Choice

Chunhyang didn’t say much. But even in her few words, I could tell what my father had said to persuade her.

“I must give up my feelings for Young master in order to protect them.”

Chunhyang said, her face faintly revealed in the moonlight.

I must give up my feelings in order to protect them.

I could do nothing but cling to the bars.

“Chunhyang. Shouldn’t you still want to live?”

I tried to persuade her, speaking of what was most precious to a human.

“Aren’t there things more precious than life itself?”

She was as hard as a stone.

“No. There is nothing more precious than life.”

I pressed my face closer to the bars and spoke.

“Young master is not good at lying.”

Chunhyang smiled, just a little.

“Lying? What do you mean?”

“Haven’t you acted for something more precious than life itself?”

Chunhyang lifted her gaze from the floor and looked me straight in the eye.

Chunhyang’s eyes, hidden in the shadows, were like looking at a sunken night sea.

Calm, serene, desolate, and resolved to die…

The very act of entering this place at the risk of my life was a question: wasn’t there something more precious than life?

“This lowly one… I haven’t known Young master for long, but… Young master has always, always run around for something more precious than life.”

She smiled faintly, like frost forming on a window in early autumn, as if reminiscing about the past.

“That is why everyone in Namwon respects and follows Young master and Young master’s family.”

“Even ignorant children, elderly people, and women drawing water…”

I did think it was a bit much that you even took the women’s attention away…

Chunhyang murmured in a voice barely audible.

“All the interest and respect directed towards the Kang family, I believe, comes from Young master’s passion and sincerity, not from the Magistrate.”

“Chunhyang.”

My scarred hand gripped the iron plate of the cell door tightly.

“Young master said that I looked beautiful on the swing…”

Chunhyang was cautious, as if revealing a hidden secret.

“I’m telling you this now… In fact, whenever Young master passed through the marketplace, I always rode the swing.

Holding the rope, bending my knees, I would say to Hyangdan.

Hyangdan, push the swing.

Out to the distant sea,

As if launching a ship,

Hyangdan.

To see Young master, to have myself reflected in Young master’s clear eyes even once more. I rode the swing, hoping and wishing for that.”

Chunhyang was fumbling with a very precious memory, carefully hidden in a treasure chest of memories.

“I always resented the world. I thought that no one could understand me, that no one like me existed. But… Young master appeared.”

For a moment, I felt like I was being sucked into Chunhyang’s deep eyes.

“It was definitely Young master who brought spring to my heart, frozen like a winter river.”

“When such a dazzling Young master… said that he loved this lowly one… I felt like I had the whole world.”

Tears streamed down her left cheek like rain.

“Chunhyang. That’s why you should think more about getting out of here. If the time you spend with me is precious, you should think more about living.”

Chunhyang slowly shook her head.

“If I get out of here and am connected to Young master, it would be the happiest thing for me, but… there will only be hardship for Young master.”

“No…”

“Would you become someone who, infatuated with a lowly woman’s beauty, drives a stake through his parents’ hearts? Would you abandon the greater good and spend your life forever in the arms of a mere woman?”

“But…”

“I am grateful for your words that you will save me, but I believe that sacrificing oneself for the one you love is the way to maintain fidelity.”

She indirectly expressed her refusal, as before.

“So, Young master. I implore you to leave now. This lowly one will cherish this meeting with Young master even in death.”

“……..”

Frustrating.

So frustrating.

So frustrating that I wanted to put my hand in my mouth and scratch the inside.

-Ahem!

I heard a cough from outside. It must have been the guard who had given us space.

I took my buttocks off the cold dirt floor and stood up.

“It seems time is up.”

Chunhyang bowed politely to me.

“Whatever it takes, I will save you. Know that.”

Feeling suffocated and uncomfortable by her attitude, I declared and headed out of the prison.

“Are those words Young master’s choice?”

Chunhyang asked, directing her question at my back as I was about to leave.

“What?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

Chunhyang turned her head. It meant she wouldn’t talk anymore.

-Ahem!

With a second cough behind me, I left the prison.

My destination was in a secluded place away from the center of Namwon.

“Young master, is this okay? What if the Magistrate gets angry…”

Bangja, who seemed like he would do anything to save Chunhyang, looked worried at my words to go home.

“Father is a ‘former’ Magistrate. Not a ‘current’ one.”

“I wish he was still the Magistrate. None of this would have happened.”

The guy grumbled without giving up.

I wanted to smack him on the head, but Bangja wasn’t wrong, so I walked in silence.

I put Bangja in front as soon as it was light. My house was quite far from the prison.

It was like the distance between my feelings and Chunhyang’s.

The sun had fully settled in, and the flowers and grass that had been sleeping all night were singing the song of spring.

I hurried my steps, without even having time to take in the faint scent of spring.

As I got closer to home, more and more people recognized me and greeted me.

Seeing that there was no fear on their faces as they greeted me politely, I realized that Chunhyang’s words were not false.

The walls of a fairly large house with tiled roofs came into view.

I passed Bangja, who was moving slowly, and he followed me at a brisk pace.

“Bangja.”

“Yes, Young master.”

“What kind of son was I?”

“You were a son who kept the lines that the Magistrate set well.”

As we stood in front of the gate, Bangja stepped forward to knock.

I stopped Bangja with my arm.

“Young master?”

And then, I lifted my leg.

Bang!

I kicked the gate.

“Kept the lines well?”

The hinges shattered, the gate fell backward, and the servants of the mansion began to gather with surprised eyes.

I looked around the house in the yard where dust was rising, then turned to Bangja.

“Then I must have been reckless outside the lines.”

So I must have been dating without my parents knowing.

Bangja squeezed his eyes shut and hit his forehead with his hand.