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Sun-ha returned to the Ho residence knowing her half-hour limit was drawing to a close. She was grateful she did not run into anyone on her way back.

Upon her arrival, however, she was quickly swept away by her mother's demand to redress for another outing. A guard from the Jung family was being received in the sarangchae; he came with the message that the Magistrate Jung's son had organized a small retreat by the Yong-ui Meoli forest, northeast of the palace, to celebrate his promotion. Sun-ha would be returned to her parents before night fell.

Both the Magistrate and the Lady Ho immediately accepted the offer when it was given, and Minyoung was rushed to dress Sun-ha into the same dress she had worn to visit the Queen.

The Lady Ho soon entered for final touches. She straightened a collar here, checked for wrinkles there, and frowned. "This will have to do."

"Why must there be so much attention for this?" Sun-ha asked, returning her mother's frown. "You didn't mind this much when we visited Chungjôn Ma-ma."

"Hasn't it occurred to you?" The Lady Ho turned away and began walking. Sun-ha followed as her mother continued. "Such a public display of affection will serve to legitimize your ascension into the jingol class as Yonghwa's wife. If the Queen doesn't want humiliation to befall the Jung name—the name you will soon share with her—she will watch in silence rather than think she can sully our plans. And with the financial agreements between your father and Magistrate Jung already carried out, you are practically Yonghwa's wife."

Now outside, Sun-ha noticed over a dozen imperial guards stood around an overly large, decorated litter. In addition, there were eight private guards bowed on their knees directly surrounding the gama.

The imperial guards bowed their heads upon seeing Sun-ha and her mother approach. The Lady Ho's calculating gaze at the sight before her reminded Sun-ha of Min-ah's death, and her throat constricted. With so many of their guards away from the Jung residence, now is a perfect opportunity to have someone look around for family secrets worth murdering someone over.

Sun-ha turned to Minyoung. "Send the spy to watch the Jung residence," she whispered.

Minyoung nodded and quickly went off while two of the imperial guards lifted the door of the gama, inviting her inside. A servant picked up the edges of her skirt so Sun-ha would not trip over them. It was too dark to see much of the interior from her perspective, but Sun-ha could see that the floor of the gama had been painted purple. She hesitated before stepping into it.

The Lady Ho watched her enter with a small smile. Sun-ha's new status would raise the social standing of everyone in the Ho household, indiscriminately, from the Lady Ho down to the servants who scrubbed their floors. It was the closest thing to reaching the Heavens in this life.

Sun-ha settled into the cushion and busied herself with fixing the placement of her skirts when she saw a slender leg shift in front of her. Sun-ha froze momentarily and then looked up to see that Jung was sitting opposite of her. How could she mistake the sheen of the reds, golds, and blacks of the Chief Tribunal uniform?

"What...what are you doing here?" Sun-ha gasped out.

In addition to it being highly untraditional for an unmarried couple to be together unsupervised, she had not expected to see him at all during the trip—it was just a farce to protect the delicate marriage plans as her mother implied.

"Would you rather I step out?" he replied as the gama was lifted off the ground.

Sun-ha exhaled through her nostrils at the rhetorical question. After a moment of silence between them, she remembered the reason for the outing.

"I suppose it would be appropriate to congratulate you," she forced herself to say.

"Coming from you, it would be unnecessary."

Sun-ha turned her head away to stare at the dark wall of the gama. Did she really think that what had happened between them last night was any indication that he was more than the vain man he was? Whatever fluke of character I had seen, had slept with, she reminded herself, was just that—a fluke.

🌺🌺🌺

In the hour it took to travel to the Yong-ui Meoli forest, Sun-ha said nothing more to Jung. Neither did he say anything. But she realized by the low, rhythmic sound of his breathing and the slight slouch of his posture, that it was because Jung had fallen asleep. She wondered if it was because he had not gotten any sleep in the police station from the night before.

When the gama was finally lowered to the ground, Sun-ha heard Jung clear his throat. She glanced his way, startled that he knew when to wake up at the appropriate time.

"Stay seated for a few minutes," he said. "I will let you know to come out once it's safe."

Sun-ha's opened her mouth. But Jung had disappeared behind the flap before she could find the words to ask why she would need to be afraid for her safety. Does he know I'm looking into his secrets? Or is this related to Mina-ah? After a moment of deliberation with herself, Sun-ha gingerly pushed her way forward and stepped out anyway. Standing upright, her fingers instinctively brushed down her dress as she looked up at the sky between the rustling jade-colored leaves. The sun was beginning to set in the distance, and the air felt a little chillier with a breeze.

When Sun-ha's eyes returned to surface level, she gasped. The trodden path of the forest was lined with paper lanterns of all colors—and she could see even more lanterns up ahead. The path itself was littered with the white petals of allium flowers. Walking down this decorative path, she reached a red-roofed pavilion decorated with rows of bright red hibiscus. It was surrounded by a moat home to lotuses and swimming koi. This is the most famous part of the Yong-ui Meoli forest: the eye of the Black Dragon. Breathless at how much effort had been poured into the small outing, Sun-ha clenched the fabric above her chest with a blush. This romantic setting...did Jung set this up for us?

Sun-ha turned around in search of where Jung had walked off only to trip over a thin rope connected by two seemingly natural boulders. A net shot out of the trees and latched onto her. She fell with a shout, wincing at the pain that shot up her chest. She made an effort to wriggle out of the netting, and managed to push herself up to her knees.

In doing so, Sun-ha found herself looking down at the point of a sword. Her heart began to pound and she remembered Jung's warning about safety. A masked individual in a simple black tunic and a pair of cotton slippers that reduced the sound of one's footsteps held the weapon. A second man, in an identical outfit, stepped out from behind the first. Sun-ha could not be entirely sure of their conversation but heard bits and pieces as they glanced from her to each other.

"Her purpose..."

"Celebration...spy..."

"...too risky."

In the end, Sun-ha was yanked to her feet by the two men and brought dangerously close to the edge of the moat, crushing the hibiscus that grew there. A bit of loose dirt fell into the dark waters, and it scared the koi away from them. Staring at the rippling, shadowed reflection of herself, Sun-ha was reminded that she had twice attempted to do what these criminals intended—to toss herself into the river that fed Silloseon and sink to its pebbly depths in expiation for her years of suffering.

Yet this time, her breathing came out in gasps, and she was seized with fear.

Please, I don't want to die—

And then she fell.

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