I-jun's POV
The next morning...
As I entered the palace, people looked at me as if I were a walking ghost. The court ladies and the eunuchs started gossiping. I didn't mind them because my goal was to find the king and Min Yun. I passed by the lake where they had thrown flowers. I even saw a word where my name was written.
"The old woman was right. They thought I was dead," I sighed.
Who wouldn't have thought that I was still alive? It's been 15 days since they last saw me.
"Your Highness?"
I looked at the one who called me. It was my court ladies who had been taking care of me.
"Are you the queen?" they asked again, making sure I was alive.
"Yes."
"Your Highness." Out of joy, the court lady I was talking to hugged me. The other court ladies called her. "What have you done!" one of them said, slapping her shoulder.
I smiled. "It is okay. I have to go. Have you seen the king?"
"There is a meeting in the ministers' office together with the king and Captain Min Yun."
"Meeting?"
"Minister Kim Man Shik wants the king to marry again."
"Kim Man Shik?"
The court ladies nodded.
"What's worse, Your Majesty, is that Minister Kim Man Shik wants his daughter to marry the king."
"Thank you for that information. I have to go."
I nodded and bid goodbye.
I ran as fast as I could. I hoped that the meeting was not yet done.
I went to the place where the ministers and the king were holding a meeting. I reached the door, but the guards didn't let me enter.
"The meeting is going on..." the guard said, and it seemed like he didn't recognize me.
"I need to see the king."
"How could you..." The guard seemed so angry and was about to hurt me when someone called me.
"Your Highness?"
I looked at the person who called me and saw the king's eunuch.
"Your Highness?" the guard who tried to hurt me blurted out. Then he kneeled to apologize.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness. I committed a grave sin."
"Let me in," I said.
"Let the queen enter," the eunuch told the guard.
King's POV
"Please hear us, Your Highness. This is for the good of our country."
"Country? Or for your own sake?" I shouted.
"Your Highness! Do not shout at us. It is only right to follow our condition."
"I am still mourning, yet you held a meeting right away to let me remarry?"
"Until when will you mourn, Your Highness?" Kim Man Shik asked.
"Is that the question you are going to ask me?"
"What will be the purpose of this meeting?"
"Let me mourn first."
"Your Highness, hear us. You need to remarry as soon as possible and produce an heir," the Minister of Finance said.
"I am not a robot to just follow what you want me to do!"
"We are doing this for our country. What will the people think—that a king doesn't want to remarry and doesn't want to have an heir?"
"Just give me time."
"We have no time, Your Highness," Kim Man Shik said.
The ministers started murmuring something that I couldn't even understand. I clenched my fists in anger. I had no one besides Min Yun. But Min Yun couldn't do anything about this.
The murmuring kept going until Kim Man Shik spoke. "Please remarry, Your Highness. For the betterment of our country."
Then the ministers repeated what he had said.
I wanted to cry. I wanted to let my tears flow out. But I didn't want to show them how weak I was. Not at this time.
"What is this?"
The ministers, as well as I, were stunned when the door opened. As I looked at the figure standing there, I couldn't help but open my mouth.
The ministers looked at the person standing at the door. They gasped as they saw the familiar face.
"Your Majesty?"
"Queen?" I uttered silently.
The queen walked slowly. The ministers knelt while the queen was walking.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing right now. She was all fine and beautiful.
The queen bowed her head to show respect to me. I stood up and bowed my head, too. "Your Majesty..."
"Your Highness."
I could see in her eyes the tears that wanted to flow, but I knew she was just forcing herself not to because the ministers were here. I was also stopping myself from crying.
She looked down at where the ministers were currently standing.
"What is the meaning of this?" she asked. I could sense her authoritative voice.
They all looked at Kim Man Shik, who now seemed like a person who couldn't even talk.
"Your Majesty... we thought..."
"That I'm dead?"
Their faces couldn't be painted.
"I heard you were mourning for me for 15 days?"
"Your Majesty... we thought that... we saw the body..." the Minister of Taxation said.
"Ah... the body you saw? That was not me. I am here, alive and kicking."
"But where have you been?" the Minister of Rites asked.
The queen sighed. "I lost my way."
"We are sorry for forcing the king to remarry," the Minister of Public Works said.
They all bowed their heads—except Kim Man Shik.
"Minister Kim Man Shik. Was this all your plan?" she asked him.
"What?"
"You're even deaf now?"
The shock on the ministers' faces was visible when the queen asked that question.
"Are you mocking me, Your Majesty?" I could see the rage in Kim Man Shik's eyes.
"I didn't. You did it yourself."
I couldn't believe what I was witnessing now. The queen looked fiercer and stronger.
"Are you still going to stay here and mock the king? Mocking him means mocking me as well."
"We are sorry, Your Majesty..." They bowed their heads again.
"Just leave now," she said.
They were about to leave when Kim Man Shik spoke.
"Do you really think you can escape this matter, Your Highness?"
The ministers looked at him.
"How about the heir? You have been sleeping together yet still no result or announcement?"
The ministers looked at us as if watching a live drama.
"And do you really think it's easy to make a baby? You are not the woman who will bear the child, so don't speak as if you know. It is our matter, not yours. If you are truly worried about this country, you shouldn't be—because you are just a minister."
The ministers gasped again at the queen's answer.
The queen looked at me and held my hand. She also stared at Min Yun and signaled him to go out.
"We're leaving."
Then we left that place.
I didn't know where we were going. I just went with the flow.
We stopped at the garden where no one else was.
The queen was panting.
"I'm sorry if I caused you trouble," the queen apologized.
I didn't speak, I just hugged her tightly.
****
Min Yun's POV
I couldn't believe who I saw. I thought I had seen a ghost—but it wasn't. It was actually I-jun!
I could sense how shocked the ministers were upon seeing her. I saw a stronger I-jun than before. She didn't even hesitate to mock Kim Man Shik in front of the ministers.
When she finished speaking, I saw her hold the king's hand and signal me to leave the place. I followed them until the garden, but I don't think they noticed me.
I saw the king hug the queen, and it made me stop from going any closer.
It was just a hug, yet I felt pain in my heart. Maybe the king just missed her.Did I-jun miss me, too?