ᴀʙᴅɪᴛᴏʀʏ || baek kyung

ᴇxᴛʀᴀ ɪɪɪ: Jia in Trumpet Creeper-Land

ᴇxᴛʀᴀ ɪɪɪ: Jia in Trumpet Creeper-Land

Nam Jaehyun still had that dazzling smile that used to make Jia's heart flutter long ago.

Or she was made to feel that way. It was confusing. If things got bad, Jia blamed the Writer for faking her memories. But if things were good, Jia accepted her memories as her past. She had never been able to tell if Jaehyun was the good part of her life or the bad.

He was still disgustingly pretty though.

Jia had noticed him eyeing her as she played the zither during the coronation feast. It was a Stage so she hadn't worried about playing the wrong note. The Scene focused on the way Kyung and Jinmichae glared at each other anyway. Kyung had glanced at the Queen who had put in every effort to not hop and skip and celebrate the way her son had one-upped the family disgrace. Jia could see the plan rapidly forming in his mind.

But she forced herself to not care. She had a plan of her own and she had found the perfect target.

The celebration had lasted the whole day and Jia had quite expertly maintained Jaehyun's attention on her. (She may have flashed him her ankles and her collarbones). It was a pleasant surprise that he hadn't forgotten her. It made her doubt whether he was part of her story, if she had one. But then again, the Writer had ignored her for far too long to include her now.

At the beginning of the night, before the girls entered the palace hall, their madam gave them the usual speech. "Watch your behaviour and your life may take a complete turn after tonight. Even the way you sit or blink or flick your wrist matters. You are not, however, to lift your skirts up and lure a man into your bed, understand? Make them yearn for it until they ache and pay for you. You rank the highest out of all the gisaengs in the country. Do not disappoint us."

Yay, pep talk, Jia fought the urge to slouch but remembered the way the madam had pinched her a couple of hundred times.

After they had entered, performed, and greeted the gathering, instead of mingling, Jia chose to observe from the background. It was an old habit of hers to sharpen her ears and catch any bits of information floating in the air.

Jinmichae sat at the head of the table, where the late King had sat just over a month ago. He looked extremely uncomfortable at the attention he was getting. Kyung, however, had been relocated to sit beside him, though even he looked mildly put off by having kiss-ass ministers falling all over him and the new King.

Haru was nowhere in sight.

Few minutes in, Jia spotted Aeil sneaking away with Hoon and sent her a knowing smile. Aesam had made a few nobles snort rice wine out of their noses from laughing at her jokes. Aeri had run her fingers down the arm of a good-looking noble, though Jia distastefully noted that the man could have been no less than thirty.

A loud roar of laughter startled the living daylights out of Jia. She jumped, nearly breaking the bottle of wine she was holding, and looked up to find the ministers and court officials surrounding Kyung and Jinmichae guffawing. "What," Jia gasped to herself, "What's Joonhyun doing there—unbelievable! He's a kid!" Baek Joonhyun looked visibly panicked and uncomfortable when his father's acquaintance shoved a glass in his hands and gestured at a nameless gisaeng. At the suggestive comments, the boy downed his drink in one go and excused himself.

"Pardon me..."

"What?" Jia snapped and whirled around, annoyed that someone had interrupted her spying session. She faltered when she found herself face to face with Jaehyun—long hair tied in a knot, expensive robes, and drowning in nervousness. Jia bowed immediately, "My apologies. I assumed you to be someone else."