The Handmaiden - Jensoo

Part Three - Chapter 9

"The first month, I ordered a slim herringbone suit." Jennie was only half listening to him as she peered over the centrepiece and looked at the man's plate, seeing that he had barely touched his food. "The next month, I wore it to dine at the Imperial Hotel. Me, a colonial boy working as a tout at a brothel." 

Jennie took a generous sip of her wine as she forced herself to pay attention to the cocky man, who stared intently at her with his dark eyes. "Some Englishmen who frequented the brothel recognised me. I thought they'd call the maitre d'and kick me out, but what do you know?" 

Jennie continued to pretend she was interested, as her thoughts were clearly on other things. "They were amused I'd spend a month's pay on one dignified meal," He laughed under his breath as he reminisced. "They started calling me 'Count'," his eyes wondered to the table of friends across from them, two rich men and women enjoying their daily affluent lifestyle in their expensive suits and dresses, "and taught me manners to go with the name. Frankly, I'm not that interested in money itself. What I desire is, how shall I put it..." He paused and turned his head back to Jennie, "The manner of ordering wine without looking at the price? Something like that."  

As he spoke, a waiter approached their table and refilled his glass, bowing as he left. The Count barely spared a glance at him as he reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved a brown envelope, putting it on the table in front of the heiress. Reaching inside, she pulled out various black and white photographs of a grand house. 

"Fourteen hours by train from Vladivostok is the summer home of a genuine Russian noble family." The Count explained as Jennie flipped through the pictures, "All the furniture is set along with ankle-deep carpets." He took a sip of the wine as he waited for Jennie to finish looking through the photos. "Shall we marry there?"

Meanwhile, back in the madhouse, Jisoo sat alone on a wooden bench in the dining hall, munching on a ball of sticky rice. Her hair was messy and her white gown was wrinkled and dirty. 

The Count spoke, "In a few days I'll hear from the hospital." 

Jisoo looked down at her ball of rice, seeing a roach in the middle of it. 

"That my wife Nakamoto Jennie has died." 

Jennie had just stabbed her fork into her dessert, bringing half a strawberry to her lips and halted before it touched her lips. She sat frozen, realising a flaw in her too-good-to-be-true plan, "Uh... You didn't just ask them to keep her?" She tried to sound casual, when inside she was panicking. The oblivious man didn't seem to notice. 

"I doubt Jisoo would want to live there very long." He looked off to the side.

In the silent dining hall, Jisoo leaned her head back and laughed like a maniac. She drew a long breath, "Fuck!" She sighed as she lifted herself back up. 

"Bastard." Jennie mumbled under her breath.

"I never said I wasn't a bastard." Once again he reached into his jacket, this time bringing out a small book with a green cover; Jennie's new passport. "You'll become a colonial girl named Kim Jisoo. You know I'm an expert at document forgery, right?" Jennie turned each page quickly, before pausing briefly over the identity picture of Jisoo. "I arranged it with a photography studio. From tomorrow, we'll give Jisoo a new life."

"I'm glad." Jennie was not glad. She was very far from glad. She put the passport down on the table with slight aggressiveness.