[Restaurant — Gu Won]
[636 BCE, Jan 1]
[TIME: MORNING] Even the sun didn't shine. The sky was covered.
This restaurant is known for women's services. Women serve the customers, dance, singing, and comfort for the customers. There are expensive wooden tables, chairs, and red traditional carpets. These are specially decorated for VIP customers. There are dozens of people. Twenty VIPs in total. In the front, a middle-aged man, fat, with a black beard along his jawli
A young girl, looking almost like an adult, was coming toward the fat man. She wore a worker's dress. She held alcohol-expensive alcohol. She stood in front of him. She reached her hand toward his cup. She asked him, "Handsome man, can I serve this alcohol?" The middle-aged man was stunned after hearing himself called "a handsome man," even though he was an ugly man.
Actually, he was the founder of Lawati Shop. He came here just to eat. He also came to complain about his family's shop, Lawati Shop belonged to his family.
He was a simple, lustful person. He fell easily for young girls.
He replied nervously. "Ye... yes..."
The alcohol slipped from her hand. She fell down as well, touching her forehead, collapsing onto his knees. The middle-aged man's whole body started trembling as he tried to control himself, but he couldn't. He asked, "Mi... miss, what happened to you?"
The young girl's eyes were closed. She slowly opened them and looked at the middle-aged man warmly. "Since my body has become weak, handsome man, can you help me reach the medical house?"
The middle-aged man breathed heavily. Then he pulled her into his arms. All the strangers around them were still focused on their own business — they didn't even notice the middle-aged man come and leave. With his ugly face, no one paid him any attention. The girls felt disgusted just to look at him.
The middle-aged man ran through the street. It was so early in the morning that people weren't out yet. The young girl was giving him directions — left, right. He ran desperately. The young girl's eyes were half-open. She gave directions with her right hand, and that hand, weak as it seemed, could barely move. He had lust in his heart, but kindness within it too.
Finally they arrived in front of the medical house. Behind the house there was a bamboo forest, and at the center of the medical house stood an herb farm.
Without thinking, he rushed to the door and kicked it open.
Boom! A shockwave echoed through the house.
Huff... huff... huff...
He was so exhausted his legs trembled. Sweat covered his face.
He immediately handed her over to the medical master. Then he lay down at the side and breathed in relief.
The girl was still unconscious.
The medical master stared at the middle-aged man, and a faint smile appeared on his face. He turned and stepped inside the medical room, wiping down his medical outfit.
He was Shree Yan, and the girl was Yi Ner.
Once the door closed behind them, Yi Ner opened her eyes fully and sat up without difficulty.
"Young master," she whispered, "he really did bring me here from the restaurant."
Shree Yan said nothing. He moved to the narrow gap in the door and looked through it, at the man slumped outside.
The man had tried to sit up twice, as if to leave. Both times, he had lowered himself back down.
Shree Yan's lips moved slightly.
"Interesting."
Outside, the man pressed both hands against his face.
I came here to complain about the Rana clan. What am I doing here.
Why am I still sitting here. Fuck.
He stood. He turned toward the street. Then he stopped, one hand still braced against the doorframe, and did not move for a long moment.
He sat back down.
Five hours passed.
Yi Ner opened the door slowly, now dressed again in the appearance of someone freshly woken. She looked pale, deliberately so.
The man was on his feet before the door had fully opened.
"You're awake," he said.
Yi Ner lowered her head. "You stayed?"
He looked away, toward the bamboo outside. "I was just waiting. To make sure you were fine."
Her expression softened. "No one has ever done something like that for me."
The man said nothing. But something in his shoulders eased, and something else, quieter, tightened.
Shree Yan came out in his medical outfit and said, in a calm tone, "She's fine now, she was just exhausted from working too much."
The man stepped forward and grabbed Shree Yan's hand. "Thank you so much, medical master. Thank you." His eyes were warm, the way a man's eyes go warm when he has convinced himself he has done something good.
Shree Yan looked between the two of them for a moment. "Forgive me," he said. "I assumed she was someone important to you."
"Why would you assume that?" the man asked.
Shree Yan smiled faintly. "Because you carried her here as though losing her would be unbearable."
The man went still.
"I..."
He had no answer.
"Uh," Shree Yan said, letting the silence stretch a moment longer before he broke it himself, "that's too bad. I thought the two of you were in a relationship, you look so good together."
Yi Ner said nothing. She kept her eyes lowered, her expression somewhere between exhaustion and shyness, betraying nothing of what she and Shree Yan already knew.
Shree Yan smiled. "You can leave with her now. Everything is good now."
She had used the technique to appear as an adult woman. This technique was called the Fake Face. Shree Yan smiled, inwardly.
They left the medical house. Walking down the street, Yi Ner slowly opened her eyes fully. Everyone on the street looked at the young woman beside the middle-aged man with jealousy.
Yi Ner asked him, "Wha— what is your name?"
His expression stayed plain and unremarkable as he replied. "Yun Je. You can call me Je."
Yi Ner softened her voice. "Je..."
"Hmm?"
"Thank you. Thank you so much for your help today. Even though we're strangers, you helped me..." Tears rose in her eyes and touched Je's shoulder as he pulled her in, holding her against his back.
What is happening to me.
He didn't understand it. He had known this woman for less than a day, and already something in his chest refused to sit still.
Is this what falling in love feels like? Is this the thing I've spent my whole life missing?
He held her a moment longer than he needed to, and told himself it was only kindness.