“Did he take the zither with him too?”
“He did.”
Always at this hour he had been with Son Gwiin, and now suddenly alone, he must have felt lonely and at loose ends, and gone there alone with his zither.
“I shall go to the garden myself, so send no one.” Having said this to the eunuch, Igang ordered the attendants following him to wait here, then set off alone.
Reaching the garden, he indeed saw Huian sitting alone in the pavilion. The zither lay on his lap, but he was not playing it, only gazing at the sun sinking far away; by the look of it, his heart was as lonely as Igang had guessed. Igang gestured to Wiryang — who had noticed his arrival and was about to tell Huian — to be quiet, then headed for the pavilion alone.
“So Son Gwiin has been stolen from you by her mother — what will you do?” he said, stepping up into the pavilion, and only then did Huian turn around. Telling him, who was hurrying to rise, to just stay seated, Igang slowly approached and sat facing him.
“You see — why did you say such a thing? You could have just kept cherishing and doting on her in her mother’s place, as you have until now.”
At his scolding for having done a needless thing, Huian said with a soft laugh:
“However much I cherish and dote on her, how could it compare to her own flesh and blood? And at that age, one mother’s affection is longed for more than the love of ten other people.”
He was plainly smiling as he spoke, yet he could not have looked more forlorn. Perhaps it was not Son Gwiin but his own lonely circumstances at that age that he was remembering as he wore that expression. The thought filled Igang with tenderness again, and his chest ached for nothing. Hiding it, Igang nodded deliberately big and said, “Then good.”
“For the Crown Prince’s consort who will be lonely, I shall keep you company today.”
At the offer to stand in for Son Gwiin, Huian looked surprised for a moment, then said with a smile:
“Then will Your Highness learn the zither from me in Son Gwiin’s place?”
“Why not?”
Igang answered breezily, then at once pushed aside the zither lying on Huian’s lap and lay down with his own head pillowed there instead. Huian laughed as though flustered and said, “Your Highness.”
“You said you would learn the zither — how is it you are already shirking so blatantly?”
“I told you. I used to run off from lessons all the time.”
“Then why not run off instead? If you shirk right before my eyes like this, what am I to do?”
To Huian, who asked with a laugh, Igang answered with a laugh of his own.
“What else? We play together.”
Then he got up, took off even the bothersome small crown and set it beside him, then lay back down pillowed on the lap. Huian, who had been quietly looking down at him, suddenly said:
“Seeing you like this, it strikes me anew that Your Highness is twenty years of age.”
At the abrupt remark, Igang opened his eyes and asked, “What does that mean?”
When he asked if he had not been that age all along, Huian smiled as though a little abashed. “That is not it.”
“Your conduct and speech are always so grown-up and solemn that I have never once thought of you as younger than myself. But seeing you lying here pillowed on my lap with your eyes closed, at last Your Highness looks your true age.”
“Does that mean I look like a child?” Igang asked with a laugh, and Huian answered, “Twenty is no child, is it.”
“True enough.” As he spoke, Igang reached out a hand from where he lay and stroked Huian’s cheek. Drawing him gently down, Huian blinked as though puzzled, yet slowly lowered his head. After kissing those lips with an audible smack, Igang said with a laugh:
“A child could hardly do this.”
Huian’s face flushed in an instant. To him, hurriedly covering his mouth with the back of his hand and lifting his head, Igang said with a face holding back laughter, “What is there to be so startled about?”
“When a married couple plays together alone, what else is there?”
“F-forgive me.” Huian apologized, still covering his mouth with the back of his hand. “And — however — th-this is not even a wedding-night day…”
At his stammering words, Igang was so dumbfounded he sat up without meaning to.
“A wedding-night day is a day the inner court fixes in advance and announces, saying you must lie together without fail — it is not a decree that you may do it only on that day. On other days too, of course, the rite is performed; that day only means you must do it no matter what.”
For all that Igang spoke as though asking what absurd talk this was, the truth was that until now he himself had been exactly so. Apart from the wedding-night days fixed by the inner court, he had never had relations with the Crown Prince’s consort. Since they would have picked and chosen a good day anyway, why waste vigor for nothing — doing it properly once was enough — that was his standing refrain. There was no other reason. He simply had felt no particular need. When he had first come to know women at twelve or thirteen, he had been quite taken with it and enjoyed himself, but having enjoyed it to his fill then, by the time he reached marrying age he felt no great interest in that direction. Besides, his consorts had all alike been quiet, decorous women, and remained so even in bed, so he had felt little excitement or attraction. So it was that they lay together only on wedding-night days, with the feeling of each discharging a duty. Even that had stopped once the consort conceived, which he used as his excuse never to lay a hand on her again.
In truth, he had not come today intending anything of the sort. Hearing that the Crown Prince’s consort had gone to the garden alone, with not even Son Gwiin, he had thought it just as well — to chat cozily together and at last hear the rest of the zither playing he had not heard before — and had deliberately left his attendants behind and come alone. But once he lay pillowed on the lap, the consort’s face smiling down at him from above looked today unusually clear and delicate, and without thinking he ended up kissing him. He had expected surprise, but not such a wary reaction, so Igang, abashed for no reason, spoke in a deliberately stern voice.
Leave a Reply