The pond's shape, the pavilion's build — all exactly like Sowoljeong. The one difference was that Taewoljeong had a footbridge, so one could enter without bothering with a boat.
"I did away with Sowoljeong's footbridge."
The Crown Prince explained, guessing at Hui-seo's puzzlement over the difference.
"Because it's mine."
Of course, he couldn't understand it at all.
Quick as he was, the Crown Prince must have known Hui-seo hadn't understood — yet he did not do him the kindness of elaborating. But it was not curious enough to need resolving, so Hui-seo nodded shallowly.
Hui-seo's gaze stretched ahead.
The plum scent was faint and far; the red-blossomed changjeon stood lush and green; artfully placed rocks and ponds — nothing was not beautiful, and taking it all in left him dazed.
So he did not at once notice the Crown Prince's gaze turn, for an instant, behind them.
"…Crown Prince?"
A voice — soft as melody, yet elegant — called out and stopped the Crown Prince warmly.
In the palace, there were only two beings who need not address the Crown Prince with honorifics. One was, of course, the Son of Heaven. And the other—
"Mother."
It was the Empress, the Crown Prince's birth mother.
Unlike Hui-seo, the Crown Prince and Won Taegam had sensed her approach; they greeted her without a flicker of surprise.
"To see the Crown Prince here — what brings you?"
Expressing her delight, the Empress gestured to the one standing beside her.
A girl of Hui-seo's age, resembling the Empress, stepped forward as eyes fell on her.
With every movement, the splendid boyo adorning her upswept hair chimed with a crystalline tinkle.
"This girl, Hae-yeon of the Jeong family, greets His Highness the Crown Prince. Have you been well?"
Her smiling face was a picture of youthful bloom.
Hair like black silk, ivory skin, delicate, well-arranged features. Even to Hui-seo's discerning eye, Jeong Hae-yeon was a rare beauty, one none could dislike.
"I see Mother has come out for a stroll as well."
Beautiful. Unlike Hui-seo, admiring from behind, the Crown Prince — who had barely been looking — stepped in front of Hui-seo and faced the Empress.
The tone so often tender when turned on Hui-seo had lost all warmth, as though it had never been.
"Crown Prince — treat her as though she weren't there and you'll embarrass Hae-yeon. In place of Yul, from whom there's been no word for months — his wanderlust upon him again, no doubt — this deep-hearted child comes to ease this mother's tedium. You wouldn't wound her feelings, would you?"
"Mama, this girl is quite all right — do not trouble yourself."
Jeong Hae-yeon, who had seemed abashed, cheeks coloring at being so perfectly ignored, quickly smiled and stayed the Empress's hand as she subtly scolded the Crown Prince.
"You and your wandering thoughts — whatever shall I do with you."
"But Mama — this girl does not come to the palace to console you in Prince Seogun's absence and your loneliness; she comes because she truly loves the time we spend together. To call me deep-hearted is such flattery that I don't know where to put myself."
"My, humble too."
It sounded like a scolding, but the feeling in her sweeping gaze was unmistakable affection. The Crown Prince showed no particular reaction. He looked indifferent, as ever — but Hui-seo could not shake the sense that he regarded the whole scene as a farce, and was thoroughly bored by it.
The Empress, who had been stroking Jeong Hae-yeon's cheek, lifted her head. Her gaze — which all through the conversation had excluded Hui-seo, standing behind the Crown Prince, as though he were a mere object — turned on him.
As though by chance — or by design.
"And who is this one?"
At first flustered, then finding no opening to intrude, Hui-seo had been hovering awkwardly behind the Crown Prince's back; he stepped hastily aside and bowed with clasped hands.
"I am Woo Hui-seo. Empress-mama."
Mercifully, his voice did not tremble.
"Raise your head."
"I am unworthy."
The Empress studied Hui-seo with considerable care.
"So you are the one the Crown Prince keeps close these days. Hearing that the Crown Prince — who never keeps anyone by his side — keeps someone close, I wished to see you once. Woo Munhak's younger brother, of the Sigangwon, no less."
"Yes, that is so."
"I am ignorant of court affairs, but I know His Majesty holds Woo Munhak's learning in high regard. As his younger brother, your own insight must be considerable — I do hope you will attend the Crown Prince well at his side."
To compare his own insight with Hui-won's was absurd in itself. And to begin with, he was kept busy simply losing every game of baduk to the Crown Prince — how could he properly attend him?
"I am of little worth, but I shall do my utmost."
But he could not speak the truth to her face, so Hui-seo averted his eyes and offered a suitable answer.
"Good. I shall look forward to it."
The Empress was pleased with his ready answer.
Perhaps she had not been so very interested in Hui-seo; her gaze was soon withdrawn.
"And — Crown Prince."
His relief at her gaze leaving him was brief; the Empress called to the Crown Prince.
"Speak, Mother."
The Crown Prince answered with courtesy — but with a distance even Hui-seo could feel.
At a tone dry to the point of numbness, Hui-seo saw the fingertips peeking from the Empress's long sleeves falter for an instant — but she hid it deftly.
"Hae-yeon told me to stop, but this mother must still say her piece."
"Mama."
Jeong Hae-yeon called to her as if to stop her, but she remained firm.
"Treat Hae-yeon kindly. This child…"
Pausing for breath, the Empress glanced at Jeong Hae-yeon with tender eyes. Jeong Hae-yeon, no longer trying to stop the Empress, met her eyes instead and smiled faintly.
"Is she not the girl who will be your consort?"
Thud.
He heard something plummet. What was it — what on earth… then realized it was his own heart.
"Once she enters the palace, her husband will be all she has to lean on — can you be so unkind?"
Hui-seo's eyes flicked between the Crown Prince and Jeong Hae-yeon. Side by side, they would look like a painting.
Truly harmonious.
"……."
Hui-seo bit his lip. He didn't know why. He felt strange. His heart seemed to sink, his mind went faint and far — beyond all explaining.
He only stepped back a pace.
Just — because it felt like he should.
As Hui-seo's retreating step made a small sound, the Crown Prince's gaze followed for an instant.
"Mother. This place seems in many ways unfit for such talk; you would do well to defer this conversation."
But the Crown Prince, swiftly composing his gaze, cut the Empress's words off in a firm tone. And even so, he did not — even by accident — spare Jeong Hae-yeon so much as a shred of a glance.
"…Very well. That would be best. I have detained the Crown Prince's steps — come out to enjoy the fine view after so long — for too long—
"So you had heard of it."
Though the time allotted to the famed warrior was short, he added no more words, and simply kept time with the Crown Prince's lead.
"Then I wish you joy of the spring scenery."
The Crown Prince, with only a curt nod, turned straight around. Even their meeting had been abrupt, but their parting was more abrupt still.
Hui-seo stood at a loss for a moment; then, as the Crown Prince turned and walked away, he bowed deeply to the Empress and hurried after him with quick steps.
"I shall see Your Highness off."
Behind him, Jeong Hae-yeon's voice rang out faintly. Each step he took felt heavy, as though his feet were sunk in mud.
That a match had been arranged for the Crown Prince was not so strange a thing. Three years had passed since his coming of age; if anything, it seemed late.
"……"
Why it had been put off, he did not know — but the Crown Prince would soon take a Crown Princess.
The moment he pictured the beautiful woman standing beside the Crown Prince, adjusting her robes, his heart clenched.
"Young master. I've brought your meal."
He was absently clutching at his breast, seized by an unnameable ache, when Su-a called out from outside.
"…I've no appetite."
The moment he answered, the door swung open.
"You barely touched your supper yesterday, and you've skipped breakfast today."
But truly, he had no appetite. His mouth felt parched, and everything he ate felt like chewing sand.
"But I really have no appetite."
"Honestly, young master — who eats their food with their thoughts? Skip any more meals and there'll be real trouble."
He hadn't even skipped a full day of meals, yet Su-a was fussing over him as though he'd starved for days.
"…Fine, I'll eat."
"No."
"Eat, now," she said, narrowing her eyes into triangles. Faced with that stubbornness, Hui-seo could only give way.
He took the table against his will, but with no appetite he could only pick at it listlessly.
"A baby would eat better than that."
Su-a cried out, beating her breast, and shuffled closer on her knees.
"Young master, is something the matter?"
"……"
"Did something happen at the palace?"
Hui-seo had never been one to make a commotion, so for him to act so strangely since his trip to the palace yesterday — Su-a's suspicion was well founded.
"No, what could there possibly be."
All he'd done after meeting the Empress and Hae-yeon was stroll a little longer through the tangerine garden. With the Crown Prince's supper ahead, he hadn't thought it worth lingering.
Nothing in particular had happened.
— except that he had met with the Empress and Jeong Hae-yeon, and learned that Jeong Hae-yeon was the woman chosen to be Crown Princess, and that, for whatever reason, the Crown Prince was soon to take a bride.
Was this hollow feeling born of learning that someone he had thought a little close to him would soon have someone closer still?
Yet this was of a different sort than what had once tormented him. Then his spirits had been at their lowest, and the fear of being cast out of the Crown Prince's world had loomed largest.
But now, each time the Crown Prince's marriage came up, his heart sank, and something in him even rankled — though as a subject he ought to rejoice that the succession of the realm was being set right.
"Is that so? I thought perhaps you'd seen someone in the tangerine garden and fallen in love at first sight, or some such fancy. Of course it wouldn't only be you — they say the palace has beauties as numerous as clouds. But if it's nothing… young master!"
Hui-seo, who had just been drinking water, choked in a fit of coughing at the wholly unexpected words.
"Cough, cough."
As Hui-seo kept coughing, a flustered Su-a patted his back.
Only after his face had burned red did Hui-seo finally calm down; he drew his body back to signal that she could stop patting him.
"Are you all right?"
"Y-yeah. Fine. I must have swallowed wrong. …But Su-a. Why did you think that?"
"Think what?"
"That, I mean, the fancy, and all…."
"Ow."
Though no one was about, Su-a glanced around and lowered her voice to a whisper.
"This is a secret only I know. You must keep it too, young master."
"All right."
"Really, truly."
"I swear it."
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