To Be a Beauty

Chapter 14: Il Minjoon

Minjoon stared at the massive window facing his bed. His eyes looked dispirited, sadness hidden within.

Several days had passed since he last saw his mother.

It all started after the banquet. He was led to a courtyard different from his mother's. The first time he entered, he thought that it was too big. A wide field of abundant grass and colorful flowers. He breathed in the fresh air as the gentle breeze blew against his soft cheeks.

It took him a while to reach his destination. He had to go through countless archways and different halls before he reached his designated room.

Minjoon couldn't help noticing the massive window in front of his bed, that looked too big for him to sleep in. He stayed there for a couple of days, being given everything he needed, not a single sign of living poorly nor miserably. Countless servants followed his every whim, making everything easier for him. While touring around his room, he noticed that everything is riddled with gold. His bed too soft that the moment he sat, the cushion easily sunk. From the window, he could see the garden so vast he couldn't seemingly see the end. He later learned that this courtyard was now his, acknowledged as a present from the emperor.

Yet he did not like this gift.

He missed his mother, their small home, their cozy room, their little dining table. He missed the courtyard where he used to live with his mother. Where he was born and raised, surrounded by warmth and love.

He missed their small little house that he was always eager to come back to.

He hated all of this. So what if he had a soft comfortable bed, it was too big for him to sleep in any way. So what if he could eat a whole variety of intricately prepared luxurious food, he couldn't even share it with anybody anyway.

So what if he was treated as the crown prince, his mother wasn't there anyway.

He cried on the first night of his stay in that spacious but desolate room. It was almost the size of the whole house where he and his mother stayed. Being alone frightened him, making him think too much. A ghost beside his bed, or maybe from his left. His imagination ran wild as he was left alone in that room.

He comforted himself with the thought that his mother would come. She would barge in and sleep next to him, whispering lullabies while running her fingers through his hair. He squeezed his eyes shut, covering his head with a pillow.

He just had to endure a little bit more.

He stayed up until past 9, completely disregarding his sleeping time. He occasionally peeked through the pillow and glanced at the door, waiting for his mother to come.

Slowly, tears fell when he saw that the sun was about to rise. Servants burst in holding a scroll. It said.

'The Crown Prince shall stay inside this palace till his coming of age. Until then, he will be given strict education and tutoring.'

This was the decree the Emperor had set upon him.

He did not know what to feel. Was this his father's way of getting back at them? What did this mean? He thought that everything was going so well. Didn't his father say that he should always be by his mother's side?

Yet what was this.

Minjoon thought that maybe because the Emperor was too busy, he accidentally gave a wrong decree.