Black and White «COMPLETED»

Chapter Twenty Six- Envy

​Chapter Twenty Six- Envy

The celebration was the most interesting occasion Tae Jun had ever attended.

There was no shortage of the best dishes to eat, or rare wines to drink.

More than once, he noticed a father, stopping his son from drinking too much, too quickly.

The ladies seemed to carry themselves respectfully, afraid of embarrassing their families in any way.

Most of the younger ones did not even touch the wine.

Then there were the performances.

Tae Jun had been right about the Gisaeng, as several of them had come from distant regions to perform for the King.

There were several dances, a short play, and even poetry.

Fond of using the gyobang to paint his false reputation, Tae Jun recognized quite a few faces, and he winked cheekily at them, further feeding the false personality.

Several nobles must have noticed, as they began to give the King pitying looks on producing such a wayward son.

In turn, the King had kept casting warning or chastising looks at him.

There had been a remarkable gayageum performance from the best player in Eondeog Mun, and the nobles had watched in awe as her fingers plucked the strings with amazing speed.

For Tae Jun, it was astounding, but it was not the best he had heard...

Visions of a white-haired Lady in a beautiful garden filled his mind

He had not been having the strange dreams in a while. He wondered why...

Then there had been a beautiful, but dangerous looking, dragon lantern dance, which had set of amazed and surprised exclamations all through the hall.

The best presentation of the evening had been from the beautiful leader of the Dong Guk gyobang.

She had danced, while playing a big mounted drum, a drumstick held in each hand.

It was a popular performance, called the Drum Dance, which had attracted many nobles to Dong Guk just to watch it.

Tae Jun had kept turning his attention to Da Yeong during the performances.

Most of the time, there had been complete joy or awe on her face at each performance.

This was probably her first major outing.

.

After a long while, the performances were stopped and the occasion had turned slightly less formal.

Then the King had briefly excused himself, his guards and eunuchs following.

Tae Jun, his brother and the rest of the guests had bowed as he exited, then they all returned to their various forms of conversations and merriment.

Tae Jun sat drinking- or pretending to drink- quietly.

"Still a very pretentious person." His brother, Jang Tae Min, the Crown Prince, spoke to him from the other side of the empty throne. "You say you want nothing to do with all this, and yet here you are."

Tae Jun considered acting like he had not heard him, but he decided to respond.

"Hyeong-nim knows my being here is not my choice."

"Yes, it is never your choice!" The Crown Prince said with open vehemence. "The same way being born was not your choice."

"If Hyeong-nim was going to be this insecure, why did you crave that position so much?" Tae Jun asked.