Disclaimer: The SKKS-verse belongs to the creators of Sungkyunkwan Scandal.

Author's Note: Happy holidays! As promised, here's the latest chapter before the end of the year :) It took a while because the last scene proved rather tricky to write. Please let me know what you think about it; I may rewrite it depending on the feedback.

Thank you, as always, to voodooqueen126 and R Unworldly for the reviews, and to those who have favorited/ are following this fic! Hope you like the latest chapter!

12-20-2013: Edited the final scene. I think it's a lot better this time around! I hope you think so, too!

Chapter Eight

Predictably, word of the confrontation at the Chamber of Commerce elections spread like wildfire. By the next morning, the marketplace was buzzing with the news of Gu Yong-ha's surprise betrothal; matchmakers and marriageable females everywhere were bemoaning the loss of one of Joseon's most eligible bachelors; and Ka-hai and Yoon-hee had descended upon the incipient bridegroom in his shop, demanding every detail.

"Jae-shin says a woman turned up here on the day that he visited with the boys," Ka-hai said. "Was that her?"

"What is she like?" Yoon-hee wanted to know.

"And if you were courting her already, why haven't you introduced us?"

Yong-ha sighed. He was sorely tempted to tell his friends the whole story, but did not know whether this was the right time to confide in them. His first attempt at telling the truth had not gone over too well.

"The words just came out of my mouth, Abeonim," he said as they conferred in Master Gu's study. Yong-ha had proceeded directly there after the meeting, and the rest of the family was quickly summoned once the urgency of the matter became apparent. "Ma Ki-hoon was saying the ugliest things about Teacher Kim. I had to make him stop."

Master Gu rubbed his forehead wearily, the way he often did whenever his younger son did something foolish. "While I must commend you for wanting to help, you did not have to interfere in a matter that did not concern you." From his place at their father's right side, An-jeong shot his brother a sympathetic look.

"But it did concern me," Yong-ha argued. The wine merchant's strained relationship with Iseul had nothing to do with the results of the election. "Master Ma was angry with me first. He should not have vented his frustrations on an innocent bystander."

"Who is this girl?" asked Madam Hong, who was sitting at her husband's left. An-jeong's wife tried to give her a cup of tea, but she refused it with an agitated wave of her hand. "Did she make you say that the two of you were betrothed?"

"No, Omonim," he replied. "Teacher Kim would never ask such a thing of me. Neither of us knew what I was going to say until, well, I said it."

He spoke as reassuringly as he could, but it did little to calm either of his parents. Fortunately, An-jeong jumped in before the elders could say more. "Have you thought about how you're going to fix this?"

That brought Yong-ha up short. "Ah... not yet," he admitted. Iseul had fled during the uproar, so he had not had the opportunity to even broach the subject with her; and during the trip home, he had been too busy trying to think of how he would explain things to his family.

His hyung frowned. "You'll have to think of something, Yong-ha, and soon. You've put both yourself and this Teacher Kim in a very delicate position."

"And whatever happens, it will likely be more difficult for her," said an unfamiliar voice. It took everyone a while to realize that it was Geun-hye who had spoken. An-jeong shot his wife an approving look.

Master Gu snorted impatiently. "You will think of a way to get himself out of this mess," he ordered Yong-ha, and skewered him with a look. "And you will do it without destroying the girl's or, more importantly, this family's reputation."

He swallowed, but nodded bravely. "Yes, Abeonim."

With the matter settled for now, the family meeting soon adjourned. Yong-ha slunk out of the room, wondering just how he would be able to resolve the situation to his father's specifications. He also knew that he had to act soon; Iseul's future, as well as his own, hung in the balance.

An-jeong gave him a reassuring smile as they walked to their respective rooms. "I'm sure everything will be fine," he said. "But you know I'll do my best to help you, if you need it."

He managed to smile back. "Thanks, hyung." Although he doubted whether his brother had any idea how to fix things, it was still nice to know that there was someone on his side.

"Oh, and I almost forgot—congratulations."

"On my victory," Yong-ha asked dryly, "or my betrothal?"

"I promise I'll introduce Iseul to you," Yong-ha said to the women looking at him expectantly, "when the time is right."

Ka-hai narrowed her eyes at him. "That wouldn't be after your baby is born, is it?"

He turned bright red and shook his head. "Absolutely not. We've never—we don't have that sort of relationship." At least, he thought, that was the truth.

"I was just making sure." Mercifully, she dropped that subject—only to return to another, more pressing matter. "Well, if there's nothing of that sort to hide, then why do you still need to wait before introducing her to us?"

"We should meet her right away so we know what she's like," Yoon-hee added. "There's bound to be all kinds of gossip about why you're getting married. We'll have to know how to defend her."

Yong-ha blinked, both surprised and touched by the idea. "You would do that?"

The ladies traded looks of disbelief that he would even ask such a thing. "Of course we would," Ka-hai told him readily. "You're our friend, aren't you? And you must have good reasons for choosing this woman over all the others sighing and swooning at your feet."

He had to laugh at that. "She wasn't one of those women," he told her; one more thing that was true.

"And the great Yeo-rim noticed her anyway?" Yoon-hee giggled. "I'm impressed with the both of you. Now I really want to meet her."

"Soon," he promised.

Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately, in Iseul's case—the women missed meeting each other that very day. Iseul turned up at the shop not long before closing time, dressed for battle in an utterly nondescript gray skirt and dark blue jeogori (at least, Yong-ha believed that she had purposely donned those things to annoy him), and with every line of her body fairly humming with tension.

Yong-ha pasted a smile on his face and sought to diffuse the situation with a joke. "Hello, darling. I was wondering when you would come by to see me."

She blushed despite herself at the endearment, but held on to her anger by reminding herself that the pet name was a lie, just like the announcement at the Chamber of Commerce meeting. "Actually, I was wondering the same thing," she replied as she closed the door behind her, shutting out the street outside. "Especially since it is you who should explain to me about that insanity you hatched last night."

He frowned, much to her annoyance. "May I remind you that Ma Ki-hoon was saying terrible things about you, and I was able to make him shut up and look foolish at the same time?"

"He was doing a fine job looking foolish by himself, and he would have stopped on his own once he realized that."

"What if he didn't?"

"Then I would have thrown something at him, or hit him, or something! And I don't care if it would have been unbecoming," Iseul added when he shot her a disapproving look. "The point is that I could have handled the situation on my own, but then you had to step in and now look where we are. Do you have any idea how big a mess you've created?"

Iseul was feeling the beginnings of a headache when she arrived at her home that night. The Kims' nearest neighbors, Master Han the potter and Madam Lee the shoemaker, had hustled her out of the bookshop in the confusion following Yong-ha's announcement; and all throughout their walk home, they had spoken of nothing but her betrothal. She tried her best to find an opportunity to tell the truth in the course of the conversation, but their surprise at the unexpected news, and genuine happiness over her good fortune tumbled over each other like rocks in a landslide, trapping her in the lie.

To make things worse, they wasted no time in congratulating Madam Park when they stopped by to greet her, robbing Iseul of the chance to explain things properly to her grandmother.

Naturally, all of this was a surprise to the old woman as well. "Oh, how wonderful!" Madam Park exclaimed. The look of joy that crossed her lined face made Iseul's heart twist. "I had no idea you had fallen in love!"

"It's so romantic," Madam Lee agreed, then caught herself and frowned. "Wait... do you mean he hasn't formally asked for Iseul's hand yet?"

Iseul turned pink under her neighbors' scrutiny. "We're not really engaged—"

"And yet he has already announced to all of Joseon that you are going to be married?" Master Han concluded with a disapproving frown.

The shoemaker shook her head, no longer as pleased as she was a moment ago. "This is not at all proper."

"I must have a talk with that boy."

"That won't be necessary," Madam Park soothed. "I'm sure Yong-ha will come to see me in due time. And when he does," she added firmly, "I will tell him that I fully support the marriage."

"Still, now that the news is out, he had better do it soon," Madam Lee said. "People might talk if it becomes known that the betrothal is not yet official."

Master Han shot Iseul the sort of penetrating look that she had seen him use on his daughter Chae-mi. "You will tell me if he drags his feet on this," he ordered, his tone of voice promising dire consequences for Yong-ha if the young man refused to take responsibility for her.

Iseul bowed her head, too exhausted from the events of the evening to try and argue further. "Yes, sir."

"Isn't it nice to have good neighbors who look out for us, Iseul?" her grandmother asked cheerfully.

"I think I can imagine," Yong-ha said with a weary sigh. "I told my family the whole story last night. They aren't too pleased with me at the moment."

"At least that your family knows the truth," Iseul told him pointedly. "Master Han told my grandmother before I could explain in private, and she is just thrilled that we are going to be married."

He cringed. "I'm very sorry." Knowing that his parents were disappointed in him was bad enough; he felt worse knowing that he was also deceiving Madam Park. The truth would hurt the old woman terribly—or perhaps even kill her (after which her granddaughter would probably kill him). "Believe me, I've wished ten thousand times today that I could fix everything."

Fortunately, she seemed to accept his guilt as genuine and did not scold him further. "I suppose telling her the truth is something that can be done later," she said grudgingly, "but what are we going to do about everyone else? Do we just wait and hope that it blows over? I doubt that people will simply forget... not when such announcements are usually followed by weddings."

Yong-ha nodded in agreement. "But we also cannot just tell everyone the truth—we'll both lose face, and so will our families."

"Then what do we do?"

He paused, choosing his words carefully. Last night, he had arrived at a solution that seemed feasible, but he still needed to present it as nicely as he could. "My proposal," he began, "is that we pretend to be betrothed for a while.

"We won't have to do anything special," he added quickly, before she could protest. "We'll just have to be seen in each other's company on occasion, in order to keep up appearances; but that should be easy enough to do, since you will be coming here from time to time for fittings and flirting lessons. Then, after a certain period, we can announce that we have decided not to marry after all!" he concluded brightly, hoping that it would capture her enthusiasm as well. "What do you think?"

His heart sank when she scowled. "You know, don't you, that breaking off a betrothal isn't as simple as you're making it sound? Doing that may solve the problem we have now, but then people will still talk—especially about whose fault it is."

"We will have an amicable parting," he promised. "What can anyone do if we discover later that we're just not compatible as husband and wife, and agree that we would be better off as friends? Everyone should accept that explanation and let us go on with our lives. What do you think?" he asked again, throwing in a charmingly expectant smile this time.

Iseul had to admit—very grudgingly—that it was good of Yong-ha to try and think of a way to actually address the situation. His suggestion, half-baked as it was, sounded reasonable enough, but she had spent the previous night thinking of ways to make him pay for getting her into this mess, and was not about to let him off so easily. "It could work..." she began, "but what's in it for me?"

He blinked. "What do you mean?"

"What's in it for me?" she repeated. "I suppose your idea will get people to leave us alone, at least for a while, but I never asked to be put in such a position in the first place. I think I'm entitled to something in return for that, don't you?"

His jaw dropped. "Are you trying to blackmail me?"

"Certainly not," she replied with an affronted glare. "Blackmail would be you paying me to keep quiet, but you don't have to do that as it is also in my best interests to hide the truth. I am talking about compensation for the trouble that your actions have caused me. No matter how 'amicable' our parting will be, I am sure there will still be whispers that I am bad luck, too poor, or otherwise an unsuitable bride.

"Isn't there also a danger that people might say things like that about me, too?" he sputtered.

"Ah, but you see, Master Gu," Iseul told him pointedly, "you are a man, and you have your wealthy family to back you when all of this is over. I seriously doubt that there will be anything said about you. I, on the other hand, am a working woman with no one in the world but a blind grandmother. Thanks to you, I can't—I was going to—"

She broke off abruptly, her heart sinking with the death of her prospects with Bang Jung-soo. In the mad scramble to keep her grandmother and their neighbors from getting too excited, she had forgotten all about him. The news would probably reach the young merchant by the time his sister's next painting lesson rolled around, which meant that he was now quite firmly out of Iseul's reach.

"You were going to what? You were going to marry someone else?" He frowned. "How did you manage to catch a man so soon?"

She ignored the tinge of disbelief in his voice. "This is going to make it very difficult for me to marry anyone for real in the future," she told him, doggedly pursuing the matter at hand. "You've put me at tremendous risk, Gu Yong-ha, and you had better make it worth my while."

Yong-ha sighed. As much as he wanted for them to strike a bargain and have done with it, he had to admit that she was right about being thrust into the more difficult position. His sister-in-law, of all people, had pointed out the same thing to him last night. "Well, then, what is it that you want?"

To his surprise, rather than simply naming an amount, she told him, "I want a job."

"A job?"

"A paying one, of course," Iseul said, as if that needed to be specified. "I can't sew or embroider as well as my grandparents did, but I can draw and paint for you."

"I suppose we could start a new fashion for painted clothes instead of embroidered ones," he acknowledged, stroking his chin thoughtfully. (While doing so, he discovered that, in his agitation, he had missed a spot shaving that morning; hopefully, no one had noticed.) "But I don't know how steady that kind of work would be."

"I was thinking more of doing sketches of clothes, like the ones that I showed you before. If you told me what you wanted, I could do more. You can use them to show your clients what you have in mind instead of trying to describe them all the time."

"That would be helpful," Yong-ha admitted, beginning to warm to the idea. "You can do them in black and white, though I will probably require some colored sketches from time to time." Although his clients were generally delightful, it had to be admitted that some ladies had no eye whatsoever and perpetually needed to be steered clear of sartorial disaster.

"And," Iseul added, "you might want to mention my name from time to time when you show your clients my sketches. Someone might want a portrait painted."

He had to laugh at that. "I'll do my best to work your name into the conversation without making things too awkward," he promised.

"Fair enough." She nodded briskly. "So, shall we say eight nyang for each pen and ink drawing?"

Yong-ha's face grew solemn at the mention of money. Everything had been settled but the price. Now, the real negotiations began, and it was no laughing matter. "I was thinking more of two nyang apiece," he replied.

Iseul frowned. "A letter written in the marketplace costs that much," she pointed out. "A proper drawing requires more skill than simply writing legibly, I would think. How about six nyang apiece?"

"Four."

"Five," she countered, and had the audacity to remind him, "This is my and my grandmother's future we are talking about, Gu Yong-ha."

"Fine, five," he grumbled, even though he had pegged the price at around that much. "Never let it be said that I would take food out of a helpless old woman's mouth."

"And seven nyang apiece for each colored drawing."

He shot her an incredulous look. "Ya, Kim Iseul...!" How could he ever thought this woman was as dull as dishwater? Beneath her horrible clothes beat a larcenous heart. He would admire her duplicity if he wasn't on the receiving end of things.

"A colored drawing will require more work," she pointed out reasonably, "and paints, especially the best kind, do cost money."

"Why don't I just give you a discount on the clothes that you've ordered from me?"

"I'd rather have the money, if it's all the same to you."

Yong-ha sighed. He would, too, if he were in her position.

"Then...do we have a bargain?" Iseul ventured, fearing that she had annoyed him enough to completely break down their negotiations.

"Fine," he said, much to her relief, and recited the terms of their agreement. "I agree to compensate you for any risks to your marital future by paying you to do artwork for me at five nyang for every pen and ink drawing, and seven nyang for every colored drawing."

"And the cost of painting on clothes can be negotiated as the need arises," she told him magnanimously.

He ignored that. "In return," he continued, "you agree to go along with my plan to pretend that we are betrothed until the scandal dies down. In the meantime, we will think of an excuse that will allow us to part on good terms."

She nodded. "I can't have my new employer losing face now, can I?"

"And," he added, narrowing his eyes at her, "you will order more clothes from me so that you can stop wearing those abysmal rags in public."

Iseul laughed, willing to let him add that provision and have the last word in the process. That was easy enough to do; she had been planning to place a new order anyway. "As my future husband commands," she replied sweetly.