[Guest Writer: Takenoko] – To Meet the Height of Birds (7/?) – A SKKS fanfic

Title: To Meet the Height of Birds (Episodes #8-9)
Genre: General, Romance
Characters: Jae Shin, Yoon Hee
Words: 1500
Summary: …your secret courage makes you shine.

Disclaimer/Warning: This drabble does *not* deal with the famous moment of discovery between episodes 7 and 8! XD I know, I know, that’s what everyone wants to see, but the actual drama did that whole scene so well (secret midnight bath by candlelight! Best friends wrestling on the ground! Clueless!Sun Joon! Musical-Sleeping-Arrangements!), I don’t think there’s anything I could add to it to make it better! So I decided not to mess with what was already, to me, a perfect, perfect moment, and I want to apologize to anyone I may have inadvertently disappointed. Instead, dear readers, I offer you this extra-long ficlet: “He follows her home.” ;)

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After losing track of Kim Yoon Shik in the middle of the market, he had spent the better half of an hour storming in and out of the shops on the main street, searching frantically with no success. Luckily, fortune had decided to smile upon him and he’d stumbled upon a few more of the War Minister’s men – they were hiding (conspicuously) in a side alley and staking out a small bookstore on the outskirts of Pil-dong. Taking advantage of the shadows and the relative disregard of the surrounding passersby, he’d efficiently knocked the men out and stuffed them into a grain bin, then taken their place waiting for a girl (and classmate and roommate, however implausible it seemed!) to exit the bookstore.

When Kim Yoon Shik steps back out into the rapidly waning light of dusk, gone is the Confucian scholar with the slight, boyish figure and awkward stance, for whom most would not have spared a second glance. In his place, there stands a young lady, dressed demurely in plain cotton, with her long, midnight hair bound and braided – last night, when he had caught a glimpse of it at Hyangkwanchung, it had been a cascade of dark waves clinging to creamy skin, but– Jae Shin shakes his head vigorously and blends seamlessly into the crowd behind her.

She is carrying a multitude of packages, and Jae Shin just knows that her grip is careless enough to let someone snatch them from her hands, just as she’d lost her money pouch that one day, so long ago. He wonders dryly if he would have saved the hapless girl back then, knowing how much trouble she would cause him later.

He follows her home, to keep watch for any more unwelcome followers, but also to assuage his own curiosity. He has so many unanswered questions: Who are you really? Why are you doing this? What else are you hiding, Kim Yoon Shik? He wants to see what sort of circumstances had forced this girl to masquerade as a man in front of the entire school, and the king himself.

As they head down ever darker and drearier lanes, into the poorest section of the village, her pace gradually gets faster and faster until she is almost tripping over the pebbles at her feet, onto the dirt path that leads to her home. Despite her eagerness, however, she pauses in front of the timeworn but spacious house to simply watch an older woman hanging laundry up on the clothesline outside. Meanwhile, Jae Shin takes the opportunity to launch himself into the nearest tree. It is a tall, majestic oak, directly across from the front yard and well-shaded, but close enough for him to hear the other woman inquire about the wound on Kim Yoon Shik’s hand.

“What could have happened to me? I’m just happy. Now that I’m home after a long time…I’m just too happy.”

She folds herself into the waiting arms of her mother, and Jae Shin alone witnesses the tears of a homesick, heartsick daughter, forced too early to confront the painful gap between her ideals and her realities.

After a minute, she pulls back to face her mother with newfound cheer, pressing the small silk pouch she had received that morning into the older woman’s hand.

“Omoni, look how much I’ll be bringing home every month now!”

“Oh, Yoon Hee,” her mother sighed, her worn face lined with years of regret and hardship. “I do not know what trials you’ve had to endure for this allowance, but the heavens know how I prayed there was another way to pay back our debts.”

Yoon Hee shakes her head quickly, silently pushing aside the unspoken apology, and moves on to show her the rest of her small pile of riches. “I brought back some prepared banchan*, and also medicine– ”

At this moment, the door opens and a young man, barely old enough to be called such, steps out and cries, “Noonim!”

Kim Yoon Hee turns to her younger brother with all the relief of a parched plant at the ending of a drought. “Yoon Shik!” The two siblings cross the distance between them to embrace joyfully, while their mother watches with a quiet gladness.

When they disengage, the younger of the two holds his sister at arms’ length and looks her over carefully. “How is it? Is the Sungkyunkwan scholar ‘Kim Yoon Shik’ making a name for himself? No one’s bullying you, are they?”

“Bullying?” She looks at his concerned but hopeful face, and finds that the lies come easily. “The super rookie, champion of this year’s archery competition, the one nicknamed ‘Daemul’? They wouldn’t dream of it. Being scholar Kim Yoon Shik is…” she thinks back on the last few weeks and all the wonders she’s experienced. “It’s everything I ever dreamed of, and more.”

“But what about you?” she asks hurriedly, unwilling to dwell on the latest developments in her tumultuous academic (and personal) life. “Have you been well?”

The real Kim Yoon Shik, about to answer in the affirmative, is suddenly interrupted by a fit of harsh coughing that has him doubled over and gasping for breath.

“Oh!” His mother hurries to support him, while Yoon Hee rushes to rummage through the packs she’d dropped by the door.

“I’ve been reading the Dongui Bogam**,” she says anxiously, “and it says that Manchurian violet and Amla herb are the best remedies for a persistent cough. I don’t seem to have any of the Amla here…maybe it was also called something else?” The sounds of coughing have stopped, but she continues to mutter to herself as various paper-wrapped bundles fall open in the wake of her questing hands. “Gooseberry, or, was it…?”

She finally turns to face her family with dismay in her eyes. “But I still don’t know nearly enough to understand it all. Maybe, with another month’s allowance, we’ll be able to afford having a real physician come take a look. For now…” She hesitates and selects a few ingredients, “I can make some tea that will help diminish inflammation in the lungs and soothe the throat.”

Her mother nods. “I’ll start the water boiling,” she says, and hands Yoon Shik over to her daughter in exchange for the precious herbs, each woman setting aside their despair for now.

Moon Jae Shin finally understands, as he watches Kim Yoon Hee stroke her brother’s wan cheeks, what it was that had driven her to swallow her pride and pick up the “gifts” that the president had tossed so scornfully at her feet. Above all else, this frail and sickly boy, who would likely never be able to climb a tree or play a game of jang-chigi, was her reason for risking her life at Sungkyunkwan day after day.

“Do you have a fever?” He hears her ask.

“I’m alright, noonim,” Yoon Shik pushes away her hand weakly, as they take a seat on the wooden steps together. “Tell me more about your travels. What else did you bring back?”

She smiles and pokes him gently, “A carved wood chess set for a certain impatient someone,” she recounts, “and a silver hairpin for mother, since she sold her old one.”

“What about yourself? Some pretty trinket you’ve had your eye on?”

She shakes her head and responds, “What could I possibly want? Everything I need is right here. And besides,” she adds, with a tinge of wistfulness that only Jae Shin picks up on, “there’s nothing that I would actually use while at Sungkyunkwan.”

Not true, he thinks. He has shared a room with her longer than he has ever spent in the company of any other woman, and has seen her surreptitiously glance in a mirror a few times before going to class in the morning, and once, when she thought no one else was around, even stop to pick a few wildflowers for her hair. He knows that if she had a choice, she would probably prefer the luxury of adorning herself with beauty, but the world will never acknowledge her for the capable person she is while she wears a woman’s clothes.

The world demands too much.

And even though he recognizes – all too well – the concept of sacrifice, of unconditional love, he cannot fathom how much Kim Yoon Hee is giving up to play the role that her brother cannot fulfill. That she chooses to turn the responsibility from a burden into an opportunity, to become not just any man, but an exceptional man, is a testament to the pure strength of character he wishes everyone could see. But until she is accepted as a woman with that same extraordinary disposition, he will keep her secret. He alone will know of her true courage, of her daring dreams, of the girl she used to be.

o.o0o.o

The next morning, when Yoon Hee walks out into the garden, she finds a single pink hair ribbon tied to the clothesline, swaying gently in the wind.

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Footnotes:

*Banchan: small dishes of food served along with rice in Korean cuisine.

**Dongui Bogam: literally, "Mirror of Eastern Medicine," a Korean medical book published in 1613.

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This will be the last update of To Meet the Height of Birds before New Year's! Many heartfelt thanks to everyone who's been reading so far <3

Also, for those who are willing to share your opinion, what do you think- should I continue following the plot of the series as I move forward into episode 10, or should I diverge from the canon plotline for my own purposes…? =D I would love to hear what your thoughts are!

I hope you all have a safe, enjoyable, and warm holiday season :)