So Dam panted and sighed heavily as she ascended the hilly path that led up to the abandoned hunting shed where her mistress Kim Soo Hee, was hiding away.
"She is probably buried in grease and oil now, lost in all her wild collections again. And here I am, once again, to the rescue!" So Dam lamented to herself. Every breath she took was labored and caught in her throat, as she kept climbing up. Every step she took was heavy, and she had sweat allover her body. She tried to wipe the sweat off her face with the back of her hands, and fanned herself with her palms, but it wasn't doing much. Her porcelain white skin was turning pale and paler, and her face and neck were blushed with heat. So Dam feared that at this rate, she would definitely swoon and faint.
"In my next life, I want to return as a flea!" She panted. "A flea with a loud buzz and painful sting! And then I shall find my way to my mistress again. I shall torment her both by day and by night. I will torment her in her sleep, and even in her dreams. And when she slaps me to my death, I will return yet again as an invisible, undying bug!" She swore and heaved a heavy sigh as her breath came short. She paused to catch her breath. "In this life, she was my torment. In the next, I shall be hers!" She stamped out, then she continued on her way, stamping her feet with a vengeance.
So dam had been through this kind of ordeal for her mistress on countless occasions. Every time her mistress went missing, it was always up to her to go fetch the revolting young lady back from wherever she might have disappeared off to.
Sometimes, So Dam was lucky enough to know exactly where to find her mistress. But in other cases, she would have to search through half the capital and every single one of the many secret hideout where her mistress was often holed up into, carrying out her bizarre "experiments", as she called them. Sometimes, So Dam would find her mistress at the deserted hunting shed in the woods, which was often her primary location and served as her main 'workshop'. Sometimes, her mistress would be at the alternate workshop, a small cave at the stream side. This cave served more as a safe house than an active workshop, as this was the location where the young lady hid most of her 'inventions in progress', to keep them safe, just in case her family ever found out about her hideout and tried to get rid of her things.
"So Dam, if the worst ever comes, and you must reveal my hideouts, you can reveal every other location, but you must never reveal the workshop by the stream!" Her mistress had warned her. "That location must remain a secret between you and I. A secret that you must take to your grave. Except in the occasion where peradventure, the heavens will it and my inventions should come to reality in this lifetime. But if not, we must keep it a secret that we take to our graves, so that my work will remain safe and out of sight, until a generation that will appreciate it without minding that a woman created them, comes around. Until then, remain silent about it."
Indeed, So Dam was loyal enough to never reveal her mistress's secret, but in reality, she could never understand why her mistress was making a big deal of something she saw as a pile of junks. In fact, So Dam could not understand anything about her mistress at all. She did not understand why her mistress kept spending precious money on purchasing strange things from the west, which she then went ahead to spend all her time fumbling over. If she wasn't buying foreign junk from the black market merchants, she was picking up old and deserted junks from the blacksmiths and just anywhere else where she could find junk. And that was why her mistress always traveled in disguise, often loaning So Dam's hanbok, while she left So Dam in hers. Whenever the two of them were out together, people would always confuse So Dam as the noble lady, while her mistress was seen as the maidservant, because she would always wear So Dam's clothes.
The young lady would always tell So Dam that she was making inventions that would make life easier in the near future, but in truth, So Dam could never see any sense or use in all of her mistress's little "experiments". So Dam had served under her mistress Kim Soo Hee ever since the family took her in when she was only nine years old, and since that time, she had known her mistress to be as much the dreamer as she still was. And that was all it was. Wild dreams.
Her mistress had been working on these so-called 'inventions' ever since she was a child, and till now, there was still no tangible result for all her work. Yet, the young mistress had somehow managed to remain positive, keep dreaming and working on achieving something that was clearly impossible to achieve. The young lady remained steadfast and focused, which often bothered So Dam. But she could not do much even if she wanted to, so she remained faithful and loyal to her mistress, even though the young lady seemed to be dreaming an impossible dream. So Dam supported her in every way, working as her companion and assistant and cheering her on, even when she did not believe in anything that her mistress was working on.
So Dam just hoped that one day, her mistress would come to her senses and decide to become a proper lady. Maybe when she got married, she would forget all about this wild dream. That is if she ever got married!
Her poor mother was desperately trying to get her married, but the young lady would not listen to her mother. Every time the older lady Kim came any close to convincing an eligible bachelor to consider her daughter Kim Soo Hee as a bride, the young lady always found a way to disrupt everything and bring it all to an early end, even before it could begin. Just like she was doing today. The young lady was frustrating. Her mother. Her father. So Dam. Everyone. The young lady Kim Soo Hee was frustrating them all.
So Dam heaved a heavy sigh of relief when she finally came to the entrance of the abandoned hunting shed. The door of the shed was wide ajar as she approached. So Dam carefully peered in first before she walked into the room. The room was dimly lit, as the only source of light in the room was a small window and the several cracks in the wooden walls. All of her mistress's experiments filled the room, from the surface of the small wooden table in the shed, to every other possible surface available, that could hold something. Everything was in place, but her mistress was nowhere in sight.
So Dam groaned in frustration.
"Where is she?" She cried, and her shoulders slouched in defeat. "She said she was coming here!"
So Dam moved through the room, looking over the piles of junk. She was familiar with all of them, she had worked on most of them with her mistress. All of them unrealistic. There was one that looked like a large jar cut out of metal sheets, and her mistress had said she was going to make it into an equipment for grinding grains. So Dam scoffed as she ran her fingers over it. Of course, it was still just a large jar. A large pipe stood on one end of the shed, leaning against the wall. About that one, her mistress had also said she would make that into a channel that would save the kitchen maids the stress of fanning a stove endlessly when cooking. She had explained to So Dam that she would connect the pipe to the roof and then to a stove in such a way that the strong winds would fan the fire, instead of the maids. Of course, that was still just pipe and no stove.
So Dam kept looking through the collections. For all of them, So Dam remembered vividly how Soo Hee had shared her plans for a new design with her, her eyes had shined with sparks of excitement and dreams. And every time she made some kind of progress, as she judged them, her eyes would light up with a new fire. So Dam sighed heavily as her heart itched with a familiar sadness for her mistress. She sincerely hoped that the young lady would come awake soon, and stop hurting her family, especially her mother.
All of the inventions were intact, So Dam observed. So why was Kim Soo Hee not here? Or, had she gone to the merchants store? But then, the order she had placed couldn't be ready just yet. The ship from Qing would take another few days before it arrived. Or, had it arrived sooner?
So Dam was still contemplating on this when the door of the shed creaked, and she turned around to see Kim Soo Hee burst into the room. She was still wearing the hanbok she had collected from So Dam when she sneaked out of the house in the early hours of the morning. Her hair was a mess and she had grease and oil all over her face and hands. When she saw So Dam, her small round face broke into a big smile.
"Ah! So Dam, you are here!" She cried in excitement as she walked up to So Dam. She wiped her hands against the hanbok, while also quickly dusting the skirt as if she was trying to hide something.
"My lady, where have you been?" So Dam asked "You said you were coming here, but I didn't find you here."
"Well..." Soo Hee grinned nervously, and So Dam immediately knew that she was hiding something. Her mistress only got like this when she had something to hide, and she never hid anything from So Dam, except she had been up to something very reckless.
"My lady, where are you coming from? What have you been up to?" So Dam asked as she began to draw closer to Soo Hee, who in turn backed away.
"Nothing! I came to check on the uhm...on that!" She said, pointing at the large pipe. "The wind was strong this morning, so I decided that it was a good time to try it out. But then, I changed my mind and took a walk instead." Soo Hee rambled on. So Dam did not pay her any attention, but kept walking towards her until she reached her mistress. On a closer look, she realized that her mistress was covered in dirt and soil. She had pieces of grasses in her hair and patches of grass juice on the hanbok.
"My lady! What have you been up to?" So Dam cried in horror as the possibility crossed her mind.
"Nothing! I said nothing! Hey, So Dam, move back! It's an order, from your mistress!" Soo Hee stamped out sternly, her eyes hardening dramatically.
"Ya!" So Dam yelled, startling her mistress out of her act. "Don't even think about using that trick on me to get out of this one this time!" She nagged. "You only want to use your mistress authority when you've done something very bad, so I assume you've done something really unforgivable! Tell me, now!" So Dam demanded.
"Ya, So Dam. Stop yelling at me, I am not just your mistress, I am also older than you. Show some respect!" Soo Hee cried.
"Stop stalling, just confess!" So Dam growled.
"Ya! Ya!! Ya!!! Stop screaming, you are making my ears hurt!" Soo Hee cried, putting her hands over her ears.
"Oh my!" So Dam gasped and put her hands over her mouth, then she hurried to her mistress's side. "My lady, what have you done?" She cried, fumbling with Soo Hee's arms.
"What? What? What is it?" Soo Hee asked, trying to wrestle her arms free from So Dam's hold.
"Look!" So Dam cried, pointing to her elbow. So Hee looked down to find the sleeves of her jacket torn at the elbow, and through it, she could see that her skin was bruised and bleeding. She pulled it away from So Dam but the later snatched it back. "Look! You got your arm bruised! It's bleeding! Let me see your palms!" She said, turning Soo Hee's palms over, despite the young lady's protest. "They're bruised too!" So Dam bent down and lifted the skirts of Soo Hee's hanbok. "Your knees too!" She cried in horror.
Soo Hee quickly pushed down her skirt and stepped away from So Dam.
"Ya! Stop nagging. You sound just like my mum right now, and you are not even an old lady yet!" She grumbled.
"My lady, what was it this time! What have you done?" So Dam cried with sincere concern. Then she gasped again and slapped her hands over her mouth. "Wait!...don't tell me....!" She screeched. "Was it the human kite? Have you been out messing with the human kite again? All alone?" So Dam asked. Soo Hee did not reply, but the guilt in her eyes told So Dam everything she needed to know. "Ya! My lady! Are you out of your mind? Do you want to get killed?"
"I said stop screaming, it's making my ears hurt. I did not die. You can see, I'm alive. But I might go deaf if you keep yelling like this. You are more dangerous than the fall."
"My lady, you promised me that you would never try the human kite on your own. You said we will always do that together! The last time we tried it, you dislocated an arm. If I hadn't been there, you would have broken your neck too. You promised that you would never do it alone, yet you went off on your own to jump off a cliff with no one near! Did you have a death wish?" So Dam cried.
"Well, last night, an idea came to my mind, and then this morning, the wind was strong, so I thought it would be perfect to try the idea today. The..." Soo Hee began to say, but So Dam interrupted her.
"Are you even listening to yourself my lady? A strong wind, on a summer day?" She asked.
"Yes. The wind was just fine! And you see, it did work! I stayed in the air for a few seconds before I came tumbling down. It was a huge progress from the last time, you see? If I keep working on it like this, I can breakthrough!" Soo Hee began to share her thoughts, with wild excitement lighting up her eyes. So Dam watched her in disbelief as she rambled on. "You see, I think my mistake was leaving it all up to the wind force! I think there is supposed to be something else that will propel it and keep it in the sky while the wind directs it. You see, this book I was reading last night, the one I got from the merchants, it says..."
"Ya, Soo Hee." So Dam called gently. Her voice was calm but filled with an annoyance that Soo Hee immediately recognized. "My lady, you really want to talk about the new adjustment you wish to make on that kite right now? Is that all you can think about right now?" So Dam asked. "You really don't care that you left home without telling anyone but me, and if something bad had happened to you, I would have been the one to blame. And then, infact, you went off to put yourself in real danger! Do you really not care about anything else right now? Do you not think about anyone else? If you don't care about me, at least think about yourself! How can you always put yourself in harm's way like this? Or do you not care about your poor mother? She is at home now, waiting for you! She has been working her head off trying to find you a fine groom, but you keep frustrating her effort!"
"I have never told her that I need a groom!" Soo Hee interjected.
"Your mother will never understand that, and can you blame her? She has watched the daughters of half her age grades getting married, but yours is no time soon. And you are her only child." So Dam said.
"Well, if they are so disappointed in me, they should ship me off to Qing and be in peace." Soo Hee grumbled.
"You know that will never happen. They would not even dream of marrying you off to the emperor if it means you would be going as faraway as Qing. Your parents love you too much!" So Dam said passionately. Then she moved over to Soo Hee's side and put an arm on her shoulder. "My lady, why don't you just come back home and get married?" She pleaded.
"So Dam, nobody would want to marry me like this." Soo Hee said, turning around to face So Dam fully, while showing her bruised arms and palms.
"My lady, you are perfect. We'll just get you cleaned up and..."
"See? That's the problem." So Hee interjected. "I don't want to get cleaned up. I just want to be like this, So Dam, forever. I want to get my arms bruised, get grease on my face and oil on my hanbok. I want to jump off a tall cliff and get grass in my hair. And I want to remain like this, but no man would want to marry me like this. Don't you see it So Dam? If I get married, I will seize to exist. This is me, and no man from a respectable home would let me be like this. I will wither! I will be lost. Don't you know this So Dam?" Soo Hee moaned. Clouds of tears formed in her eyes and began to run down her face. So Dam was moved, so that she wiped the tears from her face and consoled her with a hug. "Don't tell me to get married again, please So Dam?" Soo Hee sobbed.
"Don't worry my lady. Take your time. You are still very young and beautiful! Whenever you are ready, you will find the perfect groom. I will not bother you about this anymore." So Dam said.
"Promise you will not nag at me anymore." Soo Hee urged.
"I promise." So Dam said, patting the young lady's back.
Soo Hee stopped sobbing and slowly pulled away from So Dam, sniffing and wiping her face with the back of her palms.
"Thank you." She smiled, then her eyes lit up wickedly. "Now that you won't nag me anymore, I need your help. Come with me, you will help me lift the kite on one side while I try to fix the..."
"Ya! My lady!" So Dam cried.
"Ya! You promised not to nag at me!" Soo Hee reminded her, pointing at her accusingly.
"That is not what..." So Dam stuttered.
"Fine! If you won't come with me, I will go alone. Don't say I didn't tell you!" Soo Hee threatened as she walked away from So Dam to fetch an implement from the wooden table. "I only came back here for this. I'll go on then and try the kite again, by myself. All alone! Bye!" She said and walked away, ignoring So Dam's protest.
"Ya! Ya!! My lady! Soo Hee!" So Dam called frantically after her mistress. She swore under her breath and quickly followed after her.