Chapter 11

It’s another dream, Mo-Yeon thought, as she found herself curled up under a table in the middle of a bustling castle kitchen.

It was Mo-Yeon’s tenth birthday and Ah-In threw a huge ball at the castle to celebrate. People from all over the world came to party but she knew no one was actually there for her. All the adults were just there to drink, eat, and rub elbows with all the other important people. And that’s not the worst part of this evening, Mo-Yeon thought as she frowned and hugged her knees more tightly. Daniel wasn’t there because his parents were too busy to fly to Urk tonight.

Mo-Yeon felt tears threaten to fall from her eyes as the frustration settled in. She didn’t like her birthday dress, which was, again, too frilly. Her feet hurt from the new shoes a supposedly known cobbler had sent yesterday. Her hair was heavy and the curls weren’t quite right. And Daniel, her favorite Daniel, couldn’t even play with her, read to her, wish her a Happy Birthday.

The cloth that hid her from the activity in the kitchen swayed and Mo-Yeon inched back a little because she knew this was the part where the boy will come join her under the table.

“Hey, I found the princess!” the boy said, shocked, as he entered Mo-Yeon’s hidden sanctuary.

“Shhhh!” Mo-Yeon placed a finger on her lips to ask him to lower his voice.

“Why are you hiding here? Are we playing a game?” the boy asked, grinning, but he kept his voice now into a whisper.

“What are you, five? I’m hiding from everyone, duh. I hate my party.” Mo-Yeon frowned. “This dress , my hair , my shoes , and everyone !” As she said this, tears started to roll down her face.

The boy was taken by surprise, with no idea what to do to stop her from crying. He then drew a white handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Mo-Yeon, which she examined for snot. “Hey, don’t cry anymore. You don’t want to ruin your pretty face.”

Mo-Yeon’s crying started to wane as she used the boy’s handkerchief to tidy her face. “Don’t I look ghastly in this gown?”

“Of course, not! Is that all that’s keeping you from going out of this table? Not saying this isn’t a great hiding spot because it’s genius!” The boy answered with a grin. He then reached out to straighten the pink fascinator that sat on Mo-Yeon’s head. “This hat is actually pretty nice, too. I’d like to wear if I was in a gown, but unfortunately, I’m not.”

“Well, not just that. It’s like everyone’s here partying, but they’re not celebrating my birthday.”

“Well I’m celebrating your birthday. My father and I even brought you a gift, it’s outside.” The boy lifted a hand to point outside. “But, you know, if you’d like to stay here and hide for a while, I could keep your guards off your trail and tell them that maybe I saw you running to the ladies’ lavatory.”

Ten-year-old Mo-Yeon felt a small tug at her lips as the boy said this and nodded.

“Okay then, but don’t forget to eat your share of your cake, it’s delicious!” The boy winked and started to gather himself to head outside. “Oh, and by the way, Happy Birthday.”

Xxxxx

It’s been two days since the confrontation between Mo-Yeon and Daniel and a lot has changed. For starters, Mo-Yeon and Daniel are civil again, after Daniel explained his side of the story more thoroughly to a calmer Mo-Yeon. But them being civil is not exactly them returning to what they used to be. Mo-Yeon has even expressed her desire to continue with their allied rehabilitation schedule and move on from Denmark, despite their previous plan to stay for a week. Her wishes, however, were thwarted by Yoo Shi Jin, as he would like to finish their investigation on Daniel before they leave. While Daniel did take extra effort to explain the entirety of his plan, Shi-Jin believes they would still have to poke around to see if his story does check out. And this has left Mo-Yeon in quite a foul mood.

This morning’s breakfast is again devoid of Daniel and Eun-Ji, putting Mo-Yeon at ease. She settles herself into her usual seat at the end of the table, with Shi-Jin beside her, and Dae-Young beside him. But as she tries to eat her toast in peace, she notices Shi-Jin ignoring his food and just staring at her.

“Do I have dirt on my face?” Mo-Yeon puts her fork down irritably and meets Shi-Jin’s gaze.

“No.”

“Then why don’t you mind your own food and stop staring at me?” She snaps back at him.

“On second thought, yeah, you’ve got something on your face.” Shi-Jin reaches out to Mo-Yeon and dusts at the spot at the end of her lips.

“There wasn’t anything there, Your Highness, he just wants to make an excuse to touch you.” Dae-Young says in a deadpan tone, digging into his own toast.

Shi-Jin scowls at Dae-young and hits him in the shoulder. “How can you say that? You didn’t even look!” He then turns to Mo-Yeon, who is silently watching them bicker. He tries to put a smile for show to hide his embarrassment. “Don’t listen to him, he’s just cranky because he misses Myeong-Joo.”

Mo-Yeon rolls her eyes and gets back to finishing her toast. “Can you just let me finish my breakfast in peace?”

Shi-Jin nods half-heartedly and picks up his cup of coffee. His cup hangs in mid-air as his mind wanders, and with a loud clank, he gets Mo-Yeon’s attention once more. “Doctor Kang, ah, what forgetful mind do I have!” He says in his signature overacting voice. “I just remembered, you must be somewhere this morning, and I have to take you there while Dae-Young and the rest of the guards stay here to complete some errands for the investigations.”

“Won’t it be better if you stay here for the investigations and let, i-unno, three, four guards accompany me?” Mo-Yeon shrugs, stuffing the last piece of toast on .

“No, it has to be me with you. I can’t let you out of my sight again,” Shi-Jin replies, a little more serious this time.

“Okay then, let’s get this over with.” Mo-Yeon removes the napkin on her lap and stands up. Shi-Jin gives Dae-Young a you-take-care-of-things-here signal and disappears with Mo-Yeon from the dining hall. The two make their way to the top-down Volkswagen that Daniel has reserved for their use and they head out.

“You know you shouldn’t let your Queen ride a top-down.” Mo-Yeon says, resting her elbow on the rolled-down window. “Myeong-Joo would scold you for compromising my safety.”

Shi-Jin reaches one arm at the side of his seat and throws a sun hat and a scarf on Mo-Yeon’s lap. He also reaches into his pocket and slides a pair of Ray-Ban on his face. “Security? There you go. Grade 1 security equipment.”

Mo-Yeon examines the sun hat and scarf and laughs. “Surprisingly, these are actually pretty decent pieces.”

“It’s Givenchy, mind you. Spent my whole year’s worth of paycheck for those.” Shi-Jin replies smugly.

“Just so you know, that’s not a compliment. I’m just saying these are pretty decent for your standards.” Mo-Yeon chuckles and puts on the hat and the scarf. She rests her head on her arms and looks out of the car. “The wind is so nice today. We don’t get weather this great at Urk.”

“Hey, I haven’t quite bounced back from your insult just yet and you’ve already moved on to the weather? Ah, women,” Shi-Jin clicks his tongue and shakes his head. “This is why I’m single.”

Mo-Yeon turns her head back to Shi-Jin and squints her eyes at him. “What, you’re gonna make me ask, seriously?”

“Make you ask what?”

“If, I don’t know—” Mo-Yeon pauses and clears uncomfortably. She then manages to blurt out, “ifyou’vedatedwomenbefore.”

“If I’ve what before?” Shi-Jin laughs, not quite catching Mo-Yeon’s undecipherable ramble, but somehow, he understands what she’s trying to ask.

“If you’ve dated before, gosh!” Mo-Yeon barks at him but averts her gaze.

Shi-Jin runs a hand through his hair and lets his arm settle into the head of Mo-Yeon’s seat. His right hand he keeps on the wheel. “My, I can’t remember how many I’ve dated.”

Mo-Yeon scoffs. “Wow, what a show-off.”

“No, I mean, I don’t even remember the women I’ve dated. Because I haven’t really dated anyone seriously.”

“What, that’s supposed to make me feel great about you?”

“Depends. Does the fact that I haven’t been serious with any woman before makes you feel good?”

Mo-Yeon blushes at his question so she keeps her face hidden from him. “I-I don’t care!”

Shi-Jin keeps the chuckle from escaping his lips and spares a quick look at Mo-Yeon. “If you say so.”

They then spend the rest of the ten-minute drive in silence, apart from Mo-Yeon’s outbursts of “Look at that!” every now and then. As they reach their destination, Shi-Jin parks the car in front of a sign that reads “Svansholm.” In front of them lay a large gate with a thicket of greens and flowers poking behind.

“What are we doing here?” Mo-Yeon asks as she disembarks from the car. They approach the gate and Shi-Jin opens the wooden gate with an antique-looking key he fishes out from his chest pocket. Mo-Yeon reaches out a hand to touch the wooden gate and it feels ancient.

Shi-Jin pushes the wooden gate open and lets Mo-Yeon in, and the sight catches the two of them in awe. The path from the wooden gate is littered with tiny daisy weeds and buttercups, and an archway filled with creeping blue moon wisterias and morning glory buds welcomes them into the garden. Shi-Jin and Mo-Yeon walks under the blooming archway and they reach a clearing filled with more flowers and plants, neatly orchestrated into surrounding a wooden white bench.

Shi-Jin plops down into the bench and stuffs his shades back into his pocket, as Mo-Yeon examines the flowers, still awestruck. “This is usually used for events, I was told. Thought you might like it. You fit in here perfectly, like a painting of a lost woman who has stumbled into a forbidden garden.”

Mo-Yeon turns around to face Shi-Jin, who is a handful of feet from her. An unused bird bath stood right across the bench and she leaned her back against it. The sun was not too harsh and she thought the way it illuminated him and the bench was even more picturesque than how he’s putting her to be.

“You’ve been so stressed for the past few days I thought you deserved a break,” Shi-Jin says, smiling. His leg is crossed on the other and his other arm dangles on the backrest of the bench. “I didn’t bring tea though, which now I’m starting to think I should have brought. Didn’t reckon you can’t do much here if there’s no actual event happening,” He laughs nervously.

“So this is how you plan dates, Captain? Half-assed and unprepared?” Mo-Yeon laughs, mockingly.

“So you think this is a date?” Shi-Jin prods.

Mo-Yeon is caught off-guard by his question and rubs the back of her ear in response. She racks her mind for a change in subject and bursts out randomly, “You weren’t there in my mother’s funeral, were you?”

Shi-Jin shakes his head and a sad smile creeps into his lips. Their eyes are still locked into each other as he speaks. “I was never able to return. I couldn’t return, in fact.”

“Everyone was there, but you. That’s why I never met you before. Why didn’t you come, Yoo Shi-Jin?”

“Pride? Sorrow? I don’t know. I have no good reasons. I just never found the heart to come back and see the Kingdom like that, torn limb by limb, one man after another. The Queen’s death was the last straw. I thought Urk was going to crumble and I won’t be able to do anything if I returned the same man, maybe even worse, than when I left.” Shi-Jin says silently, bringing his hands together on top of his knee. “After what happened with Myeong-Joo’s father, my father, and then your mother. Wow, it’s like the old people got wrenched from our hands forcefully, one by one.”

“We haven’t given up on your father, yet, right?”

“Yeah, no. Of course not.” Shi-Jin says with a half of a smile.

“Why did you come back, then? After all those years? Do you think you’re a better person now? More learned, more experienced?” Mo-Yeon asks, steering the conversation again.

“Is this a job interview? Because it sounds just like one and I already got the job.” Shi-Jin jokes. “They showed me your photo and I thought, ‘that’s one fine queen,’ and that made me drag my sorry self back to Urk!”

Mo-Yeon gives Shi-Jin a reproachful look and he replies with a chuckle. “What? What do you want to hear, Doctor Kang?”

“Don’t ask me what I want to hear. Tell me what you want to say.”

Shi-Jin searches Mo-Yeon’s eyes and realizes, for the first time, how similar they are to Ah-In’s. Mo-Yeon’s fiery and determined gaze, all along, is the same as Ah-In’s gentle and kind eyes. “It felt like the time has come for me to go home. And Queen Ah-In told me, before I left, that I’ll know, the exact time, when I’m needed back at Urk. And when Myeong-Joo called me up that week, I knew, it was the time I had to go back.”

Mo-Yeon smiles. A heartbeat, a bird whistles, a gush of wind blows hard enough, knocking Mo-Yeon’s hat into the ground. “And you know what, your timing couldn’t be more right.”

Shi-Jin looks at Mo-Yeon for a moment, at that priceless smile etched on her beautiful face, and he raises himself from the bench, makes his way directly to her, takes her face in both her hands, leans in, and finally, after all this time, closes the distance between them.