The Hated Male Concubine

Truthfully, this was something that even Ahjin couldn’t understand. Of course, Ahjin herself wasn’t sure if this was really a coincidence, but anyway, it was a big fortune that Hwawoon enjoyed the pond and met the emperor.

However, she was very confused with her master, who obediently left when in the past he would cling onto His Majesty’s sleeve and act pitifully.

On top of that, in this situation where he got even harder to meet the emperor because his nameplate was taken out, he even promised to never step out of Jeongan Palace until he was permitted to.

Ahjin really couldn’t fathom what was in her master’s head. 

“What is it for me to not be okay about? I rather feel sorry for messing up his mood…”

Hwawoon replied calmly as he calmed down his raging breath and his flipping heart. Even after hearing mockery-like words from the emperor, Ahjin’s master looked like he didn’t care at all.

While Ahjin hesitated whether to comfort Hwawoon or just pretend nothing happened, Hwawoon, who was slowly heading to the palanquin that was left in some steps away, suddenly said,

“Ahjin.”

“… Yes, Your Highness.” 

“Don’t you think your master is very incredible?”

“……?”

“Look at how he alone is hated this much by His Majesty who is a wise king…”

Hwawoon had heard about how nice a person the current emperor was to his wife and concubines. He respected the empress and treated his concubines kindly and fairly. If not, then how could the servants of the palace talk that the current empress and concubines were enjoying a luxury that only ever appeared once in history?

However, Yeonbin was the only one who got the emperor’s cold shoulder despite having his father as his backer.

Hwawoon tried to guess what had he done all this time in front of the emperor for their relationship to go stray this far, but soon stopped it. There was nothing that could be fixed, and Hwawoon himself had no power to fix this. 

Ahjin bit her lips as she heard his very soft tone. Somehow, under that calm face, she felt like she saw the hurt expression.

It had been more than one or two years that her master had been ignored and harassed by the emperor, but Ahjin couldn’t know the reason for her heart to feel uncomfortable for what happened today.  

This was different from the uneasiness she usually felt when she alone would have to endure her master’s rage because the emperor treated him poorly.

“Let’s get back.”

Hwawoon said that while walking with a straight face. Meanwhile, Ahjin still couldn’t believe her master yet couldn’t say anything more. 

***

“He left me behind and went back…?”

“Your Majesty?”

The empress carefully called out for the emperor after pouring tea into the cup. She wondered what Yihan was thinking about for him to say that out of nowhere when he had been silent all this time.  

Yihan fake coughed twice, realizing that he had been thinking of nonsense again. He shook his head before taking a sip of the tea prepared by the empress.

“Your Majesty, you haven’t looked good since earlier. Did perhaps anything bad happen to you?”

Seriously, since the emperor entered the empress’ palace for lunch, his expression wasn’t good, which led the empress to worry even more than usual. The emperor only shook his head to the empress’ question.

“No. Nothing… nothing happened, so you don’t need to worry.”

However, unlike his answer, the emperor was deep in his thoughts again after giving his answer. 

It was because of Yeonbin’s appearance, that was saying he would be careful to not show up in front of him with his own mouth and stepping back to leave him, kept showing up before his eyes.

All this time, Yeonbin was always troubling him by clinging to him even when he told him to step back. That was why the emperor kept being uneasy because he couldn’t understand Yeonbin, who stepped back first and even promised that he would not stand out before him.

Of course, if this was as simple as that, the emperor could have easily disregarded it as a lousy act. But what really lingered in the emperor’s mind was Yeonbin’s face and the atmosphere he exuded. It couldn’t be explained in words, but Yeonbin that he encountered in the garden today was,

Yeah. It felt like I ran into someone else.