The rite of the hapgeunrye was held at the hour of Xu (early evening).
At the cry announcing the first watch, the Sang-sik and the court ladies entered the crown prince consort’s bedchamber, which was to serve as the bridal chamber, to set out the altar and burn incense. Meanwhile Huian, having finished a clean bath, donned his ceremonial robes with the help of a court matron. His ceremonial robe was of red silk embroidered with pheasants, and small flowers were worked along the collar as well. With a kneelength ceremonial skirt around his waist and, for the first time since the investiture, a silver coronet on his head, he made for the bedchamber — where the crown prince, already arrived, greeted him with a light bow. He too was dressed in black ceremonial robes and a ceremonial cap.
At the first quarter of the hour of Xu, the rite was conducted under the direction of the eunuchs and court matrons sent from Wonnyeong Palace. The crown prince and the crown prince consort sat facing each other across a table spread with food. First, in the proper order, they placed a little of each side dish into the ritual vessels and handed them to the court ladies.
When the court ladies had carried those away, the Sang-sik served rice and soup and several other side dishes into the bowls of the crown prince and the consort respectively. When the two had finished their meal over three courses, the court ladies cleared the table. And then at last the Sang-sik poured wine into a pure white jade cup.
The nuptial wine, reddish in color, brewed with albizia flowers — the crown prince drank the first sip, then passed the very same cup to the consort. The consort drained it, then had to pour it half full again and hand it back to the crown prince; and the crown prince too had to empty the cup and at once fill it halfway and hand it to the consort.
With the passing of the cup and the sharing of the nuptial wine, the rite of the hapgeunrye was complete. While the court ladies cleared the altar and tidied the bedchamber, the consort was to change inside the curtained enclosure set up within the bedchamber, and the crown prince in the next room.
“Your Highness, you may put these on.”
The red night skirt the elderly court matron handed him was, to anyone’s eyes, a woman’s nightdress. He had no mind to say anything about why they had brought a woman’s garment, or why the color was so garish.
But —
“…I wear only this?”
To the part where they gave him no underclothes to wear beneath, but just the one skirt and nothing more, he could not help saying something.
“Yes, Mama. By custom, one does not wear underclothes on the wedding night.”
“I see…”
Huian stifled a sigh that threatened to escape and put the clothes on. Whether to call it sensible or what. Thinking to himself that this was a country that dressed even the most trifling matters in full ceremony, yet was startlingly bold in such things — just then a court lady pulled the night skirt up above his chest and tied it firmly with a cord, then draped over it a robe of sheer red silk. Somehow, dressed as he was, he felt more indecent than if he were stark naked; he marveled inwardly that anyone had managed to devise such a wanton-looking garment. While he marveled, Geum-a and Hwaryeong clung to him and began doing his hair. Without putting it up in a topknot, they combed it smooth and pinned it up; they set no formal cap on him, fixing it only with a hairpin hung with red beads. Geum-a hung tiny earrings, no bigger than red beans, in his ears — red jade as well.
The court people escorted the consort out from within the curtained enclosure and helped him sit upon the bed, then withdrew walking backward.
Sitting on the bed, waiting, beneath the dazzling canopy drapes hanging in disarray — after a while the bedchamber door opened and the crown prince entered. He too was dressed in red nightclothes. But his garment was not gauze; it was a vest of lustrous silk. And like Huian, with no formal cap, he wore his hair long and loose; with that beautiful face, wearing his long hair loose like waterfall silk — never mind his great strapping frame — if there were such a thing as a fairy, surely it would look just like him.
The moment he entered the room, the crown prince went straight to the table by the window. The Sang-sik had set wine and cups there. The crown prince picked up one of the wine bottles and began slowly pouring into a cup. It being the night of the full moon, soft moonlight streamed through the lattice of the latticed window, its blinds undrawn, and lit his figure whole. A fairy-like figure standing thus in the moonlight — a beauty in the moonlight if ever there was one.
“Why do you stare so?”
He had noticed the staring while Huian was gazing vacantly. “It’s the first time I’ve seen Your Highness with your hair down…” Huian murmured, still half dazed.
“I was thinking you look just like a fairy.” At Huian’s words, the crown prince burst into brief laughter.
“Think you’ll fall for me?”
“Not quite that… more like I’ll be bewitched. If I keep looking.” Murmuring softly, Huian turned his gaze away.
“Then all the more reason to keep looking — why turn away?” The crown prince said with a smile, and approached the bed with the cup in his hand. Parting the layered canopy drapes with his hand, he came up to the bed; tilting the cup in his hand, he took wine into his mouth. Then, cupping Huian’s cheek in one hand, he kissed him full on.
…!
Before he had time to be startled, a hot tongue at once forced its way between his lips. Sweet wine flowed into his mouth along with it. Huian swallowed it all unthinkingly. When he had taken in nearly the whole cup that way, only then did the crown prince part their lips and smile at Huian. Stroking his cheek gently with a finger, as if to praise him, he said abruptly,
“Your ear has quite healed.”
Before Huian knew it, his hand was caressing the earlobe where the earring hung. Huian, feeling oddly shy, fiddled with the other ear and answered, “Yes.”
“Good thing it didn’t fester.”
With that, the crown prince set the cup on the floor and sat down on the bed. Looking Huian over where he sat beside him, he said, as if finding it curious,
“Seen like this, the shape of it is surprisingly natural.”
Huian blinked, wondering what he meant — then belatedly realized he was talking about his wings, and murmured, “Ah.” In the see-through clothes he wore, the shape of the wing bones rising from his back and the shape of the joints showed through just as they were.
“May I touch them?”
At the crown prince’s words, Huian hesitated a moment, then answered, “Of course.” After all, he’d be showing them until the crown prince tired of it — so thinking, he took off the gauze robe himself. The crown prince slowly touched Huian’s wings with his hand, spread before his eyes. He touched the great bones continuing from his back, and carefully stroked the soft joints linking each bone to the next.
“Does it hurt, lying down, with the wings digging in?”
“No.”
At Huian’s explanation that, thanks to the joints in every segment of bone, lying down made the wings bend naturally and fold into a shape that wrapped around his body, the crown prince made a marveling face and murmured as if to himself,
“Like ears, then?”
At the unexpected expression, Huian laughed and answered, “Yes, that’s right. They’re like ears.”
“I see. Then washing must be more trouble than sleeping.” It was half a joke, but it was true as well, so Huian could only smile again. Besides, the other half-beings had something like oil on their feathers so their wings would not get wet — pour water on them and they barely got wet — but he had no such thing, and the moment he went into water he got soaked straight through.
Sure enough, stroking the wing feathers, the crown prince said,
“They say a half-being’s wings are coated in oil, and that the oil gives off a scent.”
“But I smell nothing at all from you.” Huian had expected him to say that. What should he say — that people differed, or that it was because he had just bathed — he was turning over various excuses in his head when the crown prince said,
“Ah — but there it is, a faint scent of frankincense. Not overpowering, soft — all the better for it.” For a moment Huian thought, flustered, “Surely not” — but soon he realized the crown prince had kindly made it up. Well — with the consummation at hand, there was no need to wound the other’s feelings with a careless word.
Whatever the reason, he was grateful to the crown prince for saying it out of consideration for him. But putting that gratitude into words was embarrassing too, so he only smiled at him — and the crown prince, gazing at such a Huian, smiled quietly in return, then kissed him slowly once more. Huian had worried he might push his tongue in again; fortunately, this time he only sucked at his lips with a soft, audible smack. Slightly relieved, Huian lifted his chin a little so the crown prince could find his lips more easily.
As he quietly closed his eyes that way, a warm hand touched his cheek again. The hand stroked Huian’s cheek, caressed his ear, then slowly swept up the back of his head. And the next moment, the hairpin fixing his pinned-up hair slipped smoothly out. His pinned hair came undone all at once and fell long; Huian flinched without knowing it and opened his eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
The crown prince asked, parting their lips. Huian blinked a moment, then bowed his head with an “It’s nothing.”
But the quick-eyed crown prince was not one to let it pass.
“You don’t like others seeing the color of your hair.”
Huian could not answer at once, and the crown prince, smiling as if he understood, began slowly stroking Huian’s hair with his big hand. Combing it with his fingers as if with a comb, he stroked Huian’s hair for a long while, then murmured, “What a strange color.”
“In the dark it looks truly black, but in the light there’s quite a lot of red mixed in. And yet it doesn’t look quite red either — sometimes violet, sometimes orange-red…”
“There’s no one else in all the world with such a color, is there?” The crown prince asked, touching his hair. In that voice there was no contempt, no disgust — only pure admiration and curiosity — and Huian’s heart eased a little.
“Probably.”
“Your eyebrows too, I see.”
He said it with wide eyes, as if only now realizing. That expression was somehow childlike — and just as Huian was about to smile —
“How about here?”
At the touch of a hand flipping up his skirt without warning, Huian startled and grabbed it back down, crying, “Your Highness!”
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