* * *
Fine hair fluttered whenever the wind blew. The man lifted his head and stared at Doha. Doha flinched and shrank back. Though it was clearly the man who was bound, somehow from the moment their eyes met, Doha felt as if he was the one who was restrained.
Noticing Doha’s reaction, the man flashed a grin.
‘Hello.’
The man’s plump lips moved.
A familiar face and feeling. The man was undoubtedly Eunsung, who had played Hyunseo’s role. Despite being an Alpha, he was gaining attention as a rising star in the entertainment industry because of his polite and humble demeanor.
‘Not knowing how terrible reality is.’
Eunsung on set was… a complete lunatic.
The guy who would speak kindly to directors and staff would completely change his attitude when he saw Doha. Not only would he frown from 100 meters away upon spotting Doha, but he would also never come near him when they weren’t acting.
Doha was also frustrated by the frequently frozen atmosphere. One day, when they met in the waiting room corridor and Eunsung was about to pass by with a stiff expression, Doha grabbed Eunsung’s shoulder to stop him.
“What have I done wrong?”
“…What do you mean?”
Eunsung frowned at having his shoulder grabbed. Yes, that expression. That unpleasant expression he made every time. Doha frowned back and snapped.
“Well, you always seem to frown when you see me.”
At Doha’s words, Eunsung pressed his lips tightly shut. Doha waited patiently for him as he stared without blinking once. Finally, he opened his mouth.
“Will you live with me?”
“What?”
“Will you sleep with me?”
“Are you insane?”
While Doha was shocked and couldn’t close his mouth, Eunsung, with an unchanged expression, poured out vulgar talk.
It was obscenity he had never heard before. Hearing words that made his face burn, Doha came to a conclusion about Eunsung.
This bastard is no ordinary lunatic.
“It’s hard for me to hold back now, so don’t come near me.”
Despite surviving for over 10 years in the entertainment industry known for having many lunatics and crazy people, this was still a first for him. As a shocked Doha could only open and close his mouth, Eunsung placed his hand on Doha’s lips.
“Next time, I might raise something else.”
His slow touch brushed past Doha’s lips. While Doha stood frozen, Eunsung walked out of the corridor and blended into the filming site with an unperturbed face.
After that, Doha never spoke to Eunsung again. Because it was hard to resist the urge to hit him back.
But why is that lunatic here?
‘Did he also manifest?’
But there were too many odd aspects for that to be true. Doha had manifested as “Doha,” but Eunsung appeared before him not as Hyunseo, whom he had played in the drama, but as Eunsung himself. Since there was no character with Eunsung’s face other than “Hyunseo,” Doha couldn’t predict what kind of person Eunsung was supposed to be.
‘One thing is certain.’
He’s not someone advantageous to me right now.
Doha quickly composed his surprised expression. Showing emotion here could give these people cause for suspicion.
With a calm expression, Doha glanced at Seowoo. Meeting his eyes, Seowoo bowed his head deeply.
“Everything has been prepared for Bin Mama.”
More like prepared to kill me. A biting response surged up to his throat, but instead of opening his mouth, Doha just smiled brightly.
“For me?”
“Yes. I need to know who Bin Mama’s lover is so that I can arrange a meeting between him and Bin Mama.”
“So you think I’m in a desperate relationship with that fellow?”
“…How could someone as inadequate as myself understand Bin Mama’s heart?”
A tense dialogue ensued where neither gave an inch. Their voices, covering hatred and jealousy with serenity, echoed in Gyopung Palace’s interrogation chamber. Their gazes met in midair.
A formidable opponent.
The same sentence arose in both their minds simultaneously.
“Then, it should be fine for me to have a conversation with my lover.”
He wouldn’t be able to refuse. If he did, he would be contradicting his own statement about preparing all this for Bin Mama. As Doha predicted, Seowoo nodded.
“Of course.”
One of the decisive factors in winning or losing was information. The flow of the game could change depending on who had what information.
Something Seowoo didn’t have but Doha did. As long as he had memorized the script perfectly, this was a battle Doha could not lose.
Doha was confident.
Doha’s eyes quickly scanned the envoy delegation. He had been confined in the king’s chambers for a week. Probably during that time, the envoys had been confined in the palace where guests stayed.
‘Judging from their neat clothes and hair, the interrogation must have started today, and there must not have been any torture or questioning before.’
Since the crazed Hyunseo wouldn’t have provided court ladies for the envoy delegation, they would have been completely deaf and blind for a week. That very point was the clue that could tighten around Eunsung’s neck.
‘They probably don’t know that I was imprisoned, or that Hyunseo is a mad prince.’
Information disparity. Use that.
The dark clouds filling the sky were gradually becoming denser. The clouds rippled as if rain would fall at any moment. Looking at the increasingly darkened interrogation chamber, Doha rose from his seat.
“Meeting you in the rear garden was just a coincidence.”
It was truly an affectionate voice, as if speaking to a lover. A tender voice, like when he spoke with Hyunseo during his days outside the palace. When this voice, which he hadn’t used in front of the current Hyunseo, sprang from Doha’s lips, Court Official Park held his breath.
‘What am I supposed to report about this!’
It was then that everyone looked at the two with surprised eyes.
“…I remember.”
Eunsung answered in a calm voice. At his words, everyone inhaled sharply.
‘Bin Mama having an affair!’
Court Official Park, holding his head, looked at Doha with an anguished expression, but the conversation between the two didn’t stop.
“After seeing His Majesty, I met you quite by chance.”
If it seemed suspicious, they might change their plan. Until they were trapped, he had to deny the affair as they wanted.
“I did not commit adultery.”
Doha said in a resolute voice.
According to the original script, Doha, having failed at the sword dance, would blame his inadequacy and sob in the rear garden where he would meet Hyunseo. It was the episode where the two would begin to drift apart.
Eunsung probably thought that episode had unfolded as written. Doha planned to use that. As Doha expected, Eunsung nodded.
“After His Majesty left… I couldn’t just pass by Bin Mama who was wiping away tears.”
“…”
“Bin Mama said you wished to leave, even if you had to become the wind.”
He took the bait.
The line Eunsung spoke was the same as what “Doha” had said in the script. Everything was going according to Doha’s prediction.
More, say a little more. That will become the trap that binds your feet.
“You said you wanted to go beyond the walls, even if you had to become the western wind. That you wanted to fall into my embrace and go on a journey, that’s what you said.”
With a victorious face, Eunsung recited the line from the original work. It was a face so confident that Doha truly wanted to hit him. Let’s see how long that face lasts. Doha screamed like a royal consort who had truly committed adultery.
“…Stop, stop it.”
Eunsung, who had been watching Doha’s surprised face, burst into a small laugh. It was a satisfied face. He thought that once Doha’s affair with him was revealed and Doha was thrown out of the palace, he would catch Doha then. Just imagining it made it difficult to hide his smile.
‘If only he gets framed for this slander…’
“I cherish you, Bin Mama.”
He firmly believed that Doha had come this far because they were destined for each other. Confining the discarded Doha somewhere only he could see, ordering him around, dressing him up, and manipulating him as he pleased would just be a matter of time. Eunsung’s delusion continued endlessly.
“You promised in the rear garden that you would become mine alone, didn’t you?”
“Stop…! I never…!”
Doha shook his head as if in pain. His appearance, with his face buried in his hands, was enough to arouse suspicion. The more one denies, the greater the suspicion grows. Doha knew this well.
“Please stop!”
Doha’s voice cracked. Seeing his denial, even the court ladies who hadn’t believed started to whisper. Words like “affair,” “infidelity,” and “meeting” swept through Gyopung Palace. Doha didn’t remove his hands to hide his rising lips.
“How can you forget something that happened less than three days ago?”
Like someone truly whispering sweet nothings to a lover, Eunsung called Doha with an anguished voice. It was a voice filled with emotion enough to make one’s heart ache. The situation was reversed at that moment.
The wind stopped.
In an instant, the atmosphere changed. His shoulders and arms, which had been trembling, stopped as if they had completed their task. Doha slowly lifted his face, which had been buried. The painfully distorted expression had disappeared. An expressionless face without any emotion. Doha looked at Eunsung.
“You said three days.”
A low voice settled on the floor. It was a weighted, intimidating voice. The atmosphere was reversed in an instant.
Realizing that something had gone wrong, Seowoo looked back and forth between Doha and Eunsung. No. Seowoo opened his mouth, but it was already too late.
With the interrogation chamber’s atmosphere changing in an instant, Doha delivered the final blow.
“While I was bound in His Majesty’s chambers, how could I have met you in the rear garden?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
