“Except being a rat. I think he’s a rat reincarnated into human form,” I said, and when Aejung spit out a laugh, I added, “But unfortunately, he does not look like one.”
Aejung laughed harder, and I joined her, the two of us filling the empty courtyard with our conspiratorial giggling. But we immediately fell silent when we arrived at the low steps that led up to a long wooden building, the officers’ quarter, illuminated by two burning cauldrons. After climbing, I set the lantern down on the veranda and slid open the door, wood rumbling against wood. There officers lounged, legs crossed, all occupied—talking, reading, or mending uniforms. Thick cotton bedding lay sloppily folded in a corner, stacked one over the other. Black police hats hung by their silk chin straps on wooden nails.
As I helped Aejung set up the low-legged tables, I sensed Officer Kyŏn’s presence, just as I might hear the whining of a barely visible mosquito. I tried to ignore him, ducking my head and staring at the bottles and bowls, but a question drew my eyes upward: Was he still angry at me?
He watched me with a tight, displeased smile that strained across his teeth.
I bit my lower lip hard, remembering how I’d snatched the bow from him as though he were a foolish boy. I wished the earth would open and swallow me up. Honor was like life to a man, and I had taken that from him. I had shamed him before all his fellow officers.
“Impudence!” An older officer’s bellow startled me. “How dare you stare into the face of your superior?”
With just the right amount of remorse in my voice, I apologized, then ducked my head again and continued to pour wine into bowls.
“That is fine,” Kyŏn said, low-voiced.
“No, sir. I won’t allow her to treat you with such disrespect.” The older officer’s voice groveled at the feet of the far younger Officer Kyŏn. “Seol is still being trained, so one must discipline her more harshly from the start, or she’ll never learn how to conduct herself properly.”
“This creature is so thickheaded she’ll never learn.” Kyŏn emptied the bowl with a few gulps. “Pour me some more.”
I did so carefully, cautiously. But before I could move away, with a snap of his wrist, Kyŏn threw the liquid onto my face. Anger exploded in my chest, but I sat still, wine streaming down my forehead, my cheeks, dripping onto my hands folded around the bottle. A servant mustn’t express emotions, I told myself as I gritted my teeth tighter. Hide it until you’re alone. Cry and yell only when all are asleep.
As though nothing had happened, he said in a smooth voice, “I hear that Matron Kim is infuriated.”
The officers did not respond to Kyŏn and instead stared at my shame-soaked face. After a beat, the older officer asked, “The mother of that noseless victim?”
“The same. She thought she would be summoned for the corpse’s examination, but proper protocol was not observed. She has ordered a servant sent from Inspector Han’s household to receive his punishment.” Kyŏn scratched at his chin as if in deep thought. As if he were capable of it. “Perhaps I will speak with Inspector Han. I’ll suggest a servant who might be willing to save his life yet again…”
His eyes rested on me, and as they did, a thought raced through my mind. Inspector Han would not dare hurt me.
“What are you smiling about?” he demanded.
“Neh?” I asked, confused. “I’m not smiling, sir.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I am not!”
He was still for all of a second, and then he lunged forward. It all happened too quickly for me to scramble away. He grabbed my collar and dragged me, tugging so hard the fabric turned into a noose around my neck, squeezing my throat shut as I stumbled across the floor. A moment later, I was in the air, crashing down the steps and rolling onto the courtyard. Saliva tinged with coppery blood rolled in my mouth as I tried to reorient myself.
“Who do you think you are, inyeona?” Kyŏn spoke with deadly calm. He had called me many nasty things in the past, but never this, never a bitch. He was standing near the burning cauldron, his face pale with murderous rage. “Do you think that you are more than a slave just because you impressed the inspector that one time?”
My stomach sank with his every step toward me. His boots crunched, crunched across the dirt, and everything in me coiled tight, waiting for him to kick me. Instead, he crouched before me and craned his neck so that we were eye to eye.
“Learn your place.” His hand smacked me across the back of my head, so hard I saw white spots. “It is serving tea”—another smack. And he went on this way, as though trying to shove a lesson into my skull. “Not solving crime.” Smack. “Aigoo, aigoo. Look at you. So proud and arrogant!” Smack. “Who do you think you are, little girl?”
I remained on all fours, breathing shallowly as I swayed against the pressure of each strike. The back of my head burned with humiliation, and my eyes stung with tears, with an emotion I’d never felt before: hatred. If my brother were here, or even the inspector, they would have put Kyŏn in his place. But they were not here, only officers who had stepped out of the building to watch and gloat. I had no one but myself.
Officer Kyŏn raised his hand to smack my head again, but I ducked, then scrambled to my feet. “Who do I think I am?” I echoed, my voice sounding like steel, and yet my knees were knocking against each other. “I am a girl who knows how to hold an arrow steady. Don’t blame me for your inability to shoot one properly.”
He stared at me, his eyes blazing with disbelief as he stood up. “Say that again, inyeona!” he snarled, spittle flying from his mouth.
“Inspector Han said that I could ask him for anything, for saving his life. Perhaps I will ask him to send you out of the bureau.”
“Hah!” Something like madness drifted into his large eyes, each as large as a mouth ready to devour me whole. “You think he’ll give me up for you?”
“Do what you wish with me then, if you don’t believe it. Shame me. Beat me. Slap me.” I fumbled with my uniform, then pulled out the norigae ornament and held it up to the torchlight. The amber terrapin gleamed, the tassel of blue strings swaying. “Inspector Han gave this to me, and he is a man of his word. Everyone knows that. So whether he wishes it or not, I swear to you—if you lay a hand on me, I will ruin you.”
Officer Kyŏn took a step back, then another. “There is an old saying: ‘Ilsan bulyong iho.’ ‘One mountain cannot abide two tigers.’” The words trembled out of his lips, repressed fury infused into a whisper. “You and I, Seol, one of us must go. And it will not be me.”
His gaze darted around at his spectators, all embarrassed for him. They all knew that no servant would make such a large threat if it were a lie. When he turned to me again, something shifted in the pools of his eyes.
“I was going to let it go, for Inspector Han’s sake. But now I think he doesn’t deserve my loyalty at all.” A new light burned in his eyes as he grinned. “I was in charge of collecting more testimonies and found my way to a drunkard at the inn who saw it all.”
I stood my ground, still clutching the norigae, my only source of safety. I was safe, I convinced myself. Inspector Han would take my side—