Do-Yun saw the woman shaken. He patted her shoulder and softened his tone. "Soo-Ah… Sacrifices are always required on the war front, you know that. Those people we lost became martyrs for our land. Their sacrifice..." and he struggled to utter the words, "...was not in vain."
It was not easy talking about martyrs when thinking about his father and sister being burned alive only to be called martyrs afterwards. He took a couple of moments to recollect himself and bowed his head as if he was waiting for forgiveness. There was no one who could offer him that, so he changed the subject. "Anyhow, how are you doing? What are you doing to be more exact?" he asked again, his steely smile slowly turning.
Soo-Ah, slowly recovering from the speck of what she had heard, offered him a sad look, "I am good. I try to make a living."
"By being a gisaeng? Is this what you are now?" he asked gently, lightly raising his messy eyebrows.
