At first, she thought it was an absurd post.
The writer insisted it was true despite having no verification photo and was complaining about the injustice, and as Hwan silently watched that wailing, the back of his neck was eerily pulled by a strange feeling.
Huiseo. Company. Some big guy following behind.
“……”
A guy he shouldn’t think of kept almost coming to mind.
After mulling it over alone several times, Hwan closed the internet window and instead found and entered the messenger chat window with Huiseo. Of course, if he suddenly interrogated him asking where he was, it might become difficult to handle if that post wasn’t true, so he asked cleverly and indirectly.
[I’m on my way after finishing now, where should I go? Are you in your room?]
But no reply came from Huiseo for quite a while.
He didn’t even check it.
‘He might not see it because he’s concentrating, but….’
Hwan’s fingers holding the phone couldn’t stay still for a moment, as if representing his anxious heart. After seeming to ponder for a while in that state, Hwan opened the messenger chat window again. However, this time the recipient wasn’t Huiseo but a palace servant who would be following at the rear of this procession, Seonghyeon.
[Find out where Huiseo is right now]
There was no one more qualified than him for this task. Since he liked running around here and there so much, he knew many palace servants. No, it would be fewer to pick out palace servants he didn’t know. So if he just made some calls, he’d know right away.
But he sent an answer that seemed to be missing a screw, provoking Hwan’s anger.
[Huh? If it’s Huiseo, he’s probably quietly studying in his room.]
What’s with ‘Huh’ right now…!
[Are you sure? Did you check?]
[Is there a need to? We’ll arrive soon anyway]
‘…In other words, it’s bothersome, right?’
Hwan, who frowned briefly then relaxed, rapidly tapped his phone screen.
[Seonghyeon-hyung]
[…Yes?]
[Where were you around 3 PM yesterday after leaving your post?]
[Could you wait just a moment? I’ll show you in 5 minutes]
[Even 5 minutes feels a bit long]
[3 minutes ㅠ]
Things would work out if done nicely. He always makes me say one more thing, Hwan clicked his tongue. A moment later, Seonghyeon’s reply arrived in a close time not exceeding the promised 3 minutes. The quick answer was satisfying, but the content was not.
[Going out confirmed at 12:36 PM]
Hwan’s expression hardened.
***
‘…It really was Huiseo!’
The situation of suddenly running into her bias in the company lobby.
At that moment, she lost strength and nearly dropped the iced americano she was holding. If her reflexes had been slightly lacking, she would have certainly been in the awkward situation of receiving her bias’s gaze in an unsightly state.
‘Huiseo, at our company, why on earth?’
‘Was there some kind of event?’
She thought hastily but nothing particular came to mind.
Moreover, Hwan was definitely doing a live interview broadcast with the imperial family members somewhere else at this time. She had been eager to review after work what kind of bait our ‘bait vending machine’ had scattered today.
Huiseo was here alone, unrelated to the imperial family members?
It was really strange.
So more than pride, she was so surprised and found it strange that she posted on ‘HwanHui’s Garden’ to confirm.
But the ripple effect seemed bigger than expected. Some demanded verification like photos. However, she had been flustered by the sudden situation, but even if not, she was bothered by the idea of taking secret photos, so she wouldn’t have even thought of taking them in the first place.
Because of that, since she had no way to verify, she seemed to be becoming an attention seeker telling ridiculous lies. Though no one openly said so.
‘I’m not an attention seeker or a troll!’
If it had been such bad intentions, she would have rather gone to other bigger sites and caused chaos.
There was loyalty among the traitors ‘daring to do slightly twisted fandom toward a prince of the nation,’ so she didn’t do such things. She was a member who had been there since the early days of HwanHui’s Garden and was very sincere about it.
So she was insisting that her words were correct, but as comments gradually increased and the matter seemed to be growing, she became afraid that because of her post, harm might come to Hwan and Huiseo, or to this HwanHui’s Garden. Rejoining wasn’t easy either, and she was also scared of being kicked out for being branded as a troll.
‘…What if it really was a mistake?’
No matter how much she thought about it, there was absolutely no reason for Huiseo to be at their company at this time. So she tried to soothe herself that it must have been her mistake, forcibly suppressing the heart that rebelled saying no, it was definitely Huiseo. The mouse cursor was circling around the ‘delete’ button.
But suddenly someone approached her for a chat, not even a private message.
[GoldenApple-nim]
[Where is your company?]
They asked so abruptly without any greeting.
At that straightforward question with no beating around the bush, she couldn’t hide her bewilderment. It somehow seemed like a nuance of trying to extract information related to Huiseo immediately rather than believing her words. Inwardly displeased, she hastily looked at the other person’s nickname.
[ImJoseonHwan]
It was a nickname she knew.
Rather than having had specific interaction, it was because this person, like her who was sincere about HwanHui’s Garden, could be called a ‘bound ghost’ who was visible every time they came. They weren’t the type to create content directly, but it was no exaggeration to say they read almost all posts and left comments. They hadn’t caused any particular problems until now.
So she tried to think that perhaps they weren’t doing this with bad intentions even now.
‘Maybe they’re really just curious.’
But this was behavior that could cross the line. So she wrote her answer carefully.
[I’m sorry but this is actually personal information and I might have really been mistaken so it’s difficult to tell you. I’ll delete the post soon]
It was a polite refusal that couldn’t be more courteous.
But the problem was that the other party couldn’t accept it.
[It might not be a mistake]
[I’m in a hurry]
[Where is it?]
At that persistence, she was dumbfounded for a moment and let out a sigh.
They still don’t understand even though I explained it so clearly? How much more kindly do I need to explain? What’s with this person? Why are they acting so persistently? I didn’t see them that way, but could they possibly be a stalker who follows Hwan and Huiseo’s private lives too?
If so, she definitely couldn’t tell them.
Once her thoughts went in that direction, she felt very unpleasant. Unable to let such a thing slide, she put strength into her fingers striking the keyboard, intending to give them a piece of her mind.
[No, ImJoseonHwan-nim!]
[I just told you in detail that it’s difficult!]
[What are you planning to do knowing that?]
[Don’t tell me you follow the kids around?]
But that’s when it happened.
Photos suddenly began appearing over the chat window she was looking at. It was none other than the person she was chatting with, ‘ImJoseonHwan,’ attaching and sending photos to her.
They were photos of Huiseo.
‘What, is this a bribe? Ha, do you think I’ll fall for that?’
And she was confident she already had most photos anyway.
“…Huh?”
But before long, a rather bewildered exclamation burst from her mouth.
They were indeed photos of Huiseo, but they were unusual. She swore on her fandom life that these couldn’t even be described as rare, they were things she had never seen anywhere.
<Huiseo dozing off while sitting with arms crossed.jpg>
<Huiseo biting a fork across the table.jpg>
<Huiseo sitting with a soccer ball in the front yard of his residence.jpg>
‘…What is this?’
Separately from her hands instinctively finding and pressing the save button, her head was creaking as it struggled to understand this situation. Think. Think about it. She constantly whipped her mind.
‘How on earth did this person obtain these photos?’
These were things that no homma or photographer in the world could easily obtain.
‘Moreover, this location, this angle, this distance….’
Then no matter how much she thought about it, there was only one answer.
‘…But does that make sense?’
However, her body, already instinctively sensing reality, was honest, and her hands placed on the keyboard were trembling. So much so that even a company colleague next to her asked if something was wrong.
‘No, but…. But this place….’
This is a couple site. How did they break through here?
But when a photo that could give no stronger certainty to her ‘impossible’ speculation finally appeared, she covered her mouth with her own hands. If this place hadn’t been the company, she would have certainly screamed out loud.
It was a photo of Adrian, Hwan, and Huiseo together from the last state visit.
At the time, Adrian and Hwan had each posted photos on their SNS, and fans had cut them out calling them selfies of the two and chewed, tore, bit, licked, tasted, and enjoyed them.
However, what she was looking at now was a photo from that day but never published anywhere, a somewhat playful atmosphere photo where Hwan secretly made a finger heart above embarrassed Huiseo’s head.
‘It’s real, this is. It’s real!’
She hesitated several times with trembling hands before carefully sending a message.
[ImJoseonHwan-nim]
[Are you really Hwan…?]
[Your Highness…?]
