✦ Full Past Life Story

In the spring of King Yeongjo's twelfth year, the two of you first met in an alley of Namchon, Hanyang. Both were fifteen, and both attended the same seodang. One was the son of a yangban household, the other the child of the seodang's keeper. Status differed, but in that alley you were students of the same school. The day you first met, one of you dropped a book. The other picked it up and said, "This book—isn't it difficult?" That was the beginning. From that day onward you walked together, read together. The word "friend" felt natural between you. When you turned twenty, the two of you to