Bok-hee
Standing about ten paces away, I stared at Bok-hee with wide, unblinking eyes.
She fidgeted nervously, averting her gaze.
A ten-year-old girl would hardly tremble before a mere four-year-old toddler, but ever since the incident on the western grounds of Chwiseondang, Bok-hee had been going out of her way to avoid me.
Back then, she was more of a reluctant tagalong than the ringleader, I thought.
Still, the uproar surrounding me lately was anything but ordinary. Ever since I tumbled into the lotus pond, the King himself had paid a personal visit to see me. And surely word had reached Bok-hee by now that I had been summoned to the King's presence earlier today. True to form, she kept stealing furtive, anxious glances in my direction, constantly trying to read my expression.
“Hamanim Bok-hee.”
“...Huh? Wh-what is it?”
Licking her dry lips in distress, Bok-hee gave me another nervous look. I began inching toward her, step by tiny step, and Bok-hee began edging backward in equal measure.
“Are you still very mad at me? B-back then... I was wrong...”
All I had done was take a few steps forward.
This girl is even more faint-hearted than she looks.
“It’s not that, Hamanim.”
I swept my eyes swiftly across our surroundings. Thankfully, not a soul was in sight.
“Wait right there.”
Pattering across the ground on my stubby little legs, I caught her hand in a firm grip. Bok-hee whined softly, asking what on earth I was doing, but I paid her no heed as I dragged her into a secluded corner.
“Hamanim.”
“Y-yes?”
“...”
A deliberate, heavy silence hung between us. After all, there was only so much gravity a four-year-old’s ridiculously squishy, adorable appearance could project. Just as I had anticipated, the lengthening silence proved too much for Bok-hee. She squirmed restlessly, twisting her hem in agonizing suspense, until she finally broke first.
“Y-you’re going to tell His Majesty on me, aren’t you? Tell him that I bullied you? Hic, please, couldn’t you forgive me just this once? I really didn’t mean to say such mean things, but Yong-hee kept pushing me...”
Good girl. It’s all pouring out now.
Yong-hee was the tall aegi-nain who had accompanied her that day. Without question, Yong-hee harbored far more malice than Bok-hee ever did.
“Stop.”
I cut off Bok-hee's rambling babble.
“I won't tell on you. I just have something to say.”
“Something to say...?”
Fixing her with the fiercest glare my toddler eyes could muster, I said, “Met Suk-bin-jaga.”
I deliberately blurred the inflection at the end. In court speech, a statement and a question could easily sound indistinguishable depending on the tone. And it worked like a charm.
“I-I did... How did you know?”
Just as I thought. Bok-hee truly was an informant for Suk-bin.
Still, Suk-bin's inner workings were utterly baffling. Recruiting mere ten-year-old girls as court spies was hardly the mark of an ordinary mind.
No. On second thought, it might actually be a stroke of wicked genius.
Children were remarkably easy to manipulate. Even if suspicions were aroused, their tender age served as an ironclad excuse to dodge blame.
And whenever she’s done with them, they’ll be easy to discard...
A chill ran down my spine as I recalled how Suk-bin had spoken to me so serenely right after having a servant flogged until the courtyard ran with blood. Still, I hastily collected myself.
“I have something for you.”
Whispering as if sharing a monumental secret, I pulled a small bundle from inside my vest and carefully unfolded the cloth wrapper. The moment Bok-hee caught sight of the dasik nestled within, her eyes flew wide open.
It was only natural. Confections pressed from golden pine pollen were exquisite treats that an ordinary palace maid could never dream of tasting.
“I-is that... dasik?”
“Uh-huh. Given by Suk-bin-jaga. She told me to eat it all by myself.”
It was a white lie, unavoidable if I wanted to win Bok-hee’s favor. In reality, the sweets were a royal gift personally bestowed by the King, but Bok-hee had no way of knowing that. She swallowed the bait hook, line, and sinker.
“I’ve... I’ve never tasted dasik before...”
“Take it.”
With a magnanimous air, as though granting a princely favor, I pressed a piece into Bok-hee's palm.
...Wait, it’s just a sweet cake. Did her hands really need to shake like that?
Her drooping eyes glistened with overwhelming awe and emotion.
“I’m so sorry... You’re such a wonderful girl, and all I did was say nasty things to you...”
“’S okay.”
Ten was an age when a child was easily swayed this way and that. Of course, youth alone was no excuse to forgive genuine wickedness, but truthfully, Bok-hee was far too timid and clumsy to ever qualify as a real villain.
“It’s so... so delicious! Sniffle...”
Besides, she looked completely entranced the moment the delicacy melted on her tongue.
Fine, here! Have another one on the house!
When I held out a second piece of dasik, Bok-hee’s face lit up with an expression that suggested she would willingly pluck the stars from the night sky for me.
“You’re so lucky to receive such precious things. All I ever get is yelled at scarily...”
“That’s ’cause I’m special.”
The utter shamelessness of my own boast made my cheeks itch, but I decided to ride the momentum.
“Is Suk-bin-jaga really scary? I didn’t notice...”
“Of course she is! I can’t even string two words together whenever I’m in front of her...”
“I see.”
Pat, pat. I thumped Bok-hee gently on the back in an elder sisterly show of comfort.
“Then, Bong-bong... are you looking into that matter too?” Bok-hee asked, her defenses now entirely disarmed.
That matter, huh?
I wasn't entirely certain, but I tossed out a guess.
“Chwiseondang’s western grounds.”
Bok-hee nodded in vigorous agreement.
“Ah, I knew it! So that was why you were there that day. Yong-hee and I had no idea...”
“Shh. It’s a secret.”
“A secret?”
“Yeah. A secret from Yong-hee.”
I furrowed my brows as sternly as possible, adopting the gravest countenance a toddler could manage to convey the dire weight of the situation.
“Yong-hee... suspicious,” I whispered right into Bok-hee's ear. “She said Yong-hee can't be trusted.”
Framing it as “She said” made it sound as though the words had come straight from Suk-bin’s own lips.
“Gasp! Really...?”
“Shh.”
“Right, shh!”
Bok-hee clamped both hands over her mouth.
That was enough about Yong-hee for now. Dragging it out with tedious details would only backfire. Now came the time to test her reaction to Suk-bin’s instructions.
“Lend me your ear. I have a message for you.”
“Okay.”
“...The full moon.”
“Uh-huh. That again, huh?”
“...”
‘That again,’ she said. That meant she had already received an order regarding that night before. Seeing how readily Bok-hee spilled her secrets, I toyed with the idea of digging further into Suk-bin’s plot. In the end, I decided to leave it at that. Today was about winning her favor. That alone was already a massive harvest.
“Anyway, be careful. You must never talk about me to Yong-hee.”
“I won’t! Absolutely not. It’s not like I hang around Yong-hee because I like her, either.”
Their relationship had felt rather hierarchical from the start, and it seemed the cracks between them had already begun spreading.
“By the way, Bong-bong... you went to see His Majesty the King, right? That’s all anyone in Chwiseondang can talk about right now!”
Since everyone had seen me depart hand-in-hand with the Head Court Lady of the Great Hall, there was no point in denying it. I gave a calm, nonchalant nod.
“Yeah. I went.”
“I’m just dying of curiosity... Can I ask why His Majesty summoned you?”
Bok-hee was already watching my expression, anxious not to step out of line. I answered readily, as if bestowing a generous boon.
“He said I look like Princess Myeongan-jaga. His Majesty’s deceased younger sister.”
The King had explicitly remarked that I reminded him of Princess Myeongan, so it wasn't a lie by any measure.
“Ah! So that’s why he cares for you so much! It’s been incredible ever since you fell into the pond. For an aegi-nain to catch His Majesty’s eye... And even the royal consorts adore you! I’m so jealous...”
To cement Bok-hee's absolute admiration, I decided to deliver one final, decisive blow. Rummaging through my pouch, I pulled out a hair ribbon—a daenggi of exquisite, lustrous silk that Seol-hyang had tied for me when she heard I was summoned to the Great Hall.
“This is what His Majesty gave me.”
I puffed out my chest and boasted without blinking an eye.
Hmm, feels like my nose is growing an inch longer with every breath.
“Gasp! That’s incredible!”
Bok-hee clamped her hands over her mouth, gazing at me with eyes practically brimming with veneration.
“You can touch it if you want.”
After granting that grand privilege, I cast out one last line to probe her mind.
“Hamanim.”
“Yes?!”
“Do you have a wish?”
“A wish?”
I had asked on a whim, wondering if it might give me leverage to recruit her completely, but a warm blush immediately crept across her cheeks.
“I... I only have one wish. To become a court lady in Jeoseungjeon...”
Huh?
Now, that was an answer I hadn't seen coming.
“I want to become a court maid serving the Crown Prince... I'm going to work hard and make it happen no matter what...”
Well, the Crown Prince was quite handsome, after all. It was only natural for a ten-year-old child maid to harbor an innocent crush. Yet something in her words snagged uncomfortably in my mind. It was that part about ‘working hard’ to become the Crown Prince’s maid.
“What exactly are you going to work hard on?”
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