What You Never Had

Chapter 7

"There you are! Where have you been?"

Your breath caught, and your mind raced to find an excuse, any excuse to get yourself out of this sticky situation. The reasoning that you'd carefully crafted earlier in case this exact thing happened seemed to have hitched up its skirts and ran towards the hills at the sight of Namjoon outside the door to your chambers, because you could not for the life of you remember it now. Ji Eun peeked from behind your eldest brother, her eyes wide with panic and you felt sorry for putting her in this position. She was clearly trying her best to cover for you but it didn't seem like Namjoon was entirely convinced.

Trying to take as much time as possible to reach him, which wasn't much, was futile as he was striding over to get to you. When he got closer, you could see signs of fatigue — there were dark circles under his eyes, his normally neatly combed hair was less than tidy, like he'd ran his fingers through the dark locks more than once, and when he arrived at your side, his pat on your shoulder was a tad harder than necessary. You could feel his tired weight under the normally gentle hand that tapped you before he wrapped his arm around your shoulder. Your eldest brother looked frazzled and exhausted, yet there was only concern for you in his knitted brows as he asked, "where did you go? Ji Eun said you went for a walk, of all things."

Inwardly thanking Ji Eun for her help and your wisdom in not donning on her dress this time, you suppressed a sigh of relief at being reminded of the excuse you'd thought out earlier. "I couldn't sleep, so I thought a walk might tire me out."

Having possibly a thousand things to worry about over the country didn't deter Namjoon from taking interest in whatever was on his sister's mind. "Was there any particular reason you can't sleep?" He asked as he steered you towards the direction of your chambers.

The last thing you wanted to do was add to the list of things that Namjoon had on his mind, so you shrugged nonchalantly and told him, "just restless, I suppose. Thinking of this and that, but nothing of real importance."

Namjoon's shoulders relaxed as he readily accepted your reasoning. "I apologise for bothering you at this time of night, but I didn't manage to catch you earlier today, and I'm afraid I may be too busy tomorrow."

"It's no matter! I'd be glad to see you any time, Namjoon," you said with a smile, and when he returned it, the lines accumulated from stress on his face disappeared. Truly, as was known to all castle staff, the princess was a balm for Namjoon's weariness. "Is there a reason for your visit?"

"Yes." At your reminder, Namjoon's tone turned brisk. "A while back, you raised a concern about jobless people in the capital, remember?"

How could you forget? It was the day you met Jin. He had rescued you from some thugs when you got tangled in their quest to collect money from Ki Joon, a jobless man who had inherited debt and had sunk deeper into the bottomless pit of financial hell. The occasion happened when you sneaked out of the castle to experience life as a commoner, so you couldn't reveal all the details to Namjoon, but you'd made sure to voice your concern about the matter. Even though the capital prospered for the most part, underneath the surface were people like Ki Joon who found it difficult to secure work, making them easy prey for loan sharks. The troubles your country was facing at the borders was perhaps a little too far and detached from you to be able to help with, but this problem close to home was something you should be able to give a hand in solving.

"I was thinking of a way for people in need of work to meet employers who are looking for help. Since you mentioned that sometimes the problem is that people with a set of skills just don't have the opportunity to meet people who need those abilities," he started, and your eyes lit up at the subject matter. It had been a while since you brought it up, so you were pleasantly surprised to find out that he'd kept his promise to look into it. Nodding enthusiastically, you encouraged him to continue. "I've made plans to open the City Hall in a few days so the jobless can come and give their names with some details on the sort of work they're capable of doing. With these information, I've brought together a group of businessmen with wide connections to help find suitable jobs for them." You were standing at the door to your rooms now, leaning your back against the frame as you absorbed his suggestion. After finishing his explanation he paused to scratch his head with uncertainty before asking, "what do you think?"