The Scroll.
"Soojin-ah, how is he like?" Mother asks as they're seated on the maplewood custom dining table graced upon by The King.
Soojin fiddles with her thumb, contemplating whether she should tell her mother all that she knows about the man or exactly what she wants to hear.
She's at a loss of words, her self.
Besides, how could she even assess the kind of man he was, all when she'd known him little time and all through that time, she'd been met by mixed signals.
One minute he was hot and the other, he was cold.
One glance of his narrowed eyes filled with abdominal rage and she was on her knees, begging for mercy.
"W-Well, he's just as you'd think a King would be. He stresses on right over wrong, he deliberates before doing much, he pours his soul into his people. He's not corrupt and most definitely not a puppet Ruler. He knows what he expects of his Reign. In that way, he's rather resolute. He has an ill of a temper, however. Looses his calm at the drop of a hat. He becomes unrecognisable when he's overcome by rage. He's calm when he has to be..I-It's inexplainable, really—"
Soojin's mother holds her hand, just as she's picking on her skin, drawing blood.
"Aish, how many times have I told you? If you pick on something a little too much, it'll draw blood." Her mother scolds, pressing at the wound to stop bleeding.
Was this what had happened to Yun Ki? Had he been nipped in the bud all this while, shoved and pushed, that he'd reached the brim of ignorance? She wondered.
"I wasn't asking how he was as The Crowned Head. I wanted to know how he is as your Husband, your better half." Her Mother asks, pressing on her pointer finger.
Soojin lets out a breath, preparing herself to lie about him.
"He's lovely. He's all that one wants in a husband. He cares for me and looks after me almost as though I'm a fragile being, one fall and I'd break." She looks back at her calloused finger.
"--He's solemn, reminds me of the music that one would hear while rain pattered down your window, bringing in warmth even in the direst situations. He's persistent, he'll chase after you for love and affection. He's different. He won't open up to you but you'll look at him and realise how he notices even the smallest of things. He's misunderstood as being cold and standoffish but once you crack through his hard exterior, you're met with the softest heart that beats at an insane rate for the ones he loves..That-That's how Min Yun Ki is.." She realises how the words are leaving past her lips and she feels every word she says.
While's she's singing praises for her husband, her heart feels barren and incredibly heavy.
She's cheating her husband.
She's meeting another man behind his back.
She's maligning his trust and devotion, when she barely even knows who is in the right or wrong.
She looks up to watch her Mother's eyes peering with tears, heavy ones at that.
"My daughter is in love.." She says, wiping the ends of her eyes with a a handkerchief.
She was wrong, Soojin thought.
A little did she know that her daughter was stabbing The King on his back, one dagger at a time.
Soojin cups her mother's gentle face and looks away.
She was shameful of the person she'd become.
A cheat, she thought and wasn't even able to lock eyes with her own mother.
That's when she knew she'd messed up.
———
"Your Majesty, may I come in?" A maidservant voices through the doors of the Royal Court.
Yun Ki, who was in the midst of writing some amendments, looks up and signals the guards to let the woman in.
She walks into the court, a scroll in her hand.
"Yes, what might the matter be?" He asks her.
The woman feels ashamed for an odd reason and she enters the court with an eerie aura, like the harbinger of an unfortunate news.
She bows before the King before raising the scroll before his eyes.
"I-I was cleaning up behind Queen Consort Soojin after she'd left and I stumbled across this half-written scroll in her room." The lady speaks out.
The Chief Guard who had been standing next to Yun Ki has his eyes widened.
That was the scroll she wrote letters to Bohoja on.
If the King read the letter, all three of them were dead meat.
Just as Yun Ki's reaching for the scroll, the Chief Guard intercepts grabbing onto it, hastily.
"Sire, must you look into a woman's scroll?" He asks of his King who stares at him, bewildered.
"What's this nonsense? Hand over the scroll to me, this instant. She is my wife and I have every right to read whatever's is hers. Don't be a fool." He roars, snatching the scroll out of The Chief Guard's hands.
The Guard is drowning in sweat.
He'd be blessed if he made it out alive, today.
Yun Ki unwraps the scroll and opens it wide, reading what had been smeared in black ink.
'Bohoja,
Days without you are becoming rather difficult. I lie in my chamber, covered in the finest linen and yet my heart desires the softness of your arm or perhaps your chest, that'd fill my senses with comfort, a feeling I'm foreign to. A feeling I've been deprived of ever since I've stepped into this palace. Yun Ki wishes he could relish me and yet I'm doing my very best, spurning all his advances. Bohoja, save me. Fill my heart and body with the warmth I desire. A comfort midst your muscular arms. Ones I could break myself in. This Palace is like a prison and—'
Yun Ki's eyes are burning in anger.
He's re-reading the lewd words that have been splattered on the fabric.
The vessels in his head are engorging but he doesn't understand one thing.
He doesn't understand whether he's angry or disappointed.
Was he a fool for doing all this and going to lengths just to see her smile?
Just to see that goddamn smile that had his heart beating.
He rolls up the scroll back into a cylinder.
His head is hung low.
Only because he's crying.
He can't look weak.
How could he look weak?
He was Min Yun Ki.
Men and Women shuddered at his name.
His ruthlessness was his asset, wasn't it?
Under what impression was he to think that becoming milder in temper was good for him?
"Y-Your Majesty, are you alright?" The maidservant asks.
He stands up from his seat.
He spills the ink on his table, in sheer rage.
He points at the maidservant.
"Come here.." He whispers, ushering her closer.
She steps closer to him, timidly.
"No one should know the contents of the scroll. If word gets out, I'll have everyone in this room killed."
She nods, fervently.
"O-Of course, Crowned Head." She responds, meekly.
Yun Ki's mind thinks of scenarios.
His next steps.
"I need your help." He asks of the lady.
The woman clasps her hands, desperately.
"Anything.. I'll do anything." She mutters.
Yun Ki scratches his chin.
"Dress me as a commoner, won't you?"