CHAPTER 2 : The Cat and His Mouse

◊Goryeo Empire, 1034

Hwang Myung marches into the Geunjeongjeon followed by his subordinates and fuming ministers. Each and every one of them spoke at once and loud enough to have Hwang Myung listen clearly, word by word. The new emperor has no choice but to be patient with their behavior. According to his grandfather, who was an emperor before his time, a true Goryeo emperor shall only be patient with his ministers and not act on his feelings. Ministers are ministers. They do what they like and sometimes even cross certain boundaries. What’s more is that they are under the China Empire and there is no doubt that some of his own men might be the ears and eyes of the China emperor, implemented without his own knowledge.  Rude, treacherous and unbelievably suffocating group of old men. Hwang Myung coolly walks up the steps of his throne and sits while his subordinates and ministers take their respective places.  However, the clamor has not ended. Hwang Myung grits his teeth in annoyance and raises his right hand, “Quiet now. I won’t be able to speak if all of you barge in on my words.”

They finally settle down when the emperor’s messenger, Lee Sung Yeol comes running in the Guenjeongjeon with a scroll in his grips. He realizes his rudeness and quickly bows. “What’s the matter, Lee Sung Yeol?” Hwang Myung knits his eyebrows together in confusion.

“Bad news, Your Highness. Your sudden cancellation for the annual visit caused an uproar amongst the China Empire’s ministers. The word caught on to the China Emperor and he requests for your apology… he might be on his way if you do not execute immediately.”

Hwang Myung exhales loudly, “I will apologize but I will not visit China now. Messenger, send the Emperor a scroll stating that we, Goryeo, will come as soon as the bridge on our route is fixed.  Report it as is.” 

“Right away, Your Highness!” The messenger was dismissed but the ministers rise and start to clamor again. Some even come running to the front of his throne and throw complaints. “Your Highness, Hwang Myung! This is a catastrophe! How can you be this careless? Didn’t we advice you to proceed?”

He did listen but there was no other way about it. The bridge on their only route was severely damaged and he didn’t like the idea of bowing this low for the China Empire. Even men of Goryeo have their self value.

“Silence! I---“ Suddenly, without warning, the floorboard above the ministers’ heads begin to cripple and burst. The second level of the Geunjeongjeon now has a miraculous hole punctured in the middle. Hwang Myung coughs and tries to swat the dust away from his vision while his subordinates come running to his side. Shielding him.

When the dust finally settles, the emperor’s vision becomes clearer and he could make out a man in his teens sitting on a pile of ministers and wood. Oddly, the young man is dressed in strange clothing. 

◊

Sung Jong touches his ankle and knew right away that it’s bleeding. Maybe the wood might have cut his skin. Other than his injured ankle, there are scratches on his cheek and his hands. No big deal. What worries Sung Jong the most at that moment is how on earth is he going to recover that hole in the ceiling.

“Who are you!?”

“How dare you sit on top of us!”

Lee Sung Jong’s eyes widen in surprise as his head whips towards the source of the voices. They were voices of gruff men. When he looks carefully through the dust, he saw faces of old men in what seems to be the royal zhisunfu. OLD MEN IN ZHISUNFU!

Have they always been in the Geunjeongjeon? No… I’m quite certain that I was alone…

Sung Jong scrambles off the pile of odd men and limps his way towards the entrance to make his exit when a stern voice calls out, “That young man over there! Stop where you are going!” Sung Jong stops in his tracks and slowly turns towards the voice. Apparently, it belongs to a man in his 20’s. Wearing an armor and wielding a spear.

“A spear!? How… why? What!?” Sung Jong panics as the man walks over to him, seizes him by the arm and pulls him to the front of the throne. “Hwang Myung! This man has caused damage to the Geunjeongjeon. What should we do?” The man in armor speaks.

Hwang Myung? Armor? Spear? Zhisunfu clothing? Why is he using the old language? Wait a second. Is this the set of some new historical drama? Sung Jong thinks to himself as he looks around the hall. It is the same as the place where he had been, before he went up to the second level of the building. However, somehow, the setting seems quite off. At first, he notices the increase in number of vases and flowers, then he notices the small wooden tables set out in front of each men dressed in the royal zhinsufu. There weren’t any of these objects before. The room feels occupied. Unlike the feeling he felt when he first entered the Geunjeongjeon to do his sightseeing. Strangely, there is sunlight. No rain, no thunder, no lightning. As if nothing happened before he burst through the second level’s floor.

This doesn’t make any sense… I mean, even if they are casts from a movie set, they would have needed more time to set up such props around the room.

“Hwang Myung! Your orders!” The other old men shouted in unison. Sung Jong shakes his head in disbelief and tries to pry free from the man in armor’s grip. “Uh, hah! Very funny, guys. Good joke! Refreshing, new and… creepy. I’m sure anybody would fall for it but too bad! I’m not easily tricked…” Sung Jong slaps the hand away and backs off slowly. The old men and the other men in armor look at him as though he is a lunatic on the run, instead of laughing and smiling. Feeling even nervous than ever, he quickly searches for his cell phone and tries to dial Hwayoung from his contacts. The clamor begins to grow louder by the second.

“What strange garments!”

“Has he gone ‘round the bend?”

“What is that cellular object in his hand?”

He is unable to contact Hwayoung. He quickly rips the phone off his ear and checks the signal bars. Zero. “Huh!? No. No way!” Sung Jong stomps his foot impatiently and attempts another escape. But to his dismay, he is immediately scooped up by men in armor and brought right to the front of the throne. “Wait a second. I think you have mistaken me for a cast member, correct? But for your information, I’m only an ordinary fashion designer and that hole right there is caused by an accident! It wasn’t on purpose! I swear!” Sung Jong screams.

“An accident?” As soon as Lee Sung Jong hears the deep and controlled voice from the throne, his head shoots up, causing his brown orbs to come into contact with a pair of jet black abyss. Unexpectedly, they are eyes that belong to a beautiful man. A man who is primly dressed in a blue royal longpao, complete with ornaments and other accessories from the Goryeo era. He is seated on the throne with several men in armor shielding him from every corner of his seat. Though he seems calm and serene on the outside, Sung Jong can clearly see an aura of respect enveloping his whole figure.

“Please! Let me go! I have absolutely no idea what had happened to me during the storm and I would like it very much if you would please let this slide…” Sung Jong becomes slightly red. It seems as though the stunning man wouldn’t keep his eyes off him. Scanning every little detail of his appearance.

“Your Highness, Hwang Myung Jong, please execute an order to punish this insolent brat. He dares to speak with such informality with the new emperor of Goryeo!” A minister voices out from the clamor.

Sung Jong gulps as he tries to piece the puzzle into a complete picture.

Goryeo. Hwang Myung Jong. Informality.

“Hold on a second… According to the book I borrowed from the library earlier on, there seems to be an emperor named Hwang Myung during the Goryeo Dynasty… Is that you!?” Sung Jong shoots out a finger towards the man on the throne.

“I… I mean, if it’s Hwang Myung’s era then Goryeo is still under China’s influence. Since all of you are ministers and royalty, you could only wear costumes which are suggested by the Chinese court officials which are the yiseyi and the zhinsufu… Aren’t I correct?”

The man knits his eyebrows together in confusion and is about to open his mouth to comment when a minister suddenly orders, “That is enough! Such rudeness shall not be tolerated. Throw him in the cell where the other convicts are!” In a blink of an eye, Sung Jong is dragged out of the building. His eyes widen in disbelief as he sees rows of men in armor lined on each side of the entrance. From afar, he could see beautiful women dressed in ruqun carrying trays of delicacies followed by a young girl carrying a gayageum instrument.  He quickly turns away and gazes up into the sky. The weather is very hot and there are no traces of rain.

Sung Jong’s head sinks as low as it could.

Did I travel through time?

◊

“Hey! You over there! Give me some food! I’m starving to death here…”

“Shut it!”

Sung Jong scoffs as he kicks up the hay around him. Unexpectedly, he is really in a real cell. There really are ‘other fugitives’ and non of them have received food though it’s already past 10 o’clock at night. After trying numerous of times to persuade the guard of the cell to bring food, Sung Jong tries to shakes off his headache and leans himself onto the bamboo bars of his cell. His eyelids begin to droop when a voice approaches him from the back, “Good evening.”

Automatically, he spins around and crosses his arms in front of him trying to guard himself. However what awaits on the direct opposite of his ‘cage’ is a man wearing black clothes from head to toe.

“What are you? A ninja? An assassin? Come at me! I may be from the future but I’ve watch LOADS of kung fu movies so I am just as good as Jackie Chan.” Sung Jong poses like Jet Li. However, the man in black did not react to his amusing stance but instead says, “So you really are from the future.”

The man squats so his eyes would be on par with Sung Jong’s and rips off the black scarf covering the rest of his face. It’s Hwang Myung.

“EEK! You! I mean Your Highness---“ Sung Jong scrambles to his feet to give a deep bow when the emperor quickly grabs the hem of his jacket and shakes his head disapprovingly. “I believe it would be best if you would be silent about my presence. I did not come here openly. I had a friend of mine to help me make my visit here. It was not an easy journey.” Sung Jong quickly sits in a crossed-leg fashion and peeks at the other cells. The other fugitives are already deeply asleep. “Then what are you doing here in the middle of the night talking to a captive?”

The man cracks a smile and takes out an object wrapped securely with bamboo leaves. He unwraps it and reveals hot steaming buns in Sung Jong’s face.

“Food!” Sung Jong tries to snatch it off the emperor’s hands but only finds himself grabbing air. “I’ll give this to you if you speak with me honestly.”

Sung Jong peeks at the man and pouts. “Seriously? Why should I do that?”

The elder man shrugs his shoulders, “Well, I came here with the purpose of giving you food and… to negotiate the price of you damaging the Guenjeongjeon. Due to the incident that had taken place at that building today, I would not be able to carry out various duties as emperor for a short period of time. It’s troublesome and I believe that this will bring other effects to the country of Goryeo. But fear not, it will not cost you money. ”

Sung Jong gawks in disbelief and clears his throat, “Huh… So name me your price!”

The emperor copies Sung Jong’s crossed-leg fashion and speaks in a low voice, “You will repay me in the form of energy. You shall work under me till your debt is cleared off. However, I have no knowledge of your background or whatsoever, therefore it has been difficult for me to decide on what work you should be doing at your best. Now that you understand the situation, why don’t we start with introductions?”

Sung Jong puts a tongue in his right cheek and sighs. He has no other way out of this but to proceed. It has been clear enough that he is no longer in South Korea but Goryeo. Just like how the saying goes, when in Rome, do what the Romans do.

“Okay. Fine. Introductions it is. My name is Lee Sung Jong. 19 years old this year. I have been living in Seoul with my aunt. I am a student of Woolim School of Arts. I major in the fashion field. So, in short, I am the future Fashion Diva.” Sung Jong proudly announces but stops halfway in his introduction when the emperor bluntly asks, “Fash… Fashion? And what is a D… Diba?”

Sung Jong opens his mouth, wanting to explain the words but quickly closes it back. “I was just kidding… So, now you know that I am an expert in clothes making…”

“Ah… I see.”

“So? How about you? Tell me about yourself…”

 “I am Hwang Myung Jong. I am the emperor of the 10^th Goryeo monarch. I became emperor this year. I am 27 years old and I am the second son of the 8th Goryeo monarch, Hwang Hyeonjeong. I have 7 other siblings. I love to learn new things, especially knowledge related to strategy making.” The emperor speaks as he hands over the buns to Sung Jong who has been following the motion of his hands. Sung Jong accepts it humbly and starts to devour the buns one by one.

“I see… What should I call you?”

“Shouldn’t it be Hwang Myung Jong, then?”

“Hello, you came here all the way from your riches to talk to a stranger in the middle of the night. Didn’t you suggest we should become subordinates? Well, aren’t subordinates supposed to have close relationships between one another? Don’t all of you call each other by nicknames? I mean, don’t you have one?”

The emperor pauses to look at Sung Jong. Hwang Myung scratches his nose as he thinks to himself, I wonder how these ‘future’ people act toward their royalties?

He glances at Sung Jong who has been anticipating for his reply and finally manages a smile, “You may call me by my unofficial name… Myungsoo.”

“Myungsoo… Okay then, Myungsoo, it is decided that I will be your stylist from this day forth! Oh my goodness, this is going to be so exciting! I’ll be able to hone my skills in traditional clothes making and win back my failed points…” Sung Jong excitedly grabs the emperor’s hands and sways it from left to right.

“I do not understand a word your spouting but if it brings you good I---”

Unexpectedly, Sung Jong’s eyes begin the droop and he collapses to the ground of hay. His hands are slowly turning pale and cold.

Alerted, Hwang Myung clenches the younger man’s smaller hands in his securely. Rubbing them and blowing his breath into Sung Jong’s palms. “No. This can’t possibly be happening. I just gave him food…”

He quickly turns towards the entrance of the cell and shouts, “General Nam! General Nam Woohyun! GENERAL NAM WOOHYUN!”

In a blink of an eye, a man in armor appears through the darkness with a spear ready by his side, “Your Highness! Were you attacked?”

“Open this cell, immediately!”

“But---”

“I order you to open this cell immediately!”

I can’t afford to lose him. Not this man.

Author's Note : When Goryeo (Korea) was under the China Empire's influence, they were forced to follow their dress code. Thus, court officials, ministers , and royalties wore the yiseyi and zhinsufu. The Emperor wears the longpao robe. Normal Goryeo men wore Han-style clothing (jacket with short sleeves, worn over simple garment) while women citizens wore a type of costume known as ruqun (upper jacket worn together with a skirt).