이무기의 복 (Mourning Bride)

15. The Palace Scandal

"I believe I saw King Hongjoong kiss Seonghwa before."

Wooyoung batted his eyes open next to San to stare at the dark ceiling. They had grown restless after a nap when a soldier had come in late to bring his horse to its box. He had woken them with his clamour but hadn't bothered them in their hay paradise. After he had left, both boys had failed to fall asleep again.

"Despite being married to you?" Surprise laced his voice, but it didn't carry the same impact San had experienced so cruelly.

San nodded and adjusted his pillow.

"They looked to be too close for it to be anything else. Neither of them mentioned it. Then again, I suppose I haven't been here for long." He tried to keep his hurt out of his tone, knowing it had no place here. Wooyoung wasn't responsible for San's relationship with the king.

"I had thought it would stop after you arrived. I'm sorry, San." Wooyoung reached to take the claw nearest to him. His fingers wove around the scaly appendages, careful of the sharp tip.

"Stop?"

Wooyoung turned to look at San. In the dark, San found compassion swimming in his eyes that reminded him of the grasses kissing away his tears whenever he had fled the elders to cry to himself.

"There have been some rumours for a while now. Working in the stables, I hear what everyone using a horse mutters behind the king's back, so I was always a source of knowledge on the palace grounds."

San nodded. Just like the horses and their many stories, Wooyoung met many new people with their tales from far-away lands.

"The court shaman is well-liked among the people. His beauty enchants men as well as women, and many made advances, but he sent them away, for the path of a shaman is a lonely one."

Saddened at the imagination, San looked at their intertwined hands. Was this the reason Seonghwa understood his loneliness so well? Because he also lived in the palace only for his duties and had no way of fleeing its suffocating grip?

"However, people whisper about him and the king. Ever since a while ago, their glances seem to linger on each other, and people claim the king's mother's favouritism for Seonghwa sprouts from a secret relationship. I had believed the rumours about seeing them embrace in the gardens or meeting late at night were just for entertainment. Now that you report the same, I wonder why Hongjoong hasn't made an effort to halt these observations from spreading after marrying you."

San was baffled. Rather than the secret relationship with a woman he loved since the king had been forced to marry a man, Hongjoong might harbour feelings for Seonghwa. Despite the peculiar things he had seen about them, however, he wavered to make a judgment. He had learned better than to assume.

"What if they are close friends? Hongjoong doesn't seem to have a lot of those, so he would treasure Seonghwa."

Wooyoung shrugged, the hay jostling around his shoulders.

"I saw nothing out of the ordinary. Those who spread malicious gossip might be interested in Seonghwa's position or Hongjoong's downfall. I am hurt to hear you had to doubt your relationship because of it."

San pondered his memories again. He had been drunk, and Hongjoong as well. He could have mistaken Hongjoong's drunken stupor for more than it was. None of the other instances he had seen the two together pointed at anything else. He had noticed them being closer than he had expected, but nothing was strange about that.

"I am also unsure what I saw... It might have been nothing." San sounded as insecure as he felt. Compassionate, Wooyoung squeezed his claws with gentle hands. They were much larger than Hongjoong's holding onto San.