CEBF AU Extra Ch 1

Summertime. The deep green leaves rustled in the wind. A maiden proudly opened the tall doors of the Yu residence gates. Her lips were stretched into a bright smile.

Even if a flower petal had fallen onto her round forehead, it would not have been able to detract from the beauty of her facial features.

Her parents gave her the name ‘Daon’ because they wanted her to become a compassionate person. Unfortunately, the maiden was not very compassionate when it came to one thing.

It was the male figure. She had been devouring romance novels for a long time, and this was probably why she developed a hobby of collecting spring paintings¹.

“ChoonShim, guess what I bought from the marketplace?”

“I’m sure it’s either a spring painting or a romance novel, my lady.”

Daon furtively lowered her arm and showed ChoonShim the book that was tightly within her grasp. She nodded with excitement.

“Don’t you want to see, too?”

“As a woman who has a husband and a child, why would I be curious about something like that?”

“I was excited to let you be the first person I showed this to, but your reaction is bringing me down.”

Daon clicked her tongue and hid the book back inside her arms.

She pouted and looked so downcast. When ChoonShim saw this, she began to giggle at how adorable Daon looked.

“Anyways, ChoonShim. While I was out at the marketplace, I heard something odd…”

Daon stuck close to ChoonShim, who had been cleaning the peppers, and whispered.

“What is it, my lady?”

“Well, I heard that men’s things are about this big.”

Daon pulled out her thumb and gave ChoonShim a strange look as she spoke. ChoonShim clapped and burst into laughter.

“Aigoo, my little lady. Who said something like that?”

“I went to the bookstore. There was a group of ladies who had come to look for some spring paintings, and they were whispering these things. It’s not… true, right?”

ChoonShim grabbed her waist and guffawed, which caused her to roll off the wide boulder she had been sitting on.

“ChoonShim, why are you laughing? It’s not true, right? Right? Tell me it’s not true. Hurry.”

“How can my little lady be so innocent?!”

Daon chewed on her lips and could not hide her anxious heart. She helped ChoonShim back to her seat and asked her to answer the question.

“My lady, do you know why they call the men’s thingy a pepper?”

“That’s… because the shape is similar?”

ChoonShim calmed down and picked up one of the bright red peppers and held it up to Daon’s face.

“You aren’t wrong. The shape is similar and so is the size.”

“What? There’s no way. From the spring portraits I’ve seen, their things are so big that they often wonder how it will enter the women’s bodies.”

“Do you know how the adage ‘Small peppers are the spiciest’ came to be?”

“I-I don’t…”

Daon tilted her head. ChoonShim cleared her throat and suppressed the laugh that threatened to spill out.

“The guys with small peppers can’t win when it comes to size, so they call themselves spicy to console themselves.”

Daon’s mouth opened in shock. My goodness. This secret had been kept from her all this time?!

Daon sat next to ChoonShim and was lost in thought for a long time. Suddenly, as if she’d finally made up her mind, Daon finally opened her mouth.

“ChoonShim, listen.”

“Yes, yes, please tell me what it is you want to say.”

“If all men have things that are the size of peppers, I don’t plan on getting married.”

“Whaaat?”

Because she was making the side dishes for dinner and answering Daon’s questions, ChoonShim had been busy out of her mind. But when she heard Daon’s remark, her eyes widened.

She turned her head and looked at Daon. Daon’s mouth was clenched shut, and her nostrils flared as she huffed.

“My lady! The master and the mistress are already worried sick about finding you a marriage match, so how can you say something like that?!”

“You know how much I’ve dreamed about my husband and my wedding night. But what? A pep…per? No, this isn’t right.”

“Everyone lives like that. It’s because you’ve been reading all those naughty books.”

“Then it’s my fault?”

“No, it’s… I’m not saying it’s entirely your fault, but…!”

Suddenly, they heard a baby’s cry coming from the servants’ quarters.

“It seems that SoonDong has woken up. Hurry up and tend to him. I’ll take care of the rest of this. Me, the one who has been reading too many naughty books.”

“Don’t dirty your precious hands with this dirty water, my lady. I’ll just put SoonDong on my back and come back out.”

Daon watched as ChoonShim hurriedly ran to her room. She grew lost in thought once again.

Was everything ChoonShim said true? If all men had a pepper dangling between their legs, did women just deal with it and live on, popping out children here and there? Is everything I believed in a mere fantasy? Just like ChoonShim said, was this all because of the naughty books I’ve been reading?

The gloomy feeling that had suddenly settled in her heart would not go away.

* * *

Sleep evaded her tonight. Using the dim moonlight as her lamp, Daon slowly walked through the garden.

She enjoyed the quiet night breeze and drank in the silence. She heard the sound of faint murmurs. As if drawn to its source, Daon’s feet slowly took her there.

At the top floor of the men’s quarters of the residence, Daon’s only older brother, JaeOn, was clinking liquor cups with his longtime friend, Na WooHyun.

Are they playing without me again?

They continued to share a mouthwatering table full of delicious snacks as they drank liquor. Even though propriety dictated that men and women were to be kept apart, they had never once asked, ‘Do you want to join us?’. This was an abomination.

WooHyun had not yet discovered Daon’s presence and lightly pursed his lips around a long pipe. White smoke puffed out of his mouth and dissolved into the darkness.

His facial features were elegant, and he was a head taller than most. He also had a friendly temperament. Because he was not yet married, he stole the hearts of maidens everywhere.

Oddly enough, he always seemed to emit a good fragrance. It was like an elixir that caught the eyes of every woman who saw him.

But to Daon, he was no different from her older brother.

They would fret if they couldn’t tease her at least once a day. They’d always exclude her and go out to eat delicious food or share some snacks like they were doing tonight.

“Ahem.”

Daon covered her mouth with her fist and hinted at her displeasure as she revealed her presence.

JaeOn’s brows immediately furrowed.

“That nose isn’t a normal nose. She probably smelled the snacks and ran over here.”

“How can I sleep when it’s this loud? Jeez. It wasn’t the smell of the food. It was the sound of all the talking you two were doing.”

“You’re getting better at lying, aren’t you?”

Sitting across from JaeOn, WooHyun puffed out the smoke from his pipe, and a corner of his lips went up in a crooked smile.

“It seems that she was having trouble sleeping because of us. I apologize. What can we do to make it up to you?”

“You know what to do. Just let me join you guys.”

Daon giggled as she wedged herself in between them.

“Can’t you give me a cup as well?”

JaeOn snatched the bottle of liquor out of her hands and brought it closer to his chest. 

“Nuh-uh!”

While one desperately tried to keep the bottle away, the other tried to do whatever she could to have some. Their eyes fought a bloody battle as they glared at each other. Meanwhile, WooHyun quietly called for ChoonShim and ordered her to bring another cup and another pair of chopsticks. 

“Orabeoni said I could. Why are you making such a big deal about it?”

“What ‘Orabeoni’? Your only orabeoni is me, and when did I ever say you could?”

“WooHyun-orabeoni is also my orabeoni.”

“Don’t be funny. That guy is my best friend, not your orabeoni.”

The bickering continued on for a while. WooHyun stared at them in disbelief and laughed. 

“I also had a very upsetting thing happen today.”

WooHyun took the new cup that ChoonShim brought and placed it in front of Daon. He poured it half-full with liquor.

“What upsetting thing?”

JaeOn ignored it as he fiercely defended the pan-fried battered beef. The one who asked in his soft, gentle voice was WooHyun.

Daon sighed with a grave look on her face. She took the cup that WooHyun had just filled and threw it down her throat.

“Even if I told you, you orabeoni’s won’t get it.”

“But this orabeoni knows everything.”

“Still, you won’t understand. You’ll probably end up seeing me as some strange maiden.”

“I already see you like that. But you’re saying it’ll be even worse?”

As WooHyun gradually began to tease Daon, she threw him a menacing glare. However, JaeOn cackled as he enthusiastically agreed.

“That’s right, that’s right. You can’t possibly get any stranger than you are now.”

How can these two grown men make fun of their younger sister like this?

Feeling hurt, Daon placed the last pan-fried battered beef into her mouth. This was the best she could do to defend herself in this situation.

“JaeOn, don’t say that. There must be something that may cause her to seem even stranger. Let’s have a listen.”

WooHyun placed his chin in his hand and gazed at Daon. The elegant smile still lingered on his lips, and Daon couldn’t tell if it was a sign of kindness or wickedness.

That was how handsome Na WooHyun was. He could suck out one’s soul and make them lose their ability to think logically.

In order to peer into his head, Daon’s wide eyes stared into his for a long time. Then she looked away first.

“I will never tell you, Orabeoni.”

“Then I better ask ChoonShim. Because you definitely told ChoonShim.”

JaeOn snickered and opened his mouth to call ChoonShim.

“Don’t put ChoonShim in an awkward position, and leave her alone!”

Daon’s eyes widened as she shouted. She picked up her liquor cup that had been refilled when she hadn’t been looking and threw it back once more.

JaeOn and WooHyun burst into laughter. They laughed as if they were daring her to do something about it. Daon’s lower lip trembled into a pout as she stood up from her seat.

“Tsk, how’d he know I only told ChoonShim?”

Daon quietly muttered to herself as she made her way to her bedchamber.

* * *

It was the middle of the night. The moon was hidden behind the clouds, and complete darkness had settled over the residence.

Possibly because she had eaten snacks late at night, Daon woke up from her slumber due to a stomachache. She needed to exit her bedchamber to relieve herself.

“Did I eat the snacks too fast?”

She began to make her way to the outhouse when she heard the thunderous cries of SoonDong coming from the servants’ quarters. Daon’s sleepy eyes grew alert.

“ChoonShim. Where did ChoonShim go?”

ChoonShim needed to console SoonDong, but she did not seem to be in the servants’ quarters. Was she still busy serving snacks? These drunkard orabeoni’s… They needed to be taught a proper lesson.

Either way, consoling SoonDong was the utmost priority. Daon began to walk towards the servants’ quarters when she saw ChoonShim running somewhere like a woman on a mission.

“ChoonShim, ChoonShim! Where are you off to in such a hurry? SoonDong is looking for you.”

“Aigoo, my lady. Young Master WooHyun is currently taking a bath, but I forgot to leave a towel and his undershirt. I need to bring them to him as soon as possible.”

Daon snatched the items from ChoonShim’s arms and gestured to the servants’ quarters with her chin.

“Give them to me. I’ll take care of this, so hurry back to the servants’ quarters and console SoonDong.”

“But it’s my job, so how could I dump it on you, my lady…”

“Now is not the time to split hairs like this. SoonDong is going to run out of breath at this rate. Hurry back to him. Hurry!”

If SoonDong kept crying like this, his cries would wake everyone in the residence, including her parents. Daon began to feel frantic.

People made mistakes. But Daon would be very upset if ChoonShim was punished for such a small mistake  this.

ChoonShim kept bowing apologetically as she ran to the servants’ quarters.

Having forgotten why she had even left her bedchamber, Daon held the fabric in her arms and made her way to the bathhouse. However, when she reached the tightly shut door of the bathing room, she couldn’t help but hesitate.

Na WooHyun was naked inside… Right?

Her face grew red. She’d only seen a naked man in spring paintings. The thought of seeing one in real life caused her vision to go blurry. Daon fidgeted with her fingers as she hesitated.

But she still had to do what she had to do. If I don’t do this, ChoonShim will get in trouble.

Daon did her best not to make a sound and carefully opened the door. Steam poured out of the opening.

Careful, careful.

It would be best if WooHyun did not notice that someone had entered.

“Is that you, ChoonShim?”

Daon’s heart sank when she heard the low voice coming from the bathing room. She gulped and entered inside. He was quite the observant orabeoni.

“Y-Yes, Young Master.”

Daon pretended to answer back in ChoonShim’s voice. Her voice shook. The figure inside was illuminated by the faint light of the lantern. He froze for a moment before stretching out his hand.

Daon’s legs trembled. She’d planned on placing the towel and undershirt on the shelf and running out of here, but she was trapped once she heard his low voice.

“Come here and hand them to me.”

Daon’s eyes widened. Did servants normally hand things over like this? Daon had never served anyone in the bath before, so she wasn’t sure. Didn’t servants usually place items down and leave?

“Hurry.”

If she drew any closer, he’d realize that she wasn’t ChoonShim. Then he’d say that she was pulling a wicked prank and laugh at her with JaeOn.

Daon opened her mouth and answered back in her best attempt at ChoonShim’s voice.

“Th-Then please turn your back to me. This servant doesn’t dare look at your body, Young Master.”

Pfft.

Wait a minute. It sounded like he was laughing at her…

“Alright.”

As WooHyun stood up, the sound of dripping water filled the room. Daon did not dare lift her head and focused her eyes on the water overflowing from the tub.

“How long do I have to wait to wipe my body?”

After waiting a while, WooHyun began to turn his head to look at her.

“N-No, you mustn’t! Please do not look back!”

When Daon cried out, WooHyun turned back to face the front. This time, Daon was certain she heard him snort.

The white steam swirled like cigar smoke as it kept his back hidden from view, but she could still see the large and small muscles that seemed to be sculpted into his skin. His long, thick neck and his wet hair. His wide shoulders looked like they belonged to a soldier.

Desperately trying to keep her eyes from going lower, Daon fixed her gaze on his neck. Step by step, she cautiously walked forward as if she were walking on thin ice.

When she finally reached his back, she let out a silent, shaky sigh. She took the towel and tossed it onto his shoulder.

“…You’re quite rough.”

He spoke up in a sullen voice, but Daon didn’t care. All she wanted to do was finish up and get out of here.

WooHyun calmly wiped the water droplets from his body. Meanwhile, Daon lifted her face and stared piercingly at the ceiling.

Suddenly, she realized that his hand was stretching out towards her. He grabbed her wrist, and she was dragged to stand in front of him.

She had been careless. This was completely unexpected, so she had let her guard down. Even if she tried to escape his grasp, she didn’t think it would have worked.

Her large eyes widened as she gulped in fear.

“You’re Daon, not ChoonShim.”

WooHyun’s eyes laughed gracefully. His face seemed to shine even brighter than the moon.

When their eyes met, Daon began to chew on her lips. She lowered her head in embarrassment and humiliation.

“……!”

She couldn’t help but be shocked.

Na WooHyun’s body did not have a stitch of clothing. Something thick and long was bobbing up and down between his legs.

Daon gasped as she looked back and forth between his face and the thing between his legs. She glanced at his face and then down between his legs. His face, between his legs, over and over again.

“What is it? Were you that curious about something like this?”

This was a bit unfair. She was only going to pretend she was ChoonShim for a moment and leave once she finished what she had set out to do, but he was the one who’d grabbed her first. Wasn’t he the one who asked her to bring it to him personally? Na WooHyun was the one who grabbed her wrist and made them come face to face like this.

However, what came out of her mouth was the first thought that popped into her head.

“I was curious, but…”

Pfft. His mocking laugh sounded a bit lewd. Daon slowly realized that the laugh she thought she’d heard when she first entered wasn’t just her imagination.

“I didn’t come in here because I wanted to see it.”

“There’s no reason to be embarrassed. Just like JaeOn said, you’re getting better at lying every single day.”

Daon closed her eyes. Even though they were closed, she could still clearly see his thing that had been below.

She was so distracted, but she mustered up all her strength to absolve herself of this crime.

“Soo-SoonDong was crying!”

“Yeah? SoonDong was crying?”

“ChoonShim was running!”

“Yeah, she was running?”

“I told her I’d come to the bathhouse instead!”

“That’s how much you wanted to see me, huh? So much that you grabbed ChoonShim as she was running.”

Daon’s head suddenly went blank.

Was it because of the low voice that tickled her ears? Or because of what she saw? Or maybe because Na WooHyun was covering his mouth as he chuckled in the nude. Daon wasn’t sure.

However, one thing was certain. Na WooHyun’s thing was not a pepper. ChoonShim had lied. Because what she had seen in the spring paintings was currently hanging between his legs right now.

Completely shocked, Daon burst out of the bathhouse and escaped to her bedchamber. She pulled the haphazardly discarded blankets over herself and panted for breath.

Saw it. I saw it. I saw it clearly with my own two eyes. I saw a pepper the size of an arm…!

Rather than grotesque, it would be more apt to describe it as something beautiful. It was sleek and ruddy. Compared to what she had imagined, it was a lot more mysterious and beautiful.

Daon slowly drew in a deep breath and gathered her thoughts.

Suddenly, her bedchamber door quietly opened, and she could hear someone step inside.

“Who is it?”

“……”

“Is that you, ChoonShim?”

“……”

“Who dares enter my bedchamber without permission?!”

Still underneath her blanket, Daon scolded the impertinent stranger.

The approaching footsteps suddenly stopped. Daon gulped and slightly lowered the blanket so that only her eyes were peeking out. She glanced at the shadow on the floor.

“ChoonShim…?”

The shadow was too large to be ChoonShim. Anyone would be able to tell that it belonged to a man. Daon slowly turned her head.

Na WooHyun stood with his hands clasped behind his back, a relaxed smile on his lips.

“Why did you run away?”

Daon stared at his face. Now that she got a good look, she could see why the village maidens all wanted to marry him. The Na WooHyun in front of her did not seem like the man she knew to be her brother’s friend.

A strange sound began to emanate from her left chest. Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump. Her heart raced as if it were going to burst out of her chest.

“Wh-Why… are you in my room…”

WooHyun silently laughed as he pulled on the fastening of his shirt. Daon walked backwards until her back hit the wall. Her eyes were guarded as she continued to stare at him.

He took off his shirt and then his pants. A man without a stitch of clothing filled Daon’s eyes. The large sausage between his legs looked the same as it did before.

The sleek, ruddy lump of flesh…

WooHyun delightfully watched Daon’s reaction and slowly walked towards her.

“Y-You can’t!”

“Why not?”

“No… It’s not that you can’t, but… you still can’t!”

“What can’t be done, my lady?”

ChoonShim’s voice suddenly rang in her ears. Daon blinked.

Her surroundings were bright. Instead of Na WooHyun, ChoonShim was now entering her bedchamber. The morning light pricked her eyes, and Daon had no choice but to get up from her bed.

“…Where’d he go?”

Where did Na WooHyun go? Why wasn’t he here? Where did he go after showing her everything he had to show her…

ChoonShim’s shoulders shook as she held back her laughter.

“It seems that you’ve had quite a sweet dream last night, my lady. There’s some saliva dribbling down your chin like a waterfall. Did you eat some snacks in your dream by any chance?”

A sausage, not snacks. She had seen a sausage.

Unable to confess the truth to ChoonShim, Daon merely wiped her saliva with her sleeve.

How could the daughter of a noble family have such a dream? This was all because she had seen Na WooHyun’s naked body in the bathhouse last night.

“Why don’t you get up now? Young Master WooHyun already returned to his own residence before dawn. Only Young Master JaeOn and my lady are the ones who are still sleeping in their chambers. The Master has ordered the both of you to wake up and partake in breakfast.”

Daon let out a big yawn as she nodded.

“Okay, breakfast. It’s time for breakfast.”

In order to erase the sight of Na WooHyun’s thing from her mind, Daon did her best to return to her senses.

“What are today’s side dishes?”

“We prepared some sausages a few months ago.”

Sausages…!

“It tastes amazing. We made a stew with some thick fermented soybean paste and added some beef, red peppers, green peppers, and chopped up some green onions. It’s a meal worthy of the Emperor!”

Peppers…!

“Don’t say that!”

“…Pardon?”

Bewildered, ChoonShim gave Daon a strange look. Daon realized that she had been thinking of something weird all on her own and quickly tried to recover the conversation.

“H-How can we… compare it to the Emperor’s meal? That’s ridiculous, ChoonShim.”

“Aigoo, I was only joking. I wonder why my lady is acting like this today.”

“I-I want to try tasting that stew you say is fit for the Emperor.”

“Then you should hurry and eat your breakfast. You know how good my cooking is.”

“I know it very well.”

Barely managing to jump over that hurdle, Daon wiped the cold sweat off her forehead. Her nightclothes were damp. All because of her brother’s best friend, Na WooHyun, she was feeling feverish.

* * *

If Na WooHyun took so much as a step through their gates, the news spread throughout the entire village. A bunch of maidens would rush over and hide outside the residence to catch a peek.

Today was no different. The normally empty street was bustling with maidens with their heads covered with a sseugaechima².

Daon carefully climbed a boulder in the garden and looked over the wall.

Daon recognized every single one of the maidens who had their heads covered. It was probably the same for WooHyun.

A nobleman’s daughter named Moran approached WooHyun first. Moran hid her face with a yellow sseugaechima, but she could not hide her flashy appearance.

As Moran walked past WooHyun, their shoulders bumped, causing her hairpin to drop. 

WooHyun picked up the hairpin and wiped it with his sleeve before returning it to Moran.

“You should be more careful, my lady.”

“Thank you. Ah, by any chance…!”

“I’ll be taking my leave.”

However, Moran’s hard work was all for naught. WooHyun coldly turned around. Moran looked like she was on the verge of tears. Seeing this, the other girls began to gather around WooHyun.

This time, Daon’s friend Yihwa merely brushed against his clothes, but she dropped her hair ribbon.

“Oh dear.”

Yihwa exclaimed in her pretty voice as she brought her hand to her lips.

“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. To make up for this mistake, would you like to come over to our residence and share a meal?”

Their clothes had merely brushed, and she had merely dropped a ribbon.

Well, there was a saying that even the brushing of clothes could be fate, so it may be true. Yihwa’s voice wasn’t the only thing that was pretty. Even her words and manner of speech was graceful and elegant.

However, WooHyun kindly rejected her offer.

“Thank you, but there is no need. I have a previous engagement I must get to.”

Daon’s mouth opened in surprise.

Oho. He rejected this village’s most beautiful maiden, Moran. And now he rejected Yihwa, the one with the pretty voice and speech?

Daon quietly watched as WooHyun rejected the many maidens who approached him with ease.

Gahee, YooGeum, Geumhwa, and even Hyangbok. Countless maidens brushed past him in order to start a conversation with him. They dropped all sorts of things or even dirtied their own clothes.

Coming from his nearby residence to Daon’s was like taking on a journey of a thousand miles.

He was the son of the noble household with the highest rank in the village, and his family was also incredibly wealthy. He was the only child of the family and handsome as well, so the maidens’ hearts couldn’t help but fall for him.

Not only that, he also had a good head on his shoulders. He had the skills to get his family business up to the top, and he’d recognize what the young people needed and bring it into Hanyang³ before anyone else.

The dropped hairpin and ribbon were all probably bought from his family’s business.

Na WooHyun looked perfectly fine, so why wasn’t he interested in women? He was at the age to get married, and even his friend Yu JaeOn was about to hold his wedding ceremony.

Daon grew lost in thought and looked out into the distance. She could not figure out the answer at all.

“Did you come out to greet me?”

A head suddenly popped up from behind the wall and spoke up. Daon startled and jumped back.

“Aaah!”

I’m going to fall off this boulder. It’ll be the end of me. At least, that’s what she thought. WooHyun’s hands stretched out and grabbed Daon’s arms. Daon returned to her rightful place.

Phew, she was saved.

“What were you thinking?”

WooHyun scolded her with a grave expression on his face, but his voice was smooth, so it didn’t sound threatening. 

I was thinking about Orabeoni’s thing…

As soon as Daon looked at his face, the memory filled her head once more.