On the first days of winter that year, as the cold wind started to blow and people in Hanyang began to crave for warmth, Sooyoung felt she craved the freer air outside the gates of Yook Family house. She had spent weeks inside the house, as she should be, busy managing her and Sungjae’s pavilions, with their dozens servants, rooms to be cleaned and aired and all the other preparations needed before winter really took over their abilities to run the house as usual.

One morning, feeling tired after writing letters and studying, Sooyoung sighed loudly.

“Ah, I wish I could go to the market and see other things, something outside of this Yook house!”

Taeyeon, who was folding Sooyoung’s dresses and putting them neatly on her beautiful wardrobe, replied, “Why don’t you ask Yook Doryeonim’s permission to go? You can supervise the winter stock shopping.”

“That’s a good reason! Maybe I should try that!”

Sooyoung was responsible to stock the food for winter, for her, her husband, and all their servants. They needed to do a huge grocery haul, since there were vegetables to be fermented, and meat to be smoked and dried, in preparation for the coldest month of the year.

So that night, before they went to bed, Sooyoung asked for Sungjae’s permission to go to the market the next day.

“You don’t really have to go, you know. You could just write a complete list of what to buy, and ask Taeyeon and the other servants to buy it for you. You don’t need to move a muscle.”

“But I want some fresh air, I feel bored being cooped up in the house for weeks already.”

“Is my house boring for you, Park Sooyoung-ssi?” Sungjae asked, closing his book.

They had a night routine by then.

They would both undress on their own, without the help of their personal servants. First Sungjae, then Sooyoung, until they only wore their white under clothes, that resembled their outer wear, but with lighter fabric. Hers was a white, light hanbok dress for bed, and his resembled a white pajama.

They changed behind the partition at the corner of Sooyoung’s bedroom, sometimes still talking to each other although they were unable to see the other’s face. When Sungjae changed, she would be sitting in front of a wooden box full of her traditional skincare pots and bottles, and when she changed, Sungjae would lie on the bed, reading a book of adventure and action. It’s his way to de-stress after a day of working.

When she finished undressing her formal dress and wore her skincare potion (Sungjae asked once, she said it was water mixed with powdered peach and cherry blossoms) and climbed the bed, he would put down his book and prepared to sleep.

They usually ended up talking first, the chat opened by him reaching out to her braid and loosening it, leaving her long hair tumbling off her shoulders. She had given up trying to convince him it made her looked messy, and he insisted it was a habit he’d never let go and she should just deal with it.

“Please don’t turn this into that matter, Sungjaenim” she complained, sitting still as he was almost done loosening her hair.

“What matter?” he asked, letting her hair fell all over her but not returning her hair ribbon.

He had started the habit of using her ribbons as his bookmarkers. Not only his adventure books, but also his counting books, his rice stock reports and his daily notebook.

“Making this into me thinking your house is boring. Because it’s not. And can you stop taking my ribbons? I don’t have any left to tie my hair!!!”

“Buy new ones, aish! And you said it yourself, you’re bored being kept inside.”

“You can go to work everyday, meet your clients and your friends for lunch. And I, I’ve been sitting here in this house for three weeks!”

“Should I put a swing in the garden? Like the one you have in your parents’ house?”

She beamed, “Oh? That would be great!”

“Good. I’ll ask Baekhyun to do it tomorrow. You can play with it and not want to leave the house anymore.”

“That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to go to the market! I usually visit the market at least once a week with my father!”

“Why would you? It’ll dirty your shoes and dress.”

“Sungjaenim!!!”

“Did you just yell at me, Park Sooyoung-ssi?”

“You’re being irrational! I won’t get dirty!”

“It’s dirty outside, really. It’s all damp and muddy. You’d have mud on your dress.”

“I can change when I get home!”

“I can’t accompany you tomorrow. I have to work. There’s a meeting with the imperial officer for the palace’s winter stock.”

“I wasn’t asking you to accompany me!”

“Yah, then who will you go with?”

“Taeyeon unnie and the other servants!”

“What for?”

“See around for interesting things and stock up for winter.”                                                   

He sighed.

“Don’t talk to men. Let Taeyeon bargain for everything.”

She grinned.

“Bring two guards. And Baekhyun. And four other servants. Oh and four other maids. Don’t carry even one basket of fruit on your own, ahrasseo? If I ever see you wiping a door ever again I’m going to whip every servants in this house, I swear!”

“I was bored!”

“Bored respectable ladies would play gayageum, Sooyoung-ah, not wipe doors!!!”

“I told you, by that time, I already played the gayageum for two hours! I just happened to see a spiderweb, so I wiped the door. You don’t have to fuss over it!”

“What would your father say if he hears that you wipe doors at my house? He’ll be the one to whip me!”

“My father would never hear of it unless you tell him, and besides, aren’t you trying to diverge the topic?”

“Ne. Does it work?”

“Of course not! I still want to go to the market tomorrow!”

Sungjae sighed, “Too bad.”

“So, I can go, right?”

“I can’t stop you, obviously.”

“Can I go after breakfast?”

“Ne.”

“And comeback for lunch?”

“.............why would you need four hours at a market?”

“There’s so much to see! I want to have snacks too!”

“Ah, mwolla! Go! But buy me some snacks too!”

“I will!”

“Don’t show me too much teeth, you look like a rabbit.”

She narrowed her eyes.

He didn’t even flinch.

“Don’t talk to other men,really . Let Taeyeon do all the talking.”

“Ne.”

“When I come for lunch, you need to be here already, or I’ll ground you for one whole year.”

“Excuse me? That’s really unfair!”

“I’ll ground you for a month if you forget yourself and miss our lunch” he said then, opting for a more rational threat.

“Algesseumnida” Sooyoung mumbled, lying down on her side, feeling tired.

“Is there anything special I should stock up during winter?”

“I just still want lost of meat.”

“Men only know meat.”

“What did you say? I didn’t hear you.”

“Nothing” she replied cheerily.

“Don’t get yourself in trouble.”

“You read too much fiction, Sungjaenim.”

“Are you mocking me?”

“Aniyo” Sooyoung replied sweetly.

“Women don’t understand adventure stories” Sungjae grumbled, lying down beside her.

“I can hear that, you know.”

“That’s intentional.”

She turned to him, and he turned to her.

They then both grinned at each other.

“Good night Sooyoung-ah.”

“Good night Sungjaenim.”

******************************************************

It took them two hours to finish buying their winter supplies. Taeyeon and the maids insisted on choosing only the best, and the servants carried everything in carts. Before they head home, Sooyoung decided she’d stop to drink some warm soy milk with ginger at one of the street stalls. She also wanted some laver crackers. All the servants and maids were instructed to do the same.

As she sat down with Taeyeon, they saw a crowd gathering at one side of the road.

“What are they seeing?” Sooyoung asked.

“There’s a dancing snake show.”

“A dancing snake show? I’ve never seen it before!”

“I don’t think—“

Before Taeyeon finished her sentence, Sooyoung already ran to the crowd’s direction.

Taeyeon and Baekhyun immediately ran behind her.

“If Doryeonnim knew she stood between male peasants to see a street show—“ Baekhyun began, “You’ll also get whipped.”

“He doesn’t have to know” Taeyeon replied, breathless and shoving women aside.

Baekhyun threw her a dirty glare, before he tried to reach his young madam.

Sooyoung slipped in from the side.

True to what she heard, there was a man playing a slow, hypnotizing tune with his flute, and there was a majestic looking cobra snake coiling on a stack of hay, dancing to the tune.

It was an unusual show, the only one at the market that day.

Although it was beginning to get cold, apparently it was not that cold for the reptilian to start hibernating, since it seemed to dance with ease, basking in the audience’s attention.

Sooyoung was watching with opened wide in amazement. She had never seen a snake before, and a dancing one, too!

However, the stall next to it was a cooking tool stall. The woman who owned it was angry at her husband for leaving the stall at a busy time to watch the dancing snake show. Before long, she began screaming at her husband and threw a small pan at him.

Unfortunately, the pan hit the dancing cobra.

The cobra toppled over. A second later, it recoiled and hissed angrily.

Coincidentally, the cobra saw Sooyoung. Without any reason, or maybe because she was standing in front of the cooking tool stall, the cobra suddenly sprang up and hissing, slithered really fast to Sooyoung’s direction!

Terrified, Sooyoung screamed and walked backwards as fast as she could.

The owner of the cobra jumped and tried to catch his snake, but to no avail, the snake was faster.

“AGASSI!!!” Taeyeon screamed.

It was Baekhyun who threw some empty sacks at the cobra, making it unable to see and stopping it. At the same time, Sooyoung tripped and fell to a stall in front of the cobra.

She was safe from the snake.

But she fell right onto a stall that sold knives.

It was raining knives for three seconds, followed by screams.

****************************************************

Logically, it was miraculous that Park Sooyoung only got two wounds. She didn’t fall directly on top of the knives, but the wooden table full of knives fell and there were really knives flying in the air. Probably due to her good luck, only two reached her.

One graced her leg, and another one, a small hand knife, punctured her right hand.

Sooyoung didn’t really feel it at first, but she saw it.

A small knife was stabbed onto her skin, a little under her wrist.

Her blood was starting to bloom around it, turning the area redder and redder.

That was when she began screaming.

***************************************************

Baekhyun rushed into Sungjae’s office at the front of the house without any proper greetings. Sungjae was seriously speaking to the imperial officer at that precise moment, discussing about how much rice he must send and when, with papers full of numbers and stockrooms’ details strewn between them.

They merely looked at Baekhyun, without saying a word.

Baekhyun dreaded what he had to say, but it was even more difficult to say it.

“Is there a reason why you barge in so rudely while I’m speaking to an imperial officer?” Sungjae asked sternly.

“Ma-madam Park—“

“Sooyoung-ssi? What is it? There’s still one more hour to lunch.”

“Sh—she’s—she’s injured.”

“What do you mean she’s injured? She’s grocery shopping.”

“There was an—an accident.”

Sungjae stood up instantly.

“What happened?”

“Ma—madam f—fell on—on a knives’ stall.......”

Forgetting the imperial officer, Sungjae ran outside. Baekhyun ran beside him.

“Where is she? Her pavilion?”

“No. Your father’s.”

It made sense because his father’s pavilion was the one at the front. They must have brought her immediately to an empty room.

Sungjae’s father was away to a forest at the outskirts of Hanyang, so she wasn’t really disturbing him.

When they arrived, they could see maids carrying basins filled with hot water.

He would never forget the horrifying sight.

Sooyoung was wearing a bright yellow hanbok dress.

The front of her dress and the end of her right sleeve was splattered with blood.

She was standing in the sitting room, with a female physician beside her, and half a dozen maids around her.

“I told you not to call him!!!” Sooyoung yelled at Baekhyun.

He saw the physician asked Sooyoung to sit down. 

“Madam, please be still” the female physician beside her said, holding Sooyoung’s injured arm.

Sungjae reached her side quickly, words failing him.

She was then sitting on floor beside the physician.

The hand knife was still punctured on her hand. They didn’t remove it for fear that the bleeding would be worse. Her blood had dropped all over her dress earlier. Baekhyun had managed to rent two horses. Taeyeon rode it with Sooyoung, carrying her home, as Baekhyun galloped to get a physician from the nearest clinic.

Taeyeon had wrapped Sooyoung’s injured hand with her handkerchief. She was panicking, but thankfully could still instruct Sooyoung to not move the knife at all, and just to hold it as steady as she could until the physician arrived.

“I’m going to take the knife now” the physician announced. “Please help me hold her hand steady.”

Taeyeon reached for Sooyoung’s hand and held it on her wrist and elbow.

Afraid, Sooyoung looked away.

That was when she looked at her husband.

He looked really pale. As if he was the one that was losing blood.

“Does it hurt?” he asked.

“Aniyo” she denied.

At that very moment, the physician took off the small knife on Sooyoung’s arm. Instantly, the pain made Sooyoung jolted. As the pain spread all over her hand and arm and her blood seeping freely, her tears began to drop.

Probably it was reflex. He didn’t want her to be in pain alone, despite her useless denials. Although they were in front of the maids and the physician, Sungjae moved closer to her and hugged her by the waist.

“Don’t look. You’re going to be alright.”

He’s terrified too, but she needed someone steady to hold on to.

“Don’t move, Madam. You will only bleed more. I will clean your wound. This will hurt, mianhamnida.”

The physician dipped a thin cloth onto pure alcohol and cleaned the wound. It was quite deep.

Once done, she continued cleaning with hot water.

Wordlessly, Sooyoung buried her face on Sungjae’s chest, grasping at the back of his shirt with her left hand.

“I need to sew your wound, Madam. This will also hurt, mianhamnida.”

The needle was extra thin, but still, when it punctured her skin, she screamed and jumped, making the wound bled again.

Sungjae pulled away and wiped her tears.

She looked like a broken child by then.

“The sooner this finishes, the better you will feel. Calm down.”

But when the needle punctured again, Sooyoung pulled her hand.

“Agassi, don’t be like this” Taeyeon begged, trying to hold her hand and making it be still enough to be sewed.

However, when the physician tried again, Sooyoung pulled her hand away with all her might, “SHIRO!!! IT HURTS SO MUCH!!!”

Her wound bled again.

“Aigoo. Madam, this will not do.”

Sooyoung wasn’t acting up though. It really hurt. Imagine getting a needle punctured into your skin without being given any painkiller whatsoever.

“Yook Doryeonnim, this will not do. The longer the wound is open, the bigger the chance of infection. I need her to be still so I can sew this.”

“What should I do?”

“Lie on top of her.”

“Excuse me?”

It was the era when people who were married didn’t even touch each other in front of other people. The physician’s instruction was unthinkable, as they were surrounded by at least six maids.

“This is an emergency, Yook Doryeonnim. Lie on top of her so she couldn’t move. I’ll finish tending her as fast as I can.”

“Don’t! It’s too embarrassing. There must be another way!” Sooyoung begged.

“Yook Doryeonnim, do you want your wife to have an infection, and then her hand has to be amputated?”

The last word from the physician made him pushed Sooyoung to the floor, pressing her shoulders down.

The second she lied on the floor, he straddled her then lied on top of her, making her motionless and capturing her with his weight.

They locked eyes then, and she instantly looked away.

“Make it quick” he ordered the physician.

“Ye, Doryeonnim.”

Taeyeon held Sooyoung’s hand steady and the physician began sewing the wound.

“Appeuda...” Sooyoung sobbed.

Sungjae reached for her left hand and pushed it far above her head, before lacing his fingers with hers.

She immediately held on tight to his hand.

He believed he was crushing her, but the physician told him not to move until she said she’s done.

Truth be told, if he didn’t remember where he was, and what was happening, he’d be kissing his wife already.

It was the first time he lied on top of her, and she felt like a small child beneath him. Chest to chest and legs one legs, Sungjae felt like her body was calling him, although he was the only one who was thinking like that.

He’s a healthy young man though, and that’s his wife beneath him. It’s hard not to be affected. She was turning her head to the side and was crying, but he was looking at her. Her wisteria perfume filled his senses, and her neck was so pretty, he wondered how it would taste like—

“I’m done” the physician announced.

“It’s done?” Sooyoung asked.

“Yes. I sewed your wound twice. It will hold. You can sit now.”

Sungjae reluctantly sat up, before Sooyoung slowly followed, looking at her hand.

“Omo! It’s sewed!”

“Ye. Now I’m going to give the herbal salve and bandage your wound.”

The salve was a combination of specific roots and leaves that would help the wound heal faster. It smelled like the soil when it rained. Once she put it generously on the wound, she then bandaged Sooyoung’s hand.

“Please keep using the salve for three days, and drink the medicine three times a day after meals. I’m going to give the medicine’s prescription to your maid. Your bandage must be worn for two weeks, and changed every six hours. If you drink your medicine properly, wear the salve diligently, and avoid the wound from getting dirty, you will heal quickly. The medicine and salve serve to reduce your pain and prevents infection. If you skip it even once, it won't be good. Please be diligent.”

“Ne. Gamsahamnida.”

“Gamsahamnida” Sungjae also said to the physician. He then gave his coins pouch to Baekhyun.

“My servant will pay you. Thank you for helping Madam Park.”

The physician bowed low.

Once the physician and Baekhyun left the sitting room, Sungjae exclaimed, “Leave us, I want to ask my wife what happened.”

The maids, including Taeyeon, had to leave then, closing the door.

Aigoo, he’s angry, Sooyoung thought.

“I swear it was an accident, Sungjaenim. I didn’t do anything—“

Somehow, when Sungjae reached out his hand, Sooyoung thought with a sinking feeling that she was going to be slapped. It didn’t cross her mind even for a second that Sungjae was going to reach her chin and kissed her lips.

Which was what he did.

It was just a peck, but Sooyoung froze.

Everything was out of her logical reasoning already. First there was a dancing cobra, then knives flying in the air, then her hand was sewed with a needle and a thread. And now he’s kissing her.

What’s happening with the world? Had everything gone crazy?

In his eyes though, she looked lost but unbearably pretty. Her hair, which was usually arranged neatly in an elegant and tidy style on top of her head, were messy, strands were falling everywhere. Her cheeks were damp from her tears.

Her eyes were usually bright with mischief and ideas, but at that moment, her eyes were pooling with bewilderment.

So he reached her face with both hands and kissed her again.                                                  

It was his first time kissing a woman.

He had watched the male slave at the gisaeng house kissing the gisaeng when he had to sit and watch that cursed “performance”.

The head of the gisaeng house had given him books about the technicalities of an , and there was a chapter, a full chapter about kissing a woman’s lips. He had read it well, but it didn’t say about feeling as if fireworks burst inside his stomach and head, or how delightful it would feel and definitely not how once you started, you would want more.

His hands wandered to her nape, holding her steady, while his other hand was on her back.

The book said you’d be able to melt a woman by worshipping her lips with your own lips, tongue, and teeth. He remembered a complicated explanation of the combination of tongue and teeth, but when his tongue tasted her lips she trembled.

It was amazing, so he tried to her lower lip, and her spine tensed. He soothed a hand down her spine and she opened to say something, but he pressed her lips harder, his tongue familiarizing itself inside.

The book said a man could forget his senses in a woman’s mouth, and that her tongue would make her melt. He concluded that the author really knew what he was writing. Kissing her deeply did feel incredible, especially the way she reacted, gasping and trembling in his arms.

When he pulled away, she blinked several times, trying to get her senses back.

“Serves you right. I told you not to get in trouble.”

“So, is this punishment?”

"Oh, yes. This is me punishing you" he convincingly said, even as he still savored the remaining taste of her lips. 

"Tell me. What happened to you?"

“I was seeing a dancing snake show.”

“A dancing snake show???”

“Yes. A real snake was swaying this way and that, as the owner played his flute.”

“I see. And then?”

“A small pan hit the snake.”

“The crowd hated the show?”

“Aniyo. There was this cooking tool stall ahjumma who got angry at her husband, and threw him with a small pan, only it missed and hit the snake.”

“Go on.”

“Then the snake became angry, and somehow wanted to attack me.”

“Did it?”

“No, thank God. Baekhyun stopped it on time. But then I crashed to a knives stall. All of a sudden, knives were flying, but thankfully, they only punctured my hand and grazed my leg.”

“Your leg??? But the physician didn’t tend to it earlier!”

“It didn’t hurt much. Combined to my hand getting sewed, it’s nothing.”

“Park Sooyoung, you’re unbelievable! Where is it on your leg, tell me!”

“Aniyo. I’ll have Taeyeon unnie clean it later.”

“Where does it hurt?”

“Don’t bother. Let Taeyeon unnie see it.”

“Yah. Where does it hurt?”

“Just—you know, somewhere.”

“.........tell me, Park Sooyoung, or I swear to God I’ll undress your legs right this second.”

Wordlessly, Sooyoung reached the back of her left thigh.

Sungjae reached for her left ankle and prepared to see the wound.

“Aniyo. Please. Let Taeyeon unnie do it.”

“How bad is it?”

“I barely feel it. The knife just grazed my skin a little.”

“Lie down on your belly.”

“No.”

“Park Sooyoung-ssi, jebal, be reasonable. Do you want to get an infection?”

She didn’t answer, so he moved to sit near her ankle, and unceremoniously lifted her dress.

“Sungjaenim, please stop!” she yelled, panicking.

“If you have a wound here, Sooyoung, it has to be cleaned.”

Under her dress, she wore white loose pants. Sungjae rolled this gently, until her knee. But he couldn’t see any wound.

“I told you to just—“

He slipped his hand inside the pants further, feeling behind her left thigh. When he lifted his hand again, there was blood.

“Lie on your stomach” he ordered. She didn’t have it in her to argue anymore, and obeyed him. Sungjae lifted her pants further and finally saw the gash behind her thigh. It’s true, the knife just grazed her skin, but it was bleeding as well, and had to be cleaned.

“Stay still, I’ll clean it”

There was still hot water in basins, and he dipped one clean cloth in it.

He returned to Sooyoung and wiped the cut.

“Does it hurt?”

“Ne. Not as bad as my hand, though.”

He then quickly got up to get a new cloth and alcohol.

“This will sting, it’s alcohol.”

She lied still as he cleaned it, barely making any sound.

Once done, Sungjae took the salve and put it on her cut.

Next, he bandaged the thigh by wrapping around her cut with the white cloth.

After he tied it, Sungjae pulled her pants back down to her ankle, along with her dress.

“Grocery shopping, you said.”

“I’m sorry” she offered, sitting up.

“I guess it’s not really your fault. And scolding you will only make you feel worse.”

“That’s true” Sooyoung agreed solemnly.

“My heart nearly stopped when I saw you earlier, with blood all over your dress, aish!”

“Don’t be angry. I didn’t mean it.”

Sungjae sighed.

“Be careful. It hurts to see you hurt.”

“Ne.”

“Cham. You must be really scared when the snake almost attacked you.”

“I really was.”

“And I’m sure it hurts a lot to have your wound sewed.”

“It did. It still hurts.”

“Aigoo, Park Sooyoung. The things that happen when you do grocery shopping. Come here.”

She willingly came to his arms, and he hugged her close.

“There, there. You’re safe now.”

Sooyoung nodded, hugging him back and taking a deep breath.

Just another normal day in Park Sooyoung's life. She never wanted any chaos to happen, but it happened anyway.

Still, at least she had these soothing arms to hold her at the end of it.

*****************************************************

Author’s Note:

Sometimes the scenes here, like begging for permission to just go to the market, makes my feminist heart a bit disturbed, but it’s indeed the Joseon era, where wives couldn’t even leave the house if their husbands disagreed.

I feel sorry to Sooyoung here, but it’s necessary.

Overall, I hope you like how cute they are. Thank you for following. Comment please?

See you around!