Chapter 37

Will You Wait for Me

At the word "confession," Yunseo's body instinctively shifted into a counselor's listening mode.

She pulled a chair over and sat diagonally from Lee Hyang's desk—not too close, not too far.

She avoided sitting directly across from him so that the client could freely let their gaze wander and organize their thoughts and feelings, while she, as the counselor, could more objectively observe not only his words but also his body language.

As she settled into that position, Yunseo suddenly felt herself shift—from the Crown Prince's lover, who had been swept up in his emotionally charged outburst just moments ago, back into Kwon Yunseo the individual… and Kwon Yunseo the psychological counselor.

Then a thought struck her—she wanted to show Lee Hyang what kind of professional she truly was.

"Your Highness, through historical records and through the month I have spent here, I have seen and felt 15th-century Joseon and your life firsthand. But you, Your Highness, have no way to imagine my life six hundred years in the future. So… I will show you what I do as a counselor."

"Ah! That is… a good idea."

Lee Hyang, who had come to cherish Yunseo for her bold vitality yet often found himself unable to predict how to deal with her, readily agreed.

Yunseo closed her eyes and took seven slow, deep breaths, steadying her mind as a counselor. It was a ritual she always performed when preparing to meet a client.

Then she opened her eyes, placed both hands neatly on her knees, and looked at him.

Lee Hyang moved his lips as if to speak, yet could not easily bring himself to say anything.

Seeing him hesitate, Yunseo gently opened the conversation for him.

"Your Highness, since childhood you have been of a noble status destined to become king. You must have had very few people with whom you could speak freely. When… what kind of problem weighed on you the most?"

Lee Hyang gazed at her silently, then, as if deciding to quickly rid himself of words he had long been unable to say, spoke in a rush.

"…It is not that I lacked desire and thus kept my distance from women. It is that no woman I could take would ever compare to the wives my brothers—especially Suyang—had. That is why I behaved as though I had no interest in women. Only after meeting you did I realize this."

"…Ah… Your Highness's consorts all met unfortunate fates."

Yunseo recalled from history his first wife, who was deposed for practicing forbidden arts in an attempt to gain his affection, and his second wife, who was also deposed due to a same-sex relationship.

"After successive tragedies befalling the families of queens in previous generations, I knew in my head that no one would willingly give me their daughter. Yet in truth, the consorts I was given were so lacking that I felt no desire to take them."

Once he began, Lee Hyang met her gaze and steadily began to lay bare thoughts he had never shared with anyone.

"As Crown Prince, I studied under my teachers three times a day, from dawn until night—learning the teachings of the sages and the ways of kingship. The pressure to become a virtuous ruler through study and self-discipline… and the fear that I could be replaced as Crown Prince at any moment—both were immense."

"Ah… both Taejong of Joseon and Sejong the Great themselves became crown prince after replacing the previous ones. And since you had many outstanding brothers, Your Highness must have felt that pressure even more."

"…Yes. And yet, even after nineteen years as Crown Prince, I failed in two marriages and had no son. During that time, Suyang was quietly treated as the heir apparent."

Lee Hyang went on to explain—

how Suyang's wife, refined and adept at expressing ambition, stood in stark contrast to the incompetent Crown Princess and won the favor of the King and Queen;

how, despite strict customs forbidding a prince's wife from giving birth inside the palace, the Queen allowed Suyang's wife to give birth within the royal residence;

and how the child, named Hyeondong by the King himself and cherished as though he were the royal grandson, was treated as such—so that until Hongwi was born, Suyang was regarded as the successor, and his son as the royal heir.

"Because of this, even when our Hongwi—born as the rightful royal grandson—was subtly disregarded by those in Suyang's faction, no one dared to step forward and defend him. Those who remembered how crown princes had been replaced in previous generations believed that if anything happened to me, Suyang would naturally inherit the throne—and if something happened to Hongwi, then Suyang's son would take it."

It was a deeply intimate truth of the royal family that Yunseo had never heard before.

She could vividly feel the weight of loneliness Lee Hyang must have borne—

watching a brother's family silently threaten both his own position and his son's, while also receiving overwhelming favor and love from the King and Queen…

and seeing his own young son grow timid without anyone to protect him.

"Ah… Your Highness, it must have been incredibly difficult. Everyone must have found you hard to approach, and you yourself had to remain constantly wary of others seeking advantage through you. You must have had no one with whom you could truly open your heart. No matter how much I try to imagine it, I cannot fully grasp the weight of the life you had to bear alone."

At Yunseo's words of empathy and comfort, Lee Hyang pressed his lips tightly into a straight line.

He seemed both surprised that he had spoken these thoughts aloud—and deeply comforted that someone could understand him.

"It is often said that power cannot be shared even between father and son. And since His Majesty is recorded in history as one of the greatest rulers, living as both his son and his Crown Prince could not have been easy."

"…Yes! I could not relax even for a moment—fearing that I might tarnish my father's reputation, or fail to meet his standards in the slightest."

As if releasing a long-held sigh, Lee Hyang covered his face with both hands.

The weight of his life seemed to crash down on him all at once, overwhelming him.

After a long while of breathing heavily, he lowered his hands and looked at Yunseo.

Then, abandoning the slow, duty-bound tone he had always used, he spoke with raw intensity.

"And then—you appeared. You, who had nothing to your name, whose family was of the humblest sort—a mere palace maid—and yet you stood before His Majesty and the Queen, risking your life for Hongwi. How could I, as his father, not come to care for you?"

"Your Highness…"

"So that is why I acted as I did. Without the leisure to consider how you might feel, in my impatience—having embraced a woman for the first time—I treated you…"

Lee Hyang fell into a long silence, his gaze fixed on Yunseo.

The ruler, angered at having his love misunderstood, struggled to say words he had never spoken before. His lips moved for a moment before he finally spoke, almost as if tossing them out.

"…By the standards of your world… I was rude."

I was rude.

From the mouth of a man who constantly spoke of insolence—a man so revered that even young Hongwi would casually echo such words—this apology shattered Yunseo's professional composure in an instant.

"Listen warmly, but maintain emotional distance."

That principle collapsed at once.

"Haah…"

Yunseo's legs gave way as she shut her eyes tightly.

Too many emotions surged at once, and she struggled just to suppress the thoughts rising within her.

"..."

"..."

The countless moments of humiliation, fear, and contradiction she had endured since her soul fell into Joseon flashed rapidly through her mind.

In this Joseon—

where one could threaten to kill her if she harmed the Crown Prince's son, yet simultaneously command her to protect him with her life, and at the same time order her not to leave his bed lonely at night—all without sensing any contradiction;

in this royal palace—

where physicians did not even ask for consent, but simply prepared her and presented her to a man;

in this place—

where even the Queen advised that a ruler is a being who grows angry, and that one must read his will and obey first in order to survive—

She was overwhelmed by an excess of emotion, unable to tell whether she should feel joy, relief, or gratitude at receiving her first sincere apology.

Eyes still closed, she struggled to steady her breathing.

As she inhaled and exhaled deeply, faint sobs gradually mixed into her breath.

Through all those moments of fear, terror, and humiliation, she had endured with a sliver of dignity—

sustained not only by the warmth of a small body, the arms wrapped tightly around her neck, and the tiny hands gripping her clothes until the knuckles turned white—Hongwi—

and not only by Court Lady Park, who struck her back with blunt words yet stood beside her like family—

Yunseo opened her eyes and looked at Lee Hyang.

"Then… will you wait for me?"

"...?"

"As Your Highness has held me dearly in your heart, will you wait until the day I can also hold you in mine… comfortably?"

Will you, too, become someone who allows me to feel that I can truly live here?

"Will you wait until the day I can finally love you fully—until I can willingly accept not only protecting our Hongwi, but also helping you build a better Joseon as something that is truly my own?"

"Haah!"

The Crown Prince of 15th-century Joseon looked at the woman from the future, who quietly asked for time while swallowing her sobs.

He had never expected that his hard-won apology would be met with a request to wait.

Because it was unexpected, he could not tell whether he should feel displeased, angered, pity, or an even greater love.

And yet—

"…Do not make me wait too long."

Looking at the woman who, despite deciding to remain instead of returning to her world, and despite fully understanding the harshness of palace life, still held onto her beliefs and asked so earnestly—so bravely, yet so pitifully—

Lee Hyang, being a warm ruler, finally chose to be generous.

"Grandmother, you just need to put a dot here."

Three days later, in the Queen's palace, Hongwi pointed at the characters the Queen Consort had written, offering advice as if he were frustrated.

"In 'gung-gwo,' the 'gwo' is made by combining 'gu' and 'eo' with a final 'n' sound. So here—dot, one dot, Grandmother."

Having learned Hangul alongside the Queen Consort from Yunseo, Hongwi had mastered it in just two days. Now, as the Queen deliberately made mistakes just to enjoy her grandson's cuteness, he eagerly demonstrated his teaching.

"Oh dear, how will this grandmother manage when I keep forgetting? How did our Hongwi learn so quickly?"

"By… stuh-dying… hard."

Hongwi lifted his chin proudly.

The Queen, unable to resist his charm, pulled him into an embrace and kissed his cheek, while Yunseo giggled and lightly smacked his bottom.

Just then—

"Your Majesty, Dowon-gun and the Lady of Myeongrye Palace have arrived."

From outside, the voice of Court Lady Choi was heard announcing their arrival.

Suyang Daegun's son and his wife had come.

Yunseo quickly gathered up the papers scattered on the floor.