When Sa Ha-hyeon returned to Byeoksong Palace, the first thing that caught his eye was an animal enclosure set up in one corner of the courtyard. As Ha-hyeon stepped inside, as though hearing his presence, a large creature came out. The beast wagging its thick, fluffy tail at the sight of Ha-hyeon was Orang.
“Orang!”
When had they even gotten close — why did seeing him feel this good? Ha-hyeon reminded himself that the creature had once tried to tear his throat out, yet still drew closer to the enclosure. Every time Orang’s tail swept back and forth, gusts of wind came whooshing over.
“Did you eat? Come here, come here. No barking loudly, okay? You have to be a good boy.”
As if Orang actually understood, he let out a loud bark in what seemed like a response. No matter how you looked at him, he was just a puppy in an oversized body.
“My lady! You’re safe!”
Wol and the maidservants came running out at once.
“Yeah. Were you all okay? Anything happen?”
“How could nothing have happened. But I’m glad you’ve returned safely, my lady. Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”
“Well…… quite a few places, actually.”
The moment Ha-hyeon answered with an embarrassed expression, Wol nodded as though she had expected exactly this.
“Something did happen after all. Girls, hurry and go draw a bath for my lady. My lady, let’s go to the bedroom first.”
“Hmm?”
Wol locked the bedroom door firmly shut. Even then she seemed uneasy, continuously glancing around. Only after checking that there was no one outside the window did she draw close to Ha-hyeon and whisper.
“Does His Majesty now know that my lady is a man?”
“Yeah. That’s how it turned out. But how did you know? Was it that obvious?”
“Haah. So it’s finally come to that. Still, I’m relieved you came back alive like this. Truly relieved.”
“Yeah. I know, right.”
“But my lady — were you in any pain?”
“Hm? Not particularly.”
Ha-hyeon cast his mind back to the events of last night. Wei Wuyuan’s strength as he had held him or pulled him close had been as powerful as always, but that alone wasn’t something he could call painful.
“Are you certain? No bleeding…… nothing torn or swollen?”
“……Hm? Why would there be bleeding.”
“When two men…… share a bed for the first time, I’ve heard there can be blood — and that one can’t walk properly for days afterward. Since something has to be forced into a very narrow place, in a way it’s only natural.”
“Eww! No! It wasn’t like that! Wol!”
Only then did Ha-hyeon understand what Wol meant. Heat rushed to his face in an instant.
“There is nothing to be embarrassed about. Please speak honestly. That way I can help you.”
“It wasn’t like that. Really, nothing happened. We just held hands and slept like usual.”
“That makes no sense. Even having gone all the way to His Majesty’s chambers?”
“He must have been tired.”
“Hmm……”
Wol, clearly unconvinced to the last, narrowed her eyes and looked Ha-hyeon up and down from head to toe. It was obvious she was searching for any small trace hidden beneath his clothing. Unable to endure her gaze any longer, Ha-hyeon bolted for the bathroom. He called out to the maidservants waiting inside.
“E, everyone out! I’m washing myself! The water’s going cold — hurry!”
Ha-hyeon pushed them all out and locked the bolt firmly. He sank his body into the steaming bath. He needed to wash the impure thoughts cluttering his mind clean away.
Clear your head. I am nothing more than His Majesty’s body pillow — his comfort doll. Nothing more, nothing less. What should I eat tonight. What would be good feed for Orang. How should I get in contact with Baek Seojin. If I ever manage to return to my original world, is there any knowledge or information from here that could actually make me money back in reality.
Sa Ha-hyeon desperately tried to steer his thoughts in another direction. But thoughts, as they always do, kept drifting toward exactly where they shouldn’t go.
No bleeding…… nothing torn or swollen?
The horrifying thing Wol had said echoed in his ears like tinnitus. Ha-hyeon swallowed dryly.
But if the two of us actually did that…… what would even happen?
Sa Ha-hyeon was a fully grown adult — he could more or less imagine how things would unfold. The issue, however, was who would be on top and who would be on the bottom.
“Hmm. I’m older, so there’s the whole matter of respecting seniority — and the proper principles of Confucian order. So naturally, I should be the one leading, right?”
Ha-hyeon rubbed his chin and muttered with surprising seriousness. In any case, Wei Wuyuan now knew that Yeong-ui Songbaek was not a woman.
Ha-hyeon quietly closed his eyes and let himself imagine. A picture of himself on top, and Wei Wuyuan lying back on the bed, looking up at him.
In Sa Ha-hyeon’s imagination, Wei Wuyuan had none of his usual arrogance — his face was flushed red, his eyes drooping languidly downward. A sweat-damp forehead, ink-black hair scattered in disarray, a rising and falling chest, and the sticky scent of perspiration drifting to the tip of his nose, mingled with Wei Wuyuan’s own warmth……
Wait — holy — he’s actually gorgeous?
“What? He’s genuinely gorgeous?”
This is a line of thought that must not be crossed. Sa Ha-hyeon smacked himself hard on the head with the wooden ladle he was holding.
Crack — the ladle split clean in two. And like something forcing its way through the crack, Wei Wuyuan pushed back into Ha-hyeon’s mind. The imagination only grew more specific, and more vivid.
***
A few days later, Baek Seojin came to Byeoksong Palace again. Instead of the gleaming armor he had worn at the Winter Hunt, he was back in his plain, unassuming clothes — more familiar attire to Sa Ha-hyeon.
The eunuch who had come with him unrolled a scroll bearing the Emperor’s decree and read it aloud on Baek Seojin’s behalf.
Bows and swords are dangerous and are hereby forbidden. In their place, she is to learn self-defense. This is so that Yeong-ui may protect her own body, no matter what situation may arise.
The training proceeded in suffocating silence. Throughout the entire time Ha-hyeon learned self-defense from Baek Seojin, the Emperor’s watchers were stationed on all sides, watching the two of them with blazing, alert eyes. There was no room to pass a note, no fleeting moment to exchange even a glance.
How can I shake off these eyes. Should I feign losing my temper during training? If I grabbed him roughly by the collar and knocked him down, could I use that chaos to slip a letter I’d prepared in advance into Seojin’s clothing? Ha-hyeon’s mind worked furiously. Perhaps he had been too absorbed in his own thoughts during training —
Thwack!
Ha-hyeon’s elbow, misjudging the distance, struck Baek Seojin hard across the jaw.
“Instructor!”
Ha-hyeon startled and quickly checked on Baek Seojin. But Baek Seojin, expression blank as ever, simply straightened his head as if nothing had happened. Flustered with guilt, Ha-hyeon cupped Baek Seojin’s cheek in both hands.
“Are you alright? That sounded like quite a hit.”
Just then, one of the watchers observing them spoke loudly.
“Step back! My lady, keep your distance. You must observe proper conduct!”
At the sharp reprimand, Baek Seojin stepped back as well. His lower lip trembled faintly. A moment later, red blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth.
“Instructor?”
Sa Ha-hyeon’s face went pale.
“Blood — you’re bleeding. Call the imperial physician at once! Or any physician! Anyone — call someone. Instructor, how on earth is there so much blood——”
Ha-hyeon called out urgently and rushed toward Baek Seojin. He pushed up his silk sleeve and tried to wipe the blood from the corner of Seojin’s mouth. But Baek Seojin was unyielding. Even with blood flowing like that, he desperately avoided Ha-hyeon’s touch. When Ha-hyeon reached out once more, Seojin at last shoved his arm away roughly.
He gave a brief bow and then fled Byeoksong Palace as if running away.
That night. Even lying in bed, Ha-hyeon couldn’t stop turning over the image of Baek Seojin bleeding — it wouldn’t leave his mind. He spoke carefully to Wei Wuyuan, who was lying beside him.
“Your Majesty, the instructor was injured in the face during training today. He was bleeding quite a lot — I’m worried about whether he received proper treatment.”
It had taken courage to say it, but a belated dread crept in afterward. Worried that Wei Wuyuan might show that strange jealousy of his again — but Wei Wuyuan simply gave a benevolent smile.
“Do not worry. Is he not a valued subject to me as well? I have already sent medicine and given orders to see that he is well taken care of.”
“Was the injury serious?”
“A small scratch, apparently.”
“That’s a relief. What a relief.”
“So, stop worrying and hold me.”
Ha-hyeon did as the Emperor commanded and held him. Only then did Wei Wuyuan close his eyes and breathe easily. Soon, as though he had fallen asleep, he began to breathe in long, steady rhythm without a word.
Come to think of it, Wei Wuyuan had treated Ha-hyeon exactly the same as before, even after learning he was a man. Didn’t it bother him at all — sleeping wrapped around another man? Even if he had no choice but to come here, they could have slept separately. Even with only one bed, Sa Ha-hyeon was in a position where he’d sleep on a stone floor if told to.
Could it be…… is he lonely?
They do say the person at the top is always lonely. And an Emperor is the boss of all bosses — so how much more so must it be.
Thinking it over that way, Wei Wuyuan suddenly struck Ha-hyeon as deeply pitiable. Ha-hyeon decided to offer his reluctant accomplice a small measure of comfort. Even if his arms weren’t as soft as a woman’s, he was at least confident in being sturdy.
Still lying on his side, he inched and wriggled across the bed like a caterpillar. The Emperor’s straight, elegant nose came to rest against Ha-hyeon’s chest. Sa Ha-hyeon wriggled once more — this time to get a little closer to the Emperor. Once he was satisfied with how near they were, he wrapped the arm he had moved upward gently around the Emperor’s back.
Lying like this — it reminds me of old times. It’s nice.
The sleeping Wei Wuyuan said nothing.
***
The next day, Ha-hyeon was climbing a tall tree near the palace wall.
The reason he was clambering up it like a monkey, despite Wol and the maidservants going pale with alarm and trying to stop him, was that the chirping cries of a baby bird dangling precariously in a nest at the end of a branch simply would not stop.
“Just wait a little longer, I’ll get you down.”
Ha-hyeon had climbed up to the height where the nest was. Perhaps because it was so high in the tree, the view beyond the palace wall — which he normally would never have been able to see — came into sight. At the gate leading into Byeoksong Palace stood Baek Seojin. With him were several eunuchs.
One of the eunuchs handed something to Baek Seojin.
What are they giving him?
The moment Ha-hyeon narrowed his eyes to look more closely, a silver flash caught by sunlight stabbed into his eyes. It was something thin and razor-sharp — like a blade. Baek Seojin, his face entirely expressionless, picked up the sharp metal object. Then, with practiced ease, he opened his mouth and pushed it deep inside — beneath his tongue, or into the inside of his cheek — Ha-hyeon couldn’t tell exactly where.
Ha-hyeon clapped a hand over his own mouth, forgetting to breathe. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing with his own eyes. The reason Baek Seojin had never been able to speak — it was because he had been carrying something that dangerous in his mouth all this time. And suddenly, it made sense why he had bled so much yesterday.
Though it couldn’t be seen from the outside, it was a gag more cruel than anything else. The Emperor’s gentle voice from the night before struck his ears like a hallucination. Goosebumps rose all over Ha-hyeon’s body.
