Orthodox and Trendy (2)
“Oh my, oh my, it's starting. It's starting.”
The Jeong family was gathered together for once—all four of them in one space, waiting eagerly for Haegeuk to begin.
They'd prepared hearty snacks and a massive keg of draft beer, just biding their time until the commercials ended.
“I'll just watch it alone.”
“No way. Watch it with us this time.”
As Jeong Seo-hoon started to stand, his mother quickly grabbed him, and his father chimed in to dissuade him.
“Yeah, Seo-hoon. When else are we gonna get to sit like this as a family of four and watch something you're in?”
“Dad, you're heading back to America soon anyway. We should all watch together until then.”
“You got a Birkin and you're acting this heartless? Fine, wanna swap bags with me?”
“Bag? Honey, did you buy Su-ryeon a bag or something?”
“······She kept nagging for a small Prada, so I got her one. That's it.”
“For real? When I inspect Su-ryeon's room later······.”
“Mom! The drama's starting! It's on!”
Jeong Su-ryeon made a huge fuss and turned everyone's eyes to the TV.
Her son's face filled the massive screen, and his mother's mouth curved into a grin from ear to ear, clearly delighted.
“TV really is best when it's big. Good thing we got a new one before Haegeuk started. Honey, what's this one again?”
“It's the fourth-gen OLED 8K model, with Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10, HLG all supported simultaneously via AI upscaling, plus Dolby Atmos······.”
“Honey, I just asked about the size.”
“Oh, 120 inches. Pretty big, right? Anything over 88 inches is super hard to get domestically now. And it has built-in Harman Kardon speakers, so no need for a full surround setup—you still get rich 7.1 channels······.”
“Ah, it's starting. Honey, focus.”
“Mm.”
Jeong Seo-hoon, who had been listening intently, and Jeong Tae-hyeon, who was explaining enthusiastically, both deflated. Jeong Su-ryeon shrugged, and Lee Jeong-sook cracked open a can of beer.
The soft music faded, and the title appeared.
Haegeuk Episode 1
In an era of peace, the royal family, blessed with prince after prince, was always in a festive mood.
But one day, tragedy struck.
—The Second Prince Royal has collapsed, Your Majesty.
—Summon the royal physicians at once for treatment.
The palace was shrouded in worry, and the queen visited the temple daily, praying for his recovery and offering rituals.
Yet on a day when rain poured especially hard, the king received news he had dreaded.
—The physicians say······ he won't last the year.
With even the illness's name unclear, ominous rumors spread through the capital.
—I hear the Second Prince has some plague. They say they've cordoned off his quarters with taboo seals.
—Shh, you trying to get arrested for treason? Don't spout nonsense!
The people lived in fear, and petitions flooded in from the provinces.
As even the queen braced for the prince's death, a renowned high monk visited the palace.
—It's the deep-seated resentment from a past life afflicting the prince's body.
—Please, save him, holy one.
As the monk instructed, they carved a Buddha statue from a pine tree that had grown alone by a remote mountain spring and struck the wooden gong. Miraculously, the prince recovered.
The queen sought the monk in great joy, but he had already vanished.
—The Buddha took pity on our child and sent a virtuous disciple······.
The young prince, freed from illness, followed his mother's words and offered daily prayers to the urn containing the charred statue ashes.
But one day, unable to pray due to his mother's overprotective care, he collapsed again, the illness recurring.
Ominous rumors swirled around the blood-vomiting prince, and even the king's brother visited, urging the child be exiled beyond the capital.
The rumors grew darker by the day.
—It's not smallpox—word is it's leprosy.
—What? Leprosy!
“Seo-hoon, are you really playing a leper?”
“Honey, leprosy can evoke disgust, so even among us, we should call it Hansen's disease accurately······.”
“That poor kid with such a horrific disease. Won't he end up with terrible scars even as an adult? Seo-hoon, you're not gonna be made up like that the whole time, right?”
“Mom, I haven't seen him in that kind of special makeup on set, so relax.”
“Really? I was shocked. Why is Kim Sang-hee so hell-bent on torturing our Seo-hoon······.”
Despite the vicious leprosy rumors around the young prince, the drama skipped how it resolved.
It jumped ahead in time, leaving viewers curious, shifting to a ne'er-do-well prince in his late twenties wasting away his days.
“Phew, what a relief. I was worried about pockmarks or something ruining that face—glad it's not.”
“Honey, pockmarks are from smallpox, and Hansen's is caused by Mycobacterium leprae······.”
“Seo-hoon Dad, pour me a drink. Quick.”
“Ah, sure.”
The camera, which had been showing the drunken young prince, panned away.
Han Seo-hee, dressed as a demure scholar's wife, approached slowly, gazing straight at the viewers.
No—not the viewers, but her husband on the other side of the camera.
Jeong Seo-hoon stared intently at Han Seo-hee's sad eyes on the screen.
It felt like she was looking right at him, transcending the camera's fabricated space-time.
Lacking the vivid immediacy of their shared past-era separation, but the PD's sculpting of the prince's gaze toward his wife came through crystal clear.
—My lord······. You've had too much to drink today.
—Now even you look down on me?
Tears streamed down the prince consort's face at the pathos in the prince's voice.
But his mother sniffled first, her eyes already reddening.
“Our Seo-hoon isn't some kid who gets looked down on anywhere. He's always top of the class, always praised······.”
“Honey, Prince Suyang dismantled King Sejong's strengthened royal authority and solid governance system, laying the groundwork for later regency politics that ultimately······.”
“Seo-hoon Dad, it's not Prince Suyang yet—just the prince. And it's not even Joseon era yet?”
“······.”
“But our boy's got real presence. The screen lights up when Seo-hoon appears. Hey Su-ryeon, who's that?”
“Han Seo-hee. Center of that hot girl group right now.”
“Doesn't she go well with our Seo-hoon? Mom approves. Bring her home sometime.”
“Mom, she's a high school sophomore now. Big trouble.”
“Just three years younger—what's the big deal? Time flies.”
As the adult prince and his wife appeared, the drama's tone shifted dramatically.
“The child actor part dragged a bit too long—got kinda boring. Not bad, but Seo-hoon was off-screen too much at the start.”
“He'll be in it nonstop from here. Child actors only in flashbacks.”
“Finally our boy's on, and it's almost over already.”
On screen, the prince was unwrapping the thick cloth bound around his forearm.
As his gaze toward his arm turned ominous, a male servant entered abruptly with a cloth for wiping water.
—My lord, I brought the cloth to······ Hnggh!
The servant recoiled in horror at the prince's bare right arm, dropping what he held and tumbling backward.
His desperate flailing to scramble away mixed raw physiological revulsion with terror.
—Did you see it?
—M-mercy, please!
—I asked if you saw.
—Th-this lowly one saw nothing, my lord prince! Please, mercy, mercy!
What the servant saw remained hidden from the viewers.
Clang!
The prince drew the sword he always carried.
The servant tried to rise in panic, but limbs paralyzed by fear only flailed.
—You saw. Come here.
—My lord! Please, mercy······ Gurk!
The sword's glint slashed the air, splattering a few streaks of blood across the prince's cheek.
Casually sheathing his blade, the prince wiped the blood from his cheek with the back of his hand.
That motion revealed the prince's cloth-wrapped forearm clearly to the viewers.
The pus-oozing skin of his forearm.
The camera shifted to the pus-soaked cloth on the floor, then to the prince's fiercely distorted eyes.
—I must find it, even if I have to turn the world upside down. That pine tree that grew alone by the spring······.
The first episode ended with the prince's soliloquy.
His mother lifted Jeong Seo-hoon's arm to check.
“Mom, that's just makeup.”
“I know. But I can't help checking. That's a mom's heart.”
“Mom, that's not a mom's heart—that's overreacting.”
“You—bring that Prada bag your dad bought right now. Quick. Gotta verify if it's real.”
Jeong Su-ryeon slunk away without a peep, glancing nervously at her mother.
Episode 1 peaked at over 18% ratings.
A solid start for the production team, but not for his mother.
“I thought it'd kick off over 20%. Is the drama flopping?”
“Mom, Illegal's first ep was 9.8%.”
“That was before Seo-hoon was known. I figured it'd hit 20% right out the gate. Too slow a start, no?”
“Sageuks often start low early on. And tomorrow's the new semester. This is actually great.”
“Really?”
His mother wore a dissatisfied frown the whole time.
Frustrated, Jeong Su-ryeon patted her brother's shoulder.
“Mom's like that—cut her slack. Her brain's stuck on 29.9% as the baseline.”
“But Seo-hoon, what about school tomorrow?”
“Skipping for studio. Told Professor Lee Se-jong.”
“Won't it hurt your grades?”
“Just electives left—fine. Tomorrow's classes are all his anyway. He said he'd accommodate filming.”
“Good.”
The next day, the set atmosphere was decently upbeat. Some folks cracked jokes with forced smiles here and there.
“Kinda hoped we'd hit 20% from ep1 thanks to studio hype, but no dice.”
“Still, 18%+ start with the studio ghost boost—ratings'll climb fast.”
“We topped the time slot anyway. Nothing to gripe about.”
Such encouragements scattered like mosquitoes hit by bug spray the moment Kim Sang-hee appeared.
Her face was dark and gloomy, like the world had ended.
“Writer-nim······ expected over 20% from ep1, huh.”
“Nah, that's the face of someone gunning for 29.9%+ from the jump.”
“Lots of viewers skipping kid parts to wait for adult arc—unavoidable······.”
Jang Seung-won approached Kim Sang-hee quietly, worried.
“Writer-nim, ratings were great. 18% on premiere? Next week we'll smash 20% for sure.”
“Honestly thought we'd clear 20% easy, but early part too dull? Regret dragging the kid actor build-up.”
“Can't rush and burn beans under lightning. That was speedy enough. Shorter and viewers wouldn't get the narrative. Leprosy's key.”
“Heaps of complaints about pointless leprosy ruining historical accuracy.”
“They don't get it's trendy sageuk. Don't sweat it.”
“Maybe should've built the childhood arc more. Then no 'why leprosy' gripes.”
Contradicting her earlier words.
Jang Seung-won figured she was stressed over missing the 20% start.
“Tonight's ep drops and that'll shut 'em up. No worries.”
“First sageuk messing with me? Thought I'd escape ratings pressure post-debut, but tenser than ever.”
“Makes sense. But you're challenging yourself, evolving. Don't worry.”
Oh So-hee and Kim Da-hye huddled in their share house, waiting for Haegeuk episode 2.
“Ep1 was boring tbh.”
“Agreed.”
“Unavoidable. Had to include the kid era for a reason.”
“That monk's a MacGuffin imo. Bet he shows up later.”
“Wasn't it a friendship cameo? Gone after healing the illness once?”
“Illness relapsed. Perfect excuse for return.”
“Maybe.”
“Ah, starting.”
Gone was ep1's brutal cliffhanger; ep2 opened with bright brotherly bonds among the princes.
The camera occasionally highlighted the prince's right arm, thickly wrapped in cloth.
“No one knows the prince has leprosy, huh.”
“Might not even be leprosy. Some other disease mimicking it?”
“Kim Sang-hee'd do that. Plot twist primed to smack viewers.”
“Heard scholar-prince reenrolled—went to school today?”
“Skipped for set. No grad school for him.”
“Relief.”
Early in ep2, the prince sends men searching for a lone pine by a spring.
Desperately hunting the clue from childhood prayers that healed him, hiding his illness meticulously.
—Is there truly no single pine growing alone by any spring in this land?!
—My apologies, my lord. Pines root along spring paths here and there, but none grew solitary······.
—No time. Find it—now!
The prince's anxiety visibly deepened until a famed shaman delivered a prophecy.
—At tomorrow's oh hour, wait alone at your favored hunting ground. Follow the first thing that appears. You'll find what you seek.
—What does that mean?
—Even this lowly one can't say what the oracle portends.
Skeptical yet obedient, the prince waited alone at the hunting ground at oh hour.
A buck with broken antlers appeared; he mounted and gave chase.
The deer fled long before vanishing atop a low hill.
—This place······.
The altar where the king offered rites to heaven during natural disasters.
Trespassing further meant high treason.
As he turned his horse, a trickle of stream water caught his ear.
From a small font east of the altar flowed a brook, with a single small pine at its center.
A lone pine blooming on the sacred rite grounds, rooted by pure waters.
The prince's face twisted savagely, teeth grinding.
—Why······ of all places, there.