Lee Moon Sae- An Old Story

The moment she was caught felt worse than any moment she had been through until then. Fei had seen wars between thousands, if not millions and she had to fight among them at some point. And yet she was caught walking just outside the village on a sunny day. She didn’t bother hiding because she knew whatever will happen won’t affect her relationship to Hyang.

The guards led her to the king through the middle of the village at an hour when the streets were crowded, making sure that everyone watched. Fei was a proud creature, she glanced at the villagers but the people she once helped were now whispering between themselves and not making eye-contact. She chuckled to herself and sighed in disappointment. It didn’t matter if she was in the ancient ages in Greece or in the 15^th century in Joseon, people were the same at their core.

She had her hands wrapped together with rope in front of her and the sun seemed to follow them as they arrived in front of the palace. The doors opened and she was surprised to see quite a few ministers and even more guards in the front yard. The steps to the front made her remember how she felt when meeting Ares for the first time. His eyes froze her blood and stopped her heart and she was more than happy to give her whole being to him just to be able to live forever. Now, it was more or less the same emotion. She fell in love and she could, just like back then, give her whole immortal life to this man.

When she was forced to stop, she could see the person that ordered this intervention. He was a middle-aged man with a long beard and dressed in green clothes. His eyes were particularly long and narrow and his orbs were black. He looked more like death than Hades.

“Here she is, the devil! The witch!” he started in a loud, booming voice. “She arrived with the foreigners and she didn’t leave when they did! She chose to stay.” He added glaring at Fei. “My highness, you gave her more than she should have deserved! You let her roam the palace and the village by herself and you gave her the opportunity to spy on us!”

Fei looked up at the king, who seemed cross. All eyes were on him and his mother and wife were each on one side, whispering to him something that Fei did not want to hear.

“I’m not a spy. This is the first country in the east that I had ever been to.” She said calmly.

“Is it? How come you can speak Chinese, then?” He asked.

“I can’t.” She replied with an eyebrow raised.

“Then what are these?”

One of his acolytes came and brought some of her notes. They were translated from Hanja into Greek and the information was mostly about the Joseon dynasty. Moreover, the translation was made with the help of the king himself. 

“Well? No answer? I’m going to tell you, then! This witch is gathering information about our country in order to give it forward to possible new enemies!” He shouted at the top of his lungs. “My lord, she even used her powers with the villagers and your servants! She entered their minds and hearts and made them poison you!”

Many gasps were heard from all around her. Some guards glared at her with gritted teeth but the king didn’t mutter a word.

“I think you’re misunderstanding my intentions.”

“Don’t utter another word, witch!” He shouted and smacked her. The king’s eyes widened and he got on his feet, surprised how things turned so bad.

Fei’s eyes widened at the courage this old human had but she was not going to lose her cool for him.

“I only instructed the servants to bring me what I needed in order to make the king a traditional recipe from my country. It was not poisoning, he just didn’t like it. I also gave him medicine for that.” She replied in the same calm manner.

“What about the queen then?” The villain asked, his bushy eyebrows narrowing at her.

Fei looked up at Hyang’s wife. That woman was vile and she was a liar. The way the two women were looking at each other was enough to know there was no friendship between them.

“What about her?”

“You tried to poison her too.”

“No, I didn’t.” Fei answered with a smirk, “If I tried to poison anyone, I’d be successful. She’s still alive and well, as we can all see.”

That brought another set of gasps from the viewers. Hyang looked down at his fumbling hands, knowing his wife was not happy with his allegedly foreign concubine. And yet what he felt being with Fei was far above anything he had felt until then. The queen was jealous, that much was obvious. But would she poison herself just to blame Fei? That was…too much.

“What about this then?” he asked showing everyone her journal. Fei’s eyes widened as did Hyang’s. “It’s all written in your language but I noticed you use names of other gods. Are these spells? Is that how you bring the dead back to life?!”

Fei raised an eyebrow, confused by what he was rambling about. And then he mentioned to someone to come forward and Fei’s whole body tensed.

“Did she bring your boy back to life?” He asked a thin woman who was trembling from every corner of her body.

“Y-yes,” she answered.

“How?” The evil lord asked the peasant. She pointed at Fei and with wide eyes she started to shout.

“It is the truth, my highness! She is a witch! I listened and watched as she brought back my Yuri from death! She asked me to bring her some really weird plants and then she put one hand over my son’s eyes and chanted!”

Fei’s hands were shaking in anger. That woman begged her to save her son, cried at her feet to help her in exchange for her life. She promised not to tell anyone about what she had seen that night and yet…

“Promises are just words thrown in the wind, aren’t they?” she said low enough for only the woman to hear.

“She made me swear to secrecy or else she would kill me!” she added falling on her knees and crying. The minister seemed to gloat in joy at the little act.

Fei watched everything with a bittersweet taste in . She was angry, Hyang could see that much. The people she devoted her time to were now going against her. The wind picked up and the hats of several guards were blown away.

“Is this really how you repay me for my kindness?” she asked staring at the woman. Something in her eyes must have scared the people standing close to her, the minister included. They all backed off as the wind cut the rope around her wrists. “This is why gods abandon humans in need. Why bother if they will turn their backs on you when they live happily.”

“See, my highness?! She’s controlling the weather now!”

Fei’s eyes moved on him and he swallowed nervously.

“She lied to you and said she is a merchant and a scholar but she is actually the devil! She’s here to curse our lands!” He added.

Lee Hyang sighed and couldn’t really tell them to let her go because he already had the seed of doubt planted in his mind. There were definitely weird occurrences ever since she arrived and there were many times when he felt like she had other intentions, especially in the last month when she said she’d like to visit Japan while holding tightly onto her journal. Besides, he told her so many secrets, so many disclosures about the kingdom and himself as a human being. The pressure of his ministers, wife and mother was incredible. They wanted Fei gone but he knew she was always very sincere with him, always protective and noble. She was living by rules that he couldn’t understand but it never occurred to him that she could ever hurt him.

“I know the devil and he wouldn’t bother coming up here for you.” Fei said, her tone bitter.

“A witch, indeed.” The minister said with a glint in his eyes that reminded Fei of a demon.

“Since you all believe me evil, I may as well kill someone right here and right now, right?” she asked sarcastically but all the guards got defensive. She was surrounded by loyal people ready to send an arrow through her skull.

“Halt! Don’t shoot!” was heard from the king as he took a few steps closer. His wife went to his side and grasped his hand.

“Don’t you see, you highness?! She is ready to kill someone and show you what she really is! She seduced you, that’s why you can’t see her for who she is!” the queen added more lies to the already confused and shaken king. “Who are you going to believe? Your loyal subjects or some foreign witch who doesn’t even know our history, culture and tradition?”

Fei heard everything perfectly. That was indeed the problem and she could see in his figure that he was torn between his heart and his responsibility. She sighed and tried to calm down so that she won’t have to put him in a worse position.

But then the minister came really close to her and leaned in, whispering in her ear.

“Do you see that? He’s wavering. It’s a matter of time, but believe me, I will see you dead.”

She didn’t look at him, she kept her clear green eyes on the man she loved. She noticed his mother whispering something too and then he sighed.

“I’ll have to think about this. Just, put her in a cell for now or-“

He was muttering to himself but the mere thought of sending her into a cell while everyone else was going to manipulate this young man into killing her was too much.

“If you want death, I’ll give it to you.” She whispered to the old man.

As she finished her sentence, she grabbed him by the neck and rose him enough for his feet to get off the ground. Her usually bright eyes darkened visibly and she turned to the king.

“Is this what you want? You already see me as an evil demoness so why not give you a real reason for that?” She asked with a chuckle. “This man is so full of greed and hatred, his soul will go straight to Hell. Real demons will have a feast.”

The guards and other ministers panicked. One of them was being held by his throat, in the air, and he seemed to be suffocating.

And then it happened. She got shot right through her heart. Only one arrow. One deadly shot.

“NO!”

She heard the king shout. The pain was real. Fei looked at the king, straight in his eyes, as she felt tears roll down her cheeks. His expression was hard to decipher because her vision grew blurry as she lost the power in her body. She crashed down, all the while staring into Lee Hyang’s eyes. Her breaths were short and heavy, her heart stopping eventually. She was dead.

When Fei opened her eyes again, she was placed against a tree. She winced at the pain in her chest and remembered she has been shot. With shaky hands, she grabbed onto it and pulled it out in one movement.

“Argh!” she screamed.

The arrow was out, she was still alive obviously. But the pain in her heart never disappeared. It was broken, she couldn’t believe somebody literally broke her heart in two and yet she couldn’t help but still love him. The tears returned and she cried for several hours. At some point she didn’t know if it was herself she was crying for, -because she pitied herself for falling in love with a human when there were so many unfortunate stories with bad endings between deities and humans- or it was for Lee Hyang.

“He was young and couldn’t fight his ministers and family. I don’t remember him giving an order to kill me but it didn’t matter. He may not have killed me himself but he stood there and watched as somebody else did it.” Fei sighed and looked down at her hands. One of them found its way to her heart and she caressed that spot softly.

“Have you never felt love for someone before him?” Dohyun asked, watching her intensely.

Fei didn’t have to answer for Dohyun to know.

“Is he the reason Minjae and Hikaru believe that I could seduce you?”

“Yes. I discovered later on that after he died he didn’t apply for reincarnation. He was a king and he was loved by his people but he died young. He had the chance to be reborn again and have a rich, joyous life. But he refused.”

“Why?”

Fei looked at Dohyun and bit her lip. He seemed so interested, it was both nice and worrying.

“I don’t know. Hades didn’t want to tell me so there must definitely be a reason for his choice. Listen, Dohyun, my friends don’t have any reason to hate you except your face.”

“I do look like Munjong, don't I? Like a king,” he said laughing at the idea. "Is it that uncomfortable for you? Looking at me, I mean."

“Every time I look into your eyes, I try not to picture you in Joseon attire.” She said with a painful laugh.

“I guess you won't come with me for research then. I hoped we could visit the palace and maybe the traditional village but maybe I should go by myself."

“I can visit them if I have to.” 

Dohyun smiled at how fast she turned her answer around. Her eyes were twinkling in the dim light and she resembled a wounded puppy in his eyes.

“But it would be uncomfortable doing it with me.” He added.

Fei nodded, aware that if one museum visit was enough to send her on a roller coaster of emotions and memories, a walk with him through the palace could seriously break her apart.

“But I’m not Lee Hyang. I’m Lee Dohyun and I’m definitely not a king. My family is common, I have an average income and I live in a studio apartment nearby. I have few friends and most of them are younger than me because of my interests. I never broke anyone’s heart, my last relationship was in my first year of college with a girl older than me and she broke up with me because I didn’t offer her enough attention, whatever that means.” He started to tell her his life story with a very serious face.

Fei laughed, a sound that made Dohyun feel relieved.

“I’m serious, I’m not very attentive with girls. Sometimes even my sisters scare me. They are very territorial.” He said shuddering at the memories from his childhood.

Fei laughed harder and Dohyun smiled. Maybe it was during that time that Fei noticed the differences between him and Hyang, not only the similarities.