Chapter 6: The Dates and Chestnuts

They dressed Ja-heon in red and white.

He stood in the Hall of the Crane with a poison needle sewn into his left cuff and promised to love a man in front of six hundred witnesses.

His voice did not shake once.

The hall was strung with paper cranes from the beams to the floor.

The guests of the Assembly filled the benches in their sect colors.

The elders of the Pavilion sat stiff in the front rows with the faces of men at a funeral.

Nam Sun-ok, the steward, stood at the altar in a jade-green sash.

She was the only person in the room who looked glad.

Seon-woo waited at the foot of the dais.

He wore white silk embroidered in silver, and his hair was bound up in the crane pin.

He had never looked more untouchable.

Ja-heon walked up the red cloth with every eye on his back.

When he reached Seon-woo, Seon-woo looked at his face, then at the ring, then at his face again.

"You came," Seon-woo said, very low.

"You gave me a choice."

"I always give you a choice."

"I know," Ja-heon said.

"That's the problem."

Seon-woo's mouth twitched.

Then Sun-ok lifted the lacquer tray, and they knelt side by side on the cushion, and she spoke the old words.

"Two blades in one sheath.

"Two names under one roof.

"Whoever draws against one draws against the other."

Ja-heon repeated them after her.

Seon-woo repeated them steadily and put the little cup of wine in Ja-heon's hand.

They crossed arms and drank from each other's cups.

The wine was sweet and burned all the way down.

A cheer went up from the back of the hall, thin and awkward, because half the guests did not approve.

Then Chief Dam Cheol-ho came to give his blessing.

He walked up the aisle with his hands folded over his round belly and his prayer beads clicking softly, smiling at everyone.

He stopped in front of Ja-heon and laid a warm soft palm on his shoulder.

"Young friend," he said, in a voice meant for Ja-heon alone, "you have done very well.

"Take care of him.

"He is a precious thing to the Alliance."

Ja-heon bowed.

His hands were steady.

The Chief patted his shoulder and moved on.

At the back of the hall Ja-heon saw Hong Gang-mun standing with his arms crossed.

Hong was not looking at the altar.

He was looking at the doors.

When the feast let them go, the bridal chamber had been swept and perfumed, with red cloth on the walls and a bed.

Someone had scattered dates and chestnuts across the quilt, for luck and for sons.

Ja-heon laughed when he saw it.

Seon-woo shut the door and leaned against it with his hand on the bar.

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