Suitors and Strangers

Chapter One (Pil)

"It's a royal order," says Choi Ji-Mong, the royal astronomer of the palace. He has just told Queen Hwangbo the King's order. "We cannot go against the King's commands no matter how harsh they are."

"Sending away my second daughter to that hell hole of a family home," says Queen Hwangbo seething with anger as she realizes her daughter will grow up in a terrible environment. "Tell me: was it Queen Yoo's request?"

"I cannot tell you, Your Highness," replies Ji-Mong knowing full well it was a request from the first wife of the King. "All I can say is please let your daughter go."

"Queen Hwangbo?" asks a faint voice from inside the room where Pil Joon Seo, the daughter of Queen Hwangbo, is sleeping.

"Yes?" asks the Queen, knowing it is Yeom Sa Ra, the playmate and court lady in training for Joon Seo.

"Joon Seo going away?" the one year old asks as she sits next to the girl who has been her best friend since she first arrived here.

"Yes, she is," replies the Queen. She goes over to the room and picks up Joon Seo and hands her sleeping three year old daughter to Ji-Mong. She picks up Sa Ra and comforts her as she watches her daughter leave out the doors. "My daughter has been adopted out to Royal Concubine Kang. Queen Yoo, this will not stop my daughter from coming back. She will know of her place here in the palace."

By the time dawn has come around, Ji-Mong is now at the gates of the Kang household. As he enters with Joon Seo in his arms, Concubine Kang is sending away Wang So, the fourth prince of the King who was sent here like Joon Seo to help ease the pain that Concubine Kang has been feeling since the loss of her young son. He feels pity towards the boy who has been forced to wear a mask due to the scar his mother, Queen Yoo the first wife of the King, gave him when he was younger.

"Ji-Mong!" exclaims Concubine Kang as she sees the Royal astronomer entering her household. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Concubine Kang," he says smiling as he bows to her. There is a small figure standing behind him that catches the woman's attention.

"Who is this child?" she asks as a little girl, who looks no older than three years old, step out from behind Ji-Mong and bow to her. "Hi there, little one, who are you?"

"This is Joon Seo, you're daughter," says Ji-Mong as Joon Seo walks up to Kang and she lifts the girl up and has a genuine and bright smile on her face.

"You're beautiful, aren't you little one?" she asks Joon Seo and then walks into the household as Ji-Mong leaves and she begins to treat the girl with the best she can offer her. As Joon Seo is adjusting to her new home, she sees a young boy being dragged away into a room. She pays no mind to him at first, but she learns that the boy hasn't been fed or given water; she feels sympathy and tries to help the boy.

At first the boy didn't trust what she would bring him through the window. He would just leave the food there and not touch it. It isn't until Joon Seo drinks some of the water and eats one of the sweets she brought him.

"Are you crazy?!" he whispers harshly at her as he tries to get her to spit out what she ate.

"It's not poisoned!" she snaps back just as quietly. "I'm trying to help. It's not right she is doing this to you. Please eat. I'll be back later to pick it up."

"What a strange girl," he says to himself as he eats the sweets and drinks the water. This soon becomes the everyday thing for them. As Joon Seo keeps secretly bring him food, she and him being to form a bond of trust.

"My name is Pil Joon Seo," she says one day as they roam the grounds together with permission of Concubine Kang, or as Joon Seo now refers to her, her mother Joon Seo is now ten years old. "What about you? What's your name?"