#oc: kang seon-hwa

[whenthegoldrays]

Okay but the thing is Mr. Talbot genuinely likes Seon-hwa, and she knows it, and she knows he’s going to treat her well, and it really, really is not his fault that a) she’s already in love with Henry, b) she’s already been to a future where your entire fate and like, financial future does not have to depend on marriage and it compels her, especially as someone from a culture where if your husband dies and you have no children, you’re basically cooked, and c) she has already lost a husband really young and fears that if she lost another one like that before having an heir, she’d be in an extremely precarious position as a foreigner in goshdang Victorian England, and unless she found her way into a very supportive set of people, she’d basically be alienated from most of the society she married into for the rest of her life, which is just a slightly different flavor of the exact same thing she was trying to escape when she left Joseon. AND d) even though in normal circumstances it is her best bet to remarry in England, she can’t help but be scared at the thought of living her whole life surrounded by (mostly) narrow-minded white people and having English children who will either not want to learn her mother tongue or will forever be and feel Othered because of their mixed race. Like, yes, that’s (probably) better than staying in Joseon and having to work and having almost no chance of remarriage, and as Mrs. Hardwick points out, how many women in her position even get the opportunity to do this? — but also, compared to what she’s seen in Henry’s world, it is an extremely bad hand to be dealt, and again, how many people in her position get the chance to experience that modern world? With all that considered, why would she not take the risk of starting from scratch with someone she’s legitimately in love with (and finding a fulfilling life of her own even if that romance weren’t to work out)?

[seonsong]

Maybe it took the equivalent of seven or eight lifetimes for the universe to fashion another man I could love completely, but it did so nonetheless, and furthermore, it permitted me to see him and to hold him and laugh with him into the small hours of the night.

except from my WIP, Hardwick House

[whenthegoldrays]

OTP

[whenthegoldrays]

More Seon-hwa Picrews!! I liked this one because I could actually get a good approximation of a hanbok 😌

[whenthegoldrays]

I also think that Seon-hwa has a lot of fortitude and she would have made it work no matter what she’d decided to do after Ssang-min died, whether she had to stay in Hanyang and become a merchant or stayed in Hong Kong and done something else or married Mr. Talbot in London and made her own little life somehow, and do not get me wrong, there are plenty of things that suck about the modern day and Henry does not hide that from her when she expresses a desire to make the move, but ultimately she is a romantic and she does choose the option that’ll make her happiest (even if it’s not the only good option) (and even if it is impulsive) (she is so impulsive)

[whenthegoldrays]

So when Seon-hwa is twelve, she starts asking her dad to let her learn hanja. He’s reluctant at first — she already knows hangeul anyway — but she bugs him about it for months until he gives in and sends her to Madam Lin, the Chinese wife of one of his friends, to teach her hanja. Seon-hwa and the madam become fast friends, and Seon-hwa is an avid student and a fast learner. After two years, she’s gotten very good, and the madam asks if she’d also like to learn Chinese, which Seon-hwa accepts with delight. She spends the next three years coming to Madam Lin’s for lessons two to three times a week, and in the process she meets Ssang-min, a bright young scholar who happens to be the madam’s son. They have brief conversations on occasion, and Seon-hwa develops something of a fondness for him. When Seon-hwa is sixteen, her father starts looking to arrange a marriage for her, and the madam, ever perceptive, asks if she’d like to marry Ssang-min. She does, and to their delight, he accepts in return. They are married when Seon-hwa is seventeen and Ssang-min is twenty-three. They and their respective parents are all very happy and everything works out wonderfully… for now.

[whenthegoldrays]

I like to think that Henry is a Maisie Peters stan because a) taste and b) I have this mental picture of Seon-hwa asking him to show her the music he likes the first time she visits the future and the first song he puts on is “Coming of Age” and it kills her instantly

[whenthegoldrays]

Anyway have some picrews of Seon-hwa and Henry :)

1) Kang Seon-hwa in (an approximation of) her look in Joseon, 2) an approximation of Seon-hwa's Victorian look, 3) Seon-hwa's modern-day look, 4) Henry Song

[whenthegoldrays]

Possibly my favorite page I’ve done so far

[whenthegoldrays]

OTP

[whenthegoldrays]

Obsessed with her

Kang Seon-hwa in 1) an approximation of her Joseon look, 2) an approximation of her Victorian look, 3) her modern look

[whenthegoldrays]

[whenthegoldrays]

someone just got flirted with

[whenthegoldrays]

No, this is my favorite one

[whenthegoldrays]

Full disclosure I don’t think Seon-hwa would listen to Taylor Swift

[whenthegoldrays]

Kang Seon-hwa can reclaim “I Hate It Here”