill.
With an earth-shaking thump, the ground came rushing up to greet her.
---
Yonghwa heard the shriek from far away, through the woods.
He stopped short. “Hello?” He called.
The leaves rustled around him.
“I definitely heard something.” He said to himself, quickening his pace.
---
Hyun’s eyelids twitched involuntarily as she found herself eye-to-eye with a squirrel.
“What are you looking at?” She growled.
The squirrel scratched its head.
“Shoo.”
It made a small chirping sound. Make me.
“Okay, is that how you’re going to be? Fine, I - ARGH!” A jolt of pain ran through her lower left leg as she tried to stand up. She collapsed back on the ground.
The squirrel chuckled before scampering away.
“Oww.” Hyun whimpered, massaging her ankle. It seemed to have been sprained. “Perfect.”
She had tumbled off a short drop-off that she hadn’t seen beforehand, thanks to what had turned out to be a squirrel with a particularly menacing growl.
She couldn’t help but laugh at her condition. Her jeogori frayed, her gomusin torn, running away from squirrels, and now with a sprained ankle.
If she had known that it would end up like this, she would’ve just let herself get caught and suffer whatever consequences that would’ve come her way.
But as her teacher was fond of saying, hindsight was always 100% accurate.
Something rustled in the darkness, again.
“Go away.” She muttered.
She was about to massage her ankle some more when she heard footsteps. She froze.
This was definitely not a squirrel.
Crawling across the ground, she grasped at a decent-sized pebble lying on the ground.
From the distance, she could make out the flaming tips of a torchlight drawing steadily closer.
“Okay, whoever you are.” She said to herself. “Come on.”
The footsteps drew closer.
She gripped the pebble tightly, shrinking her body into a small ball.
Suddenly, someone spoke behind her. “What are you doing?”
Letting out a small squeak, Hyun lost her balance and found herself on the ground again. She looked up.
Yonghwa looked down at her, amused. “Why aren’t you home?”
“I - uh.” She stumbled for words. “I was, out for a stroll.”
“A stroll.” Yonghwa’s eyes raked over her torn clothes and her swollen ankle.
Hyun nodded bravely. “I decided to sit down for a bit.”
“What’s the pebble for?”
“That’s - ” She realized what she was doing, and changed her tone. “You don’t need to know.” She finished heatedly. “I like pebbles.”
“You like pebbles.” Yonghwa nodded sagely. “I see.”
Hyun valiantly attempted to stand up; she didn’t like looking up at anyone, and this sorrikkun was getting on her nerves. She yelped as a sharp dagger-like pain tore through her ankle, and fell.
Yonghwa caught her by the shoulders. “Careful, mistress.”
“Let me go!” She pushed him away, only to fall back down to the ground, directly on top of her ankle.
A sudden flash of pain, then everything went black.
---
Yonghwa tutted as he gazed at the prone figure. What the hell am I supposed to do?
He looked around. Minhyuk was too far away to call for help, and in any case, he wasn’t about to leave her alone.
There was also the option of going to the village for assistance, but then he realized he would be lynched on the spot for attempted rape.
He sighed. “Do you always create this much trouble back home?”
Bending down, he put one arm around her upper back and one under her knees, and gently lifted her body up, carefully avoiding her injured ankle.
“Minhyuk’s going to be angry.” He said to himself. “You’re good at getting other people into trouble, aren’t you?” He told the unconscious girl, cradled in his arms.
He would have to figure out something later; for now, she needed help.
With a sigh, he started walking.
Once he was back on the road, he relaxed his steps a little and adjusted his load. He looked down at her face.
Now that she wasn’t frowning, her face was really quite pretty, he thought. It was a small, circular face, with a small, slightly tubby nose and full lips. It was nicely framed by her brown wavy hair, which was now cascading down to the ground from his arms.
Pity she couldn’t look like this when she was awake.
---
Glossary
관습도감: A government institution founded in the waning days of the Koryeo Dynasty and re-established by King Sejong, which focused on the musical arts. It supplied all music for royal use, including Royal Musicians, royal concerts, and parties, and trained its own in-house musicians, for which the competition was fierce.
Gomusin: a shoe made of waxed rubber, worn by the elite.
Jeogori: a traditional blouse worn by Korean women, as a part of hanbok.
Sansillyeong: the divine spirits of the mountains.
Sorrikkun: wandering minstrels, who would travel around the country performing Korean music and ballads. They were often very poor and subsisted on what they were able to make through their music.
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Related Readings
The history behind Sansillyeong