“There is a gentleman at the front gates, asking for you,” Hesoon whispered in her ear. “I tried to tell him that you were not home, but then he said he would wait for you, and then I didn’t know what to do.”
“Well, who is it?” Dani bristled, stepping out into the hallway. “It’s not the police? Or someone that the judge may have sent?”
“I don’t think so. He said he goes by Lee—and didn’t tell me his given name, but said you’ll know who he is.”
“Oh!” Dani drew a sharp breath. “I do know who that is. I wonder why he’s here? At any rate, I can’t have him waiting outside in this cold for hours, thinking I’ll be on my way home. I’ll have to receive him. Show him into the sitting room.”
Dani went back inside her room and began putting on her clothes. She asked SungSoo to stay quiet in the room while she dealt with a visitor in the sitting room. At this, SungSoo let his irritation show: he wasn’t going to hide from this mysterious stranger, who Dani insisted was not her lover and yet was visiting her in the dead of the night. No, he would rather leave than hide in the room like a thief.
“Fine then, do as you wish,” Dani said, exasperated beyond her control, a deep flush rising to her cheeks. She stormed out of the room and hurried into the sitting room, where Lee MyungBo was standing uncertainly in his coat, holding his hat in two hands.
“Miss Dani, I apologize for barging in on you like this . . .” He started to explain, and Dani noticed with hidden pleasure the subtle brightness of his eyes and a hint of color on his face. “I know how inappropriate it is, but I’ve come to tell you . . .”
“Yes?” Dani approached him with a light step, excited and also ashamed to feel so drawn. MyungBo took a step toward her too, almost involuntarily. As he appeared to reach his hand toward her upper arm, she heard the door of her room creak open, and SungSoo walked through the hallway and into the sitting room.
What happened next was as deep a confusion as any three people had ever experienced. SungSoo and MyungBo started saying at the same time, “What are you doing here?” while Dani looked rapidly between both men and exclaimed, “How do you two know each other?” An embarrassed silence followed for a minute. SungSoo, the quickest to recover, said to Dani:
“MyungBo and I are old friends from our student days in Tokyo.”
“I see,” Dani said, and then the room was plunged into silence once more.
“I came to tell you something important,” MyungBo said, but this time his eyes no longer had the brilliance she’d seen before. “His Majesty, Emperor Gojong, has passed away.”
Drawing a sharp breath, Dani clutched a hand to her chest. Both men sprang forward instinctively as to steady her, but MyungBo checked himself while SungSoo laid a protective hand on Dani’s waist. MyungBo continued.
“It happened just a few hours ago. One of our informers, a lady of the bedchamber, sent a message as soon as it happened. He was having a bowl of sweet rice water when suddenly, he started choking and crying out, coughing up blood. The lady said his dead body was covered in hives.”
A horrified moan escaped Dani’s lips, and she sank onto the floor. SungSoo sat down next to her, keeping a hand on her back, while MyungBo remained standing in his place.
“But why poison him? He’s already been deposed many years, and his son is a mere puppet,” SungSoo said.
“Who knows? But I think, most likely, to let us know that they can kill our sovereign without consequences, just as they assassinated his wife, the empress . . .” MyungBo paused, glancing at Dani, who looked alarmingly pale. “Miss Dani is ill. The news is so shocking . . .”
“I’m all right. I’ll feel better if I have a little drink,” she replied, and ordered Hesoon to bring her a bottle of soju and three glasses. The maid soon returned with the drink, a bowl of refreshing white kimchi and other snacks, and set the tray down in front of Dani. At her urging, MyungBo sat down as well. Dani first poured for the two men, and then SungSoo poured for her, and they raised their glasses at the same time, murmuring, “To His Majesty.”
Once the soju had circulated through their bodies, each began to feel more comfortable—not about the emperor’s death, but the situation among themselves. It is always excruciating to discover that one’s distinct connections, who ought to belong firmly and chastely in separate spheres of one’s life, are somehow acquainted, and perhaps more intimately than one would like. Each of them keenly suffered from this, though SungSoo in particular took this as an insult and a betrayal. His good breeding and the soothing effects of soju were the only things that kept him from succumbing to the jealousy that burned deeply in his chest.
“So what happens now?” Dani asked MyungBo, revived a bit from the soju.
“You know that we’ve been preparing for the demonstration . . .” he began carefully, wondering whether he could be more forthcoming in SungSoo’s presence. Then, making up his mind to be direct, he said, “It probably means we will gather our forces earlier than we’d planned. In about a month, around His Majesty’s funeral, when the crowds gather in Seoul to pay their respects.”
“But are you ready? Can everything come together before then?” Dani questioned while pouring another round for the two men. This time, MyungBo took the bottle from Dani and poured her drink for her. The gesture was customary, as one must never pour one’s own drink, but nonetheless it roiled SungSoo with its intimacy.
“That’s also why I came to see you. I immediately realized that things will start to move very quickly, and I didn’t know whom I may possibly trust, except you.”
After he finished, MyungBo downed his soju without meeting the eyes of either of his companions.