The funeral was a small affair, with only relatives and close friends in attendance. Jaesun’s family couldn’t exactly afford anything extravagant as it was. The coffin they had purchased was among the cheaper ones, made of a thinner and less solid wood.

When Jaesun paid her last respects, she silently promised her sister that she would give her the justice she deserved, if not revenge.

She watched as they lowered the coffin into the ground, thinking all the while. Finding out who killed her sister might be the easy part of the whole affair. Locating some sort of evidence to have the person convicted was the trickier part. Now that her sister was buried, it was unlikely that physical evidence would prove useful if her body began to rot. She would need witnesses, and those who had seen were probably long gone or silenced in some way.

Despite knowing the difficulties, she was still determined to go through with this. The words “rest in peace” would be a mere mockery and an insult to Jaesoo’s memory if nothing was done about her murderer.

***

Soon enough, her parents seemed to have gotten over the loss and moved on. Almost a little too quickly, in Jaesun’s view. Many things that had gone on hold started back up again. For one, they were discussing what Jaesun would do, now that her sister’s contribution to the family income was gone.

“Perhaps we should send her to the palace to replace her sister,” her mother suggested, with a hint of hesitation.

Her father nearly shattered his glass of wine on the spot. “Are you mad, woman?” he hissed, glaring at his wife. “Jaesoo worked at the palace—I was saying that she should have come home, but no one listened—and now look where she is. She’s dead, murdered by God-knows-who. We are not sending our only other daughter to that hellhole to die as well.”

“It was just a thought,” her mother murmured, closing her eyes for a moment.

“Besides, I’m in the middle of finalizing her betrothal.”

“What?” This was the first Jaesun had heard about it. She hadn’t had a normal conversation with her father about non-business matters in a long time, though.

“Yes. To Lee Jinki. Not only is he successful, he’s an intelligent man, very kind, and close to you in age. I’m sure you’ll be happy with him.”

To Jaesun, all of these facts were irrelevant. She had her own plans for the future, and marriage was not in the immediate picture at all.

“If all goes well, you’ll be married by the next full moon,” her father continued, sipping from his glass, looking rather pleased with himself. “He hasn’t been demanding all that much for the dowry, which I supposed might factor heavily into this decision. I did receive quite a few offers for your hand, after all.”

Before, she had been annoyed by and dissatisfied with the situation, but now Jaesun felt there was something almost dehumanizing in the way her marriage was being sorted out, and she didn’t like it one bit. The only time she wanted to be considered an object, a thing, was when she was dead. And even then, a bit of respect would be nice.

Well, it was time to reveal her plans to her cousin, and hopefully she could be gone before the first dress measurements could even be made.

***

“You’re going to do what?” Dongwoo sputtered.

“Go to the capital to find my sister’s murderer,” Jaesun reiterated.

“But that’s insane! How do you expect to do anything about it when even the Crown can’t?”

She glared, arms crossed in front of her chest. “That’s exactly why I’m doing this. The Crown hardly cared that my sister died at all. I had to use two gold pieces to get the law enforcement officer to come to my house to see the body at all.”

“Two gold pieces?” Dongwoo repeated, eyes wide. “That’s almost a month’s income for the average person.”

“I would know,” she muttered. “I had to sneak it by my father, which was damn near impossible since the man scours the account books cover to cover. In the end I just volunteered to balance the entire book for him. Otherwise he would have noticed straight away.”

“So you’re just running off to the capital on your own with no money?”

“No, not at all. You’re coming with me to help.”

“What?”

“I heard from your mother that you’re going off to the capital to do business with various customers soon. It’s supposed to be an extended stay, is it not?”

Dongwoo looked at her, surprised that she knew such things. “Yes, but I wasn’t expecting I’d have to drag you along.”

“I’ll take care of myself, for the most part. I just need your network of friends and acquaintances to aid me. You’re my primary resource aside from my own wit and five senses.”

In recent years Dongwoo had spent a lot of time in the capital representing his family’s business, and he had even worked under other merchants there, so he was well-connected for someone of his age.

“I’m not leaving for another few days, so…”

“Tell your mother that you want to leave a bit early so you have some time to yourself.”

Dongwoo sighed. “Fine. She won’t object.” Both of them knew that his mother doted on him, and for good reason. “But what are you going to do about your parents? They’ll go looking for you.”

“How will they know where I ran off to, though? They will assume I’m escaping the marriage—which I am, but that’s not the main point, so I could have run in any direction. I’m going to be using an alias in the capital, so even if they think to look there, it would take them some time to find me.”

“I suppose…though your plans are hinging on a lot of assumptions about their assumptions,” he pointed out.

“In as big of a city as the capital, I’m sure I can find a way to make myself unnoticeable,” Jaesun stated confidently.

“If you say so. But what are you going to do about money and food?”

“I’m going to take the money intended for the dress. A much better use of it, in my opinion.”

“So you’re lying and stealing and running away from marriage in pursuit of justice,” Dongwoo concluded, raising a brow at her.

Jaesun looked away. “It’s all for Jaesoo’s sake.”

“Are you sure your parents won’t disown you when this is all over? For all they know, between now and when you get back, you’ve slept with several men. And even if you haven’t, your reputation will be ruined simply because you’d be a girl who spent so much time alone and unaccompanied.”

She shrugged nonchalantly. “I think my reputation is the least of my worries at this point. I don’t care about marriage, really. I only care about getting to the bottom of this case.”

“I see. But don’t make this the only thing you live for, please, Jaesun. That’s a horrible way to live.”

“I won’t. It’s just my priority right now.”

***

The next day, when Jaesun went out to run an errand for her father, instead of returning to the shop, she headed toward the edge of the city to meet up with her cousin. They were admitted through the gates without an issue. None of the guards seemed to care who passed into and out of the city as long as they weren’t blatantly looking to make trouble.

It took them almost two days to get to the capital, and by the time they arrived, it the sun had already set. The guards at the gates were much more alert comparatively, but they let Dongwoo and Jaesun pass quite easily without demanding anything from them.

Since the two of them didn’t look much alike, they decided they would have to pass as lovers. They weren’t glued to each other, but Dongwoo did hold her hand a few times, something he had done more often when the two of them were children. Now that he and Jaesun were twenty-one and eighteen, respectively, it would be taken a different way, of course.

Since it was getting late, they decided to stop and find a place to stay for the night. The next morning Dongwoo could call on one of his friends, the person he would be staying with for the duration of his stay. Jaesun, on the other hand, would go looking for a job and lodging elsewhere, but close enough that for convenient meet ups with each other.

For the sake of saving money, they rented a single room at an inn. Dongwoo let her sleep on the bed, and he laid out a blanket on the floor to sleep on.

Jaesun took a while to fall asleep since she was still thinking about her plans of actions. The next day would be the beginning of her hunt.