Si-on was a good guide.
He walked slowly, so nobody had to hurry. He stopped often, so they could look at things. He answered every question they asked, and a lot of questions they didn't, in the same calm, warm voice, his hands folded loosely behind his back. If Jin hadn't known better, he would have thought they were on a school trip.
He took them up onto the walls first.
The old fortress walls of Hwaseong were wide enough at the top for three people to walk side by side. They wound up and over the hills around the city for what felt like miles, grey stone battlements lined with small square windows, broken every so often by watchtowers with curved tiled roofs. From up here, Jin could see the whole of Suwon spread out below them. The neat streets. The gardens. The lines of laundry fluttering between buildings. The people, small and colorful in their robes, moving calmly through all of it.
"It's beautiful," Seul said quietly, before she could stop herself.
