Gwi Owns the Night, Part I

38

INT. LIBRARY – DAY

Gwi enters the library. HR is reading. She looks up and smiles.

HYE-RYUNG
Hello, Your Majesty.

GWI
You seem improved. Are you sleeping now?

HR moves so Gwi can sit at the head of the table. As he sits, she sits down opposite him.

HYE-RYUNG
I am, thank you. Not entirely normally, and the maids are still helping me, but I can make it through some nights.

GWI
(grins)
Too bad. I could have used someone warming my bed.

HYE-RYUNG
But can't you have that any time?

Both are surprised at that. HR's eyes widen and she blushes. Gwi smiles and leans forward.

GWI
Now there's an awfully good point.

HYE-RYUNG
I'm sorry sire, I didn't mean that- I don't know what I meant. I don't know why I said that.

GWI
(still smiling)
Don't you?

HYE-RYUNG
I only meant that- You often-
(stops, completely flustered)

GWI
If you keep going, you'll only dig yourself in deeper. I'll let you off the hook this time because I'm feeling magnanimous. But not the next time.

HYE-RYUNG
(smiles)
Thank you, sire.

Gwi leafs through the book in front of him.

GWI
On the Veritable Records today? How are you getting on?

HYE-RYUNG
I am still skimming as you suggested. I've devoted less time to this than my other studies so I'm afraid I've only skimmed to Sejo so far, but I am making notes to go back and read more closely the parts that are standing out to me. I am not sure how well I will remember the details about each king and when they reigned though. Should I be trying to memorise that too?

GWI
It may be more worthwhile to take a broader approach. As you get further along, try to look at the scope of what's happening over time, and what the nation ought to learn from decisions and policies. What problems continually arise, what solutions work or don't work, what do you think makes a good king and a bad king, etc.

HYE-RYUNG
(tilts head to the side)
Your Majesty?

GWI
Mmm.

HYE-RYUNG
Were you here when Taejo moved the capitol to Seoul?

GWI
In a sense. I was still a demi-god then so I was around. I became a vampire during Sejong's reign.

HYE-RYUNG
Have you been here, in the palace, since then?

GWI
More or less. It took some time to 'settle in'.

HYE-RYUNG
Then did you know all these kings?

GWI
And their ministers. Much the same as it is now.

HYE-RYUNG
So, when you read these accounts, you remember the incidents?

GWI
I generally don't read them. If I did, I suspect I would remember some of the incidents. But memory is a funny thing. I don't have any use for the past – I don't expect to develop in any way and I certainly don't have any fond memories that I want to cherish – so I don't keep personal records or memorabilia. Over time most things fade and what doesn't gets tangled all together. Faces look like faces you already know. Different men you meet and the ways that people behave start blending into archetypes and lose their individuality. Your father, for example, he's more a type to me than a man. Everything he is and does is utterly predictable. It's very hard to be a man, to be human, to be a real individual.

HYE-RYUNG
I guess I'm too young to know the difference. I don't really know very many people at all. Am I a type?

GWI
You haven't settled into yourself yet.

HYE-RYUNG
Do you think I will be a type?

GWI
Most likely.
(HR a bit saddened by this)
Not all types are bad. It's not all villains.

HYE-RYUNG
But if I become only a type, there won't be anything left. I won't even be a memory.

GWI
And you want to be a memory for me?

HYE-RYUNG
(shakes out of it, smiles)
No, sire. It was a silly thought. I forgot that I am trying to live one day at a time.

GWI
Hye-ryung-a, don't worry. You will not easily be forgotten.

HYE-RYUNG
(lowers head)
Thank you, Your Majesty.

GWI
Enjoy what you can on Sejo.

Gwi leaves. HR turns the book to face her and flips a few pages.

HYE-RYUNG
Why is it suddenly so much more interesting knowing you were there?