My Lordship's Alliance

Chapter Seven : The First Night

Sunghoon entered the first night chamber.He had that silent aura around him. His eyes were looking straight and his body was in upright and steady posture. He had the appearance of a king. Someone would easily mistake him for the King as his face was filled with pride and solemn.

As he entered the bridal chamber, he saw Sunwoo standing and bowing at him. To him, the girl was looking shy and like a dignified women, she held her head down. The beauty of her face was unexplainable. Sunwoo's face was glowing due to the light emitted from the candle lighted across the room. Sunghoon stood there a minute startled by the beauty of the young wife in front of him.

As he approached the young wife (a boy in girl's cloth), Sunwoo suddenly withdrew himself and sat on the edge of the bed on the floor. His heart was beating fast, and he could feel a sense of heaviness in his breath. From the moment he had put on the wedding dress, his heart was pounding and he was feeling obnoxious. His palms were sweating profusely and occasionally he would rub his hands on his skirt.

Sunghoon slowly sat beside his wife who was shaking like hell and was avoiding his gaze. He was slightly amused by Sunwoo's behaviour, and a small smile appeared across his face. He noticed that his wife was anxious, and he wanted to assure her not to panic. So, he slowly reached out to her with his arms and proceeded to touch her shoulder while the latter was startled with his demeanour and receded her shoulders back to avoid the touch. Sunghoon became alert and understood his wife was not feeling comfortable and therefore he took his hands back.

Sunghoon cleared his throat to say something. But Sunwoo thought he has sore throat and was quick in action. He took off to the kitchen to take a cup of lukewarm water and returned in a rush. He gave the glass of water to Sunghoon, still his head held down. Sunghoon was astonished by Sunwoo's gesture. He took the cup of water from Sunwoo's hand and proceeded to take a sip from it. He then placed the clay cup away and looked at the other.

"My wife, I know our marriage was rushed. We both are strangers and here we are married to each other for eternity. I can clearly understand the reason of your confusion, discomfort and suffering." He gestured Sunwoo to sit on the bed beside him. Sunwoo was feeling anxious and showed a slight reluctance. Sunghoon saw this and said, "Don't worry, I won't touch you." He pointed his hands on the bed gesturing Sunwoo to sit.
Sunwoo slowly sat beside Sunghoon with eyes gazing down.

"We will take our time. You don't have to worry about anything. I won't force you to do anything against your will! But..." Sunwoo listened as the other continued, "I can assure you that; I will be a dutiful husband to you till our death. That's a promise I have given you on our marriage and I always keep my promise."

It was then Sunwoo breathed out a sigh of relief. Sunghoon in turn thought that Sunwoo is feeling sleepy. "If you are tired, you shall go to sleep. And if you need anything, I will be in the study.", he said and proceeded to move out of the room. Sunwoo looked at Sunghoon as he exited. How can a person be this righteous? He thought how understanding the latter was. If he had married someone else this wouldn't have been the situation. However Sunwoo felt guilty seeing how Sunghoon treated him a while ago. He know that was lying to him and all this was a big mistake in the first place. But if Sunghoon came to know of his real identity, he would certainly be beheaded. The thought of his head rolling down on the ground made Sunwoo freeze. 'I must soon find a way to flee from here as fast as I can!' He thought to himself.

Meanwhile Heeseung and Jungwon had already reached the other side of the river in search of Da-hee. They don't have any idea where she had gone. All they know was she was heading to meet someone named Shim Jayoon.

Both of them had to find this man as early as possible. But the streets were empty at night and it's almost midnight. As they were roaming in the streets, Jungwon saw a torn out poster on the wall of a shop.

"Hyung, look at this." He called heeseung to his side, "this is a notice about a selection campaign to a nearby Seonwoo that is going to happen tomorrow."
"So what? What is this having to do with us? Heeseung asked, "Are you going to become a Scholar?"

"Hey, hyung!" Jungwon slightly tapped heeseung and pointed at the lower right corner of the notice, "look here!!"

"jojeongja (coordinator) Shim Jayoon!" Heeseung read the words carefully twice to confirm that it is what it is on the paper.

And thus both Heeseung and Jungeon decided to wait for the next day to meet the Scholar.