A/N:  Chin-Sun means “the one who seeks truth and goodness in everything” and “truth and goodness.”

Gungnyeo - Referring to women waiting on the King or Queen
Wang (왕) — King
Jeonha/Mama (전하/마마) — Your Majesty/Royal Highness
Wangseja (왕세자) — Crown Prince
Gongju-mama (공주마마) — Princess

Listen to, to set the mood:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NksUf0xg9k 

Treasure:  A Royal Tailor One-Shot 
Written By:  NerwenT 

Her gungnyeo didn’t agree with her decision, but what was she to do? She was a simple servant to Her Highness; although in the years she had had the honor to serve her, she came to love her as her daughter. So, even though part of her was screaming to stop her queen, the other part understood why she had reached such a decision. 

"Is everything ready?” the queen’s calm voice asked.

“Yes, Mama...but are you-” A simple look in those eyes told her to shut .

It wasn’t a difficult plan; the only prisoner right now was the tailor, and the promise of good food, drink, and women to the guards easily led them away from their posts. They were to be drunk for the Changing of the Guard, and they had already bribed those who would come by morning.

At the door, the faithful gungnyeo stopped her Queen, but not to ask her to stop, to forget such a ludicrous plan, but to give her a silent blessing and an encouraging smile.

------

“Are you sleeping?” her voice quickly made him look up, surprised at the sight before him.

“Je-Jeonha... Why..?”

He saw her opening his cell door and closing it again behind her. She knelt in front of him with tears in her eyes.

“You didn’t place the poison needle in the king’s garments.” She wasn’t asking exactly, but he could guess what she wanted to know.

“No, I didn’t.”

She released a sob and covered with her hand, relieved to know he had lied...and all to save her.

“You shouldn’t have said that. You shouldn’t- The king may grant his pardon if you beg for mercy…”

Gong-Jin looked at her with eyes filled with sadness. He knew there was no way out of this; no pardon would ever be granted. He had confessed to a terrible crime against his King, and it hadn’t been that lie about the needle, but his longing and love for his Queen.

She seemed to understand what he couldn’t bring himself to say. After all, hours before he had thought about leaving the city and starting a new business away from his memories of her, and now he was facing beheading.

Lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t realized she had cut his restraints. Blood flowed back to his arms, and he was thankful for it.

“What are you doing here?” Gong-Jin finally asked. This wasn’t the place for a queen; the dirty, cold floor must hurt. “Your Royal Highness, please, you shouldn’t be here.”

“Where else then should I be?” She sat straight, with the demeanor that deemed her a ruler, and continued, “In my chambers waiting for my husband’s visit? Embroidering a cushion? Crying my eyes out because you’ll no longer exist?” Silent tears ran down her cheeks, but her voice didn’t waver.

What did tremble was her hand when she raised it to his face.

“Your Highness…” He avoided her touch.

“All I ask is to spend this night with you.” Her cheeks lit in a deep red at her words.  “Is it so wrong to offer comfort to the man who freely gave it to me when I felt like I was drowning?”

His heart was beating rapidly against his ribcage, for his Queen had never looked so terribly sad and beautiful as in this moment. But he was just a man and she a woman, and this was not her place.

Moving too fast for her, he embraced her and kept her close to his body. He was going to die anyway, why not take something with him?

“I implore you to leave. I’m grateful for your thoughts and your worry for me, but I’m nothing more than a simple man, a lowly servant to you, my Queen...I wasn’t lying to the king when I said I had dared to long for you. I do, long for you.” He felt her body stiffen but kept her in place; he just wanted to say what he had kept hidden in his heart since the first time he saw her. “My beautiful Queen, a little girl with hopes and dreams, forced to become a woman, so strong, so marvelous...not afraid to stand up for her beliefs once she found them. You asked me to give that phoenix ornament to a maiden I loved...and I did. I wasn’t returning your gift;  I was bestowing it upon you.”

Her hands were now his clothes, sobbing at this man’s strong love for her. Stronger than anything the King might have ever felt for her.

Yes. She loved this man. The tailor, the friend. She loved Lee Gong-Jin.  

He let her shed her tears, shedding a couple of his own at the unfairness of the titles and ranks. Perhaps, in the future, they’d reincarnate in different people who were allowed to love freely.

Gong-Jin squeezed her frame one more time and then let go, but his Queen was not moving.

“Mama…”

“Chin-Sun.” She moved to look into his eyes.  

“What?”

“My name is Chin-Sun.”

His eyes crinkled when he smiled.  “Chin-Sun…” Happiness invaded her. It had been so long since anyone had called her name. She was always the Queen, Her Highness, Your Majesty...but never the woman, Chin-Sun. She could be Chin-Sun with Gong-Jin.

They were close, as close as they had been when he had measured her collar with that red string. Her heart and breathing were failing, like that time, but this time she didn’t look away; even if remaining upright was proving to be difficult, Chin-Sun kept her eyes on Gong-Jin.

In a dark cell of the palace, a tailor and the Queen, Gong-Jin and Chin-Sun kissed.

He tried to avoid it, God knows he did, but his Queen wasn’t relenting, and she, in one of the most selfless displays he’d ever seen, gave herself to him in every possible way.

She was a , and he trembled at the thought of hurting her and taking such a precious gift. How? How was it possible for a man to not surrender at her feet? To give her anything and everything she asked for? He was but a slave to whatever she may ask of him. Gong-Jin was grateful and sad that the King was such a coward. Grateful because it was he who was first to enter her body and sad to know her husband had never noticed her beauty.

Hours passed, and he had let her rest after their first time together. After the crying and the pleading for him not to stop, she had wanted to feel, and he was more than willing to deliver. But now she was awake again, and so was his body.

Blushing and closing her eyes, she let Gong-Jin place her on his lap, straddling him.

This was not what her mother had told her or what she had heard from the ladies in court when they talked about coupling with their husbands. The woman was always to remain still and lying down for the pleasure of her man, but Gong-Jin was asking her to look at him, to take her pleasure from him, to move in whatever way she wanted, for he was going to be whatever she needed him to be.

Chin-Sun thought she had died, for the tautness of her limbs and the explosion in her belly that reached all the way to the tip of her hair. She cried; she gasped, but most importantly, she felt.

-----

He caught the eye of the Royal Tailor among the audience. He had come to watch him die. Gong-Jin found it sad they couldn’t stay friends and that the Royal Tailor felt the need to steal his design. He was the one who had sewn clothes for three generations of royalty...But, no matter now, Jo Dol-Seok was soon to receive the rank he deserved.

The music was reaching its ; he would soon never again open his eyes. He clutched the blood-stained fabric in his hand, the token he had stolen for himself when his woman lay asleep, tired from the exertion of their lovemaking, on his cell floor. Yu-Bi would have called him a ert.

With this piece of cloth in his hand, he looked up to the skies and smiled.

Then everything went black.

------

Her gungnyeo helped her up, while the rest of her ladies flocked around her worriedly.

“Don’t just stand there, girl. Bring some water to Her Majesty’s room!”

She had tripped, or so she thought. She had been sleeping more than usual, but still, she didn’t feel rested. Not being able to mourn publicly the loss of the only love she’d ever known. The King had not visited again, and in the rare occasions they met, he looked as if afraid of her.

“Thank you, but I’m okay now.”

“Mama…”

“I’ll go rest.”

But her gungyeo didn’t leave her alone; she tended her as her mother would’ve, and she revealed her suspicions in a fearful voice.

A child? A life growing in her womb?

“There is this herb...if you wish to bleed again.” Her lady said in a whisper, but the Queen didn’t want to hear of it. She would have this child; she would bring the only remnant of the man she loved into this world.

-----

He was beginning to wake up.

The Queen straightened her clothes and put a gentle smile on her face.

“What...Oh! My head, this hurts. Where-?” His question died on his lips when he saw his Queen sitting next to the futon, bashfully smiling at him.

“Wang, you have awakened. I will have breakfast brought to my quarters today.”

She delicately rose, but a pained expression couldn’t be hidden, though she tried to smile through it.

Yeon-Seok quickly threw the covers off of him only to find a deep red stain next to him.

Just how much had he drunk last night? Had he finally bedded his wife? He didn't remember a thing, but it couldn’t be otherwise: the shy smile, the pained expression, the blood stain...him waking up in her chambers.

He felt disgusted with himself. He had promised to never touch her, to never even look at her until she apologized for her impertinence.
Calling him a coward…

But he had gone and lain with her?

“My King,” her sweet voice preceded her, “breakfast will be served soon. We can enjoy it together if you would like.”

“What happened yesterday?”

And he swore he had never seen her blush like that. “I’m grateful for your kindness at my inexperience, my Lord. I’m sure an heir will not be far away.”

After that sentence, he fled her room.

------

“Even if it was premature, your Majesty, your daughter is looking healthy and Her Royal Highness is out of danger. May I please congratulate you on this joyous occasion?”

The King ignored the physician’s wishes and went into the Queen’s chambers.

There she was, resplendent, a beauty he’d never seen in her before set on her features, a bundle of white in her arms.

“Have you ever seen a baby more beautiful?” she asked out loud when she noticed him in the room. “Hello, my daughter.”

“Is she healthy?” She said yes.  “Are you healthy?” She said yes again. “Then we shall have the presentation ceremony in a week. We’ll announce that a Gongju-mama was born today.” She replied affirmatively yet again. “I have decided on a name-”

“Jin-Ae.” She interrupted him, thinking of Gong-Jin. How he would have probably run to hold her and their daughter with tears in his eyes, kissing her head and his daughter’s feet, pleading to be her slave as well. She had taken part of his name for their daughter. “Her name will be Jin-Ae. Truth, treasure and love.” For there had never been a truer treasure than the love Gong-Jin had gifted her with, a daughter.

The King cleared his throat and was about to command the name he had chosen was better, Cheung-Cha, there. It sounded strong, and it literally meant noble daughter. But before he could say a thing, the Queen gave him such a look that he immediately thought of a bear and her cubs.

“I will announce that Jin-Ae is in good health.”

A eunuch knocked and asked if he should bring a wet-nurse.

“That will not be necessary; I will be feeding my daughter.”

“Yes, Mama…” He bowed his way out.

The King should have left a long time ago, but he simply couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scene before him.

“You...You look good, my Lady. Motherhood suits you.” She smiled in return.  “Perhaps next time it will be a Wangseja.”

“Perhaps…”

After she saw him leave the room, she took her daughter to the balcony. The breeze felt nice because it was spring, and the flowers looked beautiful. She couldn’t have asked for a better time for her daughter to come into this world.

“Your father would have loved to see this. He might have even sewn you a robe with a flower pattern. What do you say? Would you like that?”

The small baby in her arms didn’t react; Jin-Ae was peacefully sleeping, feeling safe against her mother’s bosom.

------

The Queen basked in the love of her daughter for the rest of her life. Never did she lay with the King after her deception of making him believe he had taken her ity. He took on other wives after her and had many princes and princesses to be his heirs, whichever made him happy was fine by her.

“Queen Mother!” Her joy and sole reason for living entered her chambers with jubliance in her steps. Jin-Ae passed the Royal Tailor and sat next to her mother.

“Yes, my little treasure?”

“How do you like this?” Her daughter had sewn a beautiful, small hanbok for one of her dolls, with vibrant rich colors.  It fit perfectly. “It’s amazing. You did so well.”

“I don’t like the robes that are too big for me. Clothes should fit the person, don’t you think, Mother?”

The Queen saw the Royal Tailor hunch in his shame, for he too knew he had caused the death of an innocent man. If it had been in her hands, she would’ve cast the man away from the palace forever, but she didn’t. It was better that everyday he knew he’d never be as good as Gong-Jin.

“Gongju-mama...there are rules, which-”

“Silence. My daughter is speaking to me.” His forehead touched the floor in repentance. “You may leave.”

The Queen had felt her eyes well with tears at her daughter’s question. She had never revealed to her who her real father was, but even without trying, Jin-Ae showed she was different from the rest of the court.

Brown-hazel eyes and a quick wit, same as her father. Jin-Ae had also inherited her mother’s soft, porcelain skin. The best of both worlds, sculpted into a beautiful young girl, who was quickly turning into a woman. At 12 years old, she was the most gorgeous girl in the palace, already with many requests for suitors.

“I too like these clothes better. I once knew a man who also thought clothes should fit the person.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Jin-Ae look excited, for her progressive ideas were viewed as dangerous inside the castle walls. Her only allies were her mother, her mother’s gungnyeo, and one of her brothers.

“What was he like, Mother?”

The Queen pet her daughter’s hair, stared into the flower buds that would soon open, and took a deep breath.

“He was one of the most skilled tailors there was…”

The End