Notes.

Woon et Yeong-Ja : talking about gwishins, the collective consciousness, social status, training...

Meanwhile Mago : look guys, I'm a hurricane ! (see the "There's no need to be upset" video on youtube)

Me, making a battle of hairstyles happening back in the days of the training camps ? I have no idea what you're talking about (whistles innocently)

Woon's hairstyle was completely inspired by that absolutely magnificient chibi drawing (see here : . /2013/11/tumblr_m3kz1oieod1rql8tuo1_ ). I don't know who made this and if you do, please do not hesitate to tell me so that I can credit the artist !


CHAPTER XXXIX


" I'm used to it by now

Another day, just believe

Just breathe

Just believe

Just breathe

Lying in my bed

Another day, staring at the ceiling "

(Telepopmusik, french artists, "Breathe")


a. The wilderness scale

Yeong-Ja was kept long after the early evening by her mistress, Myung Jeong-Hui. The latter, seeing the sunny days approaching and having perfectly noticed the progressive spreading of an increasingly crushing heat on Joseon, had undertaken to deploy more outdoor activities with the customers of the House of the Lake, and at the same time engaged her courtesans to multiply the walks on the beach, on the most airy and charming mountain trails of the area, or the visits of the hot springs. As the rival entertainment house had most likely received equivalent instructions, more and more colourful processions of men and women were seen strolling along the waves, amusing the other passers-by who counted them and mockingly declared "summer is here", as if they had observed migratory birds returning to the country they had left during the cold season.

In a sense, they were hardly mistaken. The gisaengs did indeed look like exotic creatures, and the customers, trying to seduce them without ever seeming to suspect that gisaengs were the ones who were gradually tightening their nets on them, were showing off their love parades, each one more elaborate than the other. An old adage, no doubt used in all sorts of ways and becoming far too common to be totally true, claimed that summer was the season of love. Therefore, the director of the House of the Lake stacked all the odds in her favour, and rubbed her long, elegant hands together at the idea of financial gain, demanding from her gisaengs to be always available.

She was only able to visit Goh Dae-Seong and Ran Gyeong-Ja's house much later in the evening, exceeding by an hour the schedule she had communicated to Mago and her dead companion. She slipped away as a large banquet held in the gardens of the establishment was ending and heading for an outing to the beach, for which she was obviously no longer needed. None of her regular customers were part of the group that night, so there was no one to call out for her at all times, requesting her presence, her conversation, her smile, her admiring look and her attention.

She remained in the establishment as they walked away to the beach and, after waiting for a few moments, she went out, making sure that her sisters who had stayed behind didn't spot her. Now that she had several years of resurrection under her belt, she was accustomed to this ritual of hideand- seek and discretion in order to join her congeners. All the dead gisaengs were. Living in society, in a common house, and before everyone's eyes, made it necessary for them to learn very early the basics of concealment, whether it was a game of seduction towards a client, or more generally in the context of maintaining their privacy.

She found the two Gwishins who had arrived the day before in the middle of a discussion with the couple, who had just returned home as well. They were talking politics, and Mago's voice carried throughout the hanok, while Yeo Woon was more measured and silent, which didn't surprise Yeong-Ja. The residents cheered for her as soon as she appeared, and Gyeong-Ja in particular animatedly told her that she and Mago had done a small impromptu training session in the courtyard immediately after she had returned from the barracks. I have a sword now, the girl had proudly taught her, fetching it and showing it to her. Yeong-Ja had never had one, favouring rather more sober weapons such as the paedo, but she had seen enough of them on the side of her customers to recognize a good quality sword.

The girl was ecstatic about her new possession, encouraged by Gyeong-Ja and her husband, and Yeong-Ja was forced to gently remind them of the original purpose of her visit, as Mago was eager to continue an apprenticeship with Gyeong-Ja, who was obviously delighted with the prospect, especially since she had no female students in her troop. They managed to drag Mago away from her sword shortly before sunset, and Yeong-Ja led her and Yeo Woon, to whom the girl suddenly looked up in admiration, which the gisaeng assumed to be due to the purchase of the aforementioned weapon, towards Mount Seoraksan and the springs it housed.

It was a little more than three miles to get to the hot springs, which were in the nearby vicinity of the Sinheungsa Temple and its giant Buddha statue. The journey by foot took about an hour, and they didn't force the pace, as Yeong-Ja wished to allow them to admire the scenery, which was particularly pleasant in early summer. When they left the carefully laid out road to enter the woods and go into the mountain, Mago quickly expressed her amazement at the majestic tall conifers lining the small path they had taken, and particularly appreciated a gracefully built bridge between two banks of the river that flowed there quietly, indifferent to the passages of the living and the dead, as well as the Biryong waterfalls, which they saw from afar.

They stopped briefly at Sinheungsa Temple, taking time to contemplate the sovereign simplicity of the stone Buddha, sitting cross-legged on his pedestal, one hand resting on his intertwined ankles and the other on his knee. He had been carved with a benevolent, humble expression. As they left, they met a monk who greeted them in a very polite tone, wishing them a good evening, and to whom they replied in the same way. Yeo Woon, in particular, seemed to enjoy the visit, and expressed his appreciation to Yeong-Ja. There was an ancient fortress a little further away, which was also very impressive, but she decided not to inundate her new companions with visits and guided them to their destination indulgently.

By the time they reached the hot springs located west of the temple, they were relatively deserted. Most of the users had already withdrawn because it was getting late, and the time for gisaengs had come. Yeong-Ja saw a group of three young women, naked, whom she recognized as belonging to the rival entertainment house, laughing in one of the steaming water tanks with their colorful gaches, jewelry, and hanbok abandoned to the side confidently, a trust that existed only in such closed, intimate spaces where few people met. It was likely that they would have been more cautious if the place had been more crowded.

They barely looked at them, too absorbed in their conversation, and probably too accustomed to frequenting the hot springs. There were four large basins cut into the rock in a rough but strangely precise way, from which a white, opaque smoke escaped, giving the place a deliciously mysterious and esoteric aspect. The ground was of stone, uneven, rough, but formidably dry. The three women occupied the tank on the far right. The one in the middle, the widest, was fed by a small waterfall that formed a light foam when it reached the surface of the basin. The other two, more modest in size, were facing each other. The sound of water was omnipresent, heady, relaxing.

Mago's face lit up with happiness when she saw the hot springs. Yeo Woon's face was a little more indecipherable, but the courtesan could nevertheless guess the outline of a smile, and she invited them to choose one of the vats to bathe in. Negotiations were short, and it was finally decided to use one of the small ones to the left of the large central basin, where the waterfall flowed. Most of the bathers went naked, as in most of the hot springs in the country, without shame or anxiety, but the condition of the Gwishins considerably complicated any initiative to immerse themselves in one of the tanks, and Yeong-Ja knew that it was strictly excluded for them to remove their clothing and make their scars visible to other gisaengs. It was also not ideal to wait for the gisaengs to leave, as they had no idea when they had started bathing, and were therefore completely uncertain when they would come out.

Yeong-Ja, who had been working on the issue since she had been living in Sochko, had planned a solution. In a linen bag, she had brought three large strips of dark cloth that could easily cover their bodies and thus hide any traces of their status as Gwishin until they entered the water. In addition, a small hanok had been built less than a year ago near the springs, which had been reserved for the dressing and undressing of the bathers away from indecent eyes, after complaints had been made by the more affluent inhabitants. In fact, keen observers had also noted that it served as a meeting point for an incredible number of clandestine lovers. Yeong-Ja took her dead companions there.

They found the house empty, and she gave them the thick strips of cloth for them to wear, telling them to put their clothes in her bag. Over the years, she had built up her organization well. When they returned, the cloth twisted around them, Yeong-Ja held back a laugh, as she always did when she took gwishins to the hot springs. She had cut the bands so that they could hide almost all of the dead bodies, except for scars on the arms and lower legs, which could still pass as normal stigmata.

Mago was wrapped in hers as if in a toga, looking like a tiny Buddhist monk, and Yeo Woon's was reaching the top of his knees, making him look vaguely ridiculous, considering he was wearing it just below the neck.

- Your idea is brilliant, Mago told her, trying not to trip over her garment, as they went back to the hot springs with the assurance and comfort of knowing they were safe.

Yeong-Ja, modestly, credited Ran Gyeong-Ja, who had first suggested the hypothesis one evening when they were eating together. Yeo Woon also congratulated her, and confirmed Mago's compliments with his usual phlegm.

The other three gisaengs didn't even interrupt their discussion when they arrived, wrapped up like newborns, but Yeong-Ja had often come dressed that way before, and people had become accustomed to her alleged modesty, sometimes pointing out that she was giving it to others, when they saw her peers imitating her. They settled down around the vat of water from which they could have felt the emanations of soft and satiny heat, had they been alive. Yeong-Ja first plunged her legs into it, then, glancing vaguely behind her, took off the strip of cloth protecting her body and immersed herself, completely naked, under the eye of Mago, who immediately did the same with a comic lack of grace, and Yeo Woon, who hesitated.

The two women then looked at him, motionless, looking like a lost puppy, his arms still clenched against the cloth. That's new, Yeong-Ja thought, both pleasantly surprised and a little moved by this proof of male shyness and vulnerability, which had become rare in times that didn't allow them.

- Don't you want to come in ? It's lovely, she said kindly to encourage him. You'll be fine.

Mago was less diplomatic, and she pulled her nose out of the water, in which she had plunged half her face.

- It's because you've never been in a hot spring with naked women, right ? she asked him, smiling far too broadly. We're not going to eat you, you know. You're one of us.

- Don't be afraid, Yeong-Ja continued, in a more measured tone. For my part, I'm more than used to seeing men naked. You're not likely to surprise or shock me. As for Mago, I'm sure she has had a few experiences before.

The girl nodded her head, half underwater.

- I'm not afraid, Yeo Woon protested, about as convincing as a soldier saying he meant no harm to the Gwishins.

- Good, the courtesan said. We're made the same way. Everyone is perfectly at ease here. You're safe.

He hesitated still, looking at the simmering water, watching Yeong-Ja and Mago, who were happily splashing around, and then he decided to dive in, while removing the fabric from his body.

Yeong-Ja had no interest in his silhouette or musculature. She simply noticed, with a sensibility inherent among the dead, the blue and blackish veined scar where his heart was, which disappeared into the water.


b. Balneotherapy

They were quiet at first, exchanging no words, just glances and smiles (mostly addressed by Yeong-Ja) to make their mutual pleasure understood. Mago had already plunged her head underwater several times, and she had sunk so deep into the water that half of her face had become invisible. Her wet hair, tucked back, highlighted the youthful delicacy of her face and made her eyes even bigger than usual. Woon had already noticed the difference when they had returned from the beach the day before, but the hot springs implied a physical closeness and relaxation that was more conducive to deep contemplation of others and their attributes.

Yeong-Ja, more accustomed than Mago, had tied her hair with a ribbon that she had taken with her. She had offered some to the girl, but she had refused, stating that her hair was already soaked and that it didn't bother her. She had also proposed to lend one to Woon, and the latter, gripped by a sudden need for comfort, finally pulled his own hair back, tying it into a ponytail high enough to keep the ends from touching the water's surface.

He used to wear them that way when he was younger, at the training camp, whenever it was too hot and he was looking for ways to gain some freshness. He also liked to tie them up when he was studying, so that he didn't keep getting locks in his eyes or having to push them back. The problem was a recurring one among the boys in the camp, and he was far from being the only one to resort to such capillary solutions. From the first days of summer, the camp was transformed into a stable.

Dong Soo, no doubt out of elitism, preferred buns. They aged him, highlighted his face, were supposedly "more effective against heat", and several times Woon had felt like undoing them, without fully understanding the interest of his impulse. He remembered that one summer, when they were about to turn fifteen, the camp had seen the birth of a hairstyle war within its walls. The battle had been profoundly stupid, useless, and frankly immature, but it had had the merit of distracting and amusing them during the exhausting heat wave that the country was undergoing at the time, which was wearing them down, and of avoiding other more extreme confrontations. Each of them used their own argument to convince the others that the way they wore their hair was the best. Sa-Mo had suffered several nerve attacks at the sight of them practicing with hairstyles each more grotesque than the other. Cho-Rip had fun keeping score and playing referee.

Woon had almost no sensation at first, and wasn't surprised by it more than usual, having become more or less accustomed to it since his resurrection. The astonishment came later, when he realized, after laying his head on the ground behind him and looking up at the sky that was putting on its night coat, that he was getting hot, and that it didn't make any sense, since the Gwishins were dead and were, by nature, strictly incapable of feeling the slightest change in temperature. The only phenomenon that had changed the situation had been the Dead Winter, but it was an exception, an unpleasant one for that matter, and Woon was thinking about it and considering making the remark to his companions when Mago had abruptly raised her head out of the water to signal in a suspicious tone that she felt warm inside. Yeong-Ja responded with a smooth, slow and almost proud smile.

- Have no fear, she told them sulphurously, her beautiful eyes moving from one gwishin to the other. Hot springs have that power. It's something I've discovered since I came here and have been visiting this place regularly.

Mago frowned, puzzled, and asked for more information.

- I noticed it when I first came here, Yeong-Ja explained. At first I didn't feel any difference, but after a few minutes I was forced to realize that I was really warming up. I didn't understand. It was after I came back several times that I made the connection between the hot springs and the phenomenon.

- Is it specific to all hot springs ? Mago inquired, visibly very interested in the subject to the point of keeping her head totally out of the water while Yeong-Ja was talking.

The courtesan nodded.

- It would seem so. I tried to learn more from others through the consciousness, and some of the transmissions echoed my own. It wasn't very common at first. Observations began to become more numerous during the Dead Winter.

Woon wanted to know if she had been able to determine the origin of the effects of the hot springs on the bodies of the Gwishin, but Yeong-Ja answered negatively with a sorrowful expression.

- None of those who have noticed it yet seem to be able to explain it, she said with disappointment in her voice. We were hoping the Eye could give us some explanation, but she never said anything, although she had been aware of the situation for a long time.

- There are a lot of things she doesn't tell us, Mago observed, and both of her peers agreed with a certain bitterness.

Yeong-Ja then added that the hot springs had played a fundamental role in her survival during the Dead Winter. Like all Gwishins, she had been totally taken aback by the suddenness and violence of the event, which had struck her as she was heading, by an almost too happy coincidence not to be ironic, to Mount Seoraksan for an informal outdoor dinner with a small group of three clients and two of her sisters. She had been cold on the trip, which she had taken with one of her sisters, and was completely and hopelessly numb by the time she had arrived at the hot springs.

I was distraught, she told them, I didn't understand anything, and the consciousness was full of fear. She was still well enough to talk and move, however, and had done her best to pull the wool over everyone's eyes once she entered the hot spring, laughing softly at the jokes of the soldiers who were their guests for the evening, or conversing with her sisters in a playful and seductive way. She didn't think she would feel better once immersed, but the hot spring had provided its usual benefits, and it didn't take long for her to regain her comfort and a more acceptable temperature. Dinner had lasted two hours.

When she had returned to the House of the Lake, the cold had once again crept in, but the effects of the hot spring had nevertheless kept it at bay for several hours, before she was forced to call in sick the next day and to seek the warmth of one of her sisters who, believing her to be feverish, had held her in her arms as long as she wished. As soon as I felt a little better, I managed to return to the springs, she explained to them. She had also sent the message into the consciousness once she was back in the hot water. It was then that she had noticed the intensive sharing of similar experiences by other Gwishins, while the unluckier ones were whimpering with cold and terror, isolated and more vulnerable than ever.

As the silence fell back gently and naturally between them, sending the experience of the Dead Winter (you're burning) back into the distance, Mago put her head back underwater. In her wet hair, the tiny traces of white were much more visible. Yeong-Ja was also supposed to have some, but Woon had not yet spotted them, and thought she was probably using dyeing techniques to camouflage them. Hui Seon had already mentioned some of them when she had come back on the first evening of the Winter in Woon's room, again frozen after just a few minutes away from the heat of Dong Soo's body. As the other gisaengs had indeed expressed fears about how their new physical attribute might threaten their survival, the director of the Spring House had seen fit to propose temporary solutions, while waiting to see how the living would react.

Woon questioned Yeong-Ja, to stop himself from thinking about Hanyang and what was there.

- Oh, things are relatively calm in Sochko, she replied. I haven't yet heard any living among my customers making any remarks about our white streaks. Have you perceived things in the consciousness ?

- Not yet, Woon confessed.

- But you think it will happen soon, the young woman observed perceptively, staring at him with her big cat-like eyes.

Woon simply nodded his head in response, and added nothing else. Yeong-Ja seemed to understand, as she said nothing herself for a while, watching Mago, who obviously seemed to be having a fundamentally fulfilling experience.

- You bought her a sword, she declared in a calm, gentle and almost amazed tone.

- Yes.

- It was very generous.

He shrugged his shoulders, to signify it was unimportant. Yeong-Ja moved slightly closer, so that she could speak lower.

- Do you plan to train her ? she asked, and a lively curiosity pierced through her soft voice.

- No, Woon affirmed.

- Why not ?

He hesitated, choosing his words, prechecking them in his head before he realized there was no good way to enunciate them.

- She's a girl, he stated. And I've never trained anyone. I don't know how to do it.

Yeong-Ja opened her mouth, ready to reply, when Mago required their attention like any other normal child could have done.

- Look you two, she suddenly exclaimed. I'm a typhoon.

And she started spinning around in the water, like a spinning top, her hands and feet visibly wiggling fiercely below the surface of the hot spring. Yeong-Ja made an appreciative head movement, and the corners of her mouth rose up imperceptibly, as if she was about to laugh.

- What a mighty storm, she conceded to her, and then she turned to Woon with a look that was too insistent for him not to understand the message.

- I'm all shook up about it, he articulated to satisfy her, in a somewhat ironic tone nevertheless.

- She would be a perfect student, Yeong-Ja continued when Mago returned to her personal water games.

Woon took a look at the girl. She was blowing, mouth under water, to make bubbles appear on the surface of the hot spring.

- You think so ? He couldn't help but observe skeptically.

- Of course, Yeong-Ja said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She would be as perfect as any other student who would be a boy. She's eager to learn, which should be enough for you. It might stabilize you in a social position that is highly regarded by everyone, both the living and the Gwishin. You would benefit a lot from her, I think. There is nothing wrong with teaching a girl how to fight. On the other hand, you have everything to lose by denying her the right to do so on the basis of her sex.

Woon wanted to answer bluntly that he had just started training again, that holding a sword in his hand after the fields was both a feat and a horror, that he didn't feel ready, that he thought he was incapable of training someone while being himself completely lost in something he didn't understand, when Mago, throwing her head out of the water with a smile up to her ears, suddenly stopped and stared at a point behind her two companions' backs with such a combative look that Woon thought for a moment she had just seen the entire army of the country arrive as one in the middle of the hot springs.

- You've got to be kidding me, she grumbled bitterly, without addressing neither Woon nor Yeong-Ja.

Exchanging a perplexed look, they turned and followed the direction of Mago's gaze. A small group of six people had just arrived on the spot, the women wearing hanboks with colors and shapes too bright and convoluted to be anything other than courtesans, and the men, visibly yangbans, displaying traditional clothing as well as uniforms betraying their military status.

Captain Seol Woo-Jin was among them, and he smiled at Woon when he noticed their presence.