Young Min gritted his teeth as another stab off pain shot through his right leg. He shifted his weight to his left and the pain eased for a moment, only to come back with a vengeance in his other limb.

Resolutely keeping his gaze directed at the performers standing before the crowd, Young Min whispered, "Any change?"

Beside him, Won Soo cast another anxious glance behind them. "They're still there," the servant informed him. "Watching us. Waiting."

"Let's hope the performance is enough of a distraction to give us a chance at slipping away," Young Min said.

At that moment, one of the performers raised his hands and motioned for the audience to take a seat. Gradually, people began to situate themselves on the dusty ground, and Young Min pressed his lips together in a hard line of disapproval. Their escape would be too obvious if they were to run away now.

Left with no other option, he, Won Soo, and Nara sat down with the rest of the audience members, and Young Min chanced a look over his shoulder. At the back of the crowd, the six thugs remained standing, their hostile glares at the young nobleman not diverted in the least.

Young Min returned his attention forward, thoughts spinning. Under ordinary circumstances, he was sure he would have been able to come up with a solution to their predicament. He prided himself on his clear-thinking and advanced learning. But the pain in his leg was so distracting...

The performers began a masked dance, and Young Min glanced around for inspiration. For the most part, everyone's attention seemed focused on the entertainment. The exception was, of course, his very nervous servant, as well as the pair of eyes that peeked around from the other side of Won Soo, blinking at Young Min owlishly.

"Any ideas?" Nara whispered. Her voice was barely audible over the drum-and-gong accompaniment, but paranoid Won Soo still gave her an elbow in the ribs as a warning to stay quiet. She scowled and rubbed her side, but wisely didn't retaliate, as it would only draw unwanted attention.

Young Min shook his head and leaned closer to whisper back across Won Soo. "Do you?"

Nara bit her lip. "We have to make the audience stand up again, before the show is over," she said.

"And how do you suggest we do that?"

Won Soo scowled and heaved an exaggerated sigh, clearly annoyed with the way the two kept talking across him and ignoring him. As consolation, Young Min patted his arm. "Your idea was great in getting us this far," Young Min assured his servant. "Without your quick-thinking, I'd probably be unconscious or dead by the side of the road by now. But we need another plan."

"Shh!" One of the audience members in front of them turned around to scold them. Young Min inclined his head in apology, and, satisfied, the person turned back to watch the long-sleeved figures of the performers leaping and twirling to the tempo of the drumbeats.

Checking once more to ensure that the gang following them hadn't moved, Young Min turned back to the conversation as an idea came to him.

"Fear," he said simply, answering his previous question. "If we can scare the crowd into standing up, we might be able to escape in the fleeing mob."

"But you can't run!" Won Soo hissed back worriedly.

"It's the best chance we have, unless you have something better?" Young Min whispered.

Won Soo remained sullenly silent, and Young Min knew the servant disapproved of his master's tendency towards risk-taking. But the matter couldn't be helped.

"So we need to think of something that would cause mass panic and chaos?" Nara whispered from the other side of Won Soo.

Won Soo sighed in irritation and leaned back on his palms. "Why are you even here?" he growled. "We set you free, so can't you leave us alone?"

"I'm trying to help," Nara hissed in reply. "And they've already seen me with you two, so I'm just as likely to get beaten up or killed now. Have you heard of 'guilt by association'?"

Won Soo just glared back at her.

"Yes, try to think of something," Young Min said to interrupt the brewing argument. Won Soo opened his mouth to make a retort, but closed it after Young Min's warning glare.

They settled back into silence just as the dance finished to a round of applause. The eight masked performers shuffled off to the side of the clearing, long white sleeves trailing behind them like small phantoms. The drummer and the gong player stayed where they were, and three new performers came to join them, each with a musical instrument in tow. With a start, Young Min recognized the woman he had met in the inn courtyard that morning. The meeting seemed a lifetime ago now.

"Why's there a woman with the group?" Won Soo whispered, and the susurrus from the rest of the crowd evidenced their confusion as well. "They're a namsadang troupe, aren't they?"

Young Min ignored him, instead focusing on the woman with the twelve-stringed gayageum. In a single fluid motion, she sat down and set the instrument on her lap. The other performers, once similarly situated with their instruments, waited for her nod to begin.

The tune was unfamiliar but pleasant, and Young Min allowed himself a small smile when the performers began to sing.

The song had barely begun when the strange but beautiful woman looked up from her instrument. A strange sensation crept into Young Min's mind when they locked eyes.

She was beautiful.

Unearthly.

Breathtaking.

It was only Won Soo's incessant tugging on his sleeve that snapped him out of his trance, and Young Min became suddenly very aware of two things. For one, the music had stopped, and secondly, he had at some point risen from his seat and was now standing out awkwardly in the middle of a crowd of sitting audience members.

Young Min bit back a curse. What had come over him?

"Are you trying to make yourself an easier target for the thugs?" Won Soo hissed by his knee. By now, people were beginning to grumble about the interruption, and turning to glare at the nobleman who had caused it. "If you were thinking of starting a distraction, I don't think this is the way to do it!"

Young Min wracked his brain for an excuse, but couldn't come up with anything.

"Uh...we'll be moving on to the next segment of our show," one of the entertainers called out as the audience began to complain. He ushered the musicians out of the way, taking special care with the woman who looked just as confused as Young Min felt. What had just happened?

"Sit down!" someone behind Young Min called out.

"Start the play!" a few others demanded.

The lone performer wiped a hand across his forehead. "The play," he said. "Right. Well, while our group changes costumes, I'd like to tell you a bit about it. It's a new ghost story-one you're sure to have never heard before. It's a guaranteed hit. And what makes it even more special-it's all true!"

The audience collectively gasped and murmured, and Young Min, still in a bit of a daze, realized that he had yet to sit down. Before he could move to do so, however, the entertainer suddenly froze in an expression of horror, his eyes widening in shock and his mouth hanging open.

The audience did not fail to notice this strange change and began murmuring again as the man slowly raised a shaking finger in front of him.

"Th-that's her!" he stuttered. "I swear on my life, that's her!"

By now, two other performers had managed to change costumes and came to investigate the source of their comrade's sudden change in demeanor.

"Is this a joke?" someone on Young Min's left muttered.

"Maybe it's part of the play?" their friend suggested.

"What is it?" someone finally shouted.

The story-the tragic tale we witnessed unfold in the previous village-it's all true!" the performer said, and now the two others had caught sight of whatever it was that was so frightening and were staring at it with pale, horrified faces.

"The ghost of the dead girl has followed us," the performer on the far right whispered fearfully.

"Your acting is terrible!" someone shouted.

Then, something shifted in Young Min's peripheral vision, and he turned to his right to find Nara staring back at the performers. She had taken her hair out of its ponytail and let the long dark strands fall to partly cover her face. A growing suspicion began to form in the back of Young Min's mind. Surely not...

But another look confirmed that it was Nara who held the performers' rapt attentions.

"The proof is in your midst!" the first performer cried out again. "She sits among you now-the ghost of the soybean farmer's daughter! Right there!" He gesticulated fervently in Nara's direction, and this time, she finally reacted.

Slowly, with her head lolling to the side, Nara staggered to her feet with a moan. With her bedraggled clothes, dirty complexion, and wild hair, she looked every bit the vengeful spirit. Once standing, she raised her hands before her.

"A curse upon you all!" Nara whispered hoarsely, her voice steadily growing stronger and more malicious. "I shall have my revenge!"

She staggered forward once more, and the people sitting in front of her screamed and scrambled backwards. A final lurch to her right was all it took for the audience to decide that they had had enough of ghosts and spirits and interrupted performances, and people jumped to their feet, rushing to get out of Nara's way.

Won Soo, too, scrambled to his feet, and backpedaled hastily, only to run into Young Min after two steps.

"Don't be silly," Young Min said, answering the question he could see forming on his servant's lips. "Of course she's not." He glanced over to the thugs, who were looking around in confusion as people milled around them, trying to escape from the clearing and the terrifying cross-dressing virgin ghost that had appeared before them.

Nara came hurrying back after having run screaming after a few hesitant villagers, and Young Min took her hand and gave it a firm squeeze.

"Good job," he said. "Our pursuers are distracted-best make for the tree line. Come on, Won Soo!"

They darted in the opposite direction of the fleeing crowd, Nara's fearsome appearance providing a convenient deterrent to anyone who might have gotten in their way. The forest that surrounded the village was only a quick run away, but the trio didn't stop running until they had put several trees between them and the group of robbers who wanted them dead.

Panting, all three stopped behind the safety of a large boulder, hands on their knees as they caught their breaths. In the moment of peace, Young Min realized that, much like that morning, the pain in his legs had disappeared again, at least for the time being. But before he could voice his thoughts on the matter, Won Soo spoke.

"She?"

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What do you mean, you've never seen a traditional Korean masked dance? Well, we must fix that right away. Come on, get your lazy self up off that park bench. We're going to see a performance. Singing, dancing, music-everything. There are many different types of masked dances, but this one in particular that the performers carried out was called talchum.

Ah, yes, I was wondering if you'd notice the name for the group. Traveling performers in the Joseon dynasty were called namsadang, or male performing groups. This was a smaller troupe than usual, of only twenty-something men when usually namsadang consisted of twice that many. But there's a reason why they weren't famous. Well, many reasons. But not being a large group was a contributing factor.

Why did I stop the music? Foolish. Do you think I would give it away so easily? No. Now, come with me. After I show you a masked dance, I'll continue the story.

And Won Soo finally knows that Nara's not a boy! Hooray! And I took some liberties with the namsadang troupes-from what I can tell, there was more than one group, but I they were very large groups, so...this one's in its infant stages, I suppose. :) What do you think of the mask dance?