“Do you like to read?” Bo A asked her new friend.
Se Ri’s eyes lit up. “I do! Eomma taught me how.” She frowned. “Back home we had a wonderful library. Appa collected scrolls from all over. I used to spend a good portion of each day reading.”
Bo A smiled. “I love to read too. Unnie Jung Sook taught me how a few months ago. I’m still learning. But I can read a lot of manuscripts already.”
“Unnie?” Se Ri breathed in surprise as she glanced at the young teacher who was now bent over her baby sister. Also teaching her how to read.
Bo A grinned. “Yes! She’s the best! She rescued me.” Then her brow darkened as she furrowed it.
“What’s wrong?” Se Ri asked, instantly cognizant of her friend’s distress.
Bo A widened her eyes and made a point of wiping the scowl off of her face. “Nothing.”
“What do you mean? She rescued you? Rescued you from what?”
“My appa,” the other girl whispered.
“Your appa?” Se Ri queried in shock. “Why would you need rescuing from your appa?”
Her own appa had been a kind man. But he had also been an old man. At least, compared to most of her friends’ fathers. Her father had been more than fifty years older than she.
Se Ri had never felt one moment of fear in his presence. He had been unfailingly gentle with her. He’d been that way with all of his children. To a fault. Her older brothers had never been disciplined. She shuddered. Maybe if they had been…
Bo A glanced around at the other students. “Can we talk about it some other time?” she asked quietly.
Se Ri read her hesitation in her countenance. “Sure. So…what are you working on here?”
“I’m sketching a rose. It’s one of our assignments. I love roses. Do you want to try?” Bo A smiled gently at the new girl and handed her the quill she was holding. “Here. You can use this piece of parchment. I haven’t written on it yet.”
Se Ri smiled at her and dipped the pen in the ink well before she began to draw a flower. As she sketched four faint petals, she whispered, “I don’t think there is any way that I could draw a rose. They are far too complicated. But we had dogwood trees growing behind our house, and I’ve always loved their blossoms. They’re pretty easy to draw too.”
Bo A watched as a white dogwood blossom seemed to materialize on the girl’s sheet of parchment after she’d made several strokes with her quill. Her face lit up.
“That’s beautiful, Jeong Se Ri!” she exclaimed.
The younger girl glanced shyly up at her. “If you want, you can call me Se Ri,” she spoke in a near whisper.
Bo A bobbed her head. “And you can call me Bo A.” She peered down at her friend’s sketch. “I love your flower. Are you going to draw another?”
Bo A reached for the parchment. “Here. Let me show you my cherry blossom. I bet you could draw one of those.”
She withdrew another sheet, and before long the two girls were sketching to their hearts’ content while they chatted about this and that.
It was clear to both Sam Sook and Jung Sook that the girls had already become fast friends.
––
“Thank you for allowing my girls to join your class today. And for giving Se Yeon her first reading lesson.” Sam Sook smiled at the teacher a while later as her mother led her daughters outside.
“You are all welcome to join our class any day,” Jung Sook graciously offered.
As Sam Sook turned towards the door, Jung Sook reached out a hand and touched her arm gently. The older girl glanced back at her expectantly.
“I would love to get together with you for lunch the next day I have off from school if you are free.”
Sam Sook grinned at her. “That sounds lovely. Just let me know when and where.”
“I will.”
The two bid each other farewell, and Sam Sook walked home with her mother and her daughters. Reflecting on how happy she was to be back here. It seemed that Se Ri had made a new friend today. And so had she.
––
“Soo Ho! Are you meeting with Moon Won tonight?” Yeo Wool called to his friend as they ended their sparring practice.
Soo Ho shook his head. “Not tonight. Can you?”
Yeo Wool nodded. “Sure. I don’t have any plans.”
A couple of hours later, Yeo Wool stepped into the field behind Jung Sook’s school and quickly found his friend. “Moon Won!”
“Oh!” Moon Won’s face lit up. “It’s you! Excellent! I am up for the challenge tonight.”
“Oh, you think you are, do you?” Yeo Wool teased him as a wide grin lit up his face.
“Yes, but I may need to adjust my schedule in the future.”
“Oh? Why is that?” Yeo Wool asked curiously.
“I’m making some changes at Lady Yang’s house.”
Yeo Wool’s ears instantly perked up. “Lady Yang?”
“Mmm. Her daughter and grandchildren just moved in with her.”
Yeo Wool froze. “What? Sam Sook?”
Moon Won glanced sharply at his friend. He hadn’t missed his familiar use of her name. “Do you know Lady Yang’s daughter?” He eyed the other man speculatively.
“We were friends a long time ago…. She moved back in with her mother? Where is her husband?”
Moon Won blinked. “You don’t know?”
When Yeo Wool remained silent, but his eyes were clearly questioning the other man, Moon Won responded, “He died.”
“What?” Yeo Wool’s heart stopped beating. “Sam Sook’s husband died?” he quizzed him incredulously. “When?”
“Over a year ago now.”
“What? How did I not know this? How did no one tell me?” Yeo Wool seemed to be speaking to himself.
Moon Won eyed him inquisitively.
Yeo Wool glanced up at him. “How many children does Sam Sook have?”
“Two daughters,” Moon Won replied carelessly. “A tiny one. And an older girl.”
Sam Sook was alone. A mother of two little girls. Two beautiful, little girls. The ones whom Yeo Wool had seen in the market following her around. Spitting images of their lovely mother. She had the responsibility of those two young lives, but she no longer had a husband.
His heart began to race just thinking about her.
Sam Sook had spent the last year alone. Yeo Wool wondered how she felt about her husband’s death. Had Lord Jeong been good to her? Had the man treated her kindly? Had he been a passionate husband? An adoring appa? Had Sam Sook and her daughters been devastated by his death? And how did they feel about returning to her hometown?
Yeo Wool thought of the older girl. She’d appeared to be about a decade old. He remembered that age being supremely difficult for him. Especially after Sam Sook had left. He’d had to learn how to defeat the bullies on his own. At least, Sam Sook had taught him to stand up to them before she’d disappeared from his life. He couldn’t imagine moving to a new place at such a tender age. How was Sam Sook’s elder daughter handling the transition?
But as he pondered the matter, he realized that Sam Sook’s daughter might be the same age that she had been when her parents had shipped her off to Lord Jeong. How truly challenging that situation must have been for Sam Sook! She had hidden her fear well, but Yeo Wool had still been fairly certain that she’d been terrified of moving in with Lord Jeong. Of leaving her parents and her sisters behind and traveling to a new home in an unknown village. At least, her daughter hadn’t left her family behind to move into someone else’s home.
Then he considered the tiny girl. She was – what? – three or four years old? He sighed sadly. She probably had no memory of her appa. His heart bent in sorrow for the baby girl. And for her older sister. Who certainly would remember something of her father. Possibly many things. If she’d been close to him at all.
What a difficult season this must be for Sam Sook and her daughters! Surely, she was in need of a friend. Perhaps it was time for Yeo Wool to seek her out. He simply had to figure out how to do it appropriately. Without raising anyone’s expectations. Least of all, his own.
