He held her tightly, and reassured her, “It’s okay. I won’t let you fall.” He swiftly landed on the ground without any problems. He then asked her, “Are you okay? Was that scary?” She shook her head, “I’m okay.” She felt her heart racing.
The only explanation she could think of for her heart beating quickly could be because she was feeling queasy from the height. Maybe her adrenaline was rushing from the exhilarating feeling of being in the air. That was the only reason she could think of. She couldn’t possibly have feelings for Eunho. She already promised herself that she would never fall in love again. Plus, she only met him a few times. That couldn’t possibly be the reason for her heart racing.
Before Eunho could continue their adventures in the sky, Yuna abruptly said, “I appreciate the help in getting to my courtyard, but I think I want to continue the rest of the way walking.” Eunho gently placed her on her feet.
She felt the tall grass softly graze against her ankle. She didn’t realize it while being in the sky, but she was starting to feel cold. Her jacket (jeogori: upper garment of hanbok) was thin and it hardly blocked out the wind. Eunho noticed her shivering and he placed his jacket (jeogori) over her shoulder.
She rejected him instantly, “It’s okay. I don’t need the jacket (jeogori). Aren’t you cold?” She saw that he only had on his inner shirt, and it was thin. He must be cold. She took off the jacket and tried to get him to wear it, but he refused. They went back and forth trying to hand over the jacket.
No matter how much she tried, it would always end up back on her shoulder. She sighed, “Okay, I’ll wear the jacket. It’s cold out. Thanks.” Eunho smiled, “You can just keep the jacket. I have plenty of them.” She shook her head, “No. I have no reason to keep your jacket. That’d be weird, wouldn’t it? I’ll wash the jacket and bring it back to you. How does that sound?”
Eunho agreed, “You don’t have to rush bringing the jacket back. It’s not like that’s my favorite jacket.” Yuna laughed, “You have a favorite jacket?” Eunho nodded, “It’s not exactly a jacket, but it was the shirt I wore when I first met you.” Yuna remembered the shirt he tore up to wrap up her hand. Was that really his favorite? She suddenly felt bad about it.
He ripped up his favorite shirt just because she was clumsy. She apologized, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize that it was your favorite shirt.” He shook his head, “No, it’s okay. I don’t mind. Just as long as you’re okay. A shirt is nothing compared to you.” Yuna was flattered by his response, but she still couldn’t leave it at that.
Yuna said, “I know you think it’s just a shirt, but I still feel horrible for ruining your favorite shirt. Could I be the one to amend your shirt for you?” He asked, “You know how to sew?” She nodded, “I may not seem like the type, but yes, I can sew.”
Yuna recalled the past of her learning to sew. The main reason why she started sewing was because of Songhwa. (Reminder: Songhwa was the noble lady from chapter 29 that played the gayageum at Princess Ara’s birthday) Songhwa was Yuna’s rival, and they were always competing with each other. Songhwa was spectacular at everything but sewing was the only thing that Yuna was good at in comparison to Songhwa.
Yuna especially focused on sewing to impress Prince Minho. She worked hard for months mastering how to sew a golden dragon on a handkerchief. After pricking herself with the needle a hundred thousand times and ruining hundreds of handkerchiefs made with the best quality silk, she learned to sew like a master. The finished product looked like a handkerchief made from God.
Even though the handkerchief didn’t exist anymore, she still felt proud of herself for creating a masterpiece. If she wasn’t spending her time studying, she hoped to spend some of her time sewing. It wouldn’t be too bad to repay Eunho with a handkerchief or two after amending his shirt. She was thankful of Eunho for his help.
He wasn’t required to protect her, and he didn’t have to become her teacher. He didn’t have to help her, but he chose to do so willingly. She didn’t like owing anyone anything. She didn’t feel comfortable gifting him with money or anything expensive. It didn’t seem like the right gift to give. She decided to go back to her courtyard and sew on her spare time. She knew that she wouldn’t be sleeping anyway if she got back.
Eunho said, “If it’s okay with you. I could leave my shirt with one of your servants.” Yuna frowned, “Didn’t you know? I don’t really like servants attending to me on the daily. I usually do everything on my own. Why would I need servants? Plus, I don’t condone slavery.”
Eunho’s eyebrows scrunched up and his expression turned cold, “Is that what you think? Is that why you ran away from home without a single servant or guard? I want you to understand that slaves are not just slaves. They are also people that have grown alongside your family. They are loyal servants that are willing to help you with anything. Not all slaves are forced into serving their masters. Some willingly follow their master. Your father is one of those people. Many people are willing to serve your father because of his heroic deeds.”
Yuna hadn’t thought about it that way. She always thought that slavery was wrong, and she didn’t want to have them serve under her. She never thought of the servants as employees. She couldn’t help but think that the servants in her household were similar to live-in maids that worked under rich families.
She also thought about the employees in companies that were loyal to their company. Was she wrong about something? She never really thought that servants could be people she could trust. She had a hard time trusting others and it was hard for her to get along with the servants that worked for her family.
The only servant she trusted was Sun and she raised her position to sister. She never regretted that decision, but she wondered if maybe she was limiting herself. She hardly had any allies, and they didn’t necessarily have to be someone important with a high position in politics. Her allies could be anyone that was loyal to her and her family. She felt thankful to Eunho for letting her see a different perspective.
Eunho continued with his thought, “Believe me. I understand what you’re thinking. You’re probably thinking that slavery is inhumane and that it should be abolished. I agree with you. I also think that slavery should be abolished. Although we wish for that, it isn’t possible. Our society has slavery ingrained into its history and people are not willing to accept change. It’s a difficult thing to change especially since the emperor is a strong supporter in slavery.”
Eunho had a point. Guwon society had slavery stemming from the beginning of their history. It would be impossible to change the policies without starting a revolution. People were so used to slavery that they thought it was normal in this world. Slavery was also a problem on earth, and it wasn’t abolished for hundreds of years. People struggled so much to finally get slavery to be abolished.
Yuna felt stumped thinking of a solution to this problem. What could she possibly do to get people to change their ways? How come no one else believed that slavery was wrong? She wanted people to see that slavery was wrong and that people should all be treated equally.
Yuna thought for a bit before she started connecting the dots. If her family started treating their slaves like employees instead of slaves, would that maybe change the minds of other slave owners? She thought of the possibility, but it seemed to be too weak of a solution. Regardless of how her family treated their slaves, some people were bound to continue neglecting their slaves of food and shelter.
Some slaves were treated so horribly that they lived in places that weren’t meant to be livable and food was scarce. She constantly noticed slaves that were treated worse than dogs. Some of these slaves were young and they were malnourished and skinny. She would occasionally give them food and money, but that was only a temporary solution.
After one meal, these people would go back to their daily lives. They would have to fight for their master’s favor to receive food and a livable home. Luckily for the slaves that lived in her family’s home, none of them resorted to starvation and a horrible living environment. Her family was overflowing with money and her father strongly believed that even slaves should be treated well in his household.
As long as he considered them one of his people, he would stand up for every one of them in any given situation. She was proud of her father for being different from the rest of society. She wondered how her father could be similar to people on modern earth. He always seemed to align with her ideals, and it made her wonder if he reincarnated from earth as well.
Although Yuna couldn’t change the ideals of Guwon society easily, she knew that she could start with her family’s slaves. She needed to first change a few things about the way her family treated their slaves. Although the slaves were treated well in her household, they didn’t receive a paycheck and she wanted to treat them more like employees than slaves.
She planned on letting the slaves that no longer wanted to remain slaves their freedom and hire the slaves that wished to remain working under her father. She didn’t have full power over the slaves since her father was the master of the house. She had confidence that she could talk to her father about her ideas and the wish for slavery to abolished. Since slavery was a sensitive topic, she wondered if her talk with her father would be successful.
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