Part 9

First night at Joong-ee-bang.

Yoonhee returns to Sungkyunkwan, very cautiously so that no one can figure out that she is a woman, but suddenly, she realizes that someone is following her. A thief? She's very scared, and realizes it can't be anyone from Banchon, since she's so far away. She walks faster; she must get back as quickly as possible. She runs as fast as she can and begins to beat on all the doors, but no one opens them.

"Open the door, please!"

The person following her is catching up to her. Yoonhee tries to calm down thinking it may be another student, but she sees his shadow behind her and she realizes he's not wearing a yoogun on his head, which means...

"Hey, do you think you are the king?"

Yoonhee is surprised to hear the voice of the man behind her. It's a rough voice but doesn't sound like the voice of a thief. She returns to her senses and realizes the door she was beating on is the one in the middle, the shin-sam, which is only opened for the king; of course no one was going to answer. She walks away from the door and begins to turn towards the man's face. He's not wearing a gat, but you can clearly see he is a nobleman...although he isn't dressed as he shuld be. His dopo is open, without his sash on his head, and he isn't wearing his sok-jum-sam (undershirt). Tied to his waist is a bottle of liquor. Although he looks strange, she feels that he is vaguely familiar to her. He's not as tall as Sunjoo, but he's still very tall. She looks at his face but she can't see him very well because it is now very dark. His chin looks familiar. The man looks at Yoonhee, smiles, and says:

"You are still a very pretty boy." Yoonhee now remembers who he is. He's the man who helped her against the seojupkuns that summer night. A soobook passes by and greets the man.

"Oh, scholar Geol-roh, you've come back!"

Geol-roh? She feels as if someone had hit her over the head with a hammer. The man enters and the soobook asks him "What have you done with your gat?" He replies that he traded it for some liquor, and walks away. Yoonhee sees that he is bleeding over the bottom part of his body, but he is barely covered by his dopo. Did he fight again? She feels she's about to faint. How can she be a roommate to a man like that?