YCHW Ch 66

“How was your day today?”

“It was a day that made me feel many things.”

“Is that so. Was there anyone who treated you rudely? If so, I will give them a good scolding.”

Hearing the kind question, Yoonso realized that Hwi knew all about the conversation that had taken place in the JaYeongjeon Hall during the day. Yoonso stared silently at Hwi before shaking his head.

“I have a talent for letting people’s words pass me by, as if they were a dog barking. So please do not mind.”

Hwi gave a short laugh, then tucked a stray strand of Yoonso’s hair behind his ear.

“Even a dog should not be allowed to bark at you.”

“It is all right. It is not as if I get hurt.”

“You are very brave.”

At those words, delivered as if in praise or perhaps in sympathy, Yoonso merely shrugged his shoulders.

Hwi’s thumb gently stroked the tips of Yoonso’s fingers. Yoonso left his hand to Hwi’s touch, feeling the time flow by. Perhaps because Hwi was by his side, he did not feel lonely. He only hoped that Hwi felt the same.

𓇢𓆸

When the warmth receded and he opened his eyes, he saw Hwi arranging his hair. Yoonso stared at him blankly for a moment before asking.

“Shall I do it for you?”

Hwi stopped what he was doing and turned around.

“Are you awake?”

As Yoonso sluggishly got up and approached Hwi, Hwi obediently held out a hairpin. Before inserting it, Yoonso first combed through Hwi’s hair, smoothing it out. The rustling texture felt so nice that he couldn’t help but understand why Yeondeok had loved tending to his hair so much in the old days.

“Do you always get ready by yourself like this?”

“It has become a habit, so having someone else do it feels uncomfortable. And I know best how to keep it from getting messy in a free-for-all.”

“A free-for-all?”

“Ah, we Yongrin sometimes call the Portrait of Hell a free-for-all.”

After combing all the hair, he tried to put it up neatly as Hwi usually did, but it was not easy. Yoonso, too, had never attended to another person, so he could not get his bearings and kept fumbling.

“So there is something you cannot do after all.”

Hwi laughed softly. Remembering the day Hwi had done his hair, Yoonso bit back a smile and managed, with great difficulty, to insert the hairpin.

However, it was so loose and slack that he looked less like a dignified Son of Heaven and more like a common loafer, so Yoonso decided to give up.

“It would be better for you to do it again.”

“This is the first time you have put up my hair. How could I do that?”

This time, Hwi turned around and put up Yoonso’s hair. Having done it once before, his skill was now quite adept.

After they were fully dressed, the morning royal meal was brought in. While waiting for the food tasters to finish, Yoonso looked over Hwi’s attire. His hairstyle was definitely the fly in the ointment.

“You are not really going to go out like that, are you?”

“What does it matter? When I go to the main hall, I will be wearing a crown, so no one will know.”

If the emperor were to go out in such a state, it was only right to stop him, but his fingertips tingled, and he felt no such inclination. Yoonso pressed down the 괜sre feeling of sorrow and excitement with a cup of warm tea.

“What are you planning to do today?”

“I plan to handle the affairs of the Yeong위원, inspect the ledgers of the inner court, and if there is enough time, practice archery.”

“I see. I would like to tell you my plans as well, but they are all uninteresting things.”

Even as Hwi said this, he explained in a soft voice what topics would be discussed at court and whom he would summon for what discussions. His schedule and movements seemed to form a picture in his mind, and it was a meaningful conversation that allowed him to learn a little about state affairs, so Yoonso listened intently.

“You should eat while you listen.”

Hwi, with a smile on his face, placed a piece of meat in Yoonso’s bowl. Yoonso chewed the piece Hwi gave him thoroughly, neglecting neither his listening nor his meal.

After the breakfast was cleared away, Hwi, holding his crown in one arm, looked back at Yoonso.

“Rest a while longer before you go. And look around a bit.”

Last night, when he first entered Hwi’s bedchamber, he had suppressed the urge to look around and had gone straight to sleep, and it seemed Hwi had noticed everything. Yoonso felt abashed and gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod.

Hwi gave a slight smile and turned away. As he saw Hwi out of the bedchamber, Yoonso’s gaze rested on his sloppily tied hair.

I had hoped that one day, we would become a married couple who would wake up in the morning and do each other’s hair. Isn’t this sight now the very morning scene I had longed for?

Yes, this is what I wanted. It’s just that the place is different.

Yoonso stood with his feet planted firmly, but feeling a sense of his own existence fading away, he remained in place until Hwi had completely disappeared.

𓇢𓆸

The official robes, which usually made him feel nothing but pride, felt exceptionally cumbersome and uncomfortable today. Wongyeong 괜sre gripped his collar roughly enough to wrinkle it, then let go and walked on with angry strides.

The moment a eunuch from the Jiseo Palace had come and informed him that His Majesty the Empress was summoning him came back to mind, and anger flared up once more. Who did he think he was, ordering people to come and go? It seemed his nose had gotten quite high in the air after ascending to the empress’s position.

What infuriated Wongyeong even more was his own position of being unable to refuse that command. To think he had to take orders from a worthless fellow who knew how to do nothing, had no special talents, and would have lived as a common loafer before marrying into a place his father picked out for him, had he not bloomed as a Yeongchunhwa.

The anger kept building up without an outlet, to the point where his face was flushed red. Wongyeong glared at the back of the eunuch guiding him as if he were an enemy and breathed heavily.

However, by the time he reached the Jiseo Palace, Wongyeong was so intimidated by the grand, dignified hall and the considerable number of court attendants guarding its front that he could only press his lips tightly shut. He simply couldn’t believe that this guy, Yoonso, was living in a place like this and ruling over these people.

To be precise, it was obvious he wasn’t so much ruling as he was flusteredly accepting what was given to him. It would be a relief if he didn’t bring shame upon the family. How such fortune was granted to Yoonso, and why that fool kicked away such immense luck and ran away—looking back on it again, he couldn’t understand.

“Your Majesty, Head Secretary So has arrived.”

A court lady came out from inside and opened the door. Following the court lady in, he saw Yoonso sitting on the throne. Wongyeong approached with his eyes lowered and paid his respects.

“I have come to see Your Majesty the Empress.”

If it had been anyone else, he would have asked warmly how they had been and if they were well after such a long time, but he had no mind for such empty formalities. Even with Yoonso right in front of him, the fact that he was the empress felt like nothing more than an absurd rumor.

“Please, sit. Just leave the tea and you may all withdraw.”

As Wongyeong sat in the prepared seat, a court attendant poured tea and left. Yoonso’s manner of giving orders was so very natural that Wongyeong was quite taken aback.

Yoonso, who had lost his boyishness at some point, looked unfamiliar, as the well-fitted golden belt and crown suited him as if they were made for his body. His pride was wounded by the fact that he felt such an emotion, and Wongyeong bit his lip.

“Have you been well during this time? Are your parents also in good health?”

Once they were alone and Yoonso asked after his well-being first, Wongyeong finally met his eyes.

“Yes. Seeing that you look so well, it seems that life in the palace suits you.”

A somewhat bitter smile spread across Yoonso’s lips. Yoonso fiddled with his teacup, hesitating, before he spoke.

“I have always felt uneasy about having left home to marry like that. But to be able to see you here in the palace like this, hyung-nim, brings me nothing but joy.”

“For what business have you summoned me? You must be busy with many affairs, and I dare not steal your precious time, Your Majesty.”

The reason was surely set in stone anyway, and he despised beating around the bush. When he made it clear he desperately wanted to leave this uncomfortable palace as soon as possible, Yoonso flinched and then forced a smile.

Wongyeong faced Yoonso’s eyes, which were always moist and looked as if they were welling with tears when his complexion was poor, and swallowed the anger that surged up. Eyes like a puppy that had been kicked. Eyes that made the other person into a villain, despite them having done nothing.

Yoonso’s innocence and harmlessness were in themselves a potent harm. Whenever Yoonso gazed at him with those eyes, Wongyeong was seized by a sadistic impulse he himself did not understand. He wanted to needlessly kick and strike him, to leave a wound.

But this place was Yoonso’s territory. He didn’t know who might be listening, and Yoonso might run to the emperor and tattle, so he had to restrain himself as much as possible.

“It is about nothing other than… I am aware that my father has been raising his voice in the royal court. I trust you know what I am talking about without me having to explain in detail.”

Ah, that. A cold smile formed on Wongyeong’s lips.

He knew to his bones what Yoonso was referring to. He had watched everything—how his father had changed after his pathetic younger brother before him had bloomed as a Yeongchunhwa and was said to be fit to be an empress.