01: NAMELESS

It was raining heavily when she woke up. Jieqiong found herself lying on a bed, outside it was raining and everything looked strange. Obviously, someone had taken her into their house. 

She remembered it was raining when she ran away, the maids saw her and called out for her because she was forbidding from leaving, in case someone found out that she was their daughter. However, due to the heavy rain, they couldn't chase after a kid who ran faster than them so she made it out of the crooked path, kept running and running in her old and filthy dress, tears mixed with raindrops blurred her vision and Jieqiong felt the cold eating up her bare feet but she still ran. And she ran, she ran and she ran. 

Rain got into her hair and on her face, at one point, she passed out. 

When she woke up, she was already in the bed, filthy clothes had been changed into a much better-looking simple white dress. She was lying there with blanket covering half of her body. Jieqiong tiredly got up and touched her forehead to see if she was sick and true, it was still very hot but she no longer felt tired. The young girl put her feet down on the floor, cold. But she didn't care about that at all, she just wanted to know who was her savior. 

When Jieqiong left the room, she realized where she was. A pagoda. The view was peaceful and quiet, she could hear birds chirping and flapping their wings. The garden next to the hall was huge and beautiful, she felt like as if she was in the palace. Jieqiong walked around to find people then she bumped into a monk. He was still small, probably younger than her for a few years and when he saw her, his jaws dropped. 

Jieqiong didn't know what to say either, she smiled at the shorter kid. "Hi... I'm Jieqiong. Did everyone save me?" 

Even though she was being friendly, he seemed terrified and ran away, leaving Jieqiong behind with a confused face. A minute later, she heard footsteps getting louder and in front of her was still that little monk but he was hiding behind a guy, who could be around his fifteen or more because he had a childish look but was really tall. Jieqiong looked up at him and got scared since he looked at her with such a threatening look! 

"You're awake." he said, his voice was deep. Jieqiong bowed down, holding her hands together. "Thank you for saving my life."

"Get up." he sounded annoyed. "It wasn't me who saved you, you should come and meet jonghyun because he was the one who saw you lying on the road and decided to bring you in!" 

Jieqiong blinked. "Where can I find him?" 

The guy checked her out for a few seconds then turned around. "Follow me."

xxx

Jieqiong was told that her savior resided in this chamber. It was small but luxurious, proving that the guy must have had some kind of "Power" here. However, what surprised her was a curtain hung in the middle of the room in order to deceive other people from seeing what was behind the curtain. Actually, this could be considered as a see-through curtain like the one in an emperor's bedroom. She could tell what was behind it but couldn't see things clearly. All she saw was a silhouette and obvious objects. 

The guy in front of her, quite tall, having the figure of what you would call a student. She kneeled down on the floor and bowed deeply. "Mister... Thank you." 

The guy behind the curtain was reading something while standing. Upon hearing her words, he closed the book gently. "Where's your family?" 

His voice reminded her of a young boy whose voice hadn't cracked yet. She sat straight up but still kneeling in front of him, hands folded together. "I don't have a family. I ran away from them."

A fee seconds passed by, the guy asked. "Why would you do that?" 

"I don't want to live in a family that it's not even a family to me. I have had enough of being treated worse than a dog.." She wanted to sob so badly. "I couldn't take it anymore so I ran away, I never want to come back home." 

On the other side of the curtain, a giggle could be heard. "Such a child." Whispered the mysterious savior, so soft that she couldn't hear the word. "You parents will be worried, even if they're mean to you, you're still their child after all. I can't take you home but my friends can, eat something and we'll send you home in a few hours." 

Oh no, he wanted to send her back home? Jieqiong shook her head violently. "If they know that I'm back, they'll hit me until my legs are paralyzed...! Please don't send me back home! They're not even my real parents, I'm not allowed to do anything, I'm just a bird locked inside a cage." 

"What...?" The guy found it unbearable. "What kind of family are you from, actually?" 

"I'm Joo Jieqiong. Daughter of a relative of the deceased emperor." 

The deceased emperor. Not long after the birth of Kim Jonghyun-the crown prince of Gyeomdeong, jJoo Jieqiong was born. She heard stories about the country's talented crown prince and both of her sisters were looking forward to the day when the palace held the imperial wives selection so they could join and become his concubines. However, a tragedy happened a few months ago when new year eve arrived. There was a fire, burned down everything, half of the palace was on fire and the incident took away the emperor and the crown prince's lives. 

No one knew if the fire was on purpose or not because there was not enough evidence. That was the fall of the kim dynasty. The Joo family was in panic, both tzuyu and sejeong couldn't even believe what they heard.

But shortly afterwards, the aristocracy and noblemen started to suggest and vote for the one who had the most potential to become a king. It was then the beginning of hwang dynasty when hwang minhyun, son of a nobleman was chosen because everyone agreed on the fact that not only young but minhyun had talents in everything and he understood things really well. Hwang minhyun was born before Jieqiong for three years, he was only sixteen when he came to throne.  

So now, the emperor of gyeomdeong was no one other than hwang minhyun. The deceased emperor was the poor man died in the fire along with his beloved son. 

When hearing her origins, he was a little bit surprised but the guy remained calm and collected, asking for depth. "I... Never thought that the Joo family has three daughters. It's just... I have never expected that to happen."

Jieqiong tilted her head and gave him a tired smile. No one knew except for ong seongwoo and him now. "We're great at hiding, aren't we? But it's over now, I'm not with them anymore, they can't hurt me so if I want to, I can just go around and say that I'm their daughter." 

"Lady Jieqiong, why did you run away?"

Through the thin curtain, she could see that he was looking at her, paying all of his attention to her even though she was not able to see his face. "I told you." she spoke, found it hard to keep up with the conversation. 

"Lady Jieqiong, were you beaten?" 

Was she beaten? Yes, countless times. "They did worse. One time I couldn't walk for a week because my legs were in too much pain." 

"Did you cause any trouble, why do they hurt you so badly that you want to run away?" 

His voice was soft and it made her feel good to talk about such a complicated topic. "I'm just an outsider. I was an accident, my father married my mother just because she was pregnant with me and he refused to kill me off but even so, he's too scared of his wife to protect me. They hate me, everyone hates me, they bully me, make me do everything, blame everything on me and he just stands there, looking away. I don't need a father like that." 

"And they think that if someone knows you exist, it's going to ruin the royal family's reputation." 

Jieqiong blinked. He sure was a smart boy, catching up with everything really fast. 

"I understand now, must have been hard for you..." He sounded pity which made Jieqiong annoyed and soft at the same time. Annoyed that someone was pitying her but feeling soft because someone was there to listen to her and talk to her. "I'm used to it, I guess..." Jieqiong nodded her head a few times. 

"Then, can you read?"

Read? Jieqiong shook her head. No, they only hired the teacher to teach Sejeong and Tzuyu, Jieqiong was never allowed to interrupt the sisters while they were studying. 

The guy coughed a few times. "I see, I expected that." 

Uh.... Okay. He expected that, she didn't want to ask why, it wasn't because she was offended or anything since that was such a childish reason, maybe it was because it was an easy thing to guess. The family hated her, treated her like some kind of garbage, don't even mention about the fact that they might want her to be good at something. They just wanted her to be completely useless and irrelevant.

Jieqiong smiled at him. "Savior, can you read?" 

"Yes, I can, m'lady." He answered her without hesitation and Jieqiong swallowed, what she was about to ask him would sound embarrassing or impossible but she hoped to learn something while spending her time here. "Then, can you teach me how to read and write?"

"....Sure."

xxx

His name was Ahn Jaeho. She called him seonsaengnim, her teacher. Jaeho was a mysterious man, he never revealed his face and everytime she asked him what was behind the curtain, he would refuse to let her see: "I'm ugly so I don't want you to see my face."

She knew he was lying. He only wanted to trick her. And he never let her know anything else about him. How old was he? Where was his family? What was his favorite dish? He only ditched the questions but he forced her to tell him everything, which was really selfish of him, she would feel upset about that. He knew her identity, something that she should never tell someone. He knew she loved chicken wings. He knew she loved the smell of plums.

But she never knew one thing about him. What she knew was, Ahn Jaeho cared a lot about her and she would come to his room every day.

Her savior was a kind man, he had a soft laughter and a really bad humor. It was Jieqiong who cracked jokes and made him laugh, Jaeho never did an attempt to entertain her or anyone else. Choi Minki, his friend, told her that Jaeho was the worst of the worst. But even if he was the worst of the worse, she found him a really nice and interesting person. His voice was soft, though husky at times, when he read her a poem and told her stories, she found herself lost in a world of imagination, where there was a cherry blossom tree with the full moon, they were sitting on both sides of a deep lake that had the moon's reflection on its surface. There were only two of them left in the world and she listened to him with round eyes.

Between the lessons, he would steal a glance at her and smile. She would, too. She would , though.

Since when, did he become so important to her?

To Jaeho, not only a bright and childish kid, Jieqiong was also an excellent student, even Jaeho had to admit. She was quick at learning by heart and studying, though sometimes she complained and wanted to give up but she would never disappoint him. Jaeho had kept the memories of his little student struggling to hold the ink brush as she wrote down flying characters. Her expression, she was so serious about studying but looked so sad because she found the subject hard. Nevertheless, she did a great job afterwards which made him question himself, was he a really great tutor or was she just a born genius? And he would pick the second one because Jieqiong was a smart girl. 

He just knew it. 

xxx

"Seonsaengnim, I just got my first period!"

Ahn Jaeho was coughing, badly. Jieqiong only giggled at that, she had no idea what period meant at first and was crying upon finding out that the bottom of her dress was dyed in red, she was bleeding and she thought she was dying. Minki heard her cries so he came to check and burst into laughters, though Minki should had been polite about this problem but it was Jieqiong—the dumb kid so he was very comfortable about it and lectured her. Jieqiong didn't even find herself blushing after Minki told her that it was a private problem.

So as she discovered one new thing that he tutor had never taught her, obviously, she immediately went to see him and wanted to boast about it. She figured out that he might feel embarrassed and he was feeling shy, perharps!

But... he didn't stop coughing.

"Seonsaengnim?" She called out for him but Jaeho didn't reply, his only reply was followed with the sound of him coughing and gasping for air. "Seonsaengnim, are you okay?!" She then reached her hands to grab the curtain but Jaeho held the curtain first, wanting to tell her that she can't pull it. 

Even at a time like this, he wouldn't let her see his face. Jaeho, what was his secret, really?

"Jieqiong.. I'm fine."

Jieqiong's eyes were filled with tears because she was afraid of a lot.

Her tutor was ill. He had to drink a lot of herb but it couldn't cure him completely, only made it less serious. For many times, Jieqiong wanted to pull the curtain to check up on him, to help him when he was coughing like a dying patient but he never let her do so. She didn't understand why he had to hide his face, when she asked him for an explanation, he answered so naturally that he didn't want her to see him because he looked ugly, so ugly to the point that he would scare her off and she had to hold her laughter back because one, he thought that he was ugly? And two, he was afraid that she would feel scared. 

She wished she could tell him that she didn't care what he looked like. She just wanted to see her savior's face, the first person who had ever treated her so well.

To her, he was special than anyone ever.

"Seonsaengnim... Get well soon."

xxx

Five months later.

"Seonsaengnim!"

Joo Jieqiong dashed into the room with bare feet like always, hair tied up into a cute bun and she was wearing the biggest smile on her face. Though it wasn't a clear view, he could see how happy his student was. The young tutor was reading some books but he soon put them away to pay his attention on Jieqiong, who seemed like she had good news to announce or maybe she was about to tell a funny story she just had. Jieqiong also saw him standing up behind the curtain, she happily jogged towards his direction and hit her hips from side to side, making a small dance: "Seonsaengnim, Minki just told me something."

Minki? Oh, that grumpy yet humorous friend of his who often looked after Jieqiong. The tutor smiled but even so, Jieqiong couldn't see his smile. "Well? What is it, a new theory about nine-tail foxes?" Because Jieqiong and Minki were childish just like each other, they shared the same interest and for an intelligent man like him, it was too easy to guess what was on their mind. However, he was a bit taken back when he saw Jiqiong shook her head violently, the thing she told him next made him feel even more surprised: "Next week, they're going to look for imperival wives! All girls from all the high status families are welcomed to attend the selection and Minki said that I should come."

An imperial wives selection? "Jieqiong, are you perhaps..."

"Yes, seonsaengnim." She nodded, enthusiastically. "I'm aiming to become the Emperor's woman, who knows,  I'll strive to be on top, one day I'll become his queen."

"Watch your mouth, you can't say things like that so easily."

Noticing the annoyance in his tone, the younger girl blinked as she thought to herself that she did something wrong to upset him and it took her several seconds to think, what did she do wrong? Nothing! But why was he acting so annoyed and worried? "Jieqiong–cough cough– you can't survive in a place like that, cough cough..!" 

"Seonsangnim!" Jieqiong swallowed, she saw her hands moving towards the curtain on their own but they didn't dare to move further as her fingers were inches away from the curtain. He was still coughing over there, thumping on his chest lightly. 

But she put her arm down.

"Seonsaengnim, have you ever heard stories about fortune tellers and how they choose this country's queen?"

The tutor took a drink, he replied her with a dying duck voice: "That's absolutely dangerous, if the rumors go around, the imperial will turn into a chaos, not only the Emperor's harem. They either will do anything to kill the girl and stop it from happening or play dirty, if the rumored girl isn't qualified enough, they will do everything to eliminate her. It's... it's just really dangerous, you can't say things like that, alright?"

"But I was just asking if you believe in it or not. Seonsaengnim, out of the three Joos, one us is going to be the queen one day."

He was staring at her, Jieqiong stared back at the figure behind the shadow, there was a hint of sadness in her eyes. She didn't know why but she felt sad talking about it to him even though she was genuinely feeling happy when she talked to Minki but she wanted to come to the palace for a reason. "If I become his concubine, I'll live a better life, no one can crush me anymore. With the Emperor's help, I can ask people to find herbal for you, we'll find a way to cure you..."