Chapter 21
Episode 21. Lee Hyang's Approach to First Love (2) / Revision - Yunseo, Lee Hyang's Psychology
Since it would be easier for Lee Hyang to understand if the fingerprints from the same hand's fingers were taken and compared, Yunseo pulled his left hand, not the right one right beside her, and said.
“Your Highness, please lend me your hand. If I take and compare your fingertips one by one, you will grasp more easily what I am trying to say and how important it is.”
“······.”
This woman truly doesn't pay attention to her surroundings when she gets absorbed in something.
Lee Hyang sighed and raised his right arm, which was closer to Gwonga as they sat side by side, into the air.
If he lowered his arm, Gwonga’s shoulder would fit snugly into his embrace.
However, if he did that, he would be utterly unable to control himself, so Lee Hyang, with his body stiffened like a stone statue, tried to focus only on the small mole on Gwonga’s left earlobe while keeping his right arm raised in the air.
“It’s all done, Your Highness. Now, please sit comfortably and watch what I do.”
Yunseo released Lee Hyang’s hand and rustled through the bundle of paper she had brought.
Lee Hyang sat back down on the chair, while Yunseo remained standing where she was, looking down at what she was about to do.
‘If I have to bend down to sprinkle powder with a brush, I might accidentally commit the sacrilege of my backside touching His Highness the Crown Prince’s long legs, who is so ascetic.’
Yunseo quickly informed Lee Hyang.
“Your Highness, I need to move a little.”
Lee Hyang then simply stepped one pace to the side. It seemed he intended to watch intently to see what she was trying to show him with all this fuss.
‘I’ve only heard about this, but I’ve never actually done it before.’
Nervously, Yunseo took a generous amount of charcoal powder, which she had brought in paper, on the tip of a fox fur brush and tapped it onto the circles.
After applying enough charcoal powder to the ten circles, Yunseo carefully brushed the powder off onto another blank sheet of paper beside it, tilting the entire sheet sideways.
Then, fine wrinkles appeared in layers on the ten circles.
…They appeared, but.
They were too faint to clearly see how the ten fingerprints differed.
“···Ah!”
Yunseo was flustered by the result, which was different from what she had expected.
Was it impossible without special chemicals?
Or, since this was a trace of skin secretions, should she apply something oily?
“Your Highness. Th-this is what fingerprints are, and they are different for each person…”
As the flustered Yunseo stammered, Lee Hyang silently reached out and pulled the candle holder closer.
Then, he grabbed Yunseo’s shoulder, sat her down on the chair he had been sitting on, and commanded, “For now, sit here and wait.”
Yunseo sat on the chair, which was much more comfortable to lean on due to its armrests, and watched Lee Hyang move.
Lee Hyang brought two more square lamps, which must have been lit to search for documents, and sat down on the chair Yunseo had vacated. He leaned over the paper placed under the bright light and began to examine the ten fingerprints closely.
Yunseo pushed her chair slightly to the side to create some distance, then leaned back against the armrest and glanced sideways at Lee Hyang’s profile.
His long, dry hair had become lazily disheveled over his sky-blue robe, transforming his usual strictness into a soft beauty.
‘This is why all the Palace Ladies in the Palace offer bribes like trinkets and hairpins to the East Palace ladies just to catch a glimpse of Lee Hyang, and subtly come to visit.’
These days, after finishing his official duties and attending His Majesty’s royal meal, Lee Hyang would change into such thin clothing and come to Bihyeon Pavilion to work late into the night.
It is said that when Lee Hyang, with his flowing robe trailing, strode towards Bihyeon Pavilion with his long legs, the ladies would hide densely in every room of the corridors to steal a glance at that brief moment.
‘But would they be so enthusiastic if they knew our ascetic Cold beauty Crown Prince was a beautiful sight but not a pleasure to have?’
No, fangirling is based on looks, not on knowing the inner workings. Yunseo thought and chuckled slyly to herself.
Yunseo speculated that Lee Hyang’s lack of interest in women was due to psychosomatic impotence or premature ejaculation caused by the daily late-night work and the pressure of having to be the perfect son of the perfect King Sejong. Therefore, she felt no particular worry being alone with Lee Hyang at this late hour.
‘In dramas, the boss or department head engrossed in work is the key to capturing a woman’s heart, but here, our long-haired, ascetic Crown Prince engrossed in fingerprint research is the key to capturing a woman’s heart, the key.’
Yunseo, who had been admiring Lee Hyang’s motionless posture, like a statue, as he held the paper up to the light and compared the blurry fingerprints, gradually felt her eyelids grow heavy.
She had been tense all day after Lee Hyang’s stern warning that His Majesty the King would summon her soon and that she must be particularly careful with her words. The fatigue accumulated from meeting Gwon Ga’s half-sibling and then running freely with our Hongwi for an hour began to exert its full force.
Just then, the sound of heavy rain starting to fall outside acted like a lullaby, urging her to sleep.
Yunseo rested her arms on the armrests, propped her chin on her hands, and began to doze off.
Lee Hyang was surprisingly engrossed in his fingerprint research.
At first, it was out of curiosity, wondering what else the intelligent Gwonga would surprise him with, and then, naturally, he watched to get closer and gaze at her downy white nape and well-shaped earlobes. But upon closer examination, he realized that the ten fingerprints were indeed different in shape.
If the patterns on each finger, and indeed on each person, were truly different like this, and if the traces of those patterns could be captured through powder like this, then this could bring about groundbreaking solutions in various fields!
Only after deciding that he would find suitable individuals to entrust with research as soon as day broke did Lee Hyang finally put down the paper and turn his head.
By then, Gwonga had fallen asleep, resting her head on her arm.
Under the brightly shining candlelight, Gwonga’s eyelashes cast long shadows, and a soft breath escaped her slightly parted red lips.
When awake, Gwonga sparkled with an overly lively vitality, but when asleep, she was relaxed with a languid peace.
Lee Hyang suddenly realized that this was the first time he had truly gazed at a sleeping woman.
Then, a different kind of longing, distinct from the desire stirred by Gwonga, who had been breathing heavily in the red sunset, began to bloom in Lee Hyang’s heart.
A being who could peacefully watch over each other while asleep, a being to whom he could confide the heavy loneliness that came with his special position as the Crown Prince, second only to the King.
Though I have had many women, I have had no one to share my heart with, leaving me in silence. Gwonga, will you become such a being for me?
Instead of waking her to ask, Lee Hyang took off his robe and carefully wrapped it around Gwonga.
He then returned the two square lamps, which were casting excessively bright light on Gwonga’s face, to their original positions and opened the sliding door facing east.
Swoosh, the awaited rain was falling heavily.
“The welcome rain comes as a precious guest arrives.”
Lee Hyang, who had confessed his shy feelings in the ink-black darkness, suddenly remembered the box that Gwonga had brought with her.
Returning with quiet steps on tiptoe, Lee Hyang opened the paper box and took out the document inside.
The document stated that Gwonga Yunseo borrowed 400 taels of silver from Dochukji of Mapo ferry, with an interest rate of 10 percent per year, and was signed with a hand that could be claimed as Gwonga’s.
The date was two years ago, shortly after Hongwi was born.
He remembered that Gwonga had been glued to Lady Aji Yi’s side back then, resting without a moment’s break, solely caring for Hongwi. When would she have had the time to leave the Palace and sign such a document?
‘This is why Gwonga wanted to reveal the pattern of that hand.’
While he felt proud of Gwonga for trying to prove this debt document false by revealing that the pattern of her own hand was not on it.
At the same time, he was filled with intense anger that such a wicked person as Dochukji would dare to engage in such trickery even with a Palace Lady of the East Palace, let alone with other powerless commoners.
There was so much to do as soon as day broke.
“Yunseo.”
Lee Hyang placed his hand on the shoulder of Gwonga, who was still fast asleep, and gently shook her.
“Yunseo, let’s go back to Jaseon Hall.”
Yunseo slowly lifted her heavy eyelids at the sound of his voice calling her name while shaking her shoulder.
In her blurry vision, the image of a handsome man with long hair appeared like a phantom.
Her brain, which had been in deep sleep, was not yet ready to function fully.
“···You’re more handsome than our Bogum, Your Highness the Crown Prince…”
“!”
Gwon Yunseo had dared to utter another man’s name from these beautiful lips and then fallen back into a peaceful sleep!
\\\
How much time had passed?
Yunseo woke up to a pain that constricted her entire body.
“!”
Startled by the unfamiliar sight of books, memorials, and reports piled high, she quickly sat up. The red silk blanket, beautifully embroidered, fell away, revealing a sky-blue robe that was meticulously wrapped up to her neck.
She was inside Bihyeon Pavilion.
Yunseo had slept leaning against the chair Lee Hyang usually sat in.
Looking out the east window, it was still a dark night.
‘Hongwi! Our Hongwi might have woken up and looked for me!’
Yunseo searched for the paper box containing the fake debt document but couldn’t find it anywhere on the desk.
It seemed Lee Hyang had taken it.
Deciding to return to the Seoondol of Jaseon Hall for now, Yunseo folded the blanket and placed it beside the desk. She also took off the robe Lee Hyang had worn, folded it neatly, and placed it on top of the blanket before coming out to the main hall.
A young eunuch, who usually attended to His Highness at night, stood at the door.
“What time is it? Has the first watch bell rung?”
“The Chusi hour has just passed.”
“Ah, thank goodness. I will be going back.”
As Yunseo was about to descend the main hall, the eunuch offered her a rain hat.
“Wear this when you go. His Highness ordered it to be prepared for you to wear when you woke up.”
“Ah, Your Highness is in the Ondol room, isn’t he?”
“He returned about half an hour ago.”
“Yes, then please take care.”
As Yunseo took the rain hat and put on the shoes she had left by the stone step, the eunuch asked.
“Who is Bogum?”
“Pardon?”
“His Highness ordered us to search the entire Palace for someone named Bogum with a rather displeased expression, after he covered you with the blanket and came out. Do you know such a person?”
“···I don’t know anyone like that.”
The only Bogum I know is our handsome actor Park Bogum. There’s no way a 21st-century actor would be in a 15th-century palace.
Yunseo thought so nonchalantly and walked through the puddle-filled path back to the Seoondol.
She had no idea that Lee Hyang, who had glared at her for half an hour in shock that the woman he had just begun to cherish had uttered another man’s name, had left only the blanket and stormed back to Jaseon Hall, fearing he might do something to Gwon Yunseo if he stayed.
\\\*
Another new day dawned.
After changing shifts and returning to Eom Sangjeon’s quarters to sleep for two hours, Yunseo went to see Eom Sangjeon.
“His Majesty the King is said to summon me soon. Will he summon me today?”
“An audience with His Majesty must be confirmed at least a day in advance. No communication has come yet. So, he will not summon you today.”
“Ah, that’s a relief. I will go to Bansongbang to infuse various medicinal herbs in oil and return.”
“Hmm, if you, who are not even a Saekjang Palace Lady, frequently go outside the Palace, it is easy to fall into gossip. Go in eunuch attire.”
Eunuchs usually wear robes and hats like ordinary men when they go out.
It was inconvenient to ride a horse wearing a fluttering skirt, so this was good.
“His Highness seems to be looking for a way to make that fingerprint you mentioned appear clearly. He has ordered various craftsmen from different fields within the Palace to be summoned to the Bihyeon Pavilion office this afternoon.”
As she hurried to change into men’s clothes and go to Bansongbang with Maegeumi, Eom Sangjeon said.
King Munjong was said to be as wise a ruler as King Sejong. Lee Hyang truly approaches everything with seriousness.
Feeling renewed respect, she was about to go and infuse the herbs for Jaun-go in oil when Eom Sangjeon said something strange.
“By the way, do you know someone named Bogum? Our Highness, who rarely gets angry, ordered us to find someone named Bogum, searching the entire Palace, with a rather displeased expression.”
