Ballad of the Mountain Fox

제 15 장: Good Intentions Fall Flat

What’s taking so long?

Nara picked up her teacup, set it back down, and then picked it back up again.  The liquid inside was growing cold, yet she couldn’t bring herself to take a single sip.  She was far too anxious for that, for several reasons.

She and Young Min were seated on the patio of a teahouse, in the dappled shade of a large oak.  With each fresh gust of wind, a few golden-red leaves would tear from the branches and spiral around them, but Nara scarcely noticed.  She was far too concerned with the impending events of the day.

When they had reached the village a half an hour earlier, Young Min had decided to stop for tea.  Won Soo had left with the horses, to find a place for him and Young Min to stay the night and to inquire after the local magistrate.  It was only a matter of time until Nara’s investigation would begin.

In the meantime, Nara continued to cast anxious glances at the road.  At any moment, she expected to see either Won Soo appear with the magistrate to take her away, or have the traveling street performers pass by and recognize her.  And what had ever happened to the gumiho who had agreed to help her?  Or had that all just been a figment of her imagination, brought about by hunger and fatigue?

Of course not!  Her imagination wasn’t that terrible.

Across the table, Young Min shifted with a wince.  He too, seemed distracted, Nara noted, studying him surreptitiously from beneath lowered lashes.  There were shadows beneath his eyes, and a pained tightness in his jaw.

“Are you still not feeling well?” she found herself asking before she could censor the thought.  I shouldn’t have asked that!

Young Min’s dark brown eyes slowly rose to meet hers.  A frown briefly crossed his face, and for a moment, Nara wondered if he would reprimand her for her intrusiveness.  As the silence between them stretched on, Nara finally turned away and took a big gulp of her tea, cringing at the lukewarm temperature, but more relieved to have a distraction.

“I didn’t realize it was so apparent,” Young Min finally replied.  “I was hoping to keep it a secret for a bit longer.”  Nara looked back—quickly, guiltily—to find him still looking at her.

“I-I’m sorry,” Nara stuttered.  “I shouldn’t have asked…”  She trailed off, suddenly very intent on studying the grain patterns in the wooden table before her.

“What gave it away?” Young Min asked.

“Uh…” she hadn’t anticipated that question.  To be honest, if the gumiho hadn’t brought her attention to the matter, she wasn’t sure that she would have noticed it until several days later.  But regardless of whether or not she would have noticed before, the fact of the matter remained that now she could plainly see that there was something bothering the scholarly noble.  The last night, he had been slow on his feet and stepped cautiously over the stones and twigs around their campsite—today, his face was drawn and his gaze distant, and at times he walked like an old man with rheumatism.

“I’m hoping to keep it from Won Soo for a bit longer,” Young Min explained.  “I don’t want him to be alarmed, but…it’s not getting any better, and I don’t know if there’s a cure.  So if there’s anything I need to adjust in my manner, I’d like to know.  He’s a loyal servant, but prone to panic.”

“I just sort of, um, noticed,” Nara mumbled, forcing down another swallow of her tepid drink.  She needed to change the subject—and fast!  There would be no way a yangban would believe her stories of auras and fox-spirits!  “Are you looking for a cure in Miryang?  You mentioned you were going there, right?”