Ma Seon-Young: A Woman of Courage

There were two things I didn’t understand.

The first was why every man in the world wanted to be a woman.

You see, I have never been able to sympathize with this desire. What could men possibly gain from giving up everything just for the privilege of being on the receiving end of it? Being able to write would be nice, but there was no way that the world would change just because women wrote books instead of men. It was wrong, plain and simple.

Then there was being a guesthouse owner. It wasn’t easy running an inn in an era when nobody had any money. Despite what people said, men weren’t as good at managing money as women. You know why? Women can do maths, that’s why. But even with my math skills, I still had to work hard to keep my business afloat. And if the entire world decided that they wanted to be girls, what would happen to me? Sure, I never had a problem finding customers... but the competition is getting fierce. The greatest threat I face is not some male competitor trying to steal my customers away, it is the prospect of a man deciding he wants to be a guesthouse owner as well. If that happened, then all of my hard work would go down the drain along with my inn.

That’s why when I saw Insu and his little group walking into my inn one day, I knew exactly what I had to do, regardless of consequences or retaliation. They were loud and obnoxious as always and I couldn’t let their attitude go unnoticed. So after their meal was over, I approached them and asked them why they acted so rudely towards me and my establishment. At first they refused to answer and kept making excuses like “I don’t know about politics wahh woo ohh wahh!” until finally someone spoke up and said that he found it very strange that a woman like me could own such a grand inn by herself without having a husband or father to back her up financially. That was when I knew that it was time for action and stood right up in front of him and pointed at him viciously while asking how he dared call me a liar when he himself only worked as an errand boy for his mother and had no idea how much effort went into running an inn or any business for that matter. They all laughed out loud at this point, giving me plenty of time to walk over to where Insu himself sat on his chair with his friends behind him acting as cheerleaders while he smirked at me from above like some sort of villain in a TV drama show while wetting his lips with his tongue before speaking up proudly once again saying that he did not need anyone else's help because he can achieve anything by himself if he tries hard enough! Even if his friends called him “Insu-dongsaeng” (youngest son), he did not care because he will show everyone what it means to be an “Insu”! After making all these ridiculous claims against me, I decided enough was enough and reached down below his chair and pulled out something wrapped in paper which looked very familiar... it was Insu's bankbook! He'd left it behind on purpose since he thought nobody would ever touch something belonging to him! Now Insu's face turned red with embarrassment! He started stuttering all sorts of excuses like “that belongs to my mommy don't touch um” before realizing nobody believed anything coming out of his mouth anymore so he quickly put on a fake smile before calling me a cheater who messed with other people's belongings so she could steal their money! Everyone laughed at this point but Insu stopped short realizing that everybody else present suddenly stopped laughing for some reason... especially those behind him who were now smirking mischievously at him before turning around slowly towards their friend acting all cool pretending not to notice them behind them while slowly sliding their hands down towards Insu's pockets...