Secret of the Red Lotus Flower (빨간 연꽃의 비밀)

Chapter 25

If anyone else were to enter Lady Min Eun-kyung's room, it would appear to be the same of any other yangban noblewoman's personal chambers. The scenic paintings on the wall were tasteful. The pink floral arrangements were carefully arranged in vases around the room. The furniture was polished to a sheen. The dress hanging in the corner was made of expensive silk. The illusion was near perfect.

However, Soo-yun had been in her mother's rooms countless times growing up and the room looked more like the setting of a stage than where Lady Min would want to sleep. Eun-kyung preferred to hang her own paintings on her walls, not those of other artists. Her mother liked vibrant blue flowers over the pastel ones in the vases. The furniture was in far nicer condition than anything she had when she used to live here; her father must have gotten better furniture in case the Crown Prince decided to visit his wife. It was the same for the dress because her father never bought her mother anything that extravagant.

Soo-yun had hoped for some time alone to talk to her mother. It had been a decade since she one day mysteriously disappeared from her life. Questions about why she had left, where she had been, and if her mother had ever missed her swirled through her head. Unfortunately, two maid had been waiting for them inside the gate and followed them all the way back to her mother's quarters.

Any hope that the pair would wait outside while the mother and daughter reconnected was dashed when they entered the rooms as well. The two servants took positions on either side of the door and did their best to look like they were not paying attention to the two noblewomen.

"It's okay. You can leave me and my mother now," Soo-yun told the pair. She had known Ah-in and Chin-sun for years. They had served the family faithfully since entering the Mins' service although she wasn't as close to them as Yeo-jin.

"We can't do that, your Royal Highness," Ah-in answered. "Lord Min told us that Lady Min was not feeling well and that we needed to constantly stay by her side."

The Crown Princess was certain instructions to listen to all of her conversations had also been given. Soo-yun briefly thought of pulled rank by referring to her new royal status to get them to leave but knew that it would be best not to. The two girls were merely following orders of her father and forcing them out of the room would result in their punishment.

Soo-yun looked back at her mother who was quietly reading at the sitting desk. She had been silent the entire way from the gate to the rooms. It hurt to think that, after a decade apart, her mother didn't feel the same need to speak with her. Soo-yun sank down on a cushion across from Eun-kyung.

"How have you been, Mother?" Soo-yun asked, hoping to spark a conversation with her mother.

"I have been fine, dear. It is nice of you to ask," Eun-kyung replied. She briefly looked up at Soo-yun before returning her attention to the book, running her finger along the page as she read.

"It's been so long since I last saw you. Did you miss me?" Soo-yun had played out hundreds of reunions with her mother in her imagination over the years, but none of them had been like this. Her mother seemed so distracted and distant.

"Of course, my dear. I thought about you constantly." Eun-kyung's tone remained passive and cool. She seemed more interested in the passage of the book than her own daughter. Soo-yun noticed that it was written with hangul letters instead of hanja characters that were more popular among the nobility.

"Is that all you have to say, Mother? You thought about me?" Soo-yun fought the urge to burst into tears. She almost wanted to grab the book and fling it across to room to make her mother pay attention to her. She started to think that the memory of a warm, loving mother was just a phantasm she had conjured up to fill a void that had been missing in her life. "You have spent more time reading that book than talking to me."