New Bride

Crossing not just one but two goblin mountains and even a river, she was on her way to marry a groom whose name and face she didn’t even know—so hastily it felt like roasting beans by lightning. ‘Taking in a castaway orphan as a wife… How ugly must he be for that? Or is he missing limbs? Or is his personality unbelievably rotten? They say he beat women to death—could that be true?’ A wedding in the middle of some remote backwater, with none of the usual rituals—no bridal makeup, no formal bowing ceremony, no jujubes and chestnuts tossed in a traditional rite. At only twenty, Eulyeong had just a couple of hopes for the man who would become her husband. ‘Please, let him not have a violent temper… and let his eyes, nose, and mouth at least be where they’re supposed to be.’ But the husband she met with a thunderous, booming arrival was someone entirely beyond her expectations. ‘He has eyes, a nose, and a mouth… but…?’ No—he was more than that. She wanted to see him just once more. Thinking it would be either death or fainting, Eulyeong lifted her head again—only to meet the pitch-black gaze of the man who had been staring straight through her. ‘My heavens…’ Better to faint. Her heart hammered wildly, and she felt cold sweat stream down her spine. --- On their wedding night, her husband, having undone all her sashes and slipped his hand through the barely open gap, whispered impatiently. “So, are you going to be my bride, or not? Make it clear.” Her breath caught in her throat. Even hearing her painful moans, his hand dug deeper. Tears welled up in Eul-young's eyes. Suddenly, she remembered a young sow being bred for the first time at market day. Tied to a stake, belly raised, the small creature screamed beneath a bull-sized boar, writhing and snorting like a fire demon. Only then did Eul-young realize, like a bolt of lightning, that something similar would happen to her too. That the affairs between male and female, well, humans weren't so different either.