Hwan was so dumbfounded he looked like he’d been struck by lightning from a clear sky. No, this really was unfair. Usually, don’t people give rewards when you exceed a certain score?
Like buying something, or doing something.
Of course, he wasn’t saying to buy him anything, but if it were the latter, the conversation could change entirely. He’d heard somewhere that there was something called a “wish coupon,” and it sounded quite romantic and intriguing. If it were something like that, he might be tempted enough to pretend to give in.
But.
‘…What, does that only exist in dramas and novels?’
Our extraordinary Huiseo just slammed down a punishment first.
“You won’t speak casually?”
Knowing how much he loved and treasured this time alone together, his informal speech…. He must know, yet to use that as a penalty, there could be nothing more cruel. Hwan, who became even more aggrieved, raised his voice.
“How am I supposed to get over 50 in math!”
“No, why can’t you do that?”
Huiseo asked, looking at Hwan with an expression of genuine incomprehension.
At that pure question without even a speck of malice, Hwan couldn’t continue speaking for a moment. To exaggerate a bit, he even felt a bit like the frustrating feeling he got when dealing with his eldest hyung Kang was slowly raising its head.
Right, perhaps.
No, really.
From Huiseo’s perspective, 50 points must have been a very generous score. Not knowing how difficult a subject math is for ordinary people! There’s a reason why the term “math dropout” exists! This is why there’s nothing you can do with smart guys.
“…Fine, 50 points. Let’s say that. But I can’t do it like this either.”
At Hwan’s new complaint, stubbornly insisting he absolutely couldn’t do it like this, Huiseo’s eyes narrowed. But Hwan held firm. Since things had come to this, he decided to be a bit more shameless.
Of course, this situation was entirely his fault. His mistake. He had no intention of denying it.
But the problem was that he felt it would be much better to kneel in front of the Empress Dowager’s palace yard and do penance for three days and nights. Math? That was absurd. It was ridiculous that this morning’s English vocabulary quiz that made him break out in a cold sweat had actually been cute and charming.
Jeong Huiseo was really terrible too. Trying to make him do such a thing when he clearly knew his usual grades.
But if Huiseo said to do it, he’d have to do it, what choice did he have?
Hwan only grumbled with words like this, but he already knew his future of holding a math book and clutching his head. So thinking about how much he would suffer, he developed the selfish thought that he should get something too, just a little, just a bit.
Yes, honestly, it was a childish selfish desire and a wicked heart that arose because he felt like he could catch his breath. Not even knowing how shameless he was being, Hwan kept urging Huiseo beside him.
“I can’t do it like this! I need something more eye-opening! That’s how I’ll be properly motivated!”
If you really don’t know, at least a wish coupon! Please!
He prayed inwardly like that, and Huiseo looked at Hwan with a rather surprised face as if it was unexpected.
“…You want an even more severe punishment?”
“What?”
“Really?”
“No, what are you talking about? Of course I’m asking for a reward!”
Why do you only think about punishments?
Hwan felt so frustrated he wanted to jump up and down.
“Do you hate me that much?”
But when he immediately changed tactics and became sulky, even acting pitiful, Huiseo seemed to inevitably soften around then. As he watched Huiseo starting to ponder despite pretending not to, Hwan’s heart pounded with small anxiety and anticipation.
Then, as the moment approached when Huiseo would finally move his lips, Hwan swallowed nervously.
“Then if you get over 60 points.”
‘…Why is the score going up again!’
Just as the frustrated Hwan was about to let out a groan rising from his core because of the uncompromising Jeong Huiseo—
“…I’ll sleep here for one night.”
“What?”
What Huiseo offered after much deliberation was something that made Hwan’s eyes not just open wide but flash brilliantly.
“…Here?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
“I’m telling you.”
“You won’t change your mind later and say you won’t allow it?”
“I’ll get permission somehow. The permission. Don’t you trust me?”
“N-no!”
Hwan hurriedly shook his head.
If Huiseo said it like that, he would definitely make it happen.
‘…Sleep over? Here?’
That was something only possible when he was very young; now, no matter how much he threw a tantrum and lay down, it was impossible. But if Huiseo stepped up like that, the story changed. Even Father, Mother, and even eldest hyung Kang, who was second to none in stubbornness, had weak spots when it came to Huiseo.
At Huiseo’s bold declaration that he would somehow get permission, even though nothing was decided yet, Hwan couldn’t close his mouth from happiness.
They wouldn’t have to part even if it got late at night.
They could talk as much as they wanted until dawn because they didn’t want to sleep, then drift off to sleep together in one bed. And if he was a bit more greedy, they might even hold each other tightly in their sleep….
“Wh-what should I do? Where should I start?”
Seeing Hwan happy like a child, blushing to his cheeks, Huiseo couldn’t help but burst into laughter as if he couldn’t deal with him.
***
The very first unit in the math textbook was, as one would expect, “Exponents and Logarithms.”
No matter how uninterested and neglectful one was about math, they would at least look up to here. It was that basic, so he thought it wouldn’t be unreasonable for Hwan to solve it alone for a while.
Hwan, still full of enthusiasm, nodded with gleaming eyes.
“No problem. Okay. Three times three root….”
Though it was slightly puzzling why he was reading it all out loud while solving.
Anyway, after assigning the first few pages like homework, Huiseo got up to stop by his quarters for a bit. He should go change out of the school uniform he was still wearing and also bring his own study materials while he was at it.
From Hwan’s quarters to the palace servants’ dormitory where Huiseo stayed, the straight path down was definitely the fastest. However, Huiseo always preferred the path that went around the large pond Gyeonghoeru in the middle, rather than that direct route.
Though no one said anything, he was conscious of his position as someone who wasn’t an official palace servant, and even if not for that reason, he also liked that there weren’t many people passing by, making it good for quietly enjoying some contemplation.
But today, he heard an unusually noisy sound there.
‘What is it?’
Along with it was the boisterous laughter of several people, unusual to hear in the normally quiet palace.
Puzzled, he turned his head to look and saw people crowded together in the middle of Gyeonghoeru. Looking more closely, that wasn’t all. Surprisingly, a huge drinking party was taking place there, unbelievable for this time of day in broad daylight.
Witnessing that bizarre scene, Huiseo’s face couldn’t help but scrunch up.
‘What on earth is that….’
He was dumbfounded.
But they were people who came and went from the palace like it was their own home, so he couldn’t help but recognize them. Ridiculously, the person making the most noise at that drinking party was none other than the minister of the department responsible for this country’s budget.
In fact, there was only one reason why those people had barged into the palace in broad daylight and were doing this.
‘Again.’
To cut the budget. It was the start of pressure on the imperial family.
And in such a rude manner at that.
‘…Has that season come around already?’
The fact that he muttered indifferently as if talking about a returning season showed that, unfortunately, this had happened quite often every year. But what needed to be remembered was that this always ended in the imperial family’s defeat.
In other words, every year the imperial family had cut and cut their budget like this.
Until nearing the limit.
‘That’s why they boasted last year that it was the last time, didn’t they?’
Yet seeing them appear again this year as shameless as ever, Huiseo couldn’t help but sigh. Even he, who had yet to learn the official practical work, could know enough about the recent situation surrounding the imperial family.
Currently, the imperial family’s budget was already at an absurdly low level. As proof of this, there had been more than a few palace servants who had no choice but to be let go over the past few years.
‘And yet they’re telling us to cut the budget even more?’
It was absurd.
To do that, they would have to further reduce the already small staff, or worse, reduce the wages of those remaining. But the current imperial family was in no position to do so.
It was by no means an exaggeration.
If they recklessly reduced personnel further here, setting aside service, gaps would inevitably, in fact certainly, appear in the security and guard systems. That was directly connected to the safety of the imperial family. It was nonsensical.
Then would reducing wages be possible?
No, that was the same. Currently, most of those working in the imperial family were already making a living at close to minimum wage. While the number of people kept decreasing and the work became more arduous, the money they received was at risk of decreasing even further.
Even now it was practically “volunteer work” maintained barely through a sense of duty, and to tighten their belts even more from there—it was something he couldn’t bring himself to say.
Realistically, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for them to want to leave the palace for their own and their families’ livelihoods.
Then who would dare to work for the imperial family?
