I woke up the next morning feeling dry and more tired than I have ever felt coming from a trans-Pacific flight. My hands reach out blindly on the bedside table for my glasses, only to realize that I slept with them on. My eyes are dry and blurry as I heaved my heavy body out of bed and towards the bathroom. The gold and porcelain sink does not attract me and I proceed to wash my face of the remnants of sleep and brush my teeth. I look up.

My reflection on the mirror is nothing short of disappointing and I suddenly imagine myself in this room, not in the present, but so many long years ago, beyond the time of the DMZ. I try to move my mouth in a smile but I frown instead. The crick in my neck intensified.

A knock on the door woke me some more. No one spoke and I assumed it is one of the "silent help". I shout my answer from the bathroom, do my ablutions, and dress up for the day. 

Downstairs, the gloom is just as oppressing as the one in my bedroom. Even with all the heavy drapes pushed and tied aside, the minimal light from the sun refused to permeate the dimness. 

It seemed like it didn't stop raining the entire night and it also seemed like the rain was not going to let up anytime soon. 

The old housekeeper met me at the entrance to the dining room, set up with two places—one at the head, the other to its left. Gi Tae occupied the seat on the left, leaving me to take the other. He rose with a smile after putting down the local newspaper he was reading. 

"Good morning, Mister Kang! I hope you had a good night's sleep and rest," he said amiably, nodding to Madame Lee, who somehow immediately produced our breakfast of fried eggs, ham, toasted bread, and a selection of marmalades and jams. 

I don't think I've gotten decent sleep or rest but I wasn't going to tell Gi Tae any of that. I simply wished him a good morning and ate. 

But while I ate, Gi Tae talked about my itinerary for the day. 

He was supposed to give me a more detailed tour of the manor, which was going to take up almost the entire day. He was honest enough to explain it was because he also had to give me the specifics of the amount of repairs and maintenance, which rooms and sections needed those, and other stuff besides. 

"The other areas of the estate like the hanok, the gardens, and the promontory, you can go see tomorrow and the succeeding days."

"Okay," I said, finishing my coffee and noticing he hadn't eaten any. "Gi Tae, eat something first and then we'll get to the tour."

Gi Tae glanced at his untouched place and chuckled. "Oh! I already had an early breakfast with my wife before coming here. Madame Lee must've forgotten."

We finish my solo breakfast with a little more chitchat, mostly about my work and his fascination with dogs. We left the dining room together, passing a young man I've never seen before. We stop to let him give the customary bow and go on his way, perhaps to clear the dining table.

"That's the gardener's grandson, Cho Nam Il," said Gi Tae, leading me towards the staircase and the second floor. "He's in college but helps out here during his free time. I guess today is his free time." 

We arrive at a set of double doors which he opened to reveal a copy of the parlor room downstairs, only this was smaller, with walls filled with bookshelves. The interior decoration shared the same generation as the rest of the house.

"This is the library which was shared by both the masters of the house and their guests," Gi Tae provided. "See that wall over there?" He pointed to an eastern section of the room not hidden by those massive bookshelves. "That entire corner crashed when a bomb hit the manor during the Korean War. At the time, no one lived in the manor save for the retainers who knew nothing about repairing such a large portion of the house."

"I can understand they must've only wanted to survive," I say under my breath. 

"A few years later, however, a mysterious donation came from an unidentified donor and had repairs done, not only to this area but the rest of the estate. The roofing and flooring of the manor was reinforced, of course using the technology of the time. Since it has been more than 50 years since the war, we had to rearrange the bookshelves away from that corner."

"It doesn't drip there when it rains or storms, does it?" I asked worriedly, more for the books the water can damage than the state of the wall. 

Gi Tae shook his head. "No. The kitchen and the servants' quarters have that problem. Surprisingly, the second and third floors don't. By the way, if you need access to the internet, this room has a LAN connection. We haven't had wifi installed yet. The LAN, though, can be a bit bothersome but it's all we have for now. It also has a bell pull—well, all the rooms in this house does—so if you need anyone of the help, you can summon them with it."

Bell pull, help, summon. Words I only ever heard from Edna or read from her stories. I tell myself not to react or tell Gi Tae I have no intention of keeping indentured servants I can "summon" with a bell. The American part of me bristled at the thought. More likely, after I've settled everything the estate needed, I'd hand it over to the government for cultural preservation. 

We spend the entire morning going from room to room, Gi Tae doing most of the talking while I divide my attention between my environment and my tablet, already being filled with my notes. We by