- Assassins in The Night
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It was the third hour past midnight… that dark and unsettling period of the night, where everything was extremely quiet. The fog was becoming more annoying these days. It fell like a thick blanket in the middle of the night, and usually didn’t let up till the sun started rising.
Cho Su Min, Head of the Palace Guards, paced the north wall of the Palace, deep in thought.
Truth be told, the fog was the least of his problems, but it was one of them, none the less! How was he expected to do his job, when he could barely see five feet in all directions?! He heard hurrying footsteps and turned sharply, sword at the ready.
His personal guards and the regular guards at the north wall all drew their weapons as well, and he couldn’t blame them… It had been a nerve-wracking three months! But it was three of his men that emerged from the fog, out of breath and struggling to speak.
“Pull yourself together!” He ordered and they forced themselves into attention. Cho Su Min and the other guards put their weapons away, while the eldest in rank amongst the three spoke up.
“Salyeong-Gwan (Commander)!” He began. “There’s been another assassination attempt! This time as well, the three men successfully swallowed poison the instant we caught them!”
“Did that ‘person assist’ again?” Cho Su Min asked, his anxiety slightly showing through his usually calm composition.
“Ye (Yes), Salyeong-Gwan.”
Cho Su Min sighed in resignation. He signaled at his guards to follow him, then he turned back to the three. “Lead the way.” He ordered quietly.
It had been the same almost every night for the last three months…
Assassins kept trying to kill the King!
And as if the shame of letting assassins into the palace wasn’t bad enough, the Palace guards – all two hundred or so of them – had never managed to catch the assassins on their own…
A masked intruder, who no one knew, always came to do their job for them!
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Meanwhile, Jung Ha Na a sixteen year old Noble lady, was dreaming…
“Omo! Such Grace! This is the face of someone who can catch the eyes and hearts of men!” Sang Ma-Nim was telling her, as she practically glided into the room. Well, at least, ‘gliding’ was the general name she and the other girls called it…
If was the act of walking so gracefully that your feet movement was barely noticed beneath your wide skirts! At the start of that year, Ha Na had decided to perfect that art, and she had succeeded!
She smiled at Sang Ma-Nim. Sang Ma-Nim was the head of the Gyobang (The courtesan (gisaeng) house).
Ha Na bowed gracefully to her. She sat down with equal grace, seeming like she floated down to the ground like a flower- another thing she perfected recently-, then she gently placed her fingers to the waiting gayageum.
She struck up a tune, plucking the strings confidently, as she spun an intriguing web around those present.
Sang Ma-Nim shut her eyes, soaking up the beautiful sounds Ha Na produced.
When Hana was done, she nodded her approval.
“Very good, very good! The Face to win men’s eyes and hearts, and the skills and personality to keep those same eyes and hearts and ears and everything!” She sighed, cleaning a tear.
“I put in a lot of work, training you all these years, and I haven’t been disappointed. Sang Ha Na. You, my dear, are going to make the noble wives our enemy.” She said with barely contained pride. “All their husbands will flock here after your debut!“
Ha Na bowed gracefully again. She was to debut as a full grown gisaeng in the coming week…
Then the scene changed suddenly.
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It was dark and it was raining. The sound of horse hooves were muted by the rain, but still clear enough draw attention.
About twenty men, all armed with swords, all soaked from the rain, suddenly began to search the Gyobang.
“What is the meaning of this?! What do you think you’re doing?!” Sang Ma-Nim demanded over and over again, but they ignored her.
She was pissed. They may be ‘Slaves of the State’ but they had laws protecting them!
She continued to get in their way, until the Palanquin arrived, and an elderly Noble Man was helped out of it. His Red official Sangbok (Regalia) was a bright splash of colour, compared to the drab blacks and browns his men wore.
A huge umbrella was held over him by his men, who knew they might die if he even ‘felt’ the rain on himself.
It was the Prime Minister!
“Daegam!” Sang Ma-Nim sank into a bow on the wet ground, and everyone around followed.
“Sang Ae Ran.” He called her name simply, his voice ringing with quiet authority.
She bowed even lower.
“I didn’t mean to barge in like this, but a delicate situation has arisen.”
Sang Ma-Nim rose her head a bit.
“We are here to serve you, Daegam.” She responded. “Please tell me what it is you want.”
“We are looking for someone…”
Those five words were all it took.
All the girls were lined up in the shade, and the men searched through them in an odd fashion.
Several pairs of them were searching. One was checking under each girl’s upper arm, close to their elbows, while the other held a lantern up for him.
Ha Na was of course, in the lineup, and she found all this rather funny! Until it was her turn…
She tried to hold her laughter as a man took her arm, raised her sleeve gently and checked under her upper arm.
He gasped!
“Daegam!” He called the Prime Minister. “I’ve found her!”
And that was it…
Before she knew it, she had been dragged away into the night by the strange men, never to be seen again!
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Jung Ha Na jerked awake from the nightmare, opening her eyes to the dark room.
“Aigoo…” She sighed into the darkness. She feared that the nightmare would haunt her for life.
Of course, in reality, it hadn’t been that bad… Far from it! Everyone at the gyobang said she was lucky to be taken away…
The men hadn’t ‘dragged’ her off… They had gently helped her into another Palanquin.
She was after all, the Prime Minister’s long lost daughter!
No. The nightmare wasn’t that she had been ‘dragged’ away…
The nightmare was that she had been gently tugged away from a life of endless handsome men, and fun, and competition, and music!
… to the RIGID, BORING LIFE of a noble Lady!
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Brief History on Ha Na…
Ha Na went missing when she was ten, and grew up in the gyobang (This is the place where slaves of the state, artistes, courtesans usually stayed).
Sang Ma-Nim whose full name is Sang Ae Ran (Ma-Nim is a title), refers to Jung Ha Na as ‘Sang Ha Na‘, because Ha Na could not remember her family name when she was found, so she was adopted by Sang Ae Ran.
Ha Na has a purplish birthmark under her arm, near her elbow, which was seen as her only flaw in the gyobang… Thankfully, hanbok (Clothes) sleeves are customarily long!
It took her parents about five years to find her! That’s not surprising given the era, and they had practically given up…
…Then news had come in from… somewhere… And there you have it!
기지배! (Gijibae!) 