The Protected Circle - Complete
Father's Hidden Dream
Scene 1 of 3
Scene 1 of 3
Afternoon sun pressed through paper screens.
Light splintered across the work table in shifting patterns.
Min-ji searched the lower shelf.
Her fingers brushed woodblocks polished smooth by years of handling.
The commission required a specific 'gi-euk' character.
She could not find it.
The tool chest sat heavy against the far wall.
Min-ji knelt beside it.
Her hand found purchase on the wooden frame.
She lifted.
The chest moved with unexpected ease.
Something shifted beneath the floorboards.
A loose board.
Min-ji set the chest aside.
Her fingers hooked the board's edge.
Wood groaned as she lifted it.
A hollow space yawned below.
Darkness swallowed the light.
She reached inside.
Her fingers met leather.
Soft and cracked with age.
She pulled the bundle into the sun.
Three journals.
Her father's journals.
The court officials said they burned them with his tools.
Min-ji's breath caught.
The leather cover warmed beneath her palms.
She opened the first book.
Ink faded but readable.
Her father's hand.
She traced the first sketch.
A Hangul character rendered with precise strokes.
Annotations crowded the margins.
"The counter space must breathe."
"Common eyes deserve beauty too."
"Accessibility is not weakness."
Min-ji turned another page.
More sketches.
More notes.
His voice rose from the paper.
The court artisans called his dream impractical.
They said common people needed only basic text.
He disagreed.
He believed art belonged to everyone.
Min-ji's throat tightened.
She had continued his work without knowing.
Her perfectionism came from him.
The standards she chased were his gifts.
Sunlight danced across the page.
Dust motes spun like suspended ink drops.
The only sound was paper turning.
Soft rasp in the silence.
Min-ji closed the journal.
She pressed it to her chest.
The brass calipers rested on the work table.
His calipers.
She reached for them.
Metal cool against her skin.
She held them tight.
Eyes closed against the sudden sting.
His torch burned in her hands now.