Kensei Jon's Arc

Chapter 22 of 49

The finished hanbok hung by the window, white silk with gold at the hem. Kensei had watched Jeon-min work it for two weeks. It was the finest thing they had made. The regular client had asked for it, a wealthy woman who ordered often and paid well. Now Kensei stood at her door with the folded bundle in his arms, waiting to be paid. The woman took the hanbok and held it to the light. She turned it once. Then she set it on a bench and shook her head. "The gold sits wrong," she said. "I won't pay for work I can't wear." She closed the door. Kensei walked home with the hanbok and no coin. His hands remembered the weight of the newborn bundle from the midwife. Now they held silk they could not eat. The child needed cloth, a warm blanket, clean water bowls. All of it took coin they did not have. Jeon-min looked up from his sewing. Kensei set the hanbok down. "She refused it. She said the gold sits wrong." Jeon-min stood. He picked up the hanbok and studied the gold border, close, the way he checked every seam. "The gold is straight," he said. "She changed her mind. That is not our fault." He folded the hanbok over his arm. "We won't beg her. We'll sell it to someone who wants it." "Where?" "The market hall. People buy finished pieces there. This one is finer than anything they sell." They walked to the market hall together. It was packed with stalls, beef on hooks, crates of fruit, vendors calling over each other. Jeon-min moved through it without slowing. He stopped at a cloth seller's stand and laid the white hanbok across the counter, gold catching the light. A crowd formed. A merchant in a fine coat reached out and touched the hem. "My daughter marries next month," he said. "She needs something like this." Jeon-min named a price higher than the client had promised. The merchant frowned. Jeon-min pointed to the knot pattern stitched at the collar. "My great-grandmother made that pattern. No one else can sew it. You won't find this anywhere else." The merchant looked at it a long moment. Then he counted out the coins into Kensei's open palm. More coins than the client had ever paid. They walked back through the stalls. Kensei stopped at a vendor selling soft cloth and warm blankets. He bought a blanket, two water bowls, a length of clean cotton for the baby. His hands did not shake as he paid. At home Jeon-min set the blanket in the corner where the child would sleep. "The client is gone," he said. "That's one buyer lost. We had one steady buyer. Now we have none." He looked at the empty corner. "We need to find more, before the baby comes."