POV: Ryu Ha Joon
"Three months is a lot," Sunwoo says. "I will arrange some accommodation for her. We can't keep her here."
"She isn't an object we are keeping here and there," Hajoon reprimands them. "And she isn't going anywhere. It's better to let her stay in our sight, here in the palace. Move her to a better room on the first floor."
Mrs. Kang grimaces. "Your Majesty, you can't be careless. We have to be cautious."
"I am never careless. Who said we will not take precautions?" He looks at each person in the room. "Of course we will take all the precautions."
He nearly said, "I am not like my mother."
But thinking this always makes him feel ashamed. He doesn't want to blame his mother just like everyone else did. Especially not when Hajoon knows it was not her fault. Men are apt at deception. As a man himself, he knows.
Isn't he deceiving Hae Nari too?
★★☆☆★★☆☆★★☆☆
POV: Ha Na Ri
My eyes open and I can't tell if it is day or not, what month or year this is. Disoriented, I try to sit up and a nauseous migraine on the side of my head seizes me and throws me back on the pillow. For some moments, I lay with my eyes closed and wait for the throbbing in my head to subside.
I am still in that room in the palace. I am still in the Kingdom of Korea, away from my home, away from… everything.
I will probably be reported missing today. By either my company I work at–if they don't fire me first– or by Jieun. It was wrong of me to think I had nobody. At least one person would worry about me. Jieun came down from Thailand, transferred here just to help me. I have put her in a terrible position.
There is another person. Bae Haeyoung. The social worker who sent me abroad, whom I had met twice after returning. One time to greet her, and the second time for her to warn me.
I turn over in bed and manage to sit up. What would happen if I can't go back? I had something to do, I can't abandon that cause. However futile that cause is, I can't abandon it. It's better than feeling I never did anything and just went on living. Living that required an incredible amount of studying, working, applying for scholarships and making money.
Only I know the amount of sheer willpower, hope and delusions it took to survive this far.
All of that will be useless here. I have no degree, no experience. I don't even have an identity. I thought I was nothing in my world, but that was an ungrateful notion. I am nothing in this world.
I need to go back.
A sudden panic forces me out of the bed. Outside the room, there are no guards, but the same three maids are waiting. I startle them as I suddenly open the door, ignore them and dash down the hallways. The garden, maybe it was in this direction. The maids call after me. In fact, I hear one of them speaking, "She is running somewhere!" Maybe in earpiece.
I go through hallways and sitting rooms, disturbing maids dusting and cleaning. They stop and stare after me in bafflement. The masked guards have been removed from these places. Frustration disorients me even more. I am so irritated I want to cry.
Crying in rage, in frustration, in happiness and sadness; It makes me feel utterly pathetic and weak.
I run into another hallway. At the turn, I bump into someone. My feet immediately recoil upon seeing it's Ryu Hajoon. Touching him lends you in trouble.
But he grabs my forearms.
His grip is gentle, eyebrows lowered. "Nari'sshi, what's wrong?" He asks so softly, as if he really is my friend, that I can't help melting, cracking and revealing the flesh inside.
"I want to go to the garden," I say, my voice hoarse. "I want to go back. I need to go back!"
"I will take you to the garden, but there's nothing there…"
"I am afraid I will be stuck here forever. Hajoon'sshi, what would I do? How will I live here? When I don't even exist here!"
Something causes his eyes to widen slightly. We are standing close enough for me to see the dilation of his pupils. He recovers quickly. His face grows serious. "I am the most powerful man in Korea. Although I can't help you go back, I can take care of anything else."
Somehow the words distress me even more. I stare at him, taking in his handsome features and sharp eyes that have softened for me. I want to ask, "Why would a powerful man like you bother with me?"
But I hold back.
Let him be kind. Even if it's temporary, at least he is being kind. There is comfort in that.
Suddenly conscious of our unbroken stare and his hands on my arms, I withdraw from him. He lets go.
"Go back to your room, freshen up and see me in my study," he says, then adds. "Nari'sshi, you can rely on me."
A soft sigh leaves my lips. But Ryu Hajoon, a human heart is the most unreliable thing in the world.
★★☆☆★★☆☆★★☆☆
POV: Hae Na Ri
My room is shifted upstairs, to the first floor. It's larger than my previous room, and pretty much the same in furniture and decoration, except for a few additions. There is a small sitting area with cushions on the right side. There is no dressing table, but a door leads me to a walk-in closet. The closet has space for everything. From racks of shoes, dresses, handbags to shelves for jewelry and other accessories.
But most of it is empty. Only a few skirts and shirts hang on the hangers.
"The rest of your things are on their way," the maid, who always sticks to me, informs me as though I have moved here from somewhere and my own things are on the way.
"What's your name?" I ask. I have a feeling she will continue to stick to me like a shadow in future. Better get acquainted with your shadow.
"070," she deadpans.
"That's an odd name."
"All the maids, cleaning staff and most of the cooking staff have numbers as their names."
"That is also odd. But why?"
"Helps keep things professional."
"Humans shouldn't have robot-like names." Or expressions.
Her robot-like expression wavers at that before becoming stable again, like water settling still after the ripples in a lake from a rebellious stone.
070, I repeat in my head. No, that would not do.
"I will call you Jenny." It's my friend in the US, the dormmate who later also became my colleague.
There is another ripple in the water. "It's not allowed."
"Allowed by who?"
"His Majesty," she answers, and hurries to take off some clothes from the hangers, thrust them in my hands and bow out of the closet. As if afraid that being near me for a few more minutes might lead to trouble.
It's a white pleated skirt and a long sleeved pale blue sweater. I take a hot shower and change into these clothes. Standing in front of the long full body mirror in the closet beside the vanity table, I blow dry my hair with embarrassment slowly creeping up to me.
I shouldn't have shown such vulnerability in front of Hajoon.
He probably thinks I am crazy and thus sympathises with me. OR maybe he finds me entertaining because I seem crazy?
But the question is: Am I really out of my mind?
I get out of my room and go over to Hajoon's office with these mad thoughts running rampant in my mind like a madman stomping around in a room, destroying things and cackling wickedly.