Futile Love

It had been thirty minutes after she came into his room that Bipaan opened his mouth. She flinched at his cold voice and lowered her head on the floor, shivering with fear.

A little surprised by her sudden actions, he opened his eyes wide.

“What are you doing? Please raise your head now. ”

“Your Majesty!”

Her trembling voice was unusual.

Bipaan removed the desk between them and reached out for her small figure.

The moment he was about to stand up and approach her, Kyosul opened her mouth.

“I’m so sorry and embarrassed. I have gotten pregnant.”

His hands reaching out to her stopped in the air.

Silence ensued between them. Time seemed to stop. Kyosul was shivering before him.

Stiffening like a statue, he stepped back and sat on the cushion.

He touched his forehead. His body, which had been still for a while, trembled slightly and then he suddenly turned his head back towards her.

“Pahahahahaha!”

There came out a man’s laughter from the East Palace. The people in the palace looked toward his room in surprise. There was only one man living here, and only one man with that voice.

Bipaan’s laughter burst out from his room. Bipaan was laughing now, with his head turned back, in the biggest and most hearty voice ever.

It was really astonishing, given his quiet character and reticence.

Stunned by his reaction, she stiffened, stricken with fear. She barely raised her head and looked at him. He was tightening his grip on a long pillow next to the cushion as if expressing some indescribable feelings. She couldn’t figure out what he was thinking deep inside at the moment.

‘Pregnant?’

Bipaan had no choice but to laugh at the fact that his wife got pregnant. It was the first time that he laughed so heartily. His laughing, which continued for a while, suddenly ended. Raising his head straight, he looked straight at her.

Meeting his eyes, she was embarrassed once again. His face was always expressionless, but he was smiling now.

“Oh, my official wife is pregnant? It couldn’t be better news for me.”

“Well, Your Highness….”

“But I haven’t visited and slept with you recently. How come you are pregnant?”

Although she was determined to face the music, her eyes got wet as soon as she heard his sarcastic voice. .

“This is something ordinary people can’t understand, but I can understand from my point of view. So, that’s the only way you had to choose to stop their rumors about you, right?”

She couldn’t respond at all.

She couldn’t open her dry lips anymore.He continued to speak softly,

“Tonight let me come and see you, so be prepared.”

That was it. He did not speak any further.

“As I solved your anxiety, leave,” he said, with a smile.

His actions gave her much greater fear than when he was expressionless. Confused by his incomprehensible action, she didn’t even think of raising herself.

Watching her briefly, he threw a small pillow on the floor and shouted angrily, “I told you to go immediately! Get out! Let me come and see you, okay?”

Getting angry at her in an unprecedented loud voice, he smiled again. Tears began to flow down her cheeks as she stood up in astonishment.

With her vision blurred by tears, she stumbled out after barely bowing to him.

She was grateful to him because he said he would come and see her even before she asked him, but she was more scared about him because he didn’t ask or blame her.

And that loud laughter of his and his scolding.

Her legs trembled in fear. She barely moved her steps out of the East Palace, crying.

Left alone, Bipaan was still smiling, putting his chin on the back of his hand and leaning his arm on a long pillow.

He was smiling.

It was only a smile that came out immediately after he heard Kyosul’s ridiculous confession.

He had no other choice but to smile.

“She is pregnant? Huuuuuu…”

He quietly closed his eyes. It was clear who was the father of her baby.

“Ruhae…”

Bipaan bit his lip. A thin blood flowed through his tightly lipped mouth.

***

Winter nights came early. As soon as the sun set and it was dark, a group of court ladies entered the Dongbi Palace. In front of them was Bipaan in a brilliant blue coat.

At his unexpected visit, people at the Dongbi Palace moved busily, not hiding their joy.

However, their busy movement stopped at once when he raised one hand.

“Don’t bring in any food or drinks. All the court ladies, leave now!”

He was back to his former self with an expressionless face and a low voice.

At his order, they bowed to him and left quickly. Finally, the nanny left Kyosul’s room and returned to the court ladies’ dwelling palace.

A heavy silence fell over the palace. Looking at the shadow of the dark Dongbi Palace for a while, Bipaan slowly climbed over the stepping stones. He opened the main door and went into Kyosul’s room. Kyosul was brilliantly decorated as she had been on their wedding night.

The white dress decorated with sparkling, transparent gemstones reflected the light of the swaying lantern.

A thin, see-through skirt and a thin coat cover her.. A golden dragon hairpin held her black hair turned up, and colorful, floral and butterfly ornaments decorated the side of her hair. Jewels were embedded in the ends of the beautifully twisted branches of the ornaments. The rouge on her lips made her little white face seem more vibrant.

Her hair accessories waved from the wind blowing from somewhere.

Small jewels hit against each other with clinking sound.

A soft and sweet fragrance came out of the sachet hung in an invisible place.

Kyosul was sitting on the bed, with her head down. Her face turned white at the sound of the door opening.

Bipaan was smiling again.

“Why did you put on all those ornaments that you won’t touch anyway?” he asked.

“Are you sneering at me?”

“Why should I sneer at you?”

“I… . ”

She couldn’t bring herself to speak at the moment.

His little laugh picked up where she couldn’t finish her words.

She felt goosebumps at the moment.

Although she wished he would smile as he was always expressionless, this kind of laughter was not she wanted.

While heading for the cushion in her room, he stopped and suddenly turned around to come to her bed. When he stopped right before her eyes, she trembled with fear.

She closed her eyes. Her tightly closed lips gleamed red.

She felt his warm touch. She felt the warmth coming from the air. At the touch of his fingertips, she felt the warmth spreading all over her body. After slowly sweeping her cheeks, his hand hovered around her mouth and down to her chin, jaw line, earlobes and neck.

In no time, the ornaments hanging on her were taken out one by one and fell to the floor.

The ornaments cluttered and rang clear sounds.

Finally, the golden dragon hairpin fell. The hairpin, which was always shining on her head, rolled across the floor like other ornaments.

Looking down at the dragon decoration that fell on the floor, tears came down from her eyes.

As the ornaments fell out, her hair fell down and around her shoulders over her white coat.

As Bipaan gently pushed her forehead, she fell backward.

Her black hair scattered across the bed. The thin cloth of her jacket came off, revealing her shoulders. She looked up at him with trembling eyes.

Looking at her disorderly appearance for a moment, he stepped back and sat on the cushion.

It was so quiet that even his breathing could not be heard.

She lay on the bed and shed tears silently. He was sitting on the cushion, leaning against the wall. His smile was still there.

His smiling face looked really great. His eyes were closed, highlighting his long eyelashes. His sharp nose rose high, and his exposed jawline was sharply slanted.

“The baby is…”

She opened its eyes.

“If the baby is a girl, she will be the crown princess, and if the baby is a boy, he will be the crown prince. As a girl, she will enjoy luxuries that no other girl can afford, and she will grow up in abundance. She will eventually marry the prince of a royal family or kingdom. As a boy, he will be the crown prince of the Mok Kingdom succeeding me, and emerge as the emperor of the Mok Emperor,” he said in a soft voice.

However, Kyosul heard his voice, trembling like a leaf.

“He will be born and raised as my own flesh.”

She put her hands on her mouth to stop crying. Although she covered it with both hands, the sound of her feeble weeping was coming out through her fingers, but his calm voice was not disturbed.

He went on quietly, “When I become the emperor, this baby will be the only crown princess or prince, and you will be the empress, and Ruhae will be appointed as the king of a prince state on the periphery of the Mok Empire.”

Her eyes were opened wide in surprise.