* * *
Time passed quickly—several weeks had gone by since the incident with the Empress Dowager.
Her court sent a court lady along with gifts as a gesture of regret to settle the matter.
It was a shallow apology with no actual words of remorse from the Empress Dowager herself, which left a bitter taste, but I didn’t see any point in causing more trouble over it.
So I let it go.
And what could I do if I didn’t let it go?
I had no power anyway.
I don’t know what kind of humiliation she was planning for me when she called me that day, but whatever it was, it clearly fell apart thanks to her own son, the Emperor.
I had to take comfort in that one fact and move on.
From the outside, the Emperor and I appear to have a good relationship.
And today, my brother is finally returning.
He’s been away for quite some time handling issues at the border and in conflict zones.
It’s been months since I last saw him, so the news of his return is incredibly welcome.
Minhyuk told me not to worry when my brother returns.
He hasn’t gone into detail, but it seems he plans to station my brother inside the military base and cut him off from the outside.
That way, Grandfather will have no way of getting to him.
After all, the military operates outside the Prime Minister’s authority.
That means my brother will finally be free—within that space.
Minhyuk said he’d place his own trusted people around my brother to protect him, and for now, I have no choice but to believe him.
In fact, it’s only right for military officers to live on base.
That goes double for a brigadier general.
But Grandfather pulled strings to have my brother commute from home, which caused a lot of rumors in the military.
People said he got special treatment thanks to the Prime Minister—he didn’t have to serve at the front lines or even live on base.
And what if he passed military secrets to the Prime Minister?
He was cursed in every imaginable way.
But they weren’t wrong.
It was all true, so I had no way to argue against it.
It wasn’t like he was just a soldier—he was an officer.
And just because his grandfather is the Prime Minister, he was allowed to do something so absurd.
The rumors were inevitable.
It makes me furious that Grandfather continues to tarnish his own grandson’s reputation out of selfish ambition.
I just hope, this time, things proceed with some shred of common sense.
But now, the Prime Minister’s behavior is… very suspicious.
“The old man’s been too quiet lately, hasn’t he?”
These days, the Prime Minister is uncharacteristically quiet and compliant.
And that was its own kind of concern.
People don’t change overnight.
When someone suddenly starts acting out of character, they’re usually hiding something.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going on behind the scenes.
“Cha Haejoo. When are you coming out? You said we were leaving, and now you’re just spacing out.”
That’s when Hyunwook came into the sitting room.
We were supposed to go out today, but since I hadn’t shown up, he came looking for me.
We were going to visit the new convenience store that opened near Cheonggyecheon.
I had completely zoned out and left him waiting.
“Ah, sorry. I’ll come out now. I just had some things on my mind.”
“Why? Something happen?”
“Not exactly. Have you heard anything about my grandfather lately? He’s being too quiet, and it’s weird. I heard he hasn’t even clashed with anyone during meetings lately?”
“I don’t know the details, but yeah, I heard he’s been quieter. My dad said he hasn’t been staying at the palace much lately—he just goes home right after meetings because he’s not feeling well.”
“…Strange. That’s not like him. Every little thing he does lately seems shady.”
“Don’t overthink it. Maybe he is just sick. He’s getting old, after all. And maybe he’s lying low because of what happened with His Majesty.”
No way.
That man probably doesn’t even know the meaning of “reflection.”
I watched as Hyunwook tried to comfort me and lead me outside, but even then, I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling.
“So the two of them left the palace together just now?”
“Yes. Kang Hyunwook is with him, and the rest of the security detail is quietly following as usual.”
“They’ve been quiet for a few days, and now they go out again? With Kang Hyunwook, no less. They seem to get along quite well, don’t they?”
Minhyuk tossed the pen he was holding and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes.
Haejoo was surprisingly getting along with the new bodyguards better than expected.
Especially with Kang Hyunwook, his personal guard—they had formed a rather close relationship.
Maybe he should have chosen an Omega for the personal guard?
There was something Haejoo didn’t know: the team leader of his security unit was someone Minhyuk had handpicked and assigned personally.
The team leader had two jobs—prioritize Haejoo’s safety, and report back to Minhyuk about anything that happened in Haejoo’s residence.
Minhyuk had started watching Hyunwook closely ever since he noticed some strange emotional exchange between him and Haejoo on the very first day.
And just before the Empress Dowager’s dinner party, Minhyuk’s aide and trusted right-hand man, Chief Eunuch Kim Yul, was sent to Daebin Palace.
There, he overheard a strange conversation.
The voices were quiet, the distance was far, and he hadn’t caught the beginning—so it was hard to understand the full context.
But even the fragments he caught were suspicious enough.
Lines like “I like it better here than there,” and “It’s good to see you again,” were exchanged. And then: “I can have a child too.”
These were clearly intimate words.
That’s all Yul had heard before a court lady arrived and cut the conversation off.
Still, the unusually high level of familiarity and closeness was enough for Yul to report it to Minhyuk—and once Minhyuk heard, he spent a long time deep in thought.
What could “I like it better here than there” possibly mean?
Especially in connection with “It’s good to see you again.”
Haejoo had entered the palace at age twelve and hadn’t left since.
Before that, he was hidden away at the Prime Minister’s residence.
There was no overlap.
And Hyunwook had lived at a martial arts academy dormitory before enrolling in the Royal Military Academy.
There was no point at which the two could have met—let alone built that kind of familiarity.
They shouldn’t even know each other.
But why that kind of conversation happened, and why someone even asked him to be the child’s godfather—that part is still a mystery.
He wanted to go straight to the two of them and ask, but he couldn’t go demanding answers when nothing was certain.
It was a relationship that needed closer observation.
So Minhyuk decided to keep quiet about it for now.
It wasn’t something the Empress Dowager or Prime Minister needed to know, and if word got out, it wouldn’t help anyone.
Staying silent until he knew more would be best.
And even if he waited a little longer, it wouldn’t be too late to act.
Maybe he’d finally figure out the strange sense of disconnect he’d been feeling around the Daebin Palace lately.
Of course, he wasn’t here either.
Who? Seojoo.
I bought an ice cream from the convenience store and sat under a parasol outside, eating it slowly.
I’d gotten a bonus ice cream from a one-plus-one deal and wanted to give it to Hyunwook, but he strictly separated personal from official matters, especially in public.
I glanced sideways at him and sighed in frustration.
Was there really any point in running around like this, just because of what Seojoo once said about wanting to live a normal life running a small convenience store?
It felt like a foolish effort.
A pointless, stubborn act, wandering around this area with no clues at all.
Honestly, hiring someone to search with money would be faster.
But there was no guarantee Seojoo was even here, and if the Emperor or my grandfather found out and things blew up, it’d be a headache.
So I kept hovering like this.
I’d need to talk to Hyunwook and think of another approach.
“Sigh… I’m useless. Really, Cha Haejoo.”
“Is that ice cream good?”
Hm…?
As I sat there blankly eating my ice cream, someone walked up and pointed at it.
But before I could react, Hyunwook stepped in and blocked the person’s path.
I tensed instinctively.
No one had ever approached me like this during my outings.
It was unsettling.
I was the Prime Minister’s grandson and a royal Concubine of the Emperor.
Even if I had permission to go out, I had to be on guard.
You never knew how someone might approach.
So this unexpected interaction had my nerves on edge.
Hyunwook watched him silently, standing guard.
I peeked out from behind Hyunwook and looked at the stranger.
But he didn’t seem fazed at all.
“…Who are you?”
“I was just passing by, and I got curious.
I see that ice cream all the time and wonder what it tastes like.”
A bold one, huh.
Do people really just talk to strangers like that?
He was wearing both a cap and a hoodie, hiding his face.
Even though Hyunwook warned him not to come closer, he ignored it.
He kept staring at the ice cream, so I held out my hand.
“Do you want it? It’s extra. It’ll just melt if I leave it here.”
“Really? Sure, I’ll have it. Thanks!”
Maybe he just had a good personality.
He took the ice cream without hesitation and sat down in front of me, totally unfazed by Hyunwook’s icy glare.
Hyunwook, meanwhile, moved even closer to protect me.
“You don’t need to be so cautious. Sorry if I startled you. Honestly, I’ve seen you coming to this convenience store a lot. I guess I got familiar enough to say hi.”
“Oh, really? Haha, I see.”
So he’d seen me around.
I figured that kind of familiarity could happen.
I motioned for Hyunwook to ease up, signaling that it was okay.
The stranger, eating his ice cream, spoke again.
“You walk around so confidently without even hiding your face. At first, I wasn’t sure, but after seeing you a few times, I was certain. You probably don’t know who I am… but I recognized you.”
“…What?”
The way he said that made me widen my eyes.
* * *
