Markets of Freedom and the Shock of Numbers
The girls headed out to the markets, flitting between shops like colorful butterflies. They stopped at a confectionery, where Jo Ri seized the chance to feast on the most exquisite sweets she had ever tasted flavors far more vibrant than any royal delicacy in Joseon. Next, they ducked into a clothing boutique and began trying on modern, eccentric outfits. The bold colors and short cuts made Jo Ri recoil in bashfulness, refusing to step out from behind the curtain. Her friends, however, forced her out, snapping photos on their mobile phones while she remained drowned in her beautiful shyness.
In the makeup shop, laughter echoed as they experimented with different shades on their faces, teasing and winking at one another with pure joy. Every store they entered bonded Jo Ri closer to this world; she began to find comfort in the faces around her, realizing deep down that she never wanted to leave this newfound freedom a liberty she had never known.
But all that joy vanished the moment they stepped into the electronics store. When the salesman announced the price of the new phone, Jo Ri felt a sudden wave of dizziness. The amount requested was enough to buy a thoroughbred horse in her world, or perhaps a modest house to shelter an entire family!
Clinging to her "supposedly" old phone, she said in a trembling voice:
- I'll... I'll try to get it fixed first.
Jo Ri placed her device before the man with visible trepidation, her movements carrying a misplaced solemnity. The clerk inspected it with a customary coldness, then muttered indifferently:
"The battery is just dead.
The moment he connected it to the power cable, life suddenly surged into that "black box" adorned with sparkling jewels. Images flickered to life—photos of her and her friends dressed in ridiculous rabbit outfits.
- Turn it on!
Mi Ri shouted excitedly. Jo Ri hesitated, as if afraid of summoning ghosts from an ancient past, but Sul Ma didn't wait. She tapped in the code (1122), and the gates of both hell and beauty swung wide. An image appeared on the screen: Jo Ri with short hair and glasses, her arms wrapped around De Lan. But this wasn't the arrogant De Lan she knew from the palace; this was a young man in spectacles, smiling with a purity that seemed to claim the entire world just by having her at his side. Jo Ri felt a sharp stab in her chest, and she scrambled to hide the image with her trembling hand, whispering:
- Come on... let's get out of here!"
Ignoring the protests of the greedy clerk who had hoped for a lucrative repair deal, her friends dragged her outside, mocking his avarice. Behind them, they left an image that had turned Jo Ri's world upside down, planting an endless turmoil in her heart.
Crossing Toward Freedom and the Ghostly Signals
The girls burst onto the street amidst raucous laughter, while Jo Ri struggled to rein in the overwhelming wonder threatening to consume her. She stole glances at everything; the impeccably paved streets and the pedestrian paths safely tucked away from the trampling hooves of horses or heavy carriages. Her attention was caught by the suspended lights inhabited by ghostly human silhouettes. When the "spirit" glowed green, the crowd surged forward as if the gates of paradise had swung open; when it flared red in anger, they froze in place with a peculiar, sudden solemnity.
- Alright, I'm heading home now!
Li Tana shouted, waving wildly. At that moment, a sharp pang of anxiety bit at Jo Ri's heart; she had absolutely no idea how to find her way back to that strange apartment.
She pivoted with royal cunning, using her "husband" as a convenient shield:
- I... I'm afraid of crossing paths with De Lan on my way. Could one of you walk with me today?
It was a brilliant excuse to hide her utter disorientation.
- I'll go with you!
Sul Ma chirped, wrapping an arm around her friend's shoulder in easy camaraderie.
As they walked together, Sul Ma's endless chatter faded into the background as Jo Ri's face lit up with a smile her mirror had never seen. She felt a unique brand of liberty the freedom to walk the streets without a heavy veil or suffocating guards. Best of all, her father was alive and breathing in this world. And though her mother here was a hurricane of noise and severity, Jo Ri decided she would endure it. This new mother possessed a strength and agency she had never witnessed in the women of Joseon. Anything was bearable, as long as it kept her far from the eternal prison of De Lan's desolate palace.
Behind Closed Doors and the Metal Riddles
Jo Ri reached her building and bid her friend a hasty farewell, her heart racing until she was certain the courtyard was clear of any trace of De Lan. She stole a glance at her mother through the glass of the salon. She realized then that her mother worked as a hair stylist much like the Mashita (royal haircombers) of her old homeland, but surrounded by strange machines and glaring lights. Her mother spotted her, giving a characteristic, stern wave and gesturing for her to go upstairs.
Jo Ri climbed the stairs breathless, cautiously bypassing her aunt's door on the lower floor as if fearing De Lan might emerge to confront her with his betrayal. She stood before her own door, staring at the peculiar iron lock. She possessed no key, nor did she know how to tame this cold metal to yield its secrets. She considered going back down to ask her mother, but her royal pride forbade her from showing such helplessness before the simplest tool of this era.
With a heavy heart, she curled up beside the cold door, burying her head between her knees and closing her eyes to escape the world's clamor. Thoughts slithered into her mind like venomous vipers: What had De Lan done with Mi Fa after she left? Surely he was seizing the chance of a lifetime in this world, there were no constraints to stop them, and no marriage contract bound him to the outcast Jo Ri. A deep, hollow ache swelled within her as she wondered: How did she enter this world? And why did everything in it remain a riddle, even beyond the profound wisdom of the books her father had raised her on?
Ghosts of Lost Identity and the Question of Return
Suddenly, a familiar voice pierced the silence of the hallway, making her limbs tremble:
- You're here?
Jo Ri bolted upright as if struck by lightning, her eyes widening with uncontrollable dread. But De Lan wasn't wearing that sinister smirk she knew from the palace. Instead, he approached with steady steps and an uncharacteristically calm tone:
- Don't be afraid... I just want to ask you something."
Jo Ri glared at him with suspicion, her voice sharp as she tried to reclaim her wounded pride:
- What do you want? Haven't you had enough of chasing your lover yet? Why are you following me like a shadow?
De Lan didn't respond with his usual arrogance. Instead, he dropped a question that shattered all her defenses:
- I want to ask you about this place... how did we end up cast out beyond the palace walls? What is the nature of this mad world? And most importantly... how do we return?
- Return?! Why would we ever return?!
She screamed at him, her voice laced with terror. The mere thought of returning to that golden prison shook her to her core.
De Lan slumped onto the stairs, exhaustion etched into his eyes. He spoke in a low, haunting voice:
- Don't you ever wonder where the original souls of these bodies vanished to? If they return suddenly and tear off our masks, what will happen then? How will we face these parents after we've inhabited their children's bodies and deceived them?
The Bargain for Freedom and Borrowed Faces
His words fell like a heavy stone into a deep well, awakening the echoes of her buried fears. Jo Ri sat by the door, staring at his back, hunched under the weight of contemplation. She whispered to herself, "Yes... would my father hate me if he knew the truth? I never believed I would find him alive and in my reach once more."
De Lan continued in a low, doubt-filled voice,
- Think of those who vanished... even us, our souls have faded away from our families in Joseon. Think of their feelings, their grief.
- But... no one thought of my feelings when I was forced to marry a man who loathed me and despised my very existence!
Jo Ri exploded with a bitterness accumulated.
- Why must I always be the sacrifice who considers everyone else's feelings?
De Lan turned to her, his body stiffening with a shock that shook his very core.
- Were you... were you truly forced into that marriage?
Jo Ri felt the searing heat of tears burning her eyes. To escape his scrutinizing gaze, she pulled out her phone and tossed it toward him, snapping,
- Look... these are the two who vanished. They look exactly like us, as if they are our shadows in this era.
De Lan stared at the screen, his senses paralyzed by awe.
- It's us... but in their world. Where did they go? And who are we now in the eyes of this fate?
A long, haunting silence filled the air a silence that screamed with questions the earth held no answers for. Jo Ri eventually broke the stillness with a hesitant, broken plea:
- If you ever find out how to return... can you wait? At least until the original children return? I want to taste freedom just a little longer... before I'm dragged back to the eternal prison of the palace.
De Lan didn't utter a word, but his vacant stare into the void betrayed that the old "prison" was no longer a tolerable thought for him either, now that he had tasted the unbridled air of the modern world.
If Jo Re were given the choice between staying in 2026 with her father and her freedom, or going back to 1700 to correct the course of her royal life, what should she choose? And why?