That was probably the most awkward moment I’ve ever been in. This man was confessing his feelings to me, but I had no clue who he was. I had to put the pieces together, but my brain was failing miserably. I couldn’t really understand what was happening, and of course I didn’t know what to do, or even where to start.

Seongwon looked at me expectantly and my face twisted in a grimace.

“Did you miss me, too?” His voice cracked as he spoke and I swear I heard my heart break a little. I didn’t even know who he was, but the way he spoke to me made me feel like he knew everything about me. I felt so exposed with him. And also guilty.

“Huh? Oh . . . y-yeah.” I couldn’t look him in the eye, so I just stared at the ground as I straightened out the pink garments I was dressed in.

“I’m sorry I didn’t find you earlier,” he began saying. His fingers s around my wrist and I jerked my head up in surprise as he smoothly pulled me under waves of hanging fabric. We were surrounded by rich oranges and bright yellows and pale greens.

“You don’t have to be—”

“I know it must be hard being in the palace.” His eyes moved around, glancing from me to the fabric and back again. “I probably shouldn’t ask this, but is the king being good to you? I know you were talking about him last time and you seemed to be having a hard time.”

I couldn’t stop the curiosity from spreading across my face. I was beyond confused. “I-I said that? I was having a difficult time? With the king?”

“Yes. You don’t remember?” He started to get the look that Lady Choi gave me when she thought I must’ve forgotten something while I was gone.

“Well, I’m having a bit of trouble. . . .” I mumbled and my voice eventually faltered into silence.

“You said he was becoming more aware of your whereabouts. You told me you didn’t like it there. In the palace.” His eyes searched my face, analyzing every expression that I showed. “You said you didn’t want to be there anymore and that a year was long enough.”

The whole time he revealed what the queen told him he kept his voice low, telling me that she surely wasn’t supposed to be saying those types of things.

What was she thinking? And who is he? She must’ve trusted him because she told him so much—

I looked up into his round eyes and something clicked. My teacher’s voice filled my head: “Some thought she simply ran away because her father made her marry the King though she loved a nobleman”.

He was that nobleman. He was the man she loved. Yu Seongwon was the person they thought she ran away with because she was forced into marriage with King Park Chanyeol. And she obviously didn’t have any romantic feelings for the king, even after their one year of marriage. Apparently she’d been sneaking behind his back to meet with Seongwon.

“I . . . love you?” I said aloud, though it came out like a question more than anything.

He broke into a smile and grabbed my hands in the moment of happiness. “I knew you wouldn’t have been able to forget.” He pulled me into a hug and I could hear his happy sighs just beyond my shoulder. “Me, too, Chunja-yah. Me, too.”

I hesitantly and loosely put my arms around him in an awkward attempt to hug him back. “Yeah. . . . Yu Seongwon?”

He pulled away from me to see my face and nodded. “Yes?”

“Can I ask you for a favor?”

I needed to get some answers right then and there. I couldn’t be around as the queen if my mind was going to explode from these twists and turns I kept finding out.

“Anything. Anything for you.” He led us past the fabric and to a small, old wooden bench set beneath the shade of a tall tree. We sat down and he eagerly waited for me to ask the favor.

“Can you answer a few questions for me?”

He seemed confused, but an air of confidence came over him. He probably thought they’d be easy, trivial questions that would have something to do with the subjects he learned in school.

“Can you answer them without asking why I’m inquiring about them?”

The confusion deepened, as well as the lines between his eyebrows, but he nodded in agreement.

I took a shaky breath and prayed that he’d obey my wishes. “What kind of person am I to you?”

He was definitely surprised. That was easy to assume, but he complied with what I had asked him to do and answered without any further question. “You are an amusing, but firm person. The kind of person who seizes what she wants and hates it when her path is blocked. You are the kind of person I admire.” His eyes glowed with pride and I looked away.

“When you said I don’t usually help people, what did you mean by that?” I kept my eyes on the ground as he answered.

“Well, being the independent person you are, you tend to do things more for yourself. You rely on no one and think the world should do the same.”

I sighed.

The answers he was giving me were great answers with lots of information, but the thought he put behind every word seeped through his voice and repeatedly hit me in the gut, right where I kept my guilt.

“When and where did we meet?”

He chuckled and I looked up to see that his gaze had dropped to the floor as he smiled at some old memory. “We’ve known each other ever since I remember. Our fathers were good friends, so we’ve always been around one another.” He looked back up and into my eyes, his voice softening. “I’ve loved you ever since I knew what it meant to love someone.”

His answer most definitely had an impact on me. Who wouldn’t be affected by that? He was such a real, honest person with whatever he said and did. Just him being him was enough for the guilt to begin to spread and eat at my conscience.

I pressed the feelings down and continued with my interrogation. “And . . . you haven’t seen me in how long?”

He exhaled heavily, forcing the air out in a quick manner that was sharper than a sigh. “Hours felt like days, but I believe about a month.”

My eyes widened at the realization that the queen couldn’t have run away with him because he hadn’t seen her in a month. Then where was she? Where did she go?

“Your Highness,” Lady Choi called out.

I looked off into the distance and saw her and the other servants making their way through the hanging strips of fabric. “Yes, Lady Choi?”

“We must get going,” she announced.

I glanced at Seongwon and he smiled sadly at me.

“We’ll see each other soon. I hope.” He pulled me in for another hug, his chin resting on my right shoulder. I could feel his breath tickling the back of my neck and I shrugged away from the sensation.

“Yes, we will.” I bowed quickly and walked swiftly to Lady Choi and the other servants.

As we walked away, I looked back at Seongwon. I expected him to be smiling at me, but his eyebrows were furrowed like he was still confused.

I gave him a small smile and he soon gave me his full grin, but it seemed to be missing something, though I couldn’t tell what.

We walked back down the street and I re-entered the box with the poles on the end so we could head back to the palace.

While I was in there I kept thinking of where the real queen could’ve been. If she wasn’t at the palace and she wasn’t with her secret lover, Yu Seongwon, then who was she with? Was she even with anyone? Did anyone know her whereabouts?

And an even scarier thought crossed my mind: does my being sent here have something to do with the mystery of the queen’s disappearance?

Hello! o this story has sort of taken a mysterious turn hope you guys don't mind that xD

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