Disclaimer: The SKKS-verse belongs to the creators of Sungkyunkwan Scandal.
Chapter Five
Jae-shin supposed that his idle question had stirred his wife into action, because not long after he asked, Ka-hai implemented a comprehensive set of changes in the household.
She didn't issue a blanket order changing everything all at once, either. Like a general heading into battle, her plan was enacted in phases. "It's confusing if you try to get it all done at the same time," Ka-hai explained to him one night as she drew up a list of tasks that would make up the second phase of her plan. "Besides, some of these changes build on each other. Some have to be in place before the others can follow."
He had raised his eyebrows and said nothing. Apparently, there was more to getting things done differently than just giving orders, and he had to admit that this approach was much more organized than what he had initially imagined.
Certain changes were good, such as the fact that Jae-shin never ran out of shaving soap and he now had a lunchbox to take to work every day. (He didn't shave often and there were times when he had to give the food away rather than eat it himself, but it was nice to have those needs anticipated.) Others, like discovering his name embroidered neatly on all his underclothes, were baffling.
And then there was The Bathing Edict.
"You want me to WHAT?" he demanded one night. He was home in time, for once, to dine with his father and wife, and the meal had gone pleasantly until the lady of the house informed her husband of the things that he could not and was expected to do under her household improvement plan.
"I want you to wash up before going to bed," she repeated serenely.
"I already do that in the morning, before going to work."
"You don't have to do it twice a day," she assured him. "Just at night, after you get home."
"It's my habit to do it in the morning," he told her, just managing to keep from glowering at her. "I don't see the point of changing."
"Cleaning yourself in the evening means that you don't go to bed dirty," Minister Moon pointed out helpfully. "Besides, I find it very relaxing after a hard day's work."
"Abeonim is right, my lord." Ka-hai beamed at her father-in-law before turning back to her husband. She looked like she was enjoying this far too much. "Besides, I think it's only fair to consider the person with whom you are sharing a room. I always wash after working with the horses so that I don't come to bed stinking of the stables. Surely you could do me the courtesy of doing the same after you come home so that you don't smell of the streets?"
"Well, if I offend you so much, why don't you just sleep somewhere else?" Jae-shin blurted out. And why was she complaining about this now, after sleeping next to him for over a month?
"I'd rather not give the servants another room to clean," she told him. "They already have enough to do around the house. However," she added in a conciliatory tone, "I suppose I could consider it, if you feel that strongly about bathing in the evening. After all, I wouldn't want to put you out."
"So will you do it, sa-hyung?" Sun-joon asked.
"Do I have a choice?" Jae-shin growled as he loosed an arrow. It hurtled into the bull's eye as though sent there by the force of his will, not his excellent aim.
He knew that he should be enjoying his day off because he was spending it practicing archery with the Jalgeum Quartet on the Sungkyunkwan campus, which was practically deserted because the students were on break; however, his wife's caprices and his father's blind support of the same had effectively soured his mood.
"Your wife did offer to move out of your room if you really wanted to stick to your old routine," Yong-ha reminded him. Although he was at the archery range with his fancy Chin bow, he was, as usual, not actually shooting any arrows.
Jae-shin grunted. "Of course I'm going to do it," he said. "She did have a point about sparing the servants any extra work, and I can just imagine my father's reaction if she moved."
Although he and Minister Moon had reconciled years before, the peace they had achieved still felt much too fragile when compared to the decade of estrangement preceding it. Jae-shin caused his father enough worry, first from his activities as the Red Messenger and now due to his work as a police officer, and didn't want him to fret about his marriage, too. Of course, Minister Moon had the same chances of getting a grandchild (zero) whether or not husband and wife slept in the same room, but he didn't have to know that.
Yoon-hee nodded approvingly. "It was wise of you to give in, sa-hyung," she said. "It's just a small adjustment that you need to make, nothing to make a big fuss about."
"Actually, it is kind of important," he said. "Washing in the morning means that I do well at inspection at work."
"Well, your commander doesn't have to sleep next to you."
"That's exactly what Ka-hai said." He should have known that women would stick together on this issue.
Sun-joon grinned as he notched an arrow. "On the contrary, I think it's sa-hyung's real commander who sleeps next to him."
"Do you speak from experience, Ga-rang?" Yong-ha teased.
"Of course he does!" his wife answered for him.
Jae-shin shook his head, too annoyed to join in his friends' playful banter, and launched another arrow. Now that he thought about it, this was the second time his wife had turned around and surprised him. "It's the brood mares all over again," he muttered.
"What was that?" Yong-ha asked.
"Nothing."
Ka-hai was glad that her husband had given way on her rule about bathing in the evening. As expected, the new policy kept the bed cleaner and reduced some of the trouble of carrying the heavy wooden bathtub and heating water. Maybe it didn't matter much to him, but she was certain that it did to the servants who had to do the work.
There was, however, one drawback, and she discovered this the hard way one night, when she entered their bedroom to prepare for her bath. She was getting fresh clothes from a chest in the corner when Jae-shin emerged from behind the screen that had been set up in front of the bathtub, wrapping a towel around his waist.
"Omo!" Ka-hai exclaimed, dropping the stack of underclothes she was holding. (Fortunately, the towel stayed put.) Her face grew hot as her eyes skittered frantically over his bare torso. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were back there."
Jae-shin couldn't help smirking as he watched her fall to her knees to gather up the clothes scattered at their feet. It was refreshing to see her unnerved for a change. "You should have," he told her, a trifle smugly. "After all, it was you who required me to bathe at night."
He must have sounded a bit too smug, because at that, his wife's shoulders squared and she sprang to her feet. "My apologies, my lord," she replied. "You're absolutely right. It was wrong of me to think that you were anything other than a kind husband, doing his best to accede to his wife's wishes."
Ka-hai was glad to hear herself speak calmly despite the awkwardness of the situation. This is nothing to get flustered over, she told herself. You've seen males without shirts on before. Of course, they were your brothers, and they had been babies, but that still counts!
"I accept your apologies, my lady," he said easily. Her husband was clearly enjoying her discomfiture because he was grinning, teeth white against the swarthiness of his skin. (Why was the rest of him as tanned as his face? Don't think about that!) "I'm pleased that you recognize my efforts to support you in your running of the household."
She nodded and, despite her best efforts, her eyes drifted downward. Then her jaw dropped. "What happened here?"
Before he knew what she was doing, she was running a finger down the long scar that slashed down his chest. Jae-shin shivered and took a step backwards, hunching his shoulders to avoid her touch. "Nothing," he hiccuped. If he wasn't mistaken, this was the first time she had ever consciously touched him.
"You look like you were in a knife fight... and you lost."
"Obviously, I didn't," he insisted, avoiding her eyes. "Don't worry about it, it's just an old wound."
"Does it still pain you?"
"No, it's fine. Everything's fine." Ka-hai was staring, and though she was more concerned than anything else, it still made him uncomfortable and he groped desperately for a way out. "May I get dressed now? I'll catch a cold standing around like this."
To his relief, that caused her to look away from him again, her cheeks turning pink. "Of course. I'll leave you alone to do that. Would you... would you mind letting me know when you're done so that I might take my turn?"
That, of course, led Jae-shin to picture her at her bath, and him walking in on her, and a number of other things that he wasn't quite ready to think about just yet. "I'll do that," he promised, hiccuping and edging back behind the screen.
"Thank you." She paused awkwardly, as though she had forgotten that she was going to leave, then tossed her clothes onto a low table and quit the room.
Thus they parted, both wondering who between them was more shaken by the encounter.
Ka-hai was still recovering from the embarrassment a day or so later. It wasn't so bad because Jae-shin wasn't gloating about it as much as she thought he would, but at the same time, it was proving very difficult to wipe the sight of him wearing nothing but a towel and a grin from her memory.
Although her upbringing was somewhat less restricted compared to most other girls of her class, her parents still insisted that the rules of modesty be observed; and she and her brothers had been careful to always be decent around each other ever since they were old enough to understand the differences between boys and girls. The incident from the other night should serve as a reminder that such rules didn't always apply between husband and wife, which meant that she had to brace herself for the possibility that it could happen again in the future.
Stop thinking about that! She shook her head in yet another attempt to clear it as she walked to the stables after dinner. The colt. Think of the colt.
Fortunately, the prospect of visiting Chul-moo provided a much-needed distraction, because the chestnut had finally accepted her. Ka-hai wasn't really surprised, because in her family it was she who had a way with horses, but every time it happened was special. It was like making a new friend.
He caught her scent as she approached his stall. "Hello, Chul-moo," she greeted him quietly, smiling as he whickered in reply and stepped closer to have his nose rubbed. "I just came to give you a little evening snack."
She held out the apple that she had managed to wheedle from the kitchen, and he gobbled it down quickly. "Sorry, but that's all you're getting tonight," Ka-hai told Chul-moo when he finished devouring the treat and nuzzled her hand, looking for more.
Undeterred, he tried her other hand.
"No," she said firmly, holding it behind her back. "That's medicine and it's not going to agree with you."
The colt snorted, sounding exasperated.
She laughed indulgently and patted his nose again. "If you're good, I'll give you something else tomorrow. But now, you have to go to sleep."
The medicine was for Sang-hun, who had complained all day of a stomach ache. Based on what he and his mother could tell her, Ka-hai believed it was upset because of something he had eaten, so she was bringing him something that would help settle his stomach while they waited for him to pass the bad food.
After washing her hand in the horse trough, she made her way to the servants' quarters and was just about to knock at Kwan-sook's door when she heard a man's voice coming from within. "You shouldn't stuff yourself when you eat, or else it'll become a habit."
"But I didn't do that, my lord," Sang-hun protested in his piping voice.
Outside, Ka-hai frowned. My lord? She opened the door a crack and peeked inside to see Jae-shin sitting at the boy's bedside. Kwan-sook sat in one corner of the room. "You should still be careful about what you put in your mouth," he was saying. "You might be eating something unhealthy and you just don't know it."
The boy nodded, looking up at him worshipfully. "I'll be more careful next time."
"Good." Her husband smiled and ruffled Sang-hun's hair. "Now, get some rest. I'm sure you'll feel much better tomorrow."
Ka-hai retreated into the shadows as he got up to leave, and she didn't emerge until after he had left Kwan-sook and Sang-hun's quarters and gone back into the main house. "Did I just see my husband come out of here?" she asked as she entered the room.
"Yes, my lady," Sang-hun replied. "The young lord came to see me."
"He said he heard that Sang-hun was sick," Kwan-sook explained earnestly, "and he came by. It's the first time he's been here, my lady, and he only stayed a short while."
"It's all right, Kwan-sook," Ka-hai assured her. She knew her maid better than she did her husband, so she was confident that Kwan-sook would never fool around with Jae-shin. Kwan-sook was too devoted to raising her son and running her mistress' life. Besides, if Yong-ha was correct, Jae-shin was also apparently too dense to be seduced, just like that.
She blushed and, willing herself stop thinking such thoughts, pasted a bright smile on her face. "It was nice of him to come and visit, wasn't it?"
They all agreed that it had indeed been very nice, and Ka-hai couldn't help smiling on the way back to the house. She had known from the very beginning that her husband was a decent man, and seen that he could be reasonable; but now she knew that he could be kind as well.
(And he didn't look too bad without any clothes on, said a little voice in her head.)
She and Kwan-sook spent quite a bit of time getting Sang-hun to take the medicine — which was understandable, because it tasted awful — so Jae-shin was already asleep when she entered their bedroom. Ka-hai couldn't see his face in the dim candlelight, but it was easy enough to recognize him because he slept, as always, with his hair loose, feet bare, and stretched out on top of his blanket.
It was hard to believe that he slept in such an unbridled manner. As she removed her outer garments to prepare for bed, she found herself wondering once again whether the real Moon Jae-shin was the dutiful son and straitlaced police officer, or the man who growled about following rules, whether hers or the rules of etiquette.
After washing her hands and face, Ka-hai blew out the candle and lay down beside her husband. Moments later, he turned in his sleep and draped an arm over her. Ordinarily, she would have stiffened and pushed it away, but tonight she was still thinking about what she had witnessed in the servants' quarters, so she stayed still and tried to accustom herself to being held by a man.
She wondered whether Jae-shin would be as kind to their own children as he had been to Sang-hun. Perhaps she was getting a little ahead of herself, thinking about children when they hadn't even done anything to even have a chance of having any yet, but they were married, weren't they? It was going to have to happen sometime, she thought, blushing.
Then he rolled over again and kicked her. Scowling, Ka-hai kicked him back and turned away from him in a huff. Perhaps it was going to happen sometime, but definitely not tonight.