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“For the last six years, the Cabinet has brushed off your concerns about the encroachment of uncontracted outside merchants into markets that have been yours for the last seven hundred years.” Kyungsoo leaned in, staring intently at his audience from atop the golden podium. “Markets that were promised, entrusted to you, the craftsmen of Yosei, by His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Youngseo the Great himself. And yet, over and over again, the Cabinet has delayed the date of your appeal to the Empress Dowager - it has been almost three years since your scheduled appeal date!”

The crowd shifted, murmuring with unrest, and one man toward the back shook his fist.

“He’s pretty good at working up the crowd, isn’t he?” Jisoo whispered to Jandi, shifting in her chair just enough to send her a wink. “Reserved he might be, but he’s got a way with words, your husband.”

Jandi nodded, fighting the urge to discreetly unstick her sweaty thighs from the chair beneath her. Jisoo might be ignoring decorum by talking during the speech, but Jandi wasn’t foolish enough to think the same standards would be applied to her if she misbehaved, no matter how slight a social faux pas. People have different standards for you when your husband’s running for Cabinet, I guess.

The blazing sun was making it difficult to resist a bit of wriggling around, though - the plaza with the gilded golden clock Kyungsoo had pointed out to her yesterday as the site for his rally had seemed lovely and cool at the time, but now it was nearly noon, and the burning August sun showed no signs of relenting. The amount of people packed into the plaza wasn’t helping either - this rally by far had the best turnout of any Jandi had ever attended, which was great for Kyungsoo but not fantastic for temperature control.

Does this mean Kyungsoo’s support base is growing, then? Jandi wondered, scanning the rows upon rows of people filling the plaza. Or is it just this way in Yosei? There were only two days until the primaries now, campaign predictions flooding the front covers of every newspaper and magazine, and Kyungsoo’s position in the race was still uncertain by all counts. On one hand, he’d jumped up in voter approval polls quite a bit since starting the tour, but Jandi had overheard enough late-night phone calls with his campaign manager to know his relative youth, inexperience, and soft-spoken nature had already set many voters against him.

He did promise me he’d win, Jandi thought half-heartedly, fighting down the urge to grin at the memory, if only so we’d be able to go ahead with the trip to Geumdo.

“Aw, look at that smile.” Jisoo reached over and pinched her cheek, almost shocking Jandi out of her chair. “Ah, young love! To be so… young… and… in love again!” She trailed off with a dreamy sigh, still holding onto Jandi’s cheek.

But she knows we’re not in love, what is she - Jandi heard a scoff behind her, coming from an elderly couple that had glared at Jisoo as soon as she’d entered the room. Ah. Protecting her image of brainless and eccentric again, I suppose. Smiling as best she could at Jisoo with her cheek still being pinched, she turned her attention back to the podium.

“Their official reason for the delay is that the Book of Appeals is already oversaturated with requests,” Kyungsoo continued, “but we all know that the delay is the result of not only bureaucratic inefficiency, but also reluctance to invest the time and resources needed to rewrite trade laws to protect domestic guilds.”

“Ah, now for the part of the speech where he puffs out his chest and promises to take swift action.” Jisoo nodded along, hands twisting at her skirt. “Men. All that posturing, all for show.”

I wish she’d stop talking, Jandi thought, none too kindly. She liked Jisoo, she really did, and she’d found her display with Jaeseok yesterday amusing, but the other woman’s running commentary was putting her on edge. Come to think of it, Jandi realized, Jisoo herself did look a bit tense. Easy grin and casual posture aside, the lines by the edges of her eyes were tight, and her skirt was starting to get crumpled from all the fidgeting. And surely, even for Jisoo, this amount of commentary was not the norm.

“Gentlemen, I know you want change,” Kyungsoo said, broadening his shoulders. “Change that this empire has not seen in the last decade. Change that requires the wholehearted dedication and focus of your elected representatives. Change that - “

Someone streaked past Jandi, lithe, cloaked, and moving with horrifying speed toward the golden podium. Panic rising in , Jandi caught a glimpse of a pale hand reaching into the cloak, drawing something that flashed steely grey in the afternoon sun, saw Kyungsoo's eyes widening with realization, and then -

“He’s got a gun!”

A horrible cracking sound. For half a second, the crowd froze, suspended in disbelieving silence, and then the plaza erupted into screaming and shoving, a flurry of pushing hands and stumbling feet desperate to leave the plaza.

“Kyungsoo!” The scream ripped out of Jandi’s throat, involuntary and raw. Without quite knowing how she got there, she was on her feet, Jisoo still frozen in the seat beside her. “Kyungsoo, where -” She craned her neck, but she couldn’t see him, couldn’t spot the glint of his silver watch band or slicked-back hair, and the golden podium was abandoned, the golden clock tower cracked where the bullet - my god, there was a bullet - must have made impact, and oh God, was that a streak of red on the clock, and -

“Jandi, sit down.”

Jandi whirled around at the order, hardly believing her ears. “What?”

Jisoo blinked back at her, smoothing out the creases in her skirt. “Sit down. Trust me, it won’t be doing anybody any favors if you panic right now in full view of the press.”

Jandi almost choked on her next words, they came out in such a flurry. “The press? Why would I care about the press right now? Someone’s just fired a gun at my husband, and I can’t find him, and there’s blood right behind where he was standing -”

“Jandi, I’m fine.” Her heart stuttered at the sound of Kyungsoo’s voice behind her, tightening her chest. She whirled around.

“Kyungsoo?” He gave her a weary smile. Up close, he was sweaty and pale, skin tinged with a slightly greenish undertone, but he seemed steady on his feet. Thank goodness, he seems more or less whole. Scanning over him with her eyes, Jandi locked in on his shoulder and looked up, horrified. “Your shoulder! You got shot!”

Kyungsoo looked down at the rip in his suit, which was slowly darkening with blood, and made a face. “Just a scratch. I got lucky, the bullet only grazed me.”

Just a scratch? “But -”

He held up a hand, deliberately avoiding her gaze. “Jandi, I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get back up on that podium.”

“Back?” She gaped at him, not believing her ears. “You’re getting back on the podium? But the shooter’s still out there, and people are literally stampeding to get out, it’s not safe -”

Kyungsoo sighed. “There’s an extensive security check process to get into the plaza. The security guards said the shooter managed to slip past them, and they were in the process of chasing him down when he fired the gun. They’re securing the premises now, so it should be safe to continue.”