Seol recognises the guard whom Myeongjo said she had bribed. She sneaks up behind a pillar close to him under the cover of the night and gestures for him to meet her behind a tiny room. He says something to the other guard standing outside what was presumably Myeongjo’s room before making his way to meet Seol.  

“You shouldn’t be seen around here”, he whispers.  

“Technically they didn’t tell me where I can or cannot go. And I have a message for Myeongjo. What will it take for you to help me pass the message to her?”  

“Nothing from you”, he replied. Seol paused momentarily. “My daughter had a weird disease but Myeongjo gave me a medicine that saved her and I cannot thank her enough. If there’s anything that the two of you need… just let me know.”

“Then I will be grateful if you pass her this message… tell her it’s from me… just say that ‘there are three’. She will understand. Thank you…”  

Without asking anything, he bows his head slightly and heads back to his duty.  

Seol turns to head back to her room, recalling the events in the morning where she first saw the mark on Gangjeong’s wrist. Jin had brought over some medication for Gangjeong and saw Seol staring at the black mark. When Seol looked at Jin, he seemed nervous but didn’t say anything, instead he quickly changed the focus to the burns on Gangjeong’s hands.  

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a hand grabs her arms and slams her against a nearby tree, breaking her thoughts. Her eyes meet another pair, which in whatever moonlight that fell upon them.  

“Gang…”, Seol almost called out Gangjeong’s name upon seeing his face.  

“What are you doing here?”, his hushed but seething tone raised goosebumps on the back of her neck.  

“Min Yoongi?”, Seol stammers.  

He smirks, “So, you know who I am now? Good, then I think you owe me an apology.”  

“What for?”  

“For your attitude to me in the streets the other day.”  

“What did I do wrong to have to apologise to you?”, Seol was frowning at his haughtiness and also from the slight pain she felt as he pushed her against the tree.  

“There are rules in this place and you don’t seem to know them”, he lets go of his hold on her, “The first rule here is that people like you do not question people like us.”  

“What are people like me? And what makes you different from us?”  

“Power. Do you know what that is? Power is when I don’t have to answer to anyone, even if I want to take your life right here right now… or perhaps, your shaman mother’s life?”, he replied cocking his head to one side.  

Seol’s eyes widen in shock, was he saying that Myeongjo is a shaman? Seol never knew about this.  

She steels herself again before saying, “If your father chose to keep us alive then I will assume that there must be a reason why. So, I don’t think you can just do whatever you want with us.”  

Yoongi’s eyes squints to mock her in the moonlight, scoffing apathetically, “He thinks a shaman will help him cure this curse but why would she do that when it was her friends who cursed this family in the first place? If you want me to leave her alone, I suggest you consider doing as I say…”

“What do you want from me?”, Seol mutters, she hated being threatened, but this was his house, and the darkness of the night coupled by the darkness in him, eroded her resolve.  

“Let’s see… how about your obedience? If you follow my rules, I won’t touch your mother. As a start, kneel down.”  

Appalled, she could only watch the icy expression on Yoongi’s face turn into smugness.  

“What?”, she gasps softly.  

“Kneel”, he repeated. “I’ll take it as your apology. Or you could just watch me drag your mother out here and make her beg for your life instead. Your choice”, he shrugged.  

Seol grits her teeth, everything she has experienced since she entered Hanyang has irked her soul. Who was this man to act this way? What was so great about him? Why was he bestowed these so-called powers that he carelessly abused?  

Tears build up in her eyes, another lesson etched into her mind. She slowly lowers her stature, kneeling down, knowing for the first time what it felt to be ‘powerless’.  

“I have no idea about what you think power is. But do you know what I think it is?”, Seol asks quietly as she knelt on the grass, “I think it is a knife. It is nothing but as good or as bad as the person who wields it. And do you know what is the difference between man and beast? A man will make good use of the knife but a beast will choose to hurt others with it.”

There was something growing within Yoongi’s eyes, and it wasn’t just anger. He reaches out his hand to raise her face like how his father did.  

“You are a smart girl. Then, you should know very well not to anger a beast”, his voice was dripping with menace. Everyone knew him as the beast, he knew fully well what Seol was insinuating about him. He was used to people running away from him, fearing him, despising him. In some way, he was used to being the beast.  

But he is a result of a shaman’s curse, and he hated Seol because she was Myeongjo’s daughter. Perhaps this was the best way to get back at the shaman. He wanted her daughter to be the one to break the curse but in order to do so, he needed her loyalty.  

“What’s going on here?”, Jin’s voice was like a ray of light that broke through the darkness. The moment Jin laid his eyes on the other man towering over Seol, he recognises him.  

“What are you doing, Yoongi?”  

“Nothing much. Just educating my new guest about the house rules. Why are you here at this hour?”, Yoongi replies rather genuinely as he shifts his attention to Jin, dropping his hands from Seol’s face. From the way he spoke, Seol deduces that Yoongi must be around the same age as Jin, since he doesn’t refer to him as “hyung”, the same way Gangjeong does.  

“I thought I’d see you tonight”, Jin uttered towards Yoongi.  

“Why? The kid whined about the headache again?”, Yoongi scorned.

By now Jin had made his way next to Seol. He extended his hand to help Seol up, but she was hesitant, feeling Yoongi’s presence.  

“It’s fine. Get up”, Jin said to Seol lightly. Yoongi observed the interactions between the two of them this whole time. He grasps that Jin must have been acquainted to Seol during this time. Jin turns to look at Yoongi disapprovingly, but he has more important things to discuss with him.  

“Let’s talk in private”, Jin suggests. Yoongi narrows his eyes lazily, holding his lips tightly together and nodded in agreement.  

—

Jin paced around Yoongi’s room, lit by only a few candles, just the way Yoongi liked it.  

“I heard your father found the shaman you’ve been looking for”, Jin started.  

Yoongi nodded leisurely from where he sat.  

“So, is there another cure?”

“It’s going to take time.”

“You know you don’t have time…”, Jin sounded worried.  

“That’s why I’m trying this way too.”  

“What do you mean?”  

“That girl. The shaman’s daughter.”

Jin was suddenly much more concerned. “What are you trying to do, Yoongi-ah?”  

“Fulfil my original destiny. Remember I told you, the shaman who cursed me said that the curse would be broken if I could gain the loyalty of someone who was betrayed by my father or anyone related to them by blood?”

“So?”  

“Her mother… she was one of the shamans that served in the palace, the only one who got away that night. If her mother fails to find any other cure, she has to break the curse for me. Since we are holding her mother hostage, I can easily make her a loyal servant.”

“That’s not true loyalty…”, Jin frowns.  

“How is that any different from the ‘loyalty’ your father commands as the King? Human wants and emotions are fickle. If you don’t control them, you never know when they will betray you. At the end of the day, loyalty is but as real as the reins that tie the horses.”  

Jin was not prepared to start a squabble with Yoongi on this topic. He had to head back to the palace, albeit not without leaving Yoongi a warning. “Your father has done more than enough. You know better than anyone since you are suffering the consequences. Do what you want to but don’t hurt anyone.”  

—

As Jin heads back to the palace, he thinks back to his childhood days – a much younger Yoongi and Jin used to spend time at a Seodang together. They were so full of stupid antics; sneaking in snacks during lessons, Yoongi’s favourite being those gangjeong sweets.  

Yoongi used to fall asleep during lessons and Jin would kick him in the shin to try to wake him up, leading younger Yoongi to startle awake and whining loudly in his pouty mannerisms. Both would somehow end up being punished to kneel in the sun, reciting passages.  

Jin smiles wistfully at the memories; if only his father never became the King, if only he never became the crown prince. What would have been different now?  

—

“Dang Seol… Dang Seol!”, Yoongi yelled into the empty maid’s quarters in the morning light, looking for Seol.  

Seol comes out from her room at the other end of the yard to see what was going on with all the shouting. When she sees Yoongi, she immediately turns to go back inside.  

“Ya! I was calling for you, did you not hear me?”, Yoongi shouted across. “Did you forget your lesson from last night? Are you going to disobey me? Can you handle the consequences?”

Seol stops, grinding her teeth in anger.  

—

Yoongi slouches against the chair he was sitting on. “I think I have made my proposal very clear yesterday night. You will do as I say from now, deal?”  

“So, you are asking me to be your slave in exchange for keeping my mother alive? I seriously don’t get why you think I will agree to this. It’s not as if you could just kill her when your father is clearly holding her for a reason.”  

“Firstly, I am not asking, I am instructing. And secondly, I’m not telling you to be my slave, I am telling you to be a loyal servant to me until your mother finishes the task she is supposed to do here. If she fails, I don’t think my father will bother what I intend to do to her.”  

“What’s the difference? And what exactly is this task my mother is working on?”  

Yoongi shrugs, “No need for you to know that. Anyway, enough with this talking, follow me.”  

—

Seol was seated before a middle-aged woman, clearly a seasoned servant in this household.  

“The young master prefers to sleep in during the day, so he often skips breakfast. He likes to do his work at night, but he doesn’t like his room to be too bright…”, the motherly-sounding woman rattled on as she glances towards Yoongi from time to time nervously. Yoongi just sat leaning against the wall, napping.  

Next up was a fine young swordsman, Seol vaguely remembers that he was one of the people who were following Yoongi when she first saw them in the streets of Hanyang.  

He was busy reciting the security protocols in the Min household until one line catches Seol’s attention in particular, “This is primarily my job but you should also be aware, if the young master is ever in a dangerous situation, you have to do everything in your ability to protect him and that includes laying down your life.”

Seol looks at him in astonishment. Why would you do that for essentially a stranger.  

“The prime example of loyalty, my head bodyguard, Jaeyoung”, Yoongi slurs out in a low energy manner, opening his eyes partially and raising his hands to give a thumbs up.  

“Why do we have to die for you? Are our lives worthless? You are not even the King.”  

Yoongi opens his eyes, sober now. “I’m not the King, but do you know who gave the King the throne he now sits on?”  

“Young master… be careful with your words”, Jaeyoung tries to get Yoongi to stop.  

Yoongi glares at him. “Is it not the truth?”, he turns back to Seol, “You shouldn’t think the King is the only one who has power. You want to stay alive? You want to thrive in this country? Then you have to fall in line behind true power. The second thing you should know about power is that it rewards whoever is loyal to it.”  

—

From then on, Seol started running errands for Yoongi, starting from the small things, such as bringing him his tea, setting up his meals, even flipping the pages of his books, which she didn’t mind since she could take the opportunity to read them as well. And the ritual went on for about a week.

Just like she was told, Yoongi does stay up till late every single night, sometimes practicing the gayageum, sometimes reading. Seol would always become sleepy much earlier. Once she dozed off while preparing the ink that Yoongi requested for writing.  

Yoongi watched as she nodded off, he was obviously annoyed but he somehow felt sorry that he was doing this to her just because she was the daughter of a shaman. He was never one to hold any soft feelings for long, so he picks up one of his brushes and hurls it towards where she sat.  

Seol startles awake when the brush hits her right on her forehead. She picks it up and grimaces at Yoongi.  

“Why are you giving me that look? You shouldn’t be falling asleep here when the master hasn’t even rested the whole day.”  

In her state of half-awakeness, Seol busted out a rebuttal, surprising Yoongi so much he almost dropped the other brush he was holding. “Of course you are able to stay up so late! You only wake up around mid-day. I, on the other hand, stay at the maids’ quarters and they are all up so early in the morning making a ruckus and I can’t even sleep past daybreak.”  

Yoongi’s eyes shifted between her and the paper before him, “If your room is too noisy in the morning you can sleep in the room next to mine instead”, he proposed with a straight face.  

Seol looks up, horrified. He quickly backpedals the suggestion instead telling her to go back early and rest for the night.  

—

Seol was walking back to her room when she took a detour to where Myeongjo was held. She peeks from behind the pillar; no luck again tonight, sighing when she sees the guards on duty outside Myeongjo’s room is not the one she knew. There are so many worries and questions weighing on her mind, and she really needs to talk to Myeongjo.  

“Why are you hiding out here? I thought you were so tired you would fall asleep even walking back…”, his voice whispering into her ears almost made her jump out from her own skin.  

“Not-nothing, do you need something?”, Seol stammers.  

Yoongi eyes widened as he slowly nods his head, lips perking up like he was impressed by her, “I see the training is paying off. I don’t need anything, go back and rest, stop sneaking around.”  

As Seol dutifully walks away back to her room, Yoongi headed towards Myeongjo’s room instead.  

—

“Seol-sshi”, a familiar sounding voice called out her name, stopping her on her way towards the kitchen to check on the lunch being prepared for Yoongi.

“Your highness”, Seol bows to a beaming Jin.  

“Where are you going?”  

“To check on the lunch being made for that young master, he’s making me do all his chores now”, Seol points angrily towards the direction of Yoongi’s room.  

Jin’s expression turns stoic, “He’s really…”, Jin mumbles with a frown but cuts himself off.  

“Now that I see your highness, I just realised, I haven’t been seeing Gangjeong for some time around the house”, Seol wonders.  

Jin flinches, laughing awkwardly while avoiding Seol’s eyes, not wanting to respond to that. “Yoongi’s lunch… do you need help with it? From what I remember you aren’t really a kitchen-person.”

Seol pouts at the friendly insult and Jin smiles again at her, ushering her towards the kitchen.  

—

Seol finally brought Yoongi’s lunch into his room, after telling Jin to wait outside and that she’ll call him in once she checks that Yoongi is up.  

But Yoongi was not up. Seol cautiously heads over and taps him. “Stop tapping me, I’m not feeling well, take the food away.”  

Seol picked up his hand and felt his pulse, “Everything seems fine, why are you acting like a whiny baby?”  

“Whin-whiny?!”, Yoongi was not in the condition to argue with her, he knows this feeling all too well.  

“Don’t come over to my room again until I ask for you. And remember, your loyalty lies with me, don’t listen to anyone else, otherwise your mother…”  

Seol throws down his arm and stood up abruptly, fuming. “Stop it. Stop threatening me with my mother’s life. Have I not done enough the past few days? I can’t believe Gangjeong has a brother like you, how are the two of you so different? You are really the worst.”  

Yoongi sits up with much difficulty as he clenches his fist, “Don’t compare me to him, he’s weak”, he says angrily but winces in pain.  

“Maybe he’s weak, but do you really think what you are doing is a proof of your strength?”, Seol jabbed.  

Yoongi’s head was pulsating in pain and he held it in between his hands, darkness creeping before his eyes. He can’t let her witness this.  

“SHUT UP AND GET OUT!”, he yells.  

Seol was frightened from his sudden outburst and she shakily makes her way towards door. But just as she opens the door, Yoongi doubles over and lands on the floor, groaning from the pain before he passes out.  

Seol sees him and instinctively ran over, “Yoongi-sshi, Yoongi-ssi!”, she was sure she didn’t feel anything strange from his pulse earlier. What is going on? Maybe she should check again.  

She picks up his left hand, pushing his sleeves up and she froze. There, on his wrist, was the same azalea mark she had seen on Gangjeong’s arm – the same three black petals.  

“Yoongi-ah!”, Jin had entered the room, running over and holding onto Yoongi’s motionless body. He is edgy when he sees Seol staring at the azalea mark on Yoongi’s wrist.  

“Seol, leave, go outside”, Jin commanded in a gentle way. But Seol was still in a daze, that was when Yoongi started to stir awake.  

“Hyung?”

Jin nervously looks at him before turning to Seol, trying his best to think of what to do next.  

“Hyung, how long has it been?”, he directed his question at Jin.

Seol looked closely at the man who had just awoken. It can’t be, she thought. But she grabs his left hand and examines it.  

“Seol-sshi. Why are you here? You shouldn’t be here”, the man said worriedly. There it was, although they were only vaguely visible, she was sure they were burn marks that had almost completely healed, a few dark red spots on his palm, likely from oil splatters.  

“Gang… Gangjeong?”, Seol stutters.  

He was worried that she would find out, because that would place her in danger. But he was happy to see her again, and he was happy to hear her call his name. 

“It mustn’t have been too long then… seeing that you still remember my name.”