“Shin Hye?  Shin Hye?”  Her mother was trying to wake her up.  Shin Hye was having another bad dream.  Lately she had been having reoccurring dreams every night.  Her mother was worried and wanted her to see their family doctor.  Shin Hye sat up in bed, gasping from the vivid images playing in her mind. 

“Eomma, what on earth is wrong with me?  Why do I keep seeing such scenes?  Why am I there but I am not there?  This is so confusing.  Starting tomorrow I will stop dreaming this dream.”

Eomma brought her a cup of peppermint tea to help her relax and sleep.

Across town at the Lee home, Min Ho’s sister was shaking his arm.  “Yah, shut up you jerk.  This is the third night in a row you have yelled in your sleep.  What is with you?  Dream a good dream and stop with the nightmares, OK?”  She left the room mumbling about him waking her with his weird Japanese words.  She was glad their parents were on a trip because their Eomma would worry too much about him.  Boys are so weird, she thought.

It was the ending party for the drama show “Tree of Heaven” and Shin Hye was tired but happy.  The director was happy with her ability to speak Japanese although he did find it funny that once she used the pronunciation of a term that probably hadn’t been used in over 200 years.  He asked where she had learned that particular pronunciation and she told him must have been from her grandfather.  Her grandfather was a scholar of all things Japanese.

Min Ho’s family was seated comfortably in the living room watching the latest Korean melodrama directed by Lee Jang-soo.  He was a distant cousin of Min Ho’s Appa so they always watched anything he directed. 

The bottom of the screen had Korean translations for the Japanese conversations.  Once when Min Ho glanced up from the Manga series he was reading, he heard a man speaking in Japanese and read the words at the bottom of the screen.  “Ha,” He said, “that is so wrong.  He just asked her why and the screen said when.  So wrong. Ha.”

Min Ho’s Appa and Eomma looked at him.  His Appa said, “He is right.” 

“Well”, countered his Eomma, “how interesting he understood.”

His Appa said, “Min Ho must be paying attention in class.” 

His sister rolled her eyes, thinking if they only knew the words he yelled in his sleep. 

The show continued and Min Ho could hear the dialogue in the background.  Suddenly he stopped reading.  He was hearing the voice but the words he heard were in his mind and so different.

He put his hand on his forehead wondering if he were sick.  He looked at the screen and saw the girl with the voice.  He murmured so faintly no one heard.  “Princess.  Don’t go.”

He shook his head feeling nauseous.  How absolutely absurd, he thought.  I don’t even know her.  But he couldn’t take his eyes off her.  She was dressed in a hanbok and images of this girl began to flash before his eyes.  This girl in a red and white hanbok, this girl in a green and white hanbok and the images were mixed together.  He briefly saw the eyes of the girl on TV but she was sitting on a hillside under a mimosa tree facing him.  She was crying as he held her hands begging her to do something.  With his eyes squinted tightly together he hoped when he opened them the images would be gone.

He turned to look at the TV – he looked at the girl on the TV.  She was much younger than the girl in his memories – wait he thought, did I just bring up the word memories?  How can I remember her when I have never seen her before? How is this possible?

It was a night of twisting and turning for Min Ho.  He woke many times that night with odd images still lurking but just out of his reach – he couldn’t really recall what his dreams were about – just the face of a girl – no, the face of a woman.   He got up, pulled a jacket on and went outside to run his anxiety out of his system.

Shin Hye was tired.  She hadn’t slept in days.  She had been having these dreams for more years than she could remember.  She was watching TV trying to calm her mind – perhaps TV would dull her senses allowing her to sleep.  Ah, sleep – I need sleep.

She flipped the channel.  Humm, she thought, this looks interesting.  A romantic comedy about high school kids with a touch of arrogance and poor girl fighting against……wait a second, isn’t this the drama I tried out for?  Crap, it is.  Right, I looked too rich and cultured for the poor girl character on the show.  Hummm, well I think I will watch this show.  It might just be the thing to make me sleepy.

She was dozing, she admitted it.  But she was so tired that she could barely keep her eyes open.  She looked at the TV watching Kim Bum.  Bummie!!!  She knew him because they had a class together.  And she knew Kim Hyun Joong.  But she wasn’t familiar with Lee Min Ho.  She knew the name because he was in a drama with a friend of hers but she couldn’t put her finger on the drama.  She thought, doesn’t matter, I’ll just watch till I feel sleepy.

She picked up her glass of juice and just as she was about to take a sip she heard the voice.  She almost dropped her juice. 

She felt her pulse quicken and her heart started to race.  What on earth?  Am I having a heart attack?  At my age?  She was frantic because she had no idea what was happening to her.  She leaned back on the sofa and took deep breaths.  She thought it is just a coincidence – just a coincidence – take deep breaths and relax Shin Hye.  She breathed in and out feeling her emotions settle.  She looked at the screen and saw him.  She saw the actor Lee Min Ho.  She saw a man dressed in a school uniform but over imposed on that image was one of a tall muscular man with long locks of black hair tied back out of his face.  He was standing like a bulwark against a hill under a mimosa tree.  He held a helmet in one hand, a sword strapped across his back.  He was fierce and imposing.  He was gorgeously y.  She could see him and realized she was watching him from a spot of hiding for she feared he would kill her if he saw her.  Why was she thinking this?  Why was she seeing things?  Why was it so vivid?  “Why?” she cried out loud.

That night her dreams were large.  They crowded her mind and made her cry out.  She could see the actor from the TV only he was different.  He was older and he was formidable.  She suddenly realized he was dressed as a Samurai.  But Samurai were not welcome here in Korea.  Her father was the king and should he find him he would be put to death.  She was gasping for air because she could not breathe.  She was crying but she could not ask for help.  She looked upon the figure on the hill and her heart went to him.  She realized she had not spoken a word or shared a glance with the magnificent man standing so gallantly on the hill but she was in love with him.  Oh my, oh my, oh my…..she was screaming in her mind.  She needed to wake up for he was looking in her direction.  He would draw that huge sword and slice her neck taking her head along with the sword. 

“No! No! No!” she is screaming as her Eomma and Appa enter her room. 

“Shin Hye, my child, wake up!  What is it dear?  What are you dreaming?”

Shin Hye sat up and looked as if she were still dazed and confused.  “I have no idea Eomma.  I keep seeing a person’s face but we are dressed in clothes that seem to be from perhaps the Joseon period.  I think my history classes are beginning to affect my mind.  Eomma, I need to go to the bathroom, excuse me please.”

Shin Hye turned the cold water on and bathed her face over and over.  She looked into the mirror and said, “You have lost your ever freaking mind, Shin Hye.  What to do?”

She landed a drama role.  It was a good one and couldn’t have come at a better time.  She had begun to doubt her abilities.  She had begun to think she should drop out of acting but just in the nick of time something so good came along that she was happy.  If only she could sleep.

The ratings could have been better but they were up against some stiff competition.  It was ok because the director told them their drama was selling at premium prices and would play in Japan soon.  She was happy because everything about this drama was happy.  She had made some awesome friends.  She knew Geun Suk whom she would forever refer to as ‘Sukkie’.   She had filmed a cosmetic commercial with him before and their chemistry during the commercial is what helped her land this role on YAB.  Life could not be much better she thought.  I love life!

Her agency informed her they had signed an exclusive contract with Etude House Cosmetics.  She would participate in 4 or 5 commercials depending on the popularity of the first two.  She asked who her co-star was and her manager told her, no one you’ve worked with before, so relax. 

She entered the sound stage from a small door set into the side of the huge building.  She didn’t like to make grand entrances.  She would rather be quiet and get the lay of the land first.  She slipped inside the room, standing in the shadows watching the group of people scurry around doing this and that.  She sighed and walked into the room.  She looked to her left and stopped still.  She could not have moved if her life depended on it.  And for some strange reason she could see herself running across a field with the king’s guard after her – she knew there was a royal edict for her capture.  She turned to look for him but he was nowhere to be seen.   She remembered then he had to return to his home because of some sort of trouble.  She forgot he was the 4^th shogun of the Ashikagu Bakufu.

Her head was swimming, she felt faint.  He looked up and saw her.  His gaze latched onto hers and neither could move.  They were rooted to their spots with vague, crazy, images playing havoc within their minds.  He gasped and made himself look away.  He was thrown for a minute because he did not know his co-star was her. 

He realized from the look on her face she was about to pass out.  He moved swiftly covering the 15 feet between them just as her knees buckled and she fell.  He caught her, cradling her in his arms.  What the hell, he thought.  I have held this woman before, I know I have.  You don’t forget your only love.  He shook his head because he realized he had just thought the word love in connection with this woman in his arms.  How could he think that way when he didn’t know her?  He had never been introduced to her so he couldn’t have had anything to do with her before – Ahhh, he thought his mind would explode.

Her manager ran up and took her from him, thanking him.  Min Ho bowed his head and left.  He had to leave because it was quite possible he would pass out himself.  He needed to go to his dressing room and collect himself and quickly.

She was in a half-sleep, half-awake state.  She couldn’t quite open her eyes but she saw vivid images race across her closed eyelids. 

He had discovered her hiding, watching him.  But strangely he looked at her in a way that made her blush.  He didn’t hurt her; in fact, he held her hand and helped her walk up the hill.  She felt her heart flutter and felt herself blush.  She tried to hide her face so he would not see the effect he had on her. 

He smiled at the picture before him.  She was younger than he – much younger.  But she was the most exquisite woman he had ever seen.  From the first day he saw her, over 6 months ago, he had fallen deeply in love with her.  It was months later before he discovered her connection to the palace.  It made his decisions much harder once he discovered her identity.  He was there on a secret mission and if her father connected her to him, she would most certainly pay with her life.  He mourned in his heart for he wanted this woman to be his – he knew his family would not accept and he knew her family would not accept him.  All he could ever hope for were stolen moments of her time.

Shin Hye was slowly opening her eyes.  For the briefest of moments she knew who she was but it would only last for a brief moment.  She would lose that memory back into the jumble of nightmares and flashes of vague memories.

She had a secret she could share with no one.  Should anyone find out they would capture and kill him.  She would be murdered because he father would bear no disobedience to his rule or authority.  Daughters were as expendable as soldiers in her Father’s opinion.   Daughters had little value beyond marriage to secure treaties.  No man would want a woman who was known to have a lover.  She would be put to death first.  She was Princess Jeongseon and she was the daughter of King Taejong.  It was the winter of 1423 and she had a lover.  She loved and would love again the Samurai Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi of the Ashikaga Bakufu Samurai.  He was the 4^th Shogun ruler of the Ashikaga Bakuful and he was powerful.  She would be condemned to death should her secret be known.  She was 19 years-old and her lover was 38 years-old.

She thought he looked too young to be that old but he assured her that was his age.  He would stare at her as if she were the only woman in the world.  He stared at her till she blushed at the thoughts he made her think and the feelings he made her feel.  It was nothing compared to the feelings she had when he taught her about love making.  She reveled in the knowledge that she had him as a lover.  She loved him as only a woman who sees no one but the man in her heart.  But this was her secret and she had to protect it from everyone, even her Mother.

She woke with a gasp and for a brief flash of a second she remembered and then it was gone.  Ahhh, what is wrong with me?  I need to calm down and get a grip because I have a job to do.

She walked onto the set ready to act.  She looked up into eyes that she knew by heart.  She felt her heart pound and she wanted to throw her arms around him.  She realized at that moment, she needed help getting through this commercial with this man who made her heart feel like it would burst any moment.  She called her Eomma to schedule a doctor’s appointment.