In the end, only after Huiseo whispered something to Hwan did he reluctantly turn away. Even at the moment of leaving, he kept looking back several times, regret dripping from him.
Only then could Yuwon face Huiseo, who had turned toward him.
Now he couldn’t escape to another place either.
At last.
Looking at Yuwon smiling at him, Huiseo wanted to grab his forehead. However, he soon changed his mind. Right, since it had come to this, he wanted to have a conversation.
‘Why on earth is he acting like this toward me?’
He keeps going on about when we were young, when we were young.
No matter how much Huiseo thought about it, unlike with Hwan, he couldn’t recall doing anything impressive with Yuwon. Hearing about it today, they had received imperial education together, but he remembered there being close to ten people at the time.
In fact, even back then he hadn’t been particularly interested in the other children, so even counting that as a connection point, for Huiseo it was just something like ‘was there a kid like that?’ Because of that, he was looking at him as if he couldn’t understand at all, when Yuwon smiled brightly and swept his gaze widely around the palace once.
“The palace is so boring and stuffy, back then and now. There’s too much to clean up after too. Don’t you think so?”
For something said with a smile, it had quite a bite to it.
The ‘cleaning up after’ that Yuwon was talking about seemed to refer to everything he had done earlier until sending away the Emperor, Empress, and Hwan.
However, hearing that story, Huiseo just snorted.
“Then why did you go to the trouble of donating such a large amount to a place like that?”
“A large amount?”
It was his own confident attack pointing out his contradiction, saying you’re the strange one. But the one who received the attack was rather caught up on something else, asking ‘A large amount?’ and tilting his head.
That appearance looked so innocent, as if he was hearing such words for the first time in his life, that Huiseo couldn’t help but bite his lower lip and let out a hollow laugh through the gap.
How annoying.
“That much can be quickly recovered in a few days of rolling it around, so don’t worry.”
“Who said I was worried?”
Watching Huiseo’s expression crumple repeatedly, Yuwon laughed cheerfully as if somewhat pleased. Though Huiseo kept grumbling throughout, it seemed he thought it was truly remarkable progress that the conversation was continuing like this.
“You asked why I did it, right?”
Then suddenly showing a serious face, he asked Huiseo that. Though they’d briefly diverged to another topic, he was referring to what Huiseo had asked him a moment ago—why he had donated such a large sum of money despite not being favorable toward the imperial family.
“Yeah. What exactly are you scheming?”
“Scheming? Obviously, it’s because of you.”
“What…?”
At Yuwon’s completely unexpected answer, Huiseo even stopped walking and just stood there blinking quietly.
‘…What do you mean because of me?’
In Huiseo’s mind, who didn’t understand at all why Yuwon was acting like this toward him, he was overloading for a while, unable to find the connection between the 100 million won that Yuwon had donated and himself.
As if giving Huiseo a hint, Yuwon took one more step closer to him and spoke.
“You might think our connection ended back when we were young, but I didn’t. You were continuously in front of me. You were.”
“What does that mean…”
Though this rarely happened, when incomprehensible words continued again, Huiseo’s face couldn’t hide its confused color.
Yuwon seemed quite pleased by that. He approached with delight, even pushing his face forward and peering at Huiseo as if observing him, and just when Huiseo was about to hesitantly step back, finding it very bewildering.
“Huiseo-ya!”
There was a booming cry that startled both of them at the same time.
When they turned around in surprise, they could see Crown Prince Kang approaching urgently.
***
‘Why?’
At Kang’s unexpected appearance, Huiseo’s eyes widened once again.
Right after that, what came to mind was Hwan’s face.
It was clear that he must be the culprit. Anyway, since Kang’s appearance was welcome, Huiseo dropped his shoulders, which he had been keeping stiffly raised in tension, with relief.
‘I really can’t stop him.’
A faint smile appeared on Huiseo’s lips as he recalled the conversation with Hwan a little while ago.
‘Go to the Eastern Palace. I’ll come soon too.’
‘How can I go leaving you behind? Who knows what that bastard will do?’
‘I think it’ll be fine, but if you’re really worried, send someone suitable from the Eastern Palace. Make some excuse about it being urgent so they can take me away. Can you do it?’
When he whispered like that as if it were a mission to Hwan, who had been stubbornly insisting he wouldn’t go, as expected, he obediently nodded with shining eyes. So he knew someone would come looking for him, but no, he didn’t know they would outright send His Highness the Crown Prince.
Imagining Hwan’s face as he must have rushed fuming to Kang, Huiseo hurriedly lowered his head, swallowing the laughter that was about to burst out, finding it absurd.
“I greet His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“Yes, right. Uh, Huiseo-ya. It’s nothing else, but about the report you gave me before. There’s a problem with it, so I think we urgently need to review it together right now.”
It was a lie.
The only report Huiseo had given was something like impressions he’d written as Hwan’s share after returning from volunteer work, and even if there really was a problem with it, it wasn’t an urgent problem that required the Crown Prince to personally come running to fix it.
It seemed that Hwan, who had run off in that brief moment, had quickly conveyed the general situation to Kang.
“I’m sorry, but for that reason I’ll attach another court attendant to escort him out, so I think I’ll have to part with Huiseo here.”
Saying that, Kang hurriedly grabbed Huiseo’s hand and pulled him to his side. Though he hadn’t been present at the confrontation that had occurred earlier, he was clearly wary of Yuwon.
It wasn’t for any other reason.
The Emperor, with the urgent circumstances of the imperial family and also viewing the Yuwon who was acting friendly in front of him with an adult’s perspective, seemed to have no particular thoughts. But from Kang’s position, who at least experienced school life a bit at a similar age, as soon as he heard the general story from Hwan, he thought this was serious.
To put it simply, it was a situation where a large sum of money had changed hands under the pretext of sponsorship between classmates in the same class. That could overturn their hierarchy in reverse. Despite Hwan being a prince of this country.
‘No, because he’s a prince.’
He thought that could further lead to the imperial family’s authority being shaken.
He was an unusual guy, and it was an unusual situation.
Even if such a person had come all the way to the palace and acted nastily toward Hwan, his heart would have sunk. But hearing that such a guy had specifically designated and was keeping Huiseo with him, Kang couldn’t help but forget his dignity as Crown Prince and run around urgently looking for him.
‘…I can’t let Huiseo have to handle such things.’
It absolutely couldn’t be allowed.
Because of that, it was natural for Kang to scold Hwan, who had come alone.
Meanwhile, when even Kang suddenly popped out and clearly treated him as an unwelcome guest, Yuwon couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh through his tightly clenched teeth. Soon after, he muttered irritably in a small voice.
“…Taking turns doing all sorts of things. Really.”
To be honest, the sight of them all without exception being restless as if Huiseo might be taken away was truly pathetic and ridiculous. He also thought their faces weren’t just ordinarily thick.
As he spat out such raw emotions, even Kang and Huiseo standing in front couldn’t be unaware of his displeased mood.
In fact, Yuwon had come here as a sponsor. But looking at the imperial family’s actions, using Yuwon’s expression, several people were taking turns being desperate to drive him out, so it wasn’t unreasonable that he felt displeased and insulted.
For the imperial family, which had lived as the weak for many years, they were actually inwardly anxious. In the worst case, he might ask for the money he’d given back.
As the imperial family’s situation was difficult and even such petty thoughts occurred to him, Huiseo forcibly suppressed his face that was about to flush hot for a moment. What’s with that damn money? It was a bit, no, very miserable.
Anyway, so he thought a fight might break out soon, but in the prolonged confrontation, surprisingly it was Yuwon who took a step back first.
In fact, there was nothing to gain by arguing back against the Crown Prince in the middle of the imperial palace of all places.
Of course, seeing how he insisted on going only with Huiseo even in front of the Emperor as if he’d die otherwise, one might think he might not care much about such things either.
As that thought suggested, rather than there being something holding him back, Yuwon had decided to show great generosity once since Huiseo seemed uncomfortable with the repeated confrontations.
“…Should I back down just this once?”
Yuwon muttered that while looking straight at Huiseo.
Yet he didn’t seem to have completely given up, reaching for Huiseo’s other hand that wasn’t caught by Kang. Then, holding Huiseo’s hand, he affected an affectionate voice and spoke.
“You must be very curious, but the rest of the story will have to wait until next time.”
The problem was that then Yuwon became quite wistful all by himself and slowly stroked the back of Huiseo’s hand with his thumb.
‘…What’s this?’
Both Kang and Huiseo watched very bewildered, not knowing what to do about that sight. It was fortunate that Hwan wasn’t at this place; if he had seen this sight, he might have really, actually grabbed his collar.
“…Now, stop!”
When the impatient Huiseo pulled his hand away, contrary to expectations, it cleanly fell away right away.
However, the words he spat out toward Kang, the Crown Prince, afterward were simply outrageous. Having apparently abandoned the pretense of being a ‘friendly student who respects the imperial family,’ his words were bristling with countless blatant barbs meant to hurt his opponent.
“Today I’ll let it go as payment for seeing Huiseo’s face. Next time, I’ll visit with a more precise calculation. Properly, so that you can’t treat me like this. So look forward to it.”
As expected, he fully abused his status as a sponsor, leaving behind a shockingly rude warning.
