Secret of the Red Lotus Flower (빨간 연꽃의 비밀)

Chapter 7

The bright morning light seemed to pierce Soo-yun's eyelids and the sound of slamming dresser drawers felt as if someone was driving nails into her temples. She groaned and tried to pull her blanket over her head to protect herself from her overpowered senses.

"Oh! You're awake," she heard Yeo-jin exclaim. The blanket was ripped back, exposing Soo-yun to the harsh light again. A cup was thrust into her hands and Soo-yun gagged at the smell of the vile liquid.

"What is this?" Soo-yun inquired. Her head was pounding and she wished her maid would let her sleep for another day or two.

"It is a hangover cure and I expect you to drink every drop," Yeo-jin explained. "You need to be sober since your coronation is today, yet you decided to stay out with the Crown Prince and get drunk last night."

Soo-yun was confused by what her maid was talking about until the memories of the previous night came rushing back. Crown Prince Ha-neul. The rice wine. The fall off the bench. His lips.

Soo-yun's hand flew to her own lips. She tried to remember if she had kissed the Crown Prince the night before. Everything was so hazy after the third cup of cheongju. She definitely recalled lying on top of him, their faces getting closer, and then nothing. The next thing she could remember was Ha-neul handing her off to Kwang-sun and Yeo-jin. Everything between that was a complete blank.

Soo-yun groaned in mortification at the thought that she may have made a complete fool of herself in front of her fiancé. She could only guess what he thought of her now.

"Drink!" Yeo-jin commanded and glared at her mistress until Soo-yun choked back the bitter concoction. Yeo-jin nodded in satisfaction when she saw that Soo-yun had drained it all.

"That was horrible," Soo-yun gasped. "Was this really necessary?"

"No, I could have made you a nice cup of pear juice with red ginseng but I wanted to see you suffer a little bit," Yeo-jin confessed before repeatedly slapping Soo-yun's shoulder. "How could you not tell me that you were secretly meeting the Crown Prince?!"

"What part of 'secretly meeting' didn't you understand?" Soo-yun countered as she attempted to fend off Yeo-jin's blows. "I wanted to get to know my betrothed better before the wedding and this seemed like the golden opportunity. No one around to watch us or judge us. We could just be two people learning about each other as individuals instead of people that were arranged to be married by their parents. Besides, I thought I was protecting you from my father."

"Do you honestly think your father would have accepted a simple 'I didn't know' if he found out about this?" Yeo-jin asked as she started count the reasons on her fingers. "I helped you get ready for these little jaunts. I escorted you to the archery field. I kept watch while you were in there. I would be lucky if all he did was banish me and my family off of his lands."

"I'm sorry, Yeo-jin. I was being selfish and didn't take your feelings into consideration," Soo-yun apologized. "I promise I won't keep any more secrets like this from you."

"You better not," Yeo-jin pouted. The young maid then put a small, paper-wrapped candy in her mistress's hand. "Here. This should get rid of that bitter taste. Let's get you ready for your coronation."

* * *

As Soo-yun stood outside in her blue ceremonial jeokui robes, no one could deny that she didn't look like a portrait of a perfect Crown Princess. However, all she could think about was how she wished there was a nice breeze to help cool her down. The barely-recovered hangover didn't help the situation either.

It had taken Yeo-jin and two other servant girls almost an hour to get her fully dressed for the over-sized ceremonial robes. The jeokui was made of the finest red and blue silk with twelve rows of pheasants sewn into the robes as well as white pear blossoms between each of the rows. Soo-yun had to admit that it was a gorgeous dress and the amount of gold thread in the embroidery must have cost a small fortune.