Disclaimer: The SKKS-verse belongs to the creators of Sungkyunkwan Scandal. The first part of this chapter is adapted from Jae-shin's canon epilogue. I only own the Cha family.

Technical Notes: The names of Ka-hai, her father and her brothers were all inspired by those of characters in Conn Iggulden's novels about the life of Genghis Khan. I tried my best to make them sound Korean, but am not going to sweat the fact that, despite my best efforts, they still don't :-p At any rate, parts of Korea were annexed by the Mongols during the Koryeo period. A fair amount of political, economic and cultural exchange occurred during the 80 years of colonization, making it possible for slightly foreign-sounding names to be adopted by the people of the region.

TAMING THE CRAZY HORSE

Chapter One

"The Blue Messenger! It's the Blue Messenger!"

Detective First Class Moon Jae-shin couldn't help feeling a bit smug as he heard the cries of the people in the streets. Besides being barely legible and exhibiting execrable grammar, the messages distributed by this emerging vigilante had the subtlety of a kick in the face. As a result, he had had a very good idea of where the Blue Messenger would strike next.

Sure enough, moments later, a lithe figure all in black came running over the rooftops. Jae-shin immediately began pursuit. Thanks to his misspent youth, he knew every escape route in this city; it was one of the things that made him uniquely qualified to work on this case.

Moving swiftly and silently, like an arrow in the night, the Blue Messenger slid over tiles and leapt over ridgepoles. He laughed softly, having pulled off another daring caper, but stopped short upon seeing someone from the Ministry of War standing in his path, waiting for him.

Jae-shin reached out to collar the Blue Messenger, who was surprisingly short, but he deflected the motion. They tussled briefly, and the Blue Messenger's mask fell away, baring a woman's face to the moonlight.

His jaw dropped, but he managed to keep his head and retain his grip on the front of her tunic. Reaching into his own, he pulled out a blue slip of paper and dangled it in front of her face. It was the last message; besides analyzing it for clues, he had also marked it for grammar and content. "You had better do better next time," Jae-shin told her. "If you keep writing this horribly, it's going to become a habit."

He felt some satisfaction as he thrust the paper at her and turned away. He had clearly shocked her as much as she had him. Nevertheless, he was still mostly put out over going through all this trouble for a rank amateur. "What in the world are they teaching at Sungkyunkwan these days?" he grumbled. "These messages keep getting worse and worse."

Then he hiccuped. As he did so, Jae-shin heard a faint movement and turned to find that the Blue Messenger had escaped.

"Did you see him?"

Jae-shin turned; his partner on the force, Ha In-soo, was clambering onto the roof. "Yes," Jae-shin replied. "But the Messenger was a bit too fast for me."

The other man smirked. Jae-shin remembered that expression well from when they were scholars at Sungkyunkwan University, but these days, he knew that In-soo used it just to tease him. "You must be slowing down, old man."

"We're the same age," he pointed out. "Besides, it's better to slow down than to have never sped up at all. If I recall correctly, this is the first time I've seen you climb anything taller than a horse."

He knew that he had won the latest round in their war of words when In-soo made no reply, choosing instead to hand him a blue leaflet. "The Blue Messenger's latest opus," he said. "Maybe it will help us catch him next time."

Suddenly, there was an angry shriek. An old woman was standing down in the yard, her hands on her hips. "What are you doing on my roof?"

"This is official police business, ajumma," In-soo told her. "We were in pursuit of a wanted criminal."

"Well, you make sure your official police business doesn't damage my roof," she snapped, waving a wooden spoon at them. "If you break any of the tiles, you're going to have to fix it, and don't think I'm too old to make sure you do a good job!"

Thanks to the Blue Messenger's latest appearance, Jae-shin was late to the gathering of the old Jalgeum Quartet at the home of his closest friend, Gu Yong-ha. Besides him and Yong-ha, the Quartet comprised two more of their friends from Sungkyunkwan, Lee Sun-joon and his wife, Kim Yoon-hee, both professors at the university.

"The workaholic is here at last!" Yong-ha crowed as a manservant escorted Jae-shin into the dining room. "What took you so long?"

"We almost caught the Blue Messenger tonight," he replied. "And then In-soo and I had to file a report."

"Oh, no wonder you're so late. In-soo takes forever to write reports. I hear his love letters to Cho-sun have to be re-written five times before he sends them."

"You mean she hasn't accepted him yet?" Yoon-hee asked.

"No. I think she's having fun stringing him along."

She nodded approvingly. "Cho-sun deserves to be courted like a respectable lady. It's clear that In-soo sunbae truly loves her, otherwise he wouldn't indulge her so. I think things will end happily for them."

"How do you find out about the letters, sa-hyung?" Sun-joon asked Yong-ha.

"I have my sources," he replied, preening. "After all, I'm—"

"—Gu Yong-ha," his friends finished for him.

Yong-ha gave them a brilliant smile that was only a tad less bright than the shade of orange he was wearing. "You know it!"

It sounded like a joke, but Jae-shin had to admit that Yong-ha did have his ways of finding things out, sometimes even before they happened. As the son of a wealthy businessman and now a successful merchant in his own right, he had access to a wide network that was typically closed to the yangban, or the noble class to which his friends belonged. He had been a great help in quite a few of Jae-shin's past cases.

"So did you find out anything new about the Blue Messenger?" Yong-ha asked him.

"Not much," Jae-shin said, before he could even start debating whether or not to tell his friends that the Blue Messenger was a woman. Once upon a time, his first instinct would be to tell them everything he knew, but he had clearly spent too much time speaking with other government officers. Besides, he was still recovering from the shock himself. "He left another message. Naturally, we'll be analyzing it for clues to find out where he might strike next. Maybe we'll catch him then."

"In other words, they didn't find out much," Sun-joon translated with a chuckle. "You sound like my father when people ask him about what's being done about this or that, and he doesn't want to say that nothing has been done."

"I think our Geol-oh is finally growing up," Yong-ha teased, drawing a silk handkerchief from his sleeve and dabbing at his eyes playfully. "He's starting to talk like an adult, anyway."

"Shut up." Jae-shin snatched the handkerchief away and then tossed it back in his friend's face. "I might not be the Red Messenger anymore, but that doesn't mean I've turned into a government drone."

As if to illustrate, he pulled off his hat and undid his topknot, allowing his shaggy dark hair to hang untidily in his face just as it did during their student days at Sungkyunkwan. "Working for the Ministry of War allows me to use my head and keep active at the same time, that's all," he declared. "Mark my words: this is as respectable and settled-down as I'm going to get."

A light was burning in his father's study when Jae-shin returned home, indicating that the older man was still awake. Sure enough, he entered the study to find Minister of Justice Moon Geun-soo seated at a table, gravely perusing some documents. "I'm home, Abeonim," he said.

His father's shoulders relaxed slightly upon hearing his voice, a tiny sign of his relief that his son was all right, but the expression on his round, rather jowly face was neutral. "It was the Blue Messenger again, wasn't it?" he asked. "The steward mentioned that blue papers were flying in the streets again tonight."

Jae-shin made an affirmative noise as he settled himself across the low table. "We came close to catching the Messenger this time. In-soo saved a copy of the latest message and we'll be analyzing it for more clues. Perhaps we'll finally be successful next time."

Minister Moon smiled wryly. "Don't you mean that you'll be analyzing the message?"

"I'll probably end up doing most of the work there," he admitted, "but to be fair, In-soo contributes a lot to the partnership, too." It was true; even though their fathers were from rival political factions and they had detested each other at school, he and In-soo worked surprisingly well together. Jae-shin may be considered the brains of the partnership, but In-soo was good at all the administrative minutiae, like hobnobbing with higher-ups and filing official reports, for which Jae-shin had no patience.

His father grunted and set aside the document he had been reading. "Well, I trust you'll keep me updated on the progress of the case. Although capturing the Blue Messenger is the work of the War Ministry, my people will take over once he is in custody."

"Yes, Abeonim." Bowing respectfully to the older man, Jae-shin made a move to rise.

Minister Moon spoke again before he get to his feet. "One more thing, Jae-shin."

"Yes, Abeonim?" he asked, sitting back down again.

"Since we're already speaking, I might as well tell you that I've found you a bride."

Jae-shin sat stock-still, unable to speak. He felt as though an iron band had closed in around his neck.

His father looked at him and, accepting his reaction as perfectly normal, went on with his speech. "I trust you know of the Cha family; they're yangbans who own a large estate just outside the city. The wife is a relative of your late mother."

He nodded numbly. Naturally, he had heard of the Chas because of their status as nobles and landowners, and because they were distant kinsmen, but knew very little beyond that. There hadn't been much opportunity or reason to get to know them because Jae-shin's mother had died when he was a baby.

"You will be betrothed to their only daughter, Ka-hai. She is about your age."

Jae-shin swallowed, too shocked to even hiccup.

Minister Moon smiled suddenly. "I wouldn't be so worried if I were you. If your mother and her kinswoman are anything to go on, then Cha Ka-hai is sure to be a lovely and biddable girl."

Now, this was something he definitely had to tell his friends. To their credit, although the Jalgeum Quartet had just seen each other, they promptly came together again the very next evening. "Did Bok-dong get the message right, sa-hyung?" Sun-joon asked as he and Yoon-hee returned to Yong-ha's house. Besides their gracious host, the incipient bridegroom was already there. "Are you really going to be married?"

Yong-ha had been pressing him for information ever since he arrived, but Jae-shin had decided to keep silent until all his friends were present. He didn't want to go through everything twice.

"That's what the message said, didn't it?" Jae-shin replied, pouring himself a healthy slug of soju.

He tried to take a drink but Yong-ha grabbed his cup and downed it himself. "Who is she?" he demanded as Yoon-hee clapped her hands in delight. "Who is this girl who's silly enough to have you?"

"My father says her name is Cha Ka-hai," Jae-shin answered, hiccuping even though he'd barely had a drop to drink. Just the mention of the girl's name and the idea that she was going to be his wife was enough to rattle him. "She's the only daughter of the Cha family who live outside of town."

"Hmm." Yong-ha rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I know that the family makes most of its money from breeding livestock, and the eldest son, Ka-sar, is a fine swordsman, but I don't know anything about the sister."

"Did Minister Moon say anything about what Ka-hai is like, sa-hyung?" Yoon-hee wanted to know.

Jae-shin poured himself some more liquor and gulped it down before Yong-ha could take it away. "Abeoji says she's pretty and biddable, that's all."

To their surprise, Yoon-hee wrinkled her nose. "I sincerely hope that's not true."

"You don't want her to be pretty?" Yong-ha gasped, scandalized.

"What's wrong with a bride who's biddable?" Sun-joon asked.

"Every girl of good family has been described as 'pretty and biddable' since time immemorial," Yoon-hee explained, rolling her eyes. "Our Geol-oh shouldn't have a bride who's just like all the others."

A small smile touched Jae-shin's lips, and he hid it by running a hand through his hair as if in frustration. The only girl he knew who wasn't anything like all the others was Yoon-hee herself, and she couldn't possibly become his bride.

Well, one never got everything he wanted in this life.

"And one more thing," added the only female member of the Jalgeum Quartet, with a saucy glance at her husband. "If you had ended up with a biddable girl, Lee Sun-joon, then the two of you would probably have become the most boring couple in Joseon."