moon and sun

Chapter I: Part (5)

As the woman spoke calmly and again and again, Hwon was even more annoyed.

"I also don't have a name. As soon as I was born, I didn'tt have a name because I have become the Crown Prince. And when I was given the name of King, no one should have my name in anyone's  mouth from that moment on. No one has called me Hwon. I was only called a crown prince. Now that I became king, my name "Hwon" has become a name that should not be spoken. This is why you and I are in similar situation without a name."

"It's not the same. Heaven and earth are  different from each other."

It felt like an unmovable stone. Having had nothing more to say, Hwon thought quietly for a long time and hitting his knee as if he remembered something, said.

"That's right! If your godmother didn't name you because she was afraid to be  tied by fate with you, then I will give you a name and  you will be bound to me by destiny."

At this time, even the woman seemed quite surprised.

"How can there be only a good fate in the world? You can't give a name for a relationship that's only for a moment. Please take back what you said."

Hwon didn't listen to the woman and was preoccupied with his own thoughts.
'What should I name her?.........'

“There is a relationship that should not be connected.  This is just a momentary relationship.”

Hwon turned away from the woman's words and looked out the window at the moon.  This time, as if Hwon had decided to become a stone, he gave the woman's name without hesitation.

"Do you resemble the moon or the moon resembles you? I will call you Wol."

The moment Hwon gave her a name, the woman became Wol. The trembling eyelids covered the woman's deep eyes, which had become Wol.  Since the eyes containing emotions were covered, it was impossible to distinguish whether they contained joy, sadness, or fear.

Hwon, who said her name out loud, was relieved that his relationship with Wol seemed to have continued. Won tried to reached out to caress Wol's face. However, he couldn't do it.  For some reason, it felt like her body would turn into ashes and sink as soon as he  touched her. So he only grabbed a glass and drink.

“Today is not  the only day.  I know your name, and I know the plight of you who cannot leave this place.  Everything in the world has a place and a place to go. How and where did someone like you come from?”

Hwon emptied his drink, held it in front of Wol, filled it with alcohol, and spoke again.

"All things that exist comes and go and comes again but not all of them comes again. If you ask if they have come, they will come again. Things that keeps coming and coming comes from nothing without a beginning. So I ask thee where do you come first?." (Excerpt from the first verse Hwadam Seo Kyung Deok's Relic)

The poem that Won recited seems to ask where Wol came from, but this was not just about Wol. He was asking himself the source of the unknown emotions that were happening in his heart.

At the same time, it was also a willingness to start tonight's meeting. Wol quietly replied with her eyes closed, whether she was willing not to look at Hwon's heart without giving a glance to the glass filled by Hwon.

"All creation returns and go, but not all returns. If you ask if it has returned, not all has returned. Even if it keeps returning and returning, in the end it cannot return. So I ask thee where are you returning? (Excerpt from the 2nd verse of Hwadam Seo Kyung-deok's Relics)

Hwon didn't know what it meant. He knew what the poem meant, but he didn't know what Wol meant. Hwon picked up a glass that Wol hadn't touched, put it in his mouth, and asked.

"What did you tell me?"

“I wanted to fill in the latter part.  And it was a request to promise that tonight is the end of the ties.”

"I can't believe that a shaman knows Hwadam's poems."

“Is there even a king who reads the poems of Hwadam?”

Hwon just smiled.  Although the writings of Hwadam were difficult to read, they were also a discipline that the king should not learn because it was thought in Sahak  , not in Jonghyak.  He was amazed by the woman who knew it.  Wol spoke again.

(Sahak: Secondary education institutions in the cities and Hyanggyo in the rural areas.
Jonghyak:  A school for the royal family)

"This is just a place where travelers take a break for a while. So please go now. The rain has stopped, and the bottle has been emptied, so you have to go back to the Haenggung Palace (The Kings Villa)."

Hwon was saddened by the sudden push of Wol.  Rather than feeling disappointed for Wol, he was saddened because he didn't want to part.

"Let's go together. When the dawn breaks, come with me."

"I'd like to ask you what madness will your bodyguard face if you don't go now?"

There was nothing wrong with Wol's words. It was because he secretly left the Haenggung Palace and went the village, so if this went wrong, all the responsibility would not go to Hwon, but to Un. And, as always, the attack will be  geared towards the Un upbringing as an illegitimate child.

"It's a night when the rain and the moon are together. Be careful with the cold."

"Wol! I will surely find you again. Please wait."