After completing the final procedure of Myohyeonrye—going to the Royal Shrine to announce to the past kings and queens, emperors and empresses—she would become the new mistress of the Eastern Palace together with Kang.
Everyone in the imperial family could breathe a sigh of relief at her successful soft landing.
Seoran’s quiet and gentle disposition didn’t seem likely to cause major conflicts with Kang, and although the circumstances and beginning of how the two met were what they were, they just needed to get along well together from now on. They comforted themselves saying they just needed to show everyone by doing so.
They hoped for that.
But not long after that, the first commotion in the palace caused by her broke out.
And it was related to Huiseo.
***
After Hwan begged and pleaded to be allowed to stay quiet, to just let him be by his side, Huiseo also began to make considerable concessions. It meant that the days when he came to visit Hwan’s quarters to study increased, even if it wasn’t necessarily his own room.
They would spread a table in the middle of the room, and Huiseo would study looking at books on it, while Hwan sat across from him. Sometimes he would also look into books following Huiseo’s example… but that was extremely rare, and most of the time he would quietly observe Huiseo or fiddle with his phone.
Today was the same.
Recently, the titles of the books Huiseo brought almost all had ‘management’ or ‘economics’ attached to them. It seemed his interest these days was in that direction.
‘Is he trying to decide on business administration for his career path?’
Thinking vaguely like that, Hwan had been propping his chin and looking at Huiseo’s face for a while, then lifted his phone after a moment. Then he glanced once at Huiseo sitting across from him and carefully entered ‘HwanHui’s Garden.’
With an indifferent expression, if Huiseo happened to look up, he might think this guy was bored and checking portal news or something, but in fact that was just an act—Hwan was very excited, his nose twitching, seeing that the next part of the story he’d been waiting for had been posted.
‘Finally!’
The author appeared only intermittently once every few days without notice, so he’d been anxious, really.
‘Especially since in the previous part, it ended with Huiseo crying…!’
Was it because of the current time period? The content of the creative works being posted had become mostly ‘bitter angst’ related to weddings, which made Hwan very troubled. Hidden masters from the field kept popping up one after another, squeezing tear ducts and hearts mercilessly, making him lose sleep at night.
He felt like he could somewhat understand the feelings of that respected person who was denounced as a pervert for fighting among themselves over whether Hwan and Huiseo had fought or not, saying things like ‘crying and begging is delicious and whatnot.’
‘…Huiseo crying.’
Huiseo, crying?
Hwan unconsciously cast his eyes toward Huiseo, who was reading a book with a proper face across from him.
Even though he’d been openly staring at him all this time, he felt like he was suddenly stealing glances, so Hwan cleared his throat softly and turned his eyes back to his phone. Hwan, who deliberately steadied his breathing that kept trying to become unnatural, worried it might disturb Huiseo who was studying, tapped the phone screen with his fingertips that were trembling slightly.
Then finally, the next part that Hwan had been eagerly waiting for continued.
[“Huiseo-ya…. Please.”
Seeing Huiseo shedding tears that looked even more pitiful because they were silent, Hwan twisted his expression as if he himself were in more pain. Please, don’t cry. Pleading, Hwan grabbed Huiseo’s shoulders. However, Huiseo’s tearfulness didn’t subside but only grew thicker.
His crying, which had burst over the high and solid dam of his heart built up over a very long time since childhood, couldn’t stop easily.
Huiseo deeply resented Hwan for driving him to that extent.
‘I should smile, I should send him off with a smile.’
He had practiced countless times even looking in the mirror.
Forgetting all those expressions, the sight of himself blaming and pressing Hwan was also terrible. Huiseo, who had lost even the strength to stand, collapsed as if crumbling.
Hwan’s wedding that would soon come had made the two of them this terribly, thoroughly ruined.
“…Tell me. Huiseo-ya.”
“……”
“…Tell me not to. Tell me not to go.”
With one word from you, I….
“…I can throw everything away.”
Likewise collapsing in a mess, embracing Huiseo as if he wouldn’t let him go and burying his face in his shoulder, tearfulness finally seeped out from Hwan too. At that sight, Huiseo’s heart was torn with pain just the same.
If it were up to his heart, he too wanted to cry out the words he wanted a hundred times, a thousand times. His own heart was even more so wanting to do that.
But how could he possibly do so?
Hwan was a prince.
What meaning did his wedding have for the imperial family and for this country?
“…How can I do that.”
How can I tell you to throw away all the people for me?
How can I ruin you like that?
You, whom I love.]
The two people cornered exchanged a desperate kiss after holding each other a bit more and pouring out their parallel passions. Watching that scene, Hwan even swallowed his saliva. Along with an intense gaze that could pierce through the phone screen and more, the scroll went down particularly slowly at that part.
But it was right at that moment.
“Your Highness.”
Suddenly hearing someone calling him from outside, the startled Hwan almost dropped his phone. After doing some ridiculous juggling a couple of times while receiving Huiseo’s gaze looking at him strangely, Hwan cleared his throat awkwardly and answered, pretending to be dignified.
“Ahem, hmm, didn’t I tell you not to call me unless it’s urgent since Huiseo is studying?”
“I apologize. It’s just… there’s been contact from the separate palace.”
“What? What did you say? Where?”
‘No, what on earth is this about?’
Hwan’s eyes widened at the unbelievable words.
‘The Crown Princess? Me? Why?’
Due to the recent wedding, she had now also become a member of the imperial family, meaning she would soon be family with Hwan too, but they hadn’t become close enough to exchange separate contacts like this. There couldn’t be any other such circumstances between the two of them either.
Even if there were tasks to assign or things to be scolded for, that would be hyung Kang’s role.
‘Can I just go visit on my own?’
While thinking that and gauging Huiseo’s reaction as if seeking confirmation, the court attendant delivering the news corrected his words with an even more awkward expression.
“She’s looking for Huiseo.”
So this time it was Huiseo’s eyes that widened. It was an expression exactly like the one Hwan had just made. No, in fact, this side was more confused.
‘The Crown Princess? Me? Why on earth?’
For someone who had just recently become Crown Princess to call him first outside of official matters—even Huiseo couldn’t help but drop the pen he was holding in surprise.
If there were at least something that came to mind, he could try to deal with it somehow, but since the only time he’d directly encountered her was seeing her from afar at the wedding, he had no clue at all.
While they exchanged glances not knowing what to do, Hwan also thought about it in his own way.
‘If it’s a connection point between Huiseo and Her Highness the Crown Princess, it can only be hyung….’
Hyung and Huiseo?
As his thoughts reached that point, a thought suddenly crossed Hwan’s mind.
‘Wait a minute. Could it be that Her Highness is having some tremendous misunderstanding?’
Suddenly, several novels Hwan had recently read flashed before his eyes. The genres were mainly things like ‘crimes of passion’ and ‘palace intrigue.’ Since he’d been reading things lately where people kept rolling around in devastation and crying buckets, his mind seemed to have hardened in that direction.
‘You know how much the prince’s consort, whose face we don’t even know yet, torments Huiseo in the novels?’
Having over-immersed himself properly, Hwan anxiously grabbed Huiseo’s hand.
“Wouldn’t it be better not to go?”
***
However, that was just talk—when she had specifically designated and called for him, how could he not go? Even when Hwan insisted he would go see her first, or if that didn’t work, he’d go in together, it wasn’t easy to do so when they weren’t close yet.
In the end, Huiseo calmly stood up in the manner of being summoned to the Crown Princess’s palace, and only Hwan’s face turned pale.
‘Surely not. Nothing will happen that would make it hard for Huiseo to hold his head up again, right?’
He wanted to think not, but since he had no direct experience with the Crown Princess, he couldn’t be certain. But in the midst of that, rather than appreciating Hwan’s feelings, Huiseo seemed worried that Hwan might sit down in the front yard again like the incident at the Empress Dowager’s palace.
“You mustn’t act like last time in front of Her Highness the Crown Princess.”
“Do I just act like that any time…!”
Hwan, who had actually been thinking of following along to see the atmosphere and maybe doing that a little, shouted unnecessarily.
‘…He knows me too well, this guy.’
Having his hands and feet tied like that, in the end Hwan’s resentment turned toward his hyung, Kang.
‘Lee Kang…!’
When Yuwon came to the palace, it was indescribable how furious Kang had been at Hwan for coming alone to the Eastern Palace, leaving only Huiseo by his side.
No matter how much Huiseo told him to go, he was thoroughly scolded for stupidly making Huiseo handle alone whatever demands that guy might make of him using the money he gave as leverage, when they didn’t know what he might do.
Though he usually fought a lot with Kang and got scolded often, that was the first time he’d heard such thunderous shouting.
‘After acting so superior, what is this?’
At the time, Hwan had realized that Kang’s words were a hundred times right and that he himself was this lacking, and he had even secretly reflected with tears. But perhaps he really was immature—a few days later he completely forgot and such grumbling thoughts popped up again.
‘This won’t do.’
The important thing was still Huiseo.
If Huiseo having to go was an unchangeable reality, Hwan decided to try attacking the other side. The lips of Hwan, who was getting up, twisted in displeasure.
‘I need to catch hyung.’
