Chapter 3

¨Your Highness you can eat now.¨

Dan-Bi placed her chopsticks down and wiped her mouth. Rose was worried that she would receive silent treatment for going out that night but in the past few days Dan-Bi never mentioned it again. The only concern at the moment was the queen. Ha-Eun kept showing up wherever she went. Now she couldn't go to the lakes nor for walks. Never in her life had she run away this much to avoid someone. Not even her landlord!

It had been two days since she stepped out of the room. Rose had completely self quarantined herself to hide from the deadly virus outside ( here the queen is being referred to as the virus) . She wasn't in a mood to eat but all these side dishes would be thrown out if she didn´t. Not wanting the food and the efforts of the cook to go in waste, she halfheartedly picked up her chopsticks and placed them down again.

Rose just couldn´t understand why Ha-Eun was trying so hard to talk to her. Were they all just coincidences. No, it would be plain stupidity to believe that. Did she really want to be friends with her?

`Because she killed Seo-yeon.´

`She was actually burnt alive.´

Exactly. There was no chance Ha-Eun would try to be friends with her. She was the jealous queen and Rose was currently Seo-yeon, the Royal Noble Consort. That was a dead giveaway of whom she would be the most jealous of.

It was no use pondering over it. The best Rose could do was not give her any reasons to kill her faster. Therefore, no contact whatsoever. Sighing she picked up her chopsticks again.

¨W-wait.¨

Dan-bi reached for Rose´s hand but fell mid way, pushing the dishes off the table. She curled up on the ground clutching her stomach.

¨Dan-Bi. Dan-Bi are you okay?¨

Rose turned her to lay her on the back and checked her pulse. There wasn't any problem with her pulse yet.

¨Excuse me! Is anyone there? I need help. Court lady Yeona! This is an emergency!!!¨

One of the maids rushed in at her yells. Rose told her to get the doctor immediately and to inform them of possible poisoning.

¨Dan-Bi take deep breaths, okay. Help is on the way. You will be fine.¨

Dan-Bi looked at her with hooded eyes, not fully aware of her surroundings. Rose placed her ear against her to check heartbeat. She couldn't tell much since she wasn't trained but she understood this much that it wasn't beating too slow. Gagging and choking noises came from Dan-Bi´s mouth. At once Rose made her sit up and almost instantly she puked.

The doctor hurried in and found Her Highness rubbing Dan-Bi´s back while covered in vomit. She ordered a few maids to clean up and knelt in front of Dan-Bi. Placing her tools down, she tore open the blouse of the barely conscious girl.

¨What are you doing?¨

Rose screeched in alarm, using her sleeves to cover up her friend. Pushing her away the doctor kept her head over Dan-Bi´ bare chest to hear her heartbeat.

¨I already checked that. It is normal.¨

The doctor completely ignored her and picked up the bowl of cold water. Slightly tilting Dan-Bi´s head down she splashed the water onto her face. Dan-Bi gasped in shock and fully opened her eyes. The doctor pulled her in her arms and made her drink something from her bag.

¨My little Goyangi, I need you to relax okay. Breathe in….breathe out. Yes, just like that. Breathe in...and breathe out.¨

Dan-Bi visibly relaxed and slowly fell asleep. The maids had returned with cleaning supplies and got to work. The doctor instructed one of them to take Her Highness to clean up but Rose refused, not wanting to leave Dan-Bi alone.

¨ If she wakes up and sees you…..like this. She will blame herself for days to come. Do you want add that too in her list of sufferings?¨

¨ Okay I will go but don't hurt her.¨

¨Her heart rate was increasing consistently, which you failed to notice. I splashed the water to stimulate her nerve, so that her brain can wake up. I didn't `hurt´ her, I saved her.¨

The doctor asked another maid to get Dan-Bi new clothes and started undoing her ribbon.

¨You are going to change her clothes?¨

¨You gotta a problem with that?¨

The said woman dead-panned.

¨N-no. I will go now then.¨

¨Yes please.¨

Rose saw the doctor use the wet cloth to clean Dan-Bi and took her leave. On the way out she instructed the maids to not let Dan-Bi leave the room.

During the bath Rose did some serious thinking. Seo-yeon was the Royal Noble Consort but still not once did the king show any signs of contacting her. Considering he never paid attention to the court and was busy with `other things´, shouldn't he have paid her a visit. So this meant he didn't care all that much for her.

Wait, how many concubines did he have?

Rose turned towards the maids who were waiting for her on the other side of the sheet but then stopped.

That would be a weird question to ask.

Moving on, the queen. She had met the girl once and even though Rose was still annoyed at how she poked fun at her and she is petty, she couldn't deny that Ha-Eun was beautiful. Well beauty is subjective and she matched perfectly with the Korean standards. Oh but that does make sense! She is a fictional character designed to fit the Korean beauty ideal.

Anyway this perfect beauty was out for Seo-yeon´s life, which right now, was Rose.

¨Oh god why.¨

¨Is there something you need, Your Highness?¨

¨Oh no, I'm just...thinking...out loud.¨

Rose decided to give up on figuring a way out of this book and come out of the bath. The maids helped her with the clothes along with her hair. Rose speed walked towards her room leaving her maids behind. She had to make sure Dan-Bi was okay.

Hold back! Is that why she kept following Rose around? To check if she was still alive?

Rose stopped in tracks. There she was standing right in front of her room.

The king didn’t care about her. The queen wanted her dead. Whoever the rebel was, hadn’t met her yet but would that really make any difference. Her role was to not be around right. So there was just one thing.

`Yeah baby you should really run.’

Rose casually turned back and started walking away pretending to not have seen the queen. Her maids followed her confused.

“Your Highness, did you forget something?”

“Yes. Would you please guide me to the market? I need to buy something.”

“What is it? We will get it for you.”

“No, I prefer to buy it myself. Just take me to the gates and I will go myself.”

“ We can’t let you go alone. Aera, take Her Highness to the gates while I get the palanquin ready.”

Aera led the way to the gates and requested her to wait for a few moments. Rose was going through different plans in her head. If she ran right now the guards would catch her and then she wouldn’t have any second chances. She could wait for the palanquin and then get lost in the crowd. Of course a search party would be sent for her but it would take the maids time to go back and report her disappearance. In that much time she could change her look and go far away from this kingdom.

Yes she would be stuck living in a book but at least she would be living. Burning alive was not a good way to go and staying in the palace, no matter how much she hid and ran, would result in that.

“Are you going out, Huibin?”

Rose could hear her death bell ringing as the voice behind her spoke. The pastor would be blessing her body soon. No wait, there were no Christians here so they would follow some other tradition. It’s fine either way her body would be taken care of.

Oh but nothing of her body was found. It was completely burnt to ashes, wasn’t it. Just the thought of it brought tears to her eyes.

Did she even have a soul? Since she was just a character in a story. Did fictional characters have a soul? What of her own soul? Was it still in the real world? Or was it here? Did her soul die? But then would her body live without her soul? Was it even possible?

Rose broke down not knowing an answer to any of the questions she had. Her heart felt so heavy. She wanted to go home, back to her mother. No one would be able to touch her if she was in her mother’s arms.

“Hey, what happened? Are you okay?”

“Your Highness, we should go inside.”

Inside. No no no. She couldn’t go back inside. She will die if she does. No. She has to go outside. Away. Far away from the palace.

Filled with determination Rose picked up her skirt and made a run for it. The moment she stepped out of the palace, her body hit something invisible and bounced, making her fall back.

¨ I need to go. I will go.¨

She got up again and forced her way into the barrier. She fell back again but this time she didn´t get back up. What she had seen shook her to the core.

¨There is….nothing.¨

Ha-Eun crouched next to her and touched her shoulder lightly.

¨Huibin?¨

¨There is nothing there! Nothing exists. It's all black. Everything black!¨

¨Where?¨

¨Everywhere! There is nothing there. You are fake! All of you are! I am going crazy. Nothing exists! You don't exist. They don't exist. No one exists! It's all in my head.¨

¨I am real, Huibin.¨

¨No you are not! You are not! That is the point. You are not! You are a fictional character. And you live in my head. I am going crazy. Absolutely crazy.¨

Loud sirens went off in Rose´s head as she sat there hitting her head, repeating `I am going crazy´ like a broken record. The blaring noise inside made her head throb. She cried out in agony, pressing it in an attempt to make it stop. When it became too much for her body to take, she collapsed.

`A character is behaving strangely and has triggered a new course of action in the story. Send someone in to look into it. It's just a side character, no biggie. ´