Urghhh...it's taking me FOREVER to go through this. Just a heads up, until I say so, all the chapters that will be following this is happening all in one day. That's kinda why it's taking me FOREVER. I'm currently writing the seventh chapter and I'm having trouble with that so after I post the sixth chapter, don't expect another one until after one week or something. I'm busy with a play that I've to do so hopefully I get it done. Bear with me please, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

The young sailor passes by the Judge’s manor once more, hoping to see the girl at the window. As he had expected, she is there as always. He looks up at her and she gives him a knowing smile.

You’ll be free soon, my love, the young man’s eyes tell her.

She then opens her window and throws him a key, which he picks up from the ground. He takes another look at her before she closes her window.

You’ll be free soon, Minjung, he repeats in his thoughts. We’ll be together soon.

The man stands on the floor of his tonsorial parlor, waiting for any sign of the Bailiff or the Judge. It has been days since the Bailiff’s promise, and his patience is thinning fast. He hasn’t any customers at the moment—in fact he hasn’t had one since noon—so the woman is sitting on the chair, which his customers usually settle themselves. She is currently talking, as she has always done but about what he does not know. None of her babbling is any use to him anyway. Other than the fact that she gives him lodgings, food, and cleans his clothing, she is nothing more but a mere nuisance to him. He wishes that she would just go away, but then again if he upsets her, where would he go? If he is evicted from his residency, everything will be ruined and he might as well just kiss the Judge goodbye.

“Why hasn’t the Bailiff come? Before the week is out, that’s what he said,” he says, still eying the street below him when the woman finally ceases talking.

“Well the week ain’t out just yet,” she tells him, looking to his direction. “It’s only Tuesday.”

She figures that he has lost his temper once again, for he has thrown one of his razors on the floor. It isn’t the first time he has done it either. Once he threw it on the mirror, causing a part of it to break. Thankfully it didn’t shatter all the way through though, for buying another one would surely cost a fortune. Body mirrors aren’t exactly cheap these days after all.

“Patience is a virtue, love,” she says, “remember that.”

The man snickers at the woman’s words. “If you haven’t already noticed, Mrs. Han, I’m not exactly the virtuous type.”

“I know, dear.” She smirks, her arms folded across her chest. “But patience is exactly what you’ll need to have if you really want to kill the Judge. Nothin’ ain’t goin’ to work if you’re too hasty.”

The man stifles a small laugh, turns to momentarily look at the woman, and decides to step outside of his shop. The woman follows him and recognizes immediately from the look on his face that he wants to find the Judge and kill him. Before he even has a chance to go down the stairs, she leads him back to his parlor and settles him down on the chair.

“Just be patient, love. He’ll have to come soon enough,” she tells him once again, in an attempt to calm him down. “Just wait, love, wait. All good things come to those who wait.”

The man heaves a sigh on the chair and the woman places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Nothin’ good ain’t goin’ to come if you hurry yourself all the time. Let time take care of everything, and soon you’ll get what you want. Never rush things, darling. Enjoy every single moment of it. Revenge is never sweet when hastened.”

He looks up at her and she smiles at him. For once, he tells himself, the woman is actually making sense. That rarely happens.

“You know, Mr. S, this room could use a little cheer. Perhaps decorate it with some flowers to attract more customers?”

Perhaps I spoke too soon, he tells himself again. Here she goes again, rambling about the most trivial things.

The woman continues to talk about how he should consider decorating the room, perhaps painting it a different color. Once again, he resists the urge to kill the woman right then and there. He is almost thankful when he hears footsteps approach his parlor. He hopes for it to be the Bailiff, or better yet, the Judge himself! However, the young sailor is the one that enters making him feel slightly irritated.

The young lad appeared confused at the sight of the woman, so she decides to introduce herself before he continues to talk. Since he is talking quite fast, the man barely understands him so he tells him to settle down on the barber’s chair and asks him to repeat everything he had said at a slower pace.

“There is a young woman that needs my help, sir—a beautiful lady. Minjung, that’s her name. She is the ward of Judge Jung. He keeps her locked in the room, you see. And this morning—”he reaches into his pocket and shows the older man the key that the young woman at the window had thrown “—this morning, she threw me this key. The Judge will be at court tonight. While he’s there, I plan to break into the house and take her, beg her to come away with me.”

“Oh, that’s all very romantic, dear,” the woman says from behind them.

The young sailor turns to her with a smile, as though saying, “I know, isn’t it?”

“If it isn’t any trouble, I’d like to ask if I may keep her here for an hour or two until I am able to obtain transportation to take us away. Please, Mr. Seo, an hour is all I ask.”

The man glances at the woman as though permission.

“Of course, dear,” the woman tells the young man. “I don’t see a reason why not.”

“Oh, thank you, ma’am!” the young man tells her ecstatically. He turns to the older man and shakes his hand. “Thank you, my friend. I am forever in your debt.”

The young sailor leaves the parlor and the man remains standing, staring at nothingness. The woman smiles knowingly.

“Looks like the heavens are favoring you now, Mr. S,” she tells him.

“Minjung,” he pronounces his daughter’s name aloud unconsciously. “I shall see her tonight.”

“Yes, you shall, love,” the woman says. “But until then, you must wait.”

“What about the Judge?”

“I don’t know,” she pauses for a moment to think. “Perhaps you can lure him in here somehow then slit his throat. No one has to know, really.” She wanted to add, “make your shining friends drip his rubies. You oughtta get a kick outta that,” but she decided not to for it might only want him to slit her throat. She knows after all that he has wanted to do that since she started talking. She doesn’t feel the need to infuriate him more with sarcastic remarks.

“Minjung,” he says once more, hope present in his onyx eyes as he approaches his window once more. His joy is short-lived, however, for he soon sees two familiar beings approaching his shop.

“What is that Chinese man doing here?” the woman wonders, noticing the two as well.

“Keep the boy downstairs,” he instructs her.

She immediately obliges and heads out.

This better be worth my time, he thinks as he prepares his shop for the other man’s entrance. 

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