Serim woke up with a smell of a cooked fish. Her eyes fluttered open, trying to find the source of the amazing smell, head turning with her nose up as some kind of animal. Her eyes settled on the man sitting beside her, two golden brown fish in his hands, one of which was stretched to her, handing her the freshly grilled meat. Serim felt watering and her stomach hurried her to grab the food with a loud grumble that almost made her embarrassed. 

“Take it, I knew you were going to be hungry so we stopped to get some food, luckily a stand with Godeungeo gui was just next to the entrance of the city.”

Serim was listening with only one ear as she was already scarfing down the fish in her hands as fast as possible. The tender meat almost melted in , the young girl groaning at the amazing taste. Just after a minute the whole fish was gone, the only thing proving it even existed was the slight grease on Serim’s fingers, which se quickly disposed of, every one of them savoring the salty taste. 

The sound of someone yelling made her look out of the window, just now noticing that they were already in the city. Small kids were running around the car, squealing and laughing together. One of the smaller kids fell down and began to sniffle, as presumably his mother, ran to him and picked him up, cleaning his face with her sleeve. Serim smiled at that, waving to the small kid when he looked at her. 

“The monarch’s palace, Gyeongbokgung, is not that far from here, probably around fifteen minutes for us to get there so prepare yourself.”

Serim nodded, before turning back to look from the window. She never visited any big city like this before, the only things she knew about them was through her father’s stories when he came back from one of his travels.

The outskirts were slowly beginning to change, the building were getting slightly taller, more people walked around the streets and some of them were walking around in expensive looking hanboks and other robes. The sound of various people chattering made Serim relax a bit, as it reminded her of her home. Shiyeon with the Eunbi and Hyun-jin appeared in her mind. She was determined to make their lives better and protect them no matter what.

———

“Woah...”

Serim uttered as she looked around, the car was stopped in-front of the gates of the palace. The massive walls almost seemed intimidating, making her shiver and look away from them.

 Yi-jong was talking to the guards, showing them something in his hand. The guard nodded at the others and with a slight bow let the car through. 

“Come on, let’s get out of the car and go inside. I will lead you to the other maids, the head maid they will see if you’re capable of the job so try your best not to disappoint them, there are high stakes on this, alright?”

Serim nodded, following Yi-jong outside, walking slightly behind him as they made their way inside the huge palace, turning a few times, before stopping outside a small side house that was connected to the palace. There was a small garden in-front of it, the side doors left open, revealing a bunch of maids in blue maid hanboks eating lunch while talking with each other. 

“Young-ja gungnyeo, I have the new Musuri here, the one for hard labor.”

A woman that looked older than the rest turned around, looking me up and down making me feel a bit embarrassed.

“This, pipsqueak? She’s just skin and bones, I doubt she would lift a stone smaller that my fist.”

“Oh, come on, you know better than to judge a book by it’s cover, test her out, I’m quite sure you’ll be satisfied.”

The older woman only scoffed, before standing up and making her way over to us, as the other girls were looking at us, their gazes making me feel uncomfortable.

“What’s your name?”

“Jo Serim, ajumma.”

“Come with me.”

She waved her hand at Serim, signaling her to follow. They went inside, the other girls still sitting around the table eating their lunch while sometimes looking at the newcomer before whispering something to the girl beside them. Young-ja led her around them, sliding open the paper door that led to a smaller garden with wide doors on the left side, a pile of bags in-front of them.

“The guys that delivered them had to leave early and couldn’t carry them inside, take them and place them inside there.”

She said pointing at the opened door at the other side of the garden.

“After you’re done, come eat.”

With that the woman left, leaving Serim alone. She could here quiet laughs from behind her. The door remained open and the other girl were pointing at her while snickering to themselves. Serim resisted the urge to roll her eyes and walked towards the pile of bags, picking one up with ease. These bags of rice were much smaller than the ones she had to carry on the farm so it wasn’t a problem for her. She quickly made her way inside the door Young-ja pointed to, her placing the bag on the floor, returning outside. 

The laughing she heard before was gone as the girls stared at her, some scowling, some with mouths wide open. Serim couldn’t help but smirk to herself as she continued working. After around twenty minutes she was already done, smiling to herself she returned to the open doors. 

“Good job, here,”

Young-ha handed her the same hanbok everyone was wearing before pointing to a closed door a few meters away from them.

“get changed and come back to eat, we have rice, guk and kimchi jjigae.”

Serim bowed to her, leaving to change her clothes. She placed her old ones neatly on the floor where the woman instructed her after asking. She straightened her posture, returning to the other girls. Sitting on the very end before happily eating her food, not forgetting to say thank you. 

She could get used to this