Chapter 129

Crown Prince Bipaan's days were tightly scheduled. He carried out his job perfectly without failure, but today was different. The eunuch on standby outside his office disturbed his focus by announcing, "Your Majesty, the Crown Princess has arrived."

"The Crown Princess?"

He put down the brush he was holding. After a moment, he told the eunuch to let her in.

Since that day, there was a hiccup in Bipaan's daily routine as Kyosul came to visit him every morning.

"How are you, Crown Prince?"

Kyosul, clad in silk and an ornamental wig, politely bowed to him from the small cushion across his desk. She felt awkward about her royal dress and heavy makeup.

She was seated with a trembling voice after offering morning greetings to him.

"Did you sleep well last night? Did you have a good breakfast?" she asked.

He felt embarrassed by her polite greetings, which he had never received before.

As he tried not to let her detect his embarrassment, he responded rather harshly.

Nonetheless, she persistently carried on a morning dialogue with him.

She told him that offering morning greetings was customary in her motherland.

Even though he turned a cold shoulder on her on the very first day she came to offer morning greetings, she came to his residence at the East Palace the next day.

"I'm going to visit you at this time every day."

His first impression of her was that she looked like a young animal shivering with fear. So, he thought that she was a weak and shy lady. At first she offered morning greetings, then she looked straight at him and smiled. It was the first bright smile he saw in the Imperial Palace. He felt a familiar warmth on her smile.

'Oh, she can smile brightly!'

But he didn't pay much attention to it. He thought that her smile was rather unfamiliar to him because he had never seen it before. Back then, he simply thought his heart ached because he had an upset stomach after having breakfast, and he foolishly ignored it.

Many days passed, marked by the routine of his schedule and her visits. Now, he was quite used to her visit everyday. By the time she arrived, he had cleared the desk and waited, leaning against the chair. Her visit already became part of his daily routine. It was the first change in more than ten years.

She looked much brighter than she did on the first day. Every time she came to see him, he didn't respond to her greetings, but she began to be quite familiar with his style thanks to her frequent visits. At first, she stood up after offering him morning greetings awkwardly, but she began to talk more every day. She brought out a new topic today.

"I have made a good friend."

"…Friend?"

The tip of his eyebrows trembled slightly.

'Friend' was a fairly strange word for Bipaan. However, she boasted of her new friend proudly. Besides, she went overboard talking about her new friend in excitement.

In particular, he was impressed with her exceptionally cheerful voice when she talked. The only thing that bothered him was whether there was someone in the Imperial Palace who could interact with her intimately.

"Oh, he is the man who welcomed me when I first arrived in the Mok Kingdom."

When she explained about the man more, Bipaan realized that her new friend was Ruhae. If her friend was Ruhae, he felt there was no problem at all. Ruhae was as fragile as Kyosul, who was not suitable for the palace at all. Never did Bipaan expect the man she praised so much in great excitement was Ruhae.

Bipaan cut off her words with a cold voice.

"Crown Princess!"

"Yes, pardon?"

"Don't wander around the palace unnecessarily. You should always keep it in mind that this is a strict imperial family, unlike the royal family of the Hwa Kingdom where you used to run around recklessly. You will never know how your imprudent behavior will affect others in this palace. Don't make me repeat . How often do I have to repeat this before you can understand my point?"

With a big sigh, he clicked his tongue. He rebuked her with harsh language again, which quickly made her sullen. He didn't like her words and deeds. Her friendship with Ruhae annoyed him.

After that day, Bipaan rejected her visits. He could not understand why he was behaving capriciously, but he felt it was partly because of the confusion that caused ripples in his calm daily life or her excited talking about Ruhae in front of him.

Most of all, when he found himself heading to the back garden of the outer palace on the pretext of a walk after kicking her out, he had to stop walking right away.

"I'm sorry. I think I have made you uncomfortable because I was too mischievous."

It was Ruhae's voice. Surprised, Bipaan pricked his ears and carefully approached the hill in the center of the garden.

There was Kyosul, standing with Ruhae. He knelt down with one knee and the other knee up before her. It was as if he showed his manners before his master or proposing to his lover.

"Yuuljin…"

He felt bitter to hear that. He was annoyed when she stroked Ruhae's head, but more annoyed when she called him Yuuljin. In the Mok Kingdom, lovers usually called their childhood names instead of their official names.

Forgetting the fact that he snuck up to them, Bipaan popped up before them. His lips trembled, but he said in a cold voice tinged with ridicule while pretending to stay calm.

"Oh, are you guys close enough to call each other by childhood names?"

They were embarrassed by his abrupt appearance. Even their embarrassment annoyed him. They looked as if they did something that they should not be caught doing by anybody else.

"Did you call him like that without knowing what it meant for you not to call somebody's formal name in the Mok Kingdom?"

She shivered. As a man he wanted to hug her right away, but he didn't because he didn't know how to express his deeply emotional feelings toward her.

She opened her trembling lips.

"No, I didn't know."

There was sarcastic smile on his lips.

She said she didn't know. It was understandable that she could not know because she was from the Hwa Kingdom, but he could not forgive her ignorance easily.

He could not forgive her for calling another man by name kindly.

Yes, that's the reason. In the end, he found out the reason why got so upset about her.

And he poured out his anger on Ruhae.

Slap!

Bipaan backhanded Ruhae in the face. Bipaan was a difficult opponent, but he never used force before. Today, however, he showed it, unable to control his anger.

After all, Ruhae knelt in front of Bipaan and bowed.

"I acted foolishly. I dared to show disloyalty to you, Crown Prince!"

Bipaan clenched his trembling hands. What could he do now?

He wanted to laugh, but didn't show it. As he was leading a masked life, he couldn't.

"As you repent, I won't punish you any more."

He spoke coldly and barely turned his head. Then, he went down the hill.

Although he was concerned about them, he could no more stand there with them.

He did not know how he would change his mind when he stayed longer. He looked down at his hands, remembering how he slapped Ruhae.

He slapped Ruhae in the face twice, which was unthinkable. But he could not think about it anymore.

He didn't want to think about it.

***

The next day she didn't come to the Dongchon Palace. Though he guessed she only gave him lip service, he felt bitter. Thinking he would be going back to his usual daily routine, he pretended to feel relieved. However, her shadow constantly hovered around him. Like it or not, rumors about her were conveyed to him. On such occasions he couldn't stay cool and his tumultuous feelings grew unruly.

Since she got here, he felt strange about all the moments with her. It was the first time he felt such strange feelings about anyone. He had experienced it once in his childhood, but he had been immature at the time. Now, he was the Crown Prince everybody recognized.

Nevertheless, whenever the storm named Kyosul came in, he was swept away helplessly.

For twenty-three years, he led a stoic life, controlling his feelings and disciplining himself. So, he was hardly moved or shaken by people or major events.

But this young and frail woman swayed his mind in less than four months.

He didn't want to admit it to the end. He tried not to admit it.

He was angry about her, but at the same time, he felt she was commendable.

He felt that he was getting accustomed to the presence of this strange woman.

But this lady from the Hwa Kingdom stirred his heart in an unexpected way.