He Walks Alone in the Moonlight [COMPLETED]

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Doyoon watched silently as his sister instructed Jihyun, his cheek twitching each time she grabbed the servant's hand to correct his penmanship. Songmin had come to sit beside him, fanning himself with a dissatisfied look on his face. "It seems we are not needed here, your Highness," Songmin mused as he leaned over to pour himself a cup of tea.

"It is not like we could leave the two of them unsupervised, could we? You saw what my sister did right in front of me. I can only imagine how she'd behave if they were alone together," the prince ground out, snagging the tea from Songmin as soon as he finished pouring. The scholar shot him a glare, setting the kettle down aggressively.

"Despite your worries, they seem to get along quite well," Songmin noted as he scanned the table for another cup.

"If anything that should be cause for even more worry," Doyoon said as he gnawed at his lip, flexing his fingers against the cup nervously.

"It worries me that you even allowed your sister to enter any part of Horangi Palace's grounds," Songmin confessed, snatching another cup and pouring himself another tea, placing his arm around it protectively.

"I trusted you could keep her in line." The prince sat up straighter as he watched his sister lean against Jihyun, the chains of her hairpin resting against his shoulder. Beside him, Songmin scoffed, taking a sip of tea. Eunbin looked up at the noise, her predatory eyes flicking between the prince and Songmin, then smirked as she reached across Jihyun's desk for the inkstone, the back of her head covering Jihyun's face. Pottery clattered as Doyoon slammed his knees into the desk, and Songmin grabbed his arm, pulling the prince back down.

"Keep her in line? It seems all I'm doing here is keeping you in line, your Highness." The prince frowned, his tension easing as Jihyun's face came back into view. Suddenly, he turned to Songmin, his face serious. The scholar raised an eyebrow, letting go of the prince. "What is it this time?" The prince hesitated, glancing back at Jihyun briefly.

"Do you.... think he'll hate me if I say she can't be his tutor anymore?"

"Doesn't he already hate you?"

~~~~~~~~

"Go straight down like that. Yes. You want to apply more pressure at the start. Sort of flick it down, you want the brush to barely touch the page at the end." Jihyun dutifully followed Eunbin's instructions despite the slight headache forming from the strength of her perfume. Her hand was soft yet firm as she guided his brush down the page. So far she had been a great teacher. After seeing how he wrote the characters for his name, she'd sat beside him and drawn the first fifty of the one hundred star-divined characters in her bold yet delicate handwriting. Jihyun practiced drawing each character dozens of times while the princess explained the story behind each one to better engrave their meaning into his memory. Each of the star-divined characters were based on a different constellation, and each constellation had a story. First, Eunbin explained the meanings of the three characters that made up his name. Han. This constellation resembled a woman embracing nothingness, and Eunbin tied it to the story of a mother who had lost her child, her eyes distant as she recounted the tale.

    "It is to feel less than whole. To carry a deep feeling of regret. Of resentment. Of sorrow. As if you have lost a part of yourself you can never get back." Jihyun thought of his life, and wondered if names really did decide one's fate.

    "And Ji?" he asked, staring at the three vertical lines on the page before him, the middle one slightly longer than the other two. Eunbin smiled, tapping each line as she explained.

    "Wisdom. Each line represents an important part of what it takes to be wise. One can not simply be smart-" she tapped the first short line, then dragged her finger across the page before landing on the short line to the right, "And one cannot simply be open-minded-" her finger landed on the middle line, tracing down its length, "They must also be humble. What can someone learn if they believe they already know everything?" Eunbin gave a closed-lipped smile, her eyes scrunching together. Jihyun nodded, his eyes bouncing to the next character in his name. It reassembled a man on his knees, with his hand outstretched before him. "Hyun," Eunbin whispered. "It means to be worthy." Jihyun turned to look at her after a prolonged pause.