The Thirty-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 THIRTY-SECOND STANZA-
Three Months Ago
Sooyoung hated him. Everything about him, from his hair that grew ever more scraggly and unkempt as the years went by, to his ever-increasing intolerance for every word that she spoke, his inability to let her out of his sight for more than a few seconds at a time, and his mind that grew more deranged and unbalanced by the day.
She hated Jonghyun.
And yet, she couldn’t leave him.
Not that she hadn’t tried - because she had, she had tried, packing and unpacking her clothes every other night, making plans to run away, then remaking them and remaking them again so that they were perfect, not a single hole to be found - only to throw them away the next morning when she woke up in the sunlight and realized just how stupid she had sounded, plotting her escape like a romantic hero, as if she would make it half a li out of town.
And in any case, he needed her. He would go crazy without her. He had said so himself, and whatever Jonghyun may have been, he wasn’t a liar.
So she stayed.
But…
---
One Month Ago
She was freezing.
It was raining, she was drenched, her feet were blistered, and - most of all - she was cold.
Very cold.
Not only was she cold on the outside - she was cold on the inside, too. She knew that now. Knew it without a doubt.
Knew it after she had realized - after she was safely out of the city, of course, since she hadn’t permitted herself to think about anything before she was beyond the point of no return - that Jonghyun would probably die without her, so dependent he had become on her for…everything.
It was her fault, she knew. Her fault for forgiving him, despite her brain screaming at her not to, despite everything that had transpired earlier, despite her knowledge of who he really was, she allowed him to come closer and closer until…they were inseparable.
Not inseparable as in friendship - inseparable as in, a cruel fate that had been bestowed upon both of them for whatever reason.
She felt cold inside as the rain kept falling on her head.
---
Now
He had definitely grown worse for the wear, Sooyoung could see that in the way that he walked, the way that he stared at things, the way that he slowly descended into madness.
“I’m sorry.” She said.
He jerked his head upright from where he had been observing his own fingernails. “What?”
“I had to.”
A shadow flitted over his face before it was replaced by a surly expression. “No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did. Do you know why?”
Jonghyun’s fingers started to chatter slightly on the ground; he took out his haegeum and started to tune it, to give his fingers something to do.
Sooyoung pressed forward. “You were killing me.”
He looked up at that. “No, I wasn’t.”
“Yes. You were. You may not have set my house on fire…” He flinched - “but you were killing me anyway. Inside.”
He remained silent for a while; she was debating whether or not to ask if he was asleep when he suddenly spoke again. “I didn’t mean to kill you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry.” He sneered. “You didn’t say that when you left. You didn’t even think about me when you simply up and walked away, when you had said you had forgiven me for - ”
“Let’s get one thing straight.” She said, harsher than she had meant to be. “I never forgave you. You killed my…my best friend’s mother. That’s not something that I - ”
It was his turn to interrupt. “Best friend? So Yonghwa was your best friend, now? That’s a strange way of putting it, I would’ve thought - ”
“This is between you and me, Jonghyun.”
“No. Him, too. He hates me. He wants to kill me! He - ”
“You’re deluded.” She said, with real harshness this time. “Yonghwa would’ve been fine…if you hadn’t come along and decided to kidnap me for god knows what reason.” She bowed her head. “I hope he’s okay.”
“I hope he’s okay?” Jonghyun repeated incredulously, a vein in his forehead starting to turn blue. “See, that - that - that’s what - ” He tripped over his own words in his haste. “That’s why - I - don’t - like - ”
What exactly he didn’t like, however, would have to be told sometime later - for at that exact moment, several things happened at once.
First, Sooyoung - who had been secretly working on tearing apart the ropes that had bound her hands since the night before - finally managed to cut them free.
Second, Jonghyun choked.
Third, and most important, the sounds of galloping hooves could be heard right outside the warehouse door, and a very familiar female voice shouting, “Park Sooyoung!”
---
What happened next, happened in a blur.
Free of her ropes, Sooyoung stood up and quickly mounted the horse, grasping tightly onto Hyun’s waist. Once she was sure she was safe, Hyun turned her horse around to leave, and saw Jonghyun drawing a knife. She immediately reared her horse, and made a quick 180-degree turn and ran in the opposite direction, making a wide loop around the perimeter.
They had almost reached the door, Hyun bent over the horse’s neck and Sooyoung making herself as low as possible, when Jonghyun aimed, and threw.
Sooyoung felt something cool graze past her thigh, and the next thing she knew, Hyun was doubled over the saddle, shouting something about Yonghwa and the first tinges of red seeping through her silk clothes.
---
Hyun felt the blade enter her skin, and felt a strange sensation of…ticklishness? It wasn’t pain, per se, but it wasn’t exactly a good feeling, either.
In any case, it would have to wait. She pulled out the knife from her lower thigh - thankfully, it didn’t seem to have entered very far - and turned around in her saddle, only to see Sooyoung’s pale face lolling across her shoulder.
She slapped her cheek twice. “Hey. Wake up.”
Sooyoung blinked. “Are you hurt?”
“Not bad. Where’s Yonghwa?”
“…I don’t know.”
Hyun felt the strength go out of her arms. “What do you mean, you don’t know? Wasn’t he with you?”
She shook her head mutely.
Hyun felt like ripping her hair apart. “He disappeared…looking for you. He said he had an idea about where you would’ve gone.”
Sooyoung nodded slowly. “I think I know. Make a right.”
---
Minhyuk followed Taeyeon closely as they entered the village boundaries once more. Instead of heading home, they headed straight to the school; dismounting and tying their horses at the gate, they wandered inside.
The empty school grounds welcomed them like a sandy desert would welcome a thirsty traveler - that is, not at all. Minhyuk suddenly felt a little stupid for imagining the entire student body gathered in the square, cheering his words and making him into a hero.
“I guess they’re not back yet.” he muttered, his dreams vanishing in a puff of idiocy. He threw a sidelong glance at Taeyeon. “You, er, wouldn’t happen to know where the professors live, do you?”
“No. Let’s look around.”
They wandered into the gardens, the main hall standing imposingly in front of them and the pagodas off to their left.
“I think it’s this way.” Minhyuk pointed to a path branching off to their right towards a stone bridge that crossed a small river.
“How do you know?” She asked him doubtfully.
“I’m pretty sure.” Minhyuk turned the corner, and promptly ran into someone. “Ow!”
A girl around his age glared up at him. “Watch where you’re going!”
“Sorry.” Minhyuk muttered. “Um, can I ask you a question?”
The girl crossed her arms. “Go ahead.”
“Are there any professors here we can talk to?”
She uncrossed her arms. “Why?”
“It’s, er, a private matter.”
Shinhye - for of course it was she - regarded him for a moment. “Sure. Follow me.”
“Thanks.” Minhyuk noticed as he followed her that she was carrying a gayageum under her arm.
Huh, he thought. What are the chances of meeting two of them?
---
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.
Gayageum: a traditional Korean stringed instrument and a member of the zither family. It was usually crafted out of wood and had 12 strings, although modern variants can have up to 25.
Haegeum: a two-stringed instrument that was balanced on the knee and played sitting down with a bow. There also exists a five-stringed variant.
Li: a measure of distance. 1 li is half a kilometer.
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