The Consorts

On The Street

"We've been out here too long–"

I shush Yeong as a figure of a man comes into view, approaching the house that we're surveilling...

...But keeps on walking.

I sigh, disappointed. Yet another false alarm.

"We should head back to the palace, Your Royal Highness." Yeong suggests, for the third time in the past hour.

"Just fifteen more minutes." My answer is the same. For the third time as well.

I'd made the mistake of yawning and without Jo-Sanggung here, Yeong seems to have taken up her duty to mother hen me.

I hadn't sleep at all last night, the thought of finally seeing Jungkook again had kept me up like an overdose of expresso. Now I guess, my adrenaline is running on empty.

...

...I'm still not going to leave though.

Even if I am tired. And cramping.

We've been here since this morning – hiding behind the wall of a house two doors down from the address we were given – but there's been no sign of him.

No-one's even home. There aren't any shoes outside.

I would have come straight away last night but my father had blocked me from leaving. He'd sat me down with firm hands on my shoulders and advised me to wait until the morning. I'd argued, of course. But in the end he'd managed to subdue me with logic.

Eventually.

For me to leave the palace unnoticed, careful preparation was required. To dash out without a plan was reckless, especially when the sun had been so close to setting. What would've been the point of going out for only a little while before curfew had gone into effect? – had been a few of his arguments.

At that moment, I hadn't particularly cared that much.

But what I had cared about was showing up at Jungkook's house with the energy of a puppy with bad separation anxiety. Taking some time to chill the fuck out and pull myself together hadn't sounded like such a bad idea...

But it'd been a lot harder than I'd thought.

Even though I'd agreed, I hadn't been able to keep still. My knee had been bouncing with the impulse to run out the door. So I'd asked Geon-uk to distract me.

By filling me in on every single detail.

~

His investigation hadn't been easy. And I hadn't made it any easier for him by asking him to keep it undercover.

Without being able to ask the staff directly, Geon-uk had resorted to infiltration. He'd spent more time tending to his horse and quickly became acquainted with the stable hands so he could eavesdrop on their gossiping.

Word about my accident at the hunt had spread and the story been trending around the palace. But it'd been a different incident that had been whispered about in the stables.

A servant had dared to steal the Minister of Taxation's horse.

The culprit had seized the opportunity whilst the hunting party had taken a rest ... for His Excellency to relieve himself. Whilst his trousers were down, the servant holding onto the horse's reins had suddenly leapt into the saddle and fled

His Excellency had been enraged.

... He'd made quite a mess of himself.

I'd snickered when Geon-uk had filled me in about that little detail. But my amusement had been short lived after hearing what had happened next.