Chapter Text
The sky is deep blue and shiny. It's a full moon night.
I see again the bridge where I talked to my mother, in the palace, ten years ago. The bridge where she talked to me about my brother. A woman with tied hair, adorned with a golden pin, dressed as a princess, in a red dangui and blue skirt, is standing there, as if she's waiting for someone. She looks like the Crown Princess.
"Mother?"
The woman turns around and sees me. She smiles wide.
"My daughter," she says, reaching her hands out to me. I reach mine to her, and accept them.
My eyes are shining with tears. "It's you… my mother."
"Yes, it's me." Her voice is choking, and she takes her hands from mine, reaching them to my face. "You're so beautiful. You're here." She embraces me, and I close my eyes for a few seconds.
Looking down, later, I see my own reflection on the water. I only realize now that, finally, I am a princess. My hair is braided, and there are pins on the upper part of it.
"I am not… a princess," I say in a whisper.
"Tonight, you are. I… asked to see you like this. I wanted to see you as my princess. Just once," she says, caressing my cheek. "You… are a woman now. And you are happy."
"Mother," I repeat, holding the hand she put on my face.
"I'm sorry… if what I said to you that night made you lock your heart for so long. But I'm grateful to know that someone found the key." She smiles at me, taking my hands in hers again, positioning one of my palms up, and she puts something there, closing it. "Open your hand when I'm gone. You will know."
Suddenly, she disappears. I open the hand she closed. I see two white, immaculate pearls there.
I remember the dream she told me about when we were here. The full moon which divided itself into two pearls when it reached her, and, later, my brother and I were born.
My hand reaches my stomach.
"You both… already found me?"
I open my eyes. Ji-un was watching me, and when he saw me with open eyes, he reached his hand to my face to brush a strand of my hair away.
"Were you… dreaming?"
I come closer to him, leaning my head on the pillow, next to his chest. He is lying on his side, looking at me. My hand reaches his face, going down to his neck.
"I dreamed… of my mother. I remembered one of the last times we were together."
"What happened there? If you want to tell me…"
"I think… she came to tell me something."
"What?"
"That night, when I had just taken my brother's place, we talked on the bridge. She talked about us. About… when she found out she was pregnant."
"And… you were there again?" He asks, taking my hand to kiss it.
"I was a little far from her, but I saw her at the bridge, and I came closer. She was so beautiful. She was beautiful."
"I think I would have loved to meet her."
"If only things had been different… She hugged me, and I wasn't that girl anymore. Also… I was dressed as a princess. Not as Crown Prince, or even like now, dressed in cotton. But… I didn't want to be a princess anymore. Not after I met you again. Not after… that night we spent in the woods, when you promised me the house by the seashore."
He smiles. "What was the color of your clothes? I still remember you in my dream."
"My hanbok had a pink skirt, and the upper part was a beige one. My hair was so embellished, I almost didn't recognize myself. She said… she had asked to see me dressed like that, because… she wanted to see me as a princess. Because… she had only seen me as the Crown Prince. She called me… my princess." I hadn't realized I could start crying until now. "My mother."
Ji-un's hand comes closer to my face, wiping my tears, and he pulls me to him.
"She told me about you, too," I confess.
"Me?" He grins.
I nod. "She said she was happy to know that someone had found the key to my heart. And you did. Once, when we were kids, and again, when I had promised myself not to feel anything. Twice." He kisses my forehead, smiling. "She gave me something, before she was gone. She put them in my hand, and when I opened it…"
"What was it?"
"It was two pearls."
"Why? Two pearls."
"Hwi… and I. My brother and I. The pearls she saw."
"Do you think…?"
"Maybe. I want to believe it," I smile.
"Me too," he whispers, reaching his hand to my stomach.
