Chapter Text
"Could you give the medicine first? I promise that I will pay it as soon as possible." Grand Prince Seongnam pleaded desperately. He couldn't believe that there would be a time when he was desperate for money.
"Then how could I trust you? We don't know each other?" said the man who was in charge of an apothecary. He refused to budge.
Grand Prince Seongnam sighed. Of course, he understood. Who would trust someone in the first meeting? He also wouldn't trust strangers, especially if it involved money.
"I would give the collateral." A sudden voice distracted Grand Prince Seongnam from his musing. He saw a girl wearing pale blue Jeogoria and white Chima walking toward him.
"Do you know each other?" A man from the apothecary asked curiously.
"It's our first meeting."
"Then why do you trust him?"
"He seems so desperate," said the girl. Her eyes fixed on Grand Prince Seongnam's eyes. Grand Prince Seongnam couldn't help but stare back at those eyes. Her deep amber eyes showed emotion that was difficult to name.
"This is silver. It cost a lot of money," said the girl. She gave her silver knife to the man. The man gave a dirty look on Grand prince Seongnam as if he couldn't believe how could someone this lucky.
Grand Prince Seongnam ignored the look from the man and focused on the girl next to him. " Thank you. Ten days from now. Around this time. I would meet you to pay you back."
The girl smiled. " How about having some tea with me? There is something that I need to tell you."
Grand Prince Seongnam frowned. He was not sure what the girl needed him for. They never met before, and he needed to bring the medicine to his brother as soon as possible.
"That medicine... I know what illness you're dealing with. If you want more information about it, I would gladly provide it."
"You know about this disease?"
"Yes."
"Do you have family who gets this disease?"
"Yes. My brother-in-law did."
"Agashi!!!" the maidservant beside the girl screamed in disbelief. The girl only squinted her eyes as a warning to her maid.
"If that case, I would like to thank you then," he said. Hearing an explanation from the girl, Grand Prince Seongnam agrees to follow the girl without so much thought. After all, he needs a lot of information for his brother. Even small information is precious to him.
"You are welcome." The girl smiled and gave him a cue to follow her. Grand prince Seongnam dutifully followed the girl. The girl brought him to one of the biggest tea houses in the capital. The girl asked the storefront to give them a private room. For someone who liked playing outside the palace, this was the first time he entered a luxurious tea house. Usually, he only sneaked out from the palace to hunt or just to stroll around. This luxurious tea house must be a place where noble children hang around. He saw many young women or men enjoying the tea and dessert earlier. The servant from the tea house gave them a private room on the second floor. The room was wide enough to accommodate five to eight people. With a bamboo screen and some vases, the room looked very elegant and had a scholarly feeling. They even provided some books on the bookshelves in the corner of the room. The girl sat in the middle of the room where the store put the round and big table with beautiful carvings around it.
"Please have a seat," said the girl. She looked familiar with the surroundings.
"What do you want to eat?" the girl asked.
"Anything is fine," said Grand Prince Seongnam. He didn't care about tea or dessert.
"I will order for you then," said the girl. She gave several instructions to her maid. The maid dutifully followed her instruction and gave him a reluctant look before she went out of the room.
Grand prince Seongnam tried to open his mouth as he wanted to ask many things, but the girl gave him a sign to silence by raising her finger on her lips.
"Let's wait until the refreshments and tea come. I have a long explanation. I don't want to be disturbed in the middle of it. What I want to say is something sensitive," the girl said.
Grand Prince Seongnam clenched his hands anxiously. He sighed in relief when finally some maid brought the refreshment and tea for them. The girl ordered her maid to watch in front of their private room and not let anyone disturb them.
The girl gave an intense stare at Grand Prince Seongnam, making him flustered and blank his mind. It was the first time he had done business with a woman, and he was unsure how to treat this girl in front of him.
He cleared his throat. "So..."
"It's the physician," she said after a brief silence.
"Excuse me?"
"I know what I say will sound very bizarre. But I want you to hear my words until the end."
"Bizarre?"
"You don't have to pay back your debt. Just, please...This one...Indulge me for a moment. Please hear my explanation until the end. Please consider by hearing my story, you are repaying your debt for the medicine."
Grand Prince Seongnam raised his eyebrow. He was not sure where this conversation was heading. But he owed this girl. He nodded and said, "Okay."
Hearing whatever the girl wanted to say won't hurt him. Who knows? He could get some insight about his Hyungnim disease from her.
"Get rid of the physician who treated your Hyungnim. He is the cause of your Hyungnim sickness."
Grand Prince Seongnam's mind became alert in seconds. How did this girl know that the medicine was for his Hyungnim? No one was supposed to know that. Only limited people knew about his older brother's condition, and all of those people were still in the palace. His mother was very careful. She wouldn't tell just anyone about this. Without realizing it, Grand Prince Seongnam's hands reached for his sword which was hanging on his waist.
"How do you know about my brother's sickness? Do you even know who my brother is?" he spoke in a rather weary tone of voice.
The girl blinked her eyes several times and then let out a sigh. "For you, this is your present, for me, this is my past."
"Pardon?"
"I think I come from the future. Two weeks ago, I fell asleep at my residence and prayed for the third anniversary of my husband's death, and when I woke up, I became nineteen years old," said the girl. Her eyes darkened with pain.
Grand Prince Seongnam raised his eyebrow. "Do you expect me to believe this absurd claim of yours?" he asked. A flicker of irritation and impatience shone in his eyes.
"To be honest, if it were me, I would leave this place as soon as possible. If my older brother is gravely ill, I wouldn't have time to hear anyone rambling and making a story. But I know you long and well enough to know that you are a man with a soft heart, so you will humor me because I paid for your medicine," said the girl sheepishly.
"You know me well enough?" he asked. A hint of mockery in his voice.
The girl nodded. "Yes."
Grand Prince Seongnam scoffed. "So in the future, somehow we know each other."
"Kind of."
There was a long silence between them. The girl didn't even flinch at the long death stare the grand prince Seongnam gave her.
"For the sake of medicine, let's see what you want to say. Lately, nothing fun happened around me, " he said. Whatever, he already promised to listen to until the end, he would keep his promise.
"This matter is related to the death of the late Prince Taein."
Grand Prince Seongnam's body tensed. He narrowed his eyes sharply as the girl started to tell her story. The girl's story was as crazy as the girl's confession that she was from the future. But he couldn't get rid of his uneasiness for the girl's familiarity with the palace and its rules. The girl told the tale as if she had lived in the palace herself.
"What poison did that man use to kill my brother?" Grand prince Seongnam asked.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?" Grand prince Seongnam met the girl's eyes moodily.
"Sorry." A stammer leaped nervously to the girl's throat.
"How on earth you don't know. If this case could kill my brother, it must be a very big case," he said, his face crinkling in annoyance.
The girl pouted at him. "I was pregnant at that time. My husband forbade everyone from talking about this case in front of me. He said the pregnant woman only could hear a good thing."
"If your husband forbids you to know about this case, how did you know about this case?"
"My husband gave me a general explanation just to fulfill my curiosity, and the king gave an announcement one year after his death. Your Highness and Her Majesty Queen worked hard for that."
"After your brother drinks this medicine. He would wake up for several days, but he would die when he attended a lesson in Sigangwon because of the poison."
Grand Prince Seongnam sipped his tea calmly. He still couldn't believe the girl's explanation. Yes, the crown Prince Taein's case was strange according to his mother, but this girl in front of him was too young to know about that case.
"I could tell you something that no one ever knew," said the girl suddenly.
"The name of your unborn niece. The only one who knows about it is your unconscious brother. After your older brother wakes up, you could ask him."
"Niece?"
"Well, your older brother's unborn baby is a girl."
Grand Prince Seongnam gave an intense stare at the girl. "Okay, tell me then."
"Yi Yul-Hee," said the girl. Her sad eyes softened a little.
"The name your brother chose for his daughter is Yi Yul-hee."
Grand Prince Seongnam messaged his throbbed forehead. After meeting with a girl two weeks ago, he spent his time thinking about what she had said. He started to watch his brother's physician's every move, read medicine books that his mother owned, and forced his mother to look for another physician for a second opinion. Just to be safe.
His suspicion of his brother's physician started when he saw the physician using a needle to treat his brother. The wandering physician outside the palace had warned him not to treat the patient with this sickness with acupuncture. With great effort, he successfully persuaded his mother to prevent the physician from using a needle, but he was not at ease because the physician was still with his brother for twenty-four hours. He couldn't watch him closely. Visiting his mother's residence every day would make a lot of people in the palace raise their eyebrows.
He caressed the small paper with his left hand. The girl wrote her address and told him to find her if he ever found difficulties. He felt a little bit crazy for using this girl's words as one reference when he had to make a decision. No one could back to the past. Yet there he was, contemplating the girl nonsense every day.
Did he think so much about the girl because of her beauty? His father also liked beautiful women, and from his observation, all of his stepmothers were beautiful women. His younger brother was also crazy about a girl called Chowol. He talked about her nonstop with so much passion. Grand Prince Seongnam was sure he was not someone who cared a lot about the opposite sex. He had always been composed around women and never felt any interest in pursuing them. But these days, he was not sure anymore. The supposed girl from the future messed up his head. Did he also inherit the womanizer trait from his father?
"Kang-a...What are you doing here alone?"
A sudden voice snapped him from his trance. He also didn't know why he was still here. His mother invited all of her sons to have dinner together. For his younger brother, it was just a simple dinner, for him and his older brother, this dinner was a celebration of his older brother's health.
All of his younger brothers had already returned to their respective residences, but Grand Prince Seongnam felt lost and needed time to think. He didn't realize that he had stopped his step and gazed at the lake like an idiot.
"I thought you already come back to your residence. What's on your mind? To make you this anxious must be something important."
"Nothing Hyungnim. Just enjoying the breeze," said Grand Prince Seongnam. He smiled when he saw his brother was healthy. Everything happened just like the girl had said.
"If it was Muan who looked like this, he must think about his woman. But you? I would think that maybe we need more like five years to make you think about women," said the crown prince. He laughed out loud at his own joke.
Grand Prince Seongnam's smile froze.
Seeing the look on his younger brother's face, the laugh of the crown prince abruptly stopped.
"Eh...Is it really a woman?" The crown prince looked up at him with slight surprise in his eyes.
"No," said Grand Prince Seongnam fast. His eyes looked around frantically. His older brother was pretty good at reading him. He had to calm himself and not give him any clue. He avoided his older brother's eyes desperately.
"Oh...It's really a woman!" the crown prince exclaimed loudly. A teasing smile crossed his face.
"It's nothing like that," said Grand Prince Seongnam. He refused to acknowledge the existence of that crazy girl.
"Is she pretty?"
"Hyungnim..."Grand Prince Seongnam warned his brother. His cheeks burned red with embarrassment.
The crown prince laughed. "She must be really pretty. She could make you flustered like this."
"It's not like that Hyungnim," said Grand Prince Seongnam stubbornly. He didn't like the triumph on his brother's face.
"Which family does she come from?" The Crown Prince asked. He raised an eyebrow in amusement.
"Hyungnim...Please..." Grand Prince Seongnam pleaded.
"Okay...Okay...I should stop now. Seeing how flustered you are, you must like her a lot."
Grand Prince Seongnam wisely kept his mouth shut. Opening his mouth right now was like digging his own grave.
"Well...I should go back to seeing my cute daughter now," said The crown prince. he patted her shoulder and started to walk in the eastern palace direction.
Hearing his brother talking about his new daughter made Grand Prince Seongnam's eyes light up. Just this once, He wanted to check for the last time. After this, he would forget that girl and would never think about her ever again. Having thought about her for more than two weeks was torture for him. He had enough. He wanted to end it.
"Wait Hyungnim! Have you found a name for your daughter?"
The crown prince stopped his step, He turned around and raised his eyebrow to her younger brother. "Why suddenly are you asking me this?"
"I'm curious. Please Hyungnim... tell me the name you have prepared for your daughter?"
"How about we exchanged the answer then? I would answer your question, but you have to answer mine."
"Okay."
"Yi Yulhee."
Grand Prince Seongnam froze in his place. His heart began to beat more rapidly. He couldn't believe his ear. No...No way...Impossible. No one could come back to the past. How on earth this could happen?
"I named my daughter Yi Yulhee. You are the first one to know my daughter's name. I haven't even told her mother."
Grand Prince Seongnam could feel a chill on his spine. His mind was blank for a moment. He took a deep breath and tried to adjust his emotions. He had to talk to the girl again. He needed an answer. Only that girl could give the answers he wanted.
"Then it's my turn. Is she pretty?"
Grand Prince Seongnam was stunned as he remembered that girl. Calm and elegant girl, she continued to convince him even though she knew he had never taken her seriously. Her sad smile when she looked at him and the soft gaze she gave him made him guilty for no reason.
"Kang-a?"
Grand Prince Seongnam cleared his throat.
"Yes, she is gorgeous."
Side Story
"Agasshi, what were you doing earlier? Since when do you have a brother-in-law," said Duri exasperatedly.
Cheongha laughed. Her maidservant had always been the one who dealt with her craziness.
"Why did you lie to that man? You can't play with him?"
"Did I look like I'm playing with him?"
"Yes, you wouldn't do something like that, would you? He looks like a decent man."
"And I am a decent woman. We are a match made in heaven."
"Do you like that man?"
"Um...He is very handsome, right?"
"Agasshi..."
"I choose him as my husband."
"Agasshi, you have to think about your family, and That man barely knows you. Do you know your reputation in this capital? He could get scared and run away if he knew you are the eldest daughter of the minister of war."
"He is a great person Duri-a. I won't let go of someone like him."
"Do you know who he is?"
"Of course."
"Who..."
"My future husband."