Queen Lee Jieun, King's Wife

Chapter One

2017.04.02. Seoul, South Korea

The girl with long black hair and dark eyes skipped down the stairs in the hurry, her chest tightening with a rage and something she could not name. Why? Ji-eun wondered angrily as she stormed out of the building and towards her expensive car that her daddy bought her last year. She snapped its door open and sat on the driver's seat. She did not even bother to put on the seatbelt like she used to whenever she drove. She started the car, turning her key over and drove to the left with a magnificent speed. "Ji-eun!" her brother Jong-gi called after her, but she had already gone off the road and towards where, she did not know. What she did know was that she had to keep driving or else she was going mad with rage.

Why? Why? Why? For the twenty years, she had lived, she did everything her father told her to. She studied hard. Made friends with whom her father chose. Went to the university that her father chose for her and chose a job that her family has been doing for years. That was why she did not become a journalist like she wished to become but instead worked at the company with her brothers and father.

So, what did she do wrong for her to deserve this? What right did her father have to choose her life partner too? In all those years she did as her father told her to, because she thought that her father would at least spare her that important choice of her life partner to her. But, it seems that even that was not her choice to choose. Still angry at her father and that raging feeling in her chest still exploding dramatically, she turned left dramatically.

She then drove ahead and did not even care when the speed reached the maximum. Tears started falling down her eyes and her rage and anger died down, but instead her chest filled with the feeling of sadness and extreme disappointment at her father. Even since her mother died several years ago when she was twelve, she knew that her father stopped being the same.

After the funeral that happened in the winter, her father became distant from her and her two brothers. He started becoming colder and distant and as years passed and she started seeing less of her father. He then became overbearing and controlling and sometimes when it was too much, all she wanted to do was to run away from that home.

However fancy and elegant the home she lived was, it did not have that homey and comfortable aura that other homes had. It seemed more like a museum, with her as a mannequin for people to look at and her brothers, male mannequins. To her father, their feelings did not matter. He became just that kind of a person.

Lost in the thought and her grief, Ji-eun did not see that truck coming her way. She pushed on the car brake hard, but the truck already crushed into her car dramatically like it did in the movies she watched. Her head was pushed into the steering wheel hard and she felt her vision blurring, a blood coming out of her head and falling down her face. And then, eveything went blank and her head was pushed into the steering wheel again.

1417.04.02. Hangseong, South Korea

When Ji-eun awoke, it was inside unfamiliar room with Joseon era furniture. She knew, because of that time she visited the palace as a class trip in her 1st year at high school. At that time, she thought that she would have given anything to live in this kind of place. She did always like, historical things as she was a fan of history. Now, she wasn't as sure as she once was when she was fourteen. "Ji-eun? Are you awake?" asked her brother, entering the room and to say that she was shocked was an understandment of century.

Her brother Jong-suk who like his brother before her, wore a suit five days of a week was wearing a handsome that she recognized belonged to those that were civil servants to the king, as she learned from watching many serial dramas with her mother when she all but a child. She looked at him with a wide eyes and she knew that too, was wide open but she did not find herself caring. After all, this was a dream. This had to be a dream, right? There was no way that Jong-guk who hated wearing hanbok would wear hanbok willingly. This had to be a dream or she was in some kind of alternate universe. That has got to be it, Ji-eun decided with a smile.

"What? What's so funny?" Jong-guk asked with his eyebrows raised as he sat on her bed, or matress, as she realized she was laying on. He smiled at her and ruffled her hair and messing it up. She hated it when he did that. It was like he was treating her like a child and she was not a child. She was twenty-two and she was an adult and she could take care of herself.

Smiling dreamingly because since it was a dream, she could do everything she wanted, right? Thinking so, she poked him on the nose and laughed like a crazy. There was no way that this wasn't a dream, right? She couldn't have just transported back to the Joseon era. But, even if she did, that did not explain why her brother was here wearing a hanbok. "Jong-suk-ah, I am dreaming, right? There's no way you'd be wearing a hanbok willingly. I am dreaming, right? Tell me I am dreaming."

Jong-suk pushed her finger off his nose and smiled at her kindly like always because that was what Jong-suk did. He laughs, makes jokes with her and has her go into various clubs with him. He was always the brother she could always depend on to make her feel better in the worst of days. Too bad that Jong-suk left to America several years ago for work. "Yeah, you are dreaming. Now, it's time to wake up," he said, flicking her on the forehead lightly.

A sharp pain came to her and she touched her forehead, pouting at her brother. But then, realization came to her. She wasn't dreaming? Was there such a dream where a pain was real? She supposed there wasn't. Then, where was she? "Come on, Ji-eun. Stand up. Today we are supposed to leave for the palace, are we not? You do not want to anger King Geun-suk. I hear he's been in pretty bitter mood as of lately due to the Queen Shin-hye' miscarriage of their son. Poor Queen Sin-hye, she has been wanting her son to be born for seven months and yet, that happened. I do not doubt that she's in a lot of pain as of now."

"Palace?" she repeated her brother's words with wide eyes and exhaled, her heart beating fast in her chest. Palace? Why would she go to the palace? However she faced the fact that wasn't dreaming and this was probably real, she was not at all ready to go to the palace. That's where if she does or says one wrong thing, she would be lifeless, right? There was no way that she wanted to go where she possibly face her death so soon after waking up in a strange world.

"Yes, palace. Come on, Ji-eun. You are acting like this is the first time you are coming to the palace. You've been trained there as a court lady since you were a child. Are you half-awake or something? You've been acting strange since you woke up."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I must be half-awake." she smiled timidly and stood up, fixing her light pink hanbok and following her brother out of what she assumed was their home. She then suddenly stopped in her tracks before her home and closed her eyes for a moment. Was this wise decision to follow her brother to the palace? She did not the palace and knew none that this Ji-eun apparently did and she did not know what she was supposed to do at the palace. What if she at what she did without all that knowledge she supposedly learned since she was a child?

"Ji-eun? Aren't you coming?"

She opened her eyes and smiled at her brother, nodding her head. "Yes, brother. I am coming."

It was safer to follow her brother for now. Who knows what will happen to her if she didn't go. Probably lifeless among all other people that were executed for many different crimes over the years. She did not want that at all. She liked to keep living, thank you very much. Even if it was in an unknown people full of people wearing a hanboks and alike.

2017.04.02 Seoul, South Korea

"This is your fault, father. You deciding her life partner? She isn't some kind of political tool to use, you know." Jong-suk said coldly, all his anger gone and only that bitter feeling left in his chest. He stood over her hospital bed where she slept in peace like a doll, not moving and barely breathing. "We don't when she would awoke and you are worrying about whatever or not you will fulfill your promise to wed off your daugter to Mr.Yoo's son? Know what, just shut your mouth."

"Jong-suk, I fully understand your grief as I am her father, but don't you understand that this is important for our family's benefit? Marrying Ji-Eun to Seung-ho would benefit us greatly and it would result in a large amount of a money in our bank account and ten years long contract with Yoo Corporation."

"Is that really what you are supposed to worry about, father? Isn't Ji-eun' health more important than any business contract or promises you made with rich fathers and mothers? She is your daughter, isn't she?" Jong-gi asked in a cold voice as he leaned on the cold wall of Ji-eun' private hospital room. He looked at his father coldly and sighed in a disappointment, wondering how the man who carried him on his shoulders when he was a child became this kind of cold man. He couldn't recognize him. He just couldn't.

His father opened to say something and then closed it again and his heel and walked out the door. "What are we supposed to do, Jong-gi? What if she does not wake up? I heard that there were cases like that. I am afraid that something like that would happen to her."

"Now? We trust the doctors and most importantly, Ji-eun that she would awake one day and wait patiently. That's all we can do." he said and turning on his heel, walked out the door for a drink. A sip of soju ought to clear his mind and clear out all of his frustarions. He probably should give Guen-suk a call, though. Just in case he would want some company.

So, this is the first chapter. And since I am offically back in writing fics at Asianfanfics, can I ask if any of you know where to find good posterhop?