“Ga Eun! Ga Eun! Choi Ga Eun! Where are you?”

Minho was running everywhere. Ga Eun, his beloved wife had disappeared from her sick bed. He reached the greenhouse and saw the back of a woman. He extended his arm to reach her shoulder.

“Ga Eun! Ga…”

The eyes of this woman were ones he didn’t know. The light that should be in everyone’s eyes was absent.

“The flowers are beautiful don’t you think so too, sire? Did you come to look at them? I think that is why I’m here. I think I am going to sit on the bench and look at them a bit longer.” I smiled at him. My empty mind could only think of the flowers. Actually, to be very honest, my mind was too blank to think or see anything.

“Wait…”

Before Minho said or did anything, Eun Hui grabbed his sleeve and shook her head.

That day for a strange reason, Mi Yeong's dream was so vivid. It felt so real that when she woke up, she wondered where she was and if it was reality. She placed her hands on her stomach to check and yes, she wasn’t pregnant. In that dream, she was so happy  sharing a sweet moment with her husband around their first to be children. Her stomach was round like a pillow and everything around seemed so soft. Returning to reality, where she was alone was a bit hard.

“Why do you have such dreams Mi Yeong…? It’s only going to hurt you when you wake up.” She talked to herself.

She opened her diary and wrote.

12th September 2018

What we dream

We all have dreams, right? But some dreams hurt more than other. Why do we hurt ourselves with that kind of dream?

I wonder what I used to dream before I lost myself. Was I happy? Was I hoping for better? Was I wishing from the past also?

Tell me, can I have my own dream? Did the old me allow me to have hope and wish to be happy with the future?

Since the old me had disappeared when Mi Yeong appeared, I want to dream I have a future…

After washing her face, she wore her gardener uniform and walked to work.

“Good morning!!!! Aaaah I slept so well!” Eun Hui said proudly.

Mi Yeong smiled at her and they went to the cantina to have breakfast.

The entire palace was in such agitation. The maids, the cookers, even the valets were running from one place to the other.

“Hey, boy” interplead Mi Yeong “What is all this noise?”

“You don’t know? Today is the Queen’s death anniversary.”

Mi Yeong felt stupid. Of course it was that day. That day the whole palace cried out while she was just clueless in the middle of a corridor. It was the anniversary day when the Dowager Queen eyes fell on the not crying Mi Yeong that scared her to the bones.

“Right, sorry for bothering.”

The valet bowed slightly and ran to his goal.

A lot of work will be asked to the gardeners as well. They’ll have to prepare and change all the flowers of the palace plus do a funeral bouquet for the Queen’s tomb. Today was really a tough day. Mi Yeong sighed.

“Are you alright Mi Yeong?” asked her friend.

“Yes, don’t worry. We should hurry, lots of work is awaiting.”

Into a big basket, Mi Yeong cut a lot of the greenhouse flowers going from one tree to the other. Until she fell on the rose tree, the one from her first day. He had bloomed again. He had those pink almost white roses again. The tree was so beautiful. Once again, for a reason she couldn’t comprehend, her heart felt heavy looking at this tree. What was this tree seriously? Why did it affect her that much?  She felt like crying, she felt the hole in her heart.

“Ah, the roses are back of course.” said another woman gardener from behind her back.

“Of course” Mi Yeong repeated. Why of course…

She was standing here, not daring to cut the flowers out this tree until Eun Hui reached her.

“Ah no! Mi Yeong, you can’t take those rose out from this tree. It’s the Crown Prince tree. We can’t touch it.”

“The Crown Prince’s tree…?” Mi Yeong repeated again.

“Yes! Let’s continue my friend! There is so much work left!” she said with a tired voice saying all the work left.

Vases after vases, she changed the flowers in it but her mind was really out of her today. She was there without really being there. She was in automatic mode as Eun Hui loved to say during her tired days. Suddenly she saw the King’s room and froze in front. She couldn’t enter and change the flowers in that room. She turned tail and walked away.

Minho was heading to his room, today it was hard to concentrate on his work. It was the day his beloved wife past away and until the ceremony, he won’t be able to work properly. When he finally reached the corridor of his own quarter, he saw Mi Yeong in the distance. He watched her doing her work. She was touching the flower so delicately, she was changing the flowers with a lot of taste and taking care of the old ones as if they were precious being. She was really made to work with flowers. He even went to think that her skin was so beautiful surrounded by such beautiful flowers. He was there staring at her with a heart at peace. Her aura was comforting compare to all the other stressing him out.

Then suddenly her eyes found his and he felt his cheeks becoming pink. What an awful behavior on his Queen’s death anniversary.

“Your Highness, good morning” she simply told him with a pretty smile.

Uneasy, the king just coughed a bit.

“Don’t worry; I didn’t go into your apartment. So your flowers are unchanged. Have a great day, your highness.”

She bowed gracefully and walked away by his right side.

“Mi Yeong, do you have a minute.” Minho said before thinking. What was wrong with him today?

“Yes? What can I do for you?” the gardener answered facing him again.

“Hum… Did you change the flowers into my office?” he pulled a face, what a stupid question.

“Someone else surely did. I’m affiliated to your quarter only today your highness. On this, I still have a lot of work.” She bowed again and walked a bit.

Minho sighed, he wished he had more time with her. But then she suddenly faced him once more.

“Your highness, I am sorry for your loss. Today might be hard, be strong for the country and for the people trusting you.” She smiled brightly and this time really walked away.

Minho entered his room and laid on his bed. “Be strong for the country and for the people trusting you.” He whispered. That kind of words reminded him of Ga Eun. She would say that often. On the time when his father passed away and had to wear the crown, she would say that to him. “Be strong my love, people trust and need you.”

The garden manager had a checkpoint with all her little ants. Once finished she asked them to take care of the garden because a lot of guest would walk in it and it needed to be perfect. “The Queen must have been really loved.” thought Mi Yeong, so much that people kept coming to her even when she isn’t anymore.

She remembered the first guest parties she saw during her first days as gardener. She was so clumsy that she cut herself with all the garden tools and the thorn on plants. She laughed.

“The Dowager Queen!” the footman screamed.

All the little ants stopped, to face the pathway and bowed to the queen. She walked by some of Mi Yeong’s colleagues and stopped in front of her. She was convinced that this person hated her. She could only see her feet but the hatred was tangible.

“You! Follow me.”

Mi Yeong followed her during 15 minutes to the very far end of the garden. There the whole Dowager Queen’s group and the gardener faced an old small house.

The footman chose a key in his very big key ring and opened the door. The Dowager Queen signed with her head for Mi Yeong to step in. She entered on her guard. That small place was always locked and forbidden for all. So going inside was very strange for her. Once inside, one the female companions opened the shutters without a look at Mi Yeong. She then went out to her Queen.

The Footman and Mi Yeong exchange a look. Mi Yeong felt something in his eyes and began to worry. The Dowager did another head sign to her servant and he closed then locked the door on Mi Yeong.

“Stay here and make this place clean. I’ll come back tonight to control your work.” The old lady said at the closed door without a hence of sympathy.

“What? Please no! Let me go! I’m a gardener not a maid! Let me out!” Mi Yeong screamed.

But the whole Dowager Queen squad was already heading away. Her voice was just wasted in the air. The old Queen wasn’t listening. Mi Yeong hit the door with her fist and tried to open the door but no one answered and the door was still closed after one hour. She slid her back upon the door to squat on the dirty floor and cried for a while. Why did that old lady lock her up here? She was a reliable employee. She did not deserve to be treated this way…

Minho dressed up in his mourning suit with the help of Jong Suk. The ceremony would soon begin and the palace will be flooded by guests. He wished he could be only him the kids and their mother. Why did his mom invited so many people when she never gave her credit? Jong Suk read his mind and patted his shoulder.

“It’s just one day. You know what it really is. Just bear it for what it is and everything will be easy.” He told his King.

“You are right my friend, but even if I know that, she still disappeared without a word…”

After giving up the idea of going out, she explored the small house. It was composed of only one room of very dusty furniture. In front of the high window, there was an easel standing proudly in the light. Several abandoned paintings were stocked upon a wall. A palette full of dry paint was still sit on the chair in front of the easel and the dry brushes still in a recycled jar of jam. Actually, out of the dust, this room felt comfortable and full of good vibes. A broom, a mop and other cleaning tools had been placed here for her in a corner. She sighed and finally decided to clean the whole place. She wanted it to be enjoyable again. She bet that the person who used to paint here would be happy if it was.

Guests went to pay their respect to the King, the Crown Prince and the Princess before taking part of the reception. The Crown Prince was less and less patient and wanted to escape somewhere else where he could play, like the small kid he was. Minho couldn’t blame him, he wished he could escape as well. After the three of them welcomed all the guests they escaped the party to go see the passed away Queen.

“Hello, lovely Ga Eun” simply said the King.

The kids sat in front of the tomb and waited for him to finish his words and then left. Again, he couldn’t blame then, they barely knew their mother. He looked at the sky and sent it his inner wish.

Mi Yeong had finished removing the dust everywhere, the windows were now hyper clean, and only the floor was left. She wiped away her sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and took a break. The room had almost found back her young days. Without all the dirt, this place was really pretty. She sat on the chair, and took some paintings  to look at them randomly. Most of them were aquarelle of nature, but then she found one portrait, a portrait of a pregnant woman that had this precious smile of the future mother. From the point of view of the painter, this woman had bright eyes and pink cheeks.

“She is beautiful” Mi Yeong said to the unknown painter. “May I keep it?” she also asked.

She opened the back window and let fall softly the painting. She knew the dragon wouldn’t let her go out with it. She’ll come back later for it. She stood on her feet. “Ok, let’s wash the floor!”

After showing a bit at the reception, Minho walked out to enjoy the garden lost in his thoughts. He took a path he used to take when Ga Eun was still from this world. The pathway that leaded to an old house where his father used to stay for hours, that then he used for himself. His father showed him that hidden place few days before he passed away.

“This is where you can have time for yourself, where you can be only you for some hours.” He explained to his son.

At this moment, he didn’t understand what he was saying. But once the King responsibilities fell on his back; he knew what those words mean. Once you are King, the you before is erased by the King's face.

He reached the house and surprisingly the shutters were open. He frowned and took a key from his inner pocket. He always had it on him; it was his last father’s gift. Inserted the key and unlocked the door.

He opened it only to face Mi Yeong as surprised as he was.

“What are you doing here?!” both said at the same time.

So here is the 3rd chapter !! 

How did you like it ? Who do you think is the painter ? 

What will happen next ? 

Oh and ...the old Queen is soooo meeeh >.> Even me can bare her >.>

See you next month !! 

Like, comment, upvote ! 

Lexie