Takes place in 1885
"How can I go on a date with such a horrible person's son?" Mi Joo whined as she lay on her bed.
"Just go on a date this one time and tell your dad that you don't feel any connection with him." Mi Young tells her.
"You don't get it. He's the son of Lee Jung Nam, of all people! He literally killed so many innocent people and tortured them every day." Mi Joo tells us.
"So what?" Hye Sun says. "Like Mi Young says. All you have to do is sit with him at a restaurant for a while and turn him down."
"Imagine the whole country sees me with his son. My reputation will be ruined and everyone will think that I am as cruel as them." She complains.
"What can you do? You have already run out of excuses to come up with." Mi Young tells her.
"Hmm...I know, how about you ask someone to take your place instead." Hye Sun suggests. Soon after hearing Hye Sun's idea, she started begging the two of us to go on a date with him. Hye Sun says that she's dating the general's son and if everyone knows about it so she can't bare to face anybody.
"Please unnie. I beg you, help me out this once." Mi Joo begs Mi Young.
"No, no, no way." Mi Young tells her as she knows that if she goes on this date, something horrible might happen.
"Please, unnie just help me out this one time." Mi Joo begs her.
"Ugh, fine." Mi Young tells her and Mi Joo jumped out of her bed and thanked her.
Both Hye Sun and Mi Young weren't poor to say, nor were they very rich. They lived a comfortable life as the guys that they mostly dated were rich men who just needed some company. Hye Sun would work at a jewelry shop, but during the night, she'll find her prey at the nightclub where Mi Young worked. Mi Young works at a 'nightclub' and she would sing for high-class customers to earn enough money to support both of them.
✺ 𓈒 𓆇 ˚🧚🏻♂️ ˳ ❊ ༚.
Seon Woo nervously adjusted his collar as he stood outside the bustling café, waiting for his blind date to arrive. Even though he didn't want to go on the blind date, he knew that he had no choice but to go as his Dad will kill him if he chose to not go again.
Lost in his thoughts, Seon Woo absentmindedly gazed at the street, when suddenly, his attention was captivated by a heartwarming scene unfolding across the road. Mi Young, the girl he was about to meet, was helping a group of children who seemed to be in need. She handed them some money, and her face lit up with a gentle smile. Enchanted by her kind and selfless act, Seon Woo's anxiety was replaced by a deep admiration for Mi Young. He marveled at her compassion and genuine care for others, which he found both endearing and captivating. He couldn't help but feel a connection to her even before they had officially met. At that moment, Seon Woo's heart skipped a beat, but he quickly snapped out of his thoughts and headed into the restaurant to wait for his blind date. He knew that the girl whom he was going to meet was probably a rich and snobby girl who is very rude to other people.
✺ 𓈒 𓆇 ˚🧚🏻♂️ ˳ ❊ ༚.
"I'm sorry that I'm late." I apologize to him and quickly took a seat in front of him. "My name is Hwang Mi Joo."
"Wahh, I can't believe she's the girl from just now." Seon Woo thought to himself as he started laughing a little and this made Mi Young really confused at what he was laughing at. "Sorry, should we start looking at the menu?"
"Sure," I tell him as the both of us looked at the menu to see what we want to order.
"I'll have ginseng tea and Japchae." Seon Woo tells the waiter.
"I'll have Makgeolli and Jjajangmyeon," I tell the waiter and passed her back the menu.
"Okay, I'll be right back with your food and drinks." The waiter says before he left. Seon Woo was shocked to see her being so bold and drinking rice wine this early in the day, especially in the early afternoon.
"I guess you like to drink." He spoke.
"Yes, I can't live without it," I tell him. "Whenever I feel sober, my hands tremble like crazy."
"I see." He says a bit uncomfortably. Soon our drinks came and I drank 4 cups of rice wine already.
"May I have a sip?" Seon Woo asks Mi Young who looks at him in disbelief.
"What?" I ask him.
"You make it look so delicious." He tells her. He then took the bottle off the table and drank it. "Now, this is some nice makgeolli."
"Did you come here to find your future wife?" I ask him.
"That's usually the case when it comes to blind dates." He responds. "Did you have something else in mind?"
"No, I came to find my husband, too," I tell him. "But, I'm quite a picky woman. First of all, I've never done any work at home. I'm not the type that stays home to support my husband. My career is more important."
"I like that." He tells her. "My ideal type is an ambitious woman."
I knew then I had to step up my game if I wanted him to back off from this marriage with Mi Joo. "I'll never have a baby either," I tell him.
"That's up to the woman, of course. I won't force you to do anything." He says.
"I won't look after my in-laws either," I tell him.
"No need to worry about that. My siblings are already taking care of them." He says. "You're not as picky as I thought. I guess we're pretty compatible."
"I will not admit defeat yet. He thinks he's such a smooth talker, I'll show him what's up my sleeves. I'm not done just yet." I thought to myself. I gave him a hazy look and started sighing. "What do you think marriage is," I ask him as I rested my chin on my hand and started zoning out.
He also started sighing and rested his hand on his chin and say, "I'm not sure. What a profound question." He says and I nodded my head. "But, do you know you didn't even ask my name yet?" He tells me.
"And what's your name?" I ask him.
"It's Gye Seon Woo." He tells me.
"Oh, nice name," I tell him. "Geez what was his parent thinking when they choose his name." I thought to myself. "Wait, it's your father's surname Lee?"
"Yea, it is. He's my stepdad. You see, my real dad passed away when I was just born. My mum got married soon afterward." He explains to me and I just nodded. Luckily our food had arrived, and this was when Mi Young knew that this was her time to chase him off with her horrible table manners.
Mi Young started to dig into her meal. Firstly, she started off my chewing with her mouth open and took a big mouthful of her noodle. As she was eating, she was cut off guard by what Seon Woo was going to say next.
"Do you actually think that by eating with no table manners, I'd be repulsed?" He asks Mi Young and this caused her to nearly choked on her food.
"What?" I ask him.
"Is this the best you can do? I'm not turned off by a girl by the way they eat and I know you actually don't eat this way, so please just enjoy your meal and not force yourself." He says before taking a bite of his food. "Look to make things clear, I'm not the neat, spoiled son you have in mind. I'm someone who grew up eating others' leftovers."
After lunch, both Seon Woo and Mi Young were walking along the streets. Suddenly, Mi Young turned around and face him.
"Let's go shopping," I tell him.
"Shopping? Now?" He asks me in shock.
"It's my rule to go shopping...at least once a day," I say.
"Sure. Where do you want to go?" He asks.
"There's a shop I frequently go to. Follow me." I tell him and brought him to the most expensive shop in the area.
✺ 𓈒 𓆇 ˚🧚🏻♂️ ˳ ❊ ༚.
They were currently at the most expensive shop in Korea. Mi Young walked around the store looking at all the expensive stuff inside the shop.
"Oh, dear. What do I do?" I tell him. "I left my wallet at home. How about you buy me something as a gift? To celebrate our first date."
"Sure. Look around freely." He says.
"Show me your most expensive items," I tell the staff.
"Please come this way." The staff tells me and leads me to where all the expensive hanbok is being at.
"Gosh, these are very beautiful. I don't know if it's because of the price tag. I really love all of them." I say loudly so that Seon Woo could hear me.
"Excuse me, Mi Joo?" He says.
"Yes," I tell him as I turned around.
"Choose anything you want. Don't worry about the money." He tells me and I decided to choose the hanbok that I had been eyeing on.
After shopping for many clothes and other expensive items, Mi Young had to give up as no matter what she does, he doesn't seem to care and is still very much interested in her. She had to go back to Mi Joo's house in defeat.
✺ 𓈒 𓆇 ˚🧚🏻♂️ ˳ ❊ ༚.
As I entered Mi Joo's house, I greeted her servant before going upstairs to Mi Joo's room. As I knocked on her door, she suddenly dragged me into her room and quickly rushed me inside.
"How did it go?" She asks me and I shook my head.
"He's no ordinary guy, I tell you. No matter what I did, he does something worse." I tell her.
"What a weirdo." She says and saw the expensive packages I brought to her house. "What's all this booty that you brought back? Don't tell me you even got to the boutique phase."
"I'm not shameless. I ended up picking the cheapest hanbok they have." I tell her. "He even gave me this other small package which I have no idea what's inside it as he just gave it to me out of nowhere.
"Well, let's open it." Mi Joo says and she opens the package. When she opened the package, there was an expensive hairpin.
"Woah, it's really pretty," I say.
"Are you being serious? this hairpin cost almost 1 million yangs." She tells me.
"Oh, okay so?" I ask her.
"This means that he really likes you." She explains to me. "Fret not, we shall work out another plan."
"Forget it. It's not going to work anyway." I tell her, but she manages to beg me to help her out for a while more until she figures everything out on her own.
✺ 𓈒 𓆇 ˚🧚🏻♂️ ˳ ❊ ༚.
A few days later, Mi Joo told Mi Young that Seon Woo and her would have another date again this coming Friday, and boy was she not ready for another date with him.
The two of them were currently in a restaurant waiting for their food to arrive and they sat there in silence as none of them didn't know what to talk about. Luckily, they didn't have to wait for a long time for their food to arrive.
"What are we doing here?" I ask him as this place looked hella fancy.
"I heard that this place is expensive and famous. I just wanted to impress you." He tells me while I just scoffed and we both started eating our food.
"You look very pretty today." He says out of nowhere.
"You say that to every girl you meet, don't you?" I ask him.
"No. You're the first." He tells her truthfully. "After struggling with my life all day long, I feel free whenever I meet you. You're really special. I mean it." Soon Mi Young's face started turning red and she quickly looked away from him.
"Thanks, I guess," I tell him awkwardly as no one has ever said that to me before.
"Do you like the hairpin I got for you?" He asks me.
"Yes, it's very pretty," I tell him.
"It took me a month to get a reservation at this place." A guy says loudly and this causes Mi Young to up to see who it was. But when she looked up, she realized that one of the guys was her co-worker from the nightclub she worked at. She quickly lowers her face in order for her co-worker to not recognize her.
"I never expected you to bring me here." Her co-worker, Seojun says. Mi Young then started acting a bit weird as she kept on putting her left hand on her face and started looking at her right.
Seon Woo notices it and asked if she was okay, "Are you okay? Shall I order something else?" He asks.
"I suddenly have a headache," I tell him.
"Your hand trembling! Shall I order some alcohol?" He asks her and she shakes her head no.
"It's okay, let's just continue on eating our food," I tell him.
"You can bring her here next time." Seojun's friend says.
"Her? Who?" Seojun asks his friend.
"You know, that singer in the nightclub that you worked with. The one you're hitting on." His friend tells him.
"Oh, her?" He says. "Cold-hearted, my foot. It turns out she's a total vixen. She's just wagging her tail to marry into a rich family." Mi Young then started eating her meal very fast as she was trying to distract herself.
"Don't force yourself to eat. You'll get sick." Seon Woo tells her as he could see that she was very uncomfortable.
"I'm not feeling well. Can we..." I say.
"But you know, no matter how much she tries, no rich man will want her. She should know her place." Seojun continues on. "You know what I mean, right?"
"Mi Joo, I'll go get some water." Seon Woo tells her and he grabs the teapot with him as he got out of his seat and walked towards another table who was bad-mouthing about Mi Young.
"What the..." Seojun shouts as warm tea was poured on him. "Are you crazy?"
"My goodness. I'm sorry. My hand must've slipped." Seon Woo apologizes sarcastically.
"How could your hand slip on my head?" Seojun shouts at Seon Woo and this causes Mi Young to see what was the commotion about. "Darn, it."
"I'm so sorry." Seon Woo tells him.
"Gosh," Seonjun says as he tries to dry himself, but he suddenly made eye contact with Mi Young who was watching everything from her table. He then tried to explain to her, but Mi Young just stormed out of the restaurant.
Mi Young hurriedly left the restaurant, but as she was walking down the stairs, she accidentally missed a step and she twisted her ankle.
"Mi Joo!" Seon Woo shouted. "Are you okay? Can you get up?" He asks her.
"It's fine. I can walk." I tell him as my leg has already healed due to the fact that I am a gumiho.
"Let me carry you." He tells me.
"I said it's okay. I can walk." I tell him.
"How can you still walk after that..." He shouts at me and suddenly carries me out of nowhere.
"What are you doing?" I ask him in shock.
"You need treatment. Let's go to the hospital." He tells me.
"No, not the hospital," I tell him. We both managed to compromise with each other and he carried me to the nearest lake where there were seats.
Once we reached the lake. He went to check on my right foot to see if I was lying and to his surprise, my leg was okay.
"Woah, look at those flower petals." He says and we both started admiring the beautiful trees that were in full bloom.
"Does your father keep forcing you to meet me?" I asked him.
"To be honest, it wasn't my first time seeing you at the restaurant when we first met. I saw you giving money to the poor kids that were on the streets as I was walking to the restaurant. The whole time when I was waiting, for Ms Hwang Mi Joo in the coffee shop, I was thinking, 'Gosh. Who cares about this date? I should've talked to that girl earlier.' But then, you walked in...as my date. No matter where you came from or what you are, it would've made no difference to me." He tells her and soon after that, Mi Young felt bad for lying to him.
"You are quite strong." Mi Young tells him. "Why didn't you join the army like your father? Did you fail a test or something that made you not cut out for the army?"
"It's not anything like that. I just chose not to join the army." He explains to her.
"Why?" She asks curiously.
"But if I tell you, this means that we're close." He tells her and she nods. "I'm thinking of leaving Korea on a boat. I want to travel the world."
"What?" I say.
"I can't escape the military if I join them." He says and she started laughing a little. "I can show you the ocean if you want. Can we meet again before the flowers wither?" He asks me.
"I'd love to travel with you someday." Mi Young tells him sweetly.
A/N: Y'all ngl I spent a good 3-4 months writing this chapter and I changed the story plot super last minute lmao. If you find the storyline similar that's because I took the inspiration from the drama Youth of May. Yea so instead of an arrow being shot, I changed it to him getting shot in the heart by a bullet. Also, I have no idea what happens during Korean history so please don't cancel me thanks.