“What time is it now?”
The moment he opened his eyes, Huian asked toward the door. His voice was so hoarse that he startled himself hearing it, but as though someone had somehow heard, Yeogwan answered at once from outside the door.
“It will soon be the Snake Hour, my lord.”
At Yeogwan’s answer, Huian covered his face with his arm and let out a heavy sigh. It was over. He could only see it as utterly ruined.
It had been like that since last evening. With no confidence he could do well, and no way he could do well anyway, he had resolved to do only as the Crown Prince bade him. And one more thing: that, as Sang Jaein had said, the Crown Prince would never have to lay a hand on his jade stem himself.
But he had failed even at that one thing, and in the end had made the Prince resolve it with his own hand. And he had only to endure a little longer, but he could not endure and burst into tears, and so ruined even the mood. He had even fallen asleep just as he was, without waiting for the Prince to return from washing.
Having botched things so badly, he should at least have risen early this morning, done what needed doing, and finished properly. But when he came to himself and got up, it was already this hour.
What am I even doing…
Huian dragged both hands down his face. Of course, no one would scold him for this, and no one would openly reproach him to his face. Rather, he himself was so pathetic he could not bear it. And how disappointed must the Crown Prince be? And of all people, he was a man who had already married three times at his age. Try as he might not to compare, he could not help but compare with the two former consorts; the very thought of how pathetic he must seem in the Prince’s eyes was crushing.
And those consorts had both married at sixteen and seventeen… What could he say for himself, at twenty-four, behaving like this?
His mood being so wretched, only gloomy thoughts would come. And his body was in poor shape too; he lay sprawled on the bed, unable to even think of getting up, sighing over and over, when suddenly–
“The Crown Prince has arrived.”
At the voice that burst out from outside, Huian sat bolt upright without thinking. Before he could even fumble for his clothes in his fluster, the door opened and the Prince entered. Behind him came Geuma, holding a comb case.
“So you are awake now.”
The smiling Prince was already fully dressed in his court robes. Of course. By now, morning audience would long be over.
“Forgive me– no, I beg your pardon, Your Highness.”
In his fluster the words would not even come out right. As he got up, flailing about for something to throw on, the Prince pointed to the chair before the table and said:
“Never mind that. Come and sit here.”
He could well guess what the Prince meant to do, which made him hesitate all the more. But he could not simply hold out forever, so he approached hesitantly, and the Prince himself drew out the chair, saying, “Come, sit.”
Huian sat weakly in the chair, his shoulders slumped. Soon the Prince took the comb from Geuma and began slowly combing Huian’s hair. First he dampened it and combed out the tangles of the night, then gave it luster with camellia oil. Gathering all that hair, he bound it up without leaving a single strand, twisted it into a topknot, and set a small silver coronet over it. Finally, driving a hairpin through to fix the coronet in place, he was done.
“Only a topknot to arrange — how easy. I like that.”
The Prince smiled, looking pleased at the hair he had arranged himself. Indeed, with the two former consorts, he would have had to braid each strand and pile it up, fix pins on both sides, and adorn it all around with hair ornaments — how tiresome that must have been.
At the thought of the Prince’s former wives, Huian grew gloomy again. They must have risen early the morning after their wedding nights, prepared the morning meal, and helped the Prince dress. They would not have botched the wedding night the way he had. Naturally the Prince would have been more satisfied with them.
The more he thought, the gloomier he became. What had the Prince been thinking while combing his hair? Did he think him shameless, sitting there doing none of what he ought, receiving only what was given? Sunk in boundless self-reproach, he was wallowing when the Prince suddenly called, “My consort.”
“Turn your head this way for a moment.”
At the out-of-nowhere request, Huian asked “What?” even as he unthinkingly did as told. From beside his ear came a soft jingling, and something caught at his earlobe. He only realized they were earrings when the same weight settled on the other ear.
“What… is this?”
“Are they not earrings?”
The Prince answered offhandedly. At Huian’s look — that is not what I am asking — the Prince smiled, flicking the earrings so they rang, and said:
“I heard that in Hye, on the morning after the wedding night, a husband gives his wife a gift. ‘Thank you for choosing me.’”
Huian murmured without thinking.
“Of course, my consort did not choose me. But you accepted our marriage proposal and came all this way to this distant foreign land. It is a gift in token of my gratitude.”
At the wholly unexpected words, Huian did not know what to say. As always, he could simply say “I am overwhelmed,” but those words were not right for what he felt now. They were too meager.
But no matter how he thought, no fitting words came. Fidgeting with the earrings, his lips moving, he finally said in a small voice:
“Th… thank you.”
No other words came to him. Rather than “Your grace is immeasurable” or “I am overwhelmed,” he simply wanted to say thank you.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
I will treasure them. Still fidgeting with the earrings, Huian added it. Whether he understood the meaning of that plain, unceremonious greeting, the Prince did not answer with his usual teasing rebuke, but only smiled deeply, his face warm.
“Rest a little more. I shall go to my lecture now.”
After patting Huian’s shoulder twice, the Prince left the room. Long after the Prince had gone, Huian could not take his hands from the earrings. Gazing at the door through which he had vanished, he kept touching them for a long, long time.
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