The Meadow's Flower Crown
The surroundings were noisy. The voice of a child—both young and fresh—drifted through the air.
Yeo-won frowned at the sound of bright, bubbling laughter.
It's so noisy...
Sunlight seeped through her closed eyelids. When Yeo-won reluctantly opened her eyes, she found herself lying alone in what seemed like a mysterious meadow. The vast, open field was blanketed in blooming clover.
With the utterly unreal scenery, Yeo-won realized at once that this was a dream.
I thought I might finally get some proper sleep...
Yeo-won, who experienced lucid dreams rather often, was not particularly startled by the situation. She knew that time would pass and she would naturally wake on her own.
Even realizing it was a dream changed nothing. Within the dream she could do nothing at all; she could only watch passively and wait for the scene to end.
As she stared blankly at the landscape, a child suddenly dashed past her side.
Yeo-won's gaze followed the girl instinctively.
An elementary-schooler? No, at most a middle-school girl. Her neatly braided hair fluttered behind her as she ran toward something in the distance.
Without thinking, Yeo-won rose and trailed after the child.
Before long the girl reached a tree where a man wearing a traditional gat sat waiting.
"Nari, look at this! I can make flower crowns now too!"
The child held out a clumsily woven crown of clover and declared it with pride.
"Yes. Mun-a has clever hands."
The child's name was Mun-a.
At the man's praise, Mun-a's cheeks flushed peach-pink.
The man spoke in a soft, gentle voice; his face remained hidden behind the tall grass.
Yeo-won stepped closer, wanting to see him clearly. Just then a breeze stirred, swaying the blades aside. The man's face came into full view, and Yeo-won's eyes widened.
The man in the gat possessed the exact same face as the one who had helped her earlier.
Skin so pale it seemed never to have touched sunlight, gentle eyes with warm brown irises, a straight nose, and beautifully curved lips. The refined blue-green hanbok lent his mild presence an air of quiet dignity.
Dreams reflect the subconscious, they say. Perhaps he had lingered in her mind right before she fell asleep.
But why on earth is the setting from the Joseon era...?
After the initial shock, Yeo-won tilted her head, still studying him.
The more I look, the more it feels... different.
The face was similar, yet the atmosphere was not. Unlike the man who radiated overwhelming pressure, the one before her now carried a kind and tender aura.
And most importantly, the eye color was different.
The man in the gat had calm, light-brown eyes.
While Yeo-won pondered this, the child called Mun-a hesitated, then carefully placed the flower crown atop the man's gat.
"This is for you, Nari."
The girl spoke with her head bowed in shyness.
"Right now this is all I can give, but when I grow bigger I will definitely repay your kindness. Thanks to you, Nari, my family didn't starve to death last winter."
Despite her young appearance, the child spoke with surprising maturity. He gave a faint smile and stroked her hair.
"Kindness, you say... Then could you help me with something right now?"
"You mean... right this moment?"
"Yes. It is something only you can help with at this time."
Mun-a seemed to consider it briefly before nodding with a solemn, determined expression.
The sight was so adorable that even Yeo-won, merely observing, let out a soft chuckle.
The man appeared equally charmed. Suppressing his own laughter, he drew a cloth pouch from his robes and placed it in the child's hands.
When the girl looked up with questioning eyes, he simply nodded, urging her to open it.
Mun-a carefully untied the pouch. Inside lay an abundance of luxurious-looking confections.
The child's eyes grew huge with surprise and delight.
"They were given to me as a gift, but I dislike sweet things. I would be grateful if you ate them in my stead."
No child disliked sweets. Sure enough, Mun-a swallowed hard, eyes sparkling.
Yet her excitement quickly turned to anxious fidgeting. Seeing this, the man asked curiously.
"Is something wrong?"
Despite the clear hunger in her gaze, Mun-a neatly refolded the pouch and held it out to him.
Then she bowed deeply and said, "I cannot possibly eat something this precious. How could you give such a thing to a lowly creature like me? It isn't right."
At the child's resolute tone, the man's gentle expression hardened in a subtle way.
He remained silent for a moment, then spoke slowly.
"Then what am I to do with all these confections? I cannot eat them, so they will only rot and be thrown away."
He wore an intentionally sorrowful face as he looked at Mun-a. The child's composure crumbled at his melancholy look.
"Ah..."
When Mun-a faltered, the man pointed to the flower crown resting on his head.
"Let us do this instead. Consider it a return gift for the crown you gave me."
"...How could rabbit clover that grows everywhere possibly compare to these confections?"
"The value of a gift is not measured by price alone. What matters is the heart placed inside it."
His eloquent words left the child speechless.
Still, when Mun-a hesitated to accept, the man sighed deeply and lifted the pouch.
"...I see. You do not wish to receive anything from me. Forgive me for not noticing."
At his pitiful tone, the child hurriedly raised her head and shook it.
"No! How could I ever dislike anything given by you, Nari!"
"Then you may eat them."
The instant Mun-a opened her mouth, the man slipped a small piece of confection between her lips.
Startled, Mun-a clapped a hand over her mouth, but the sweet had already touched her tongue.
The flavor—both honeyed and faintly bitter—made her expression melt into pure bliss.
"Since it is already in your mouth and cannot be taken out, it would be best if you ate the rest as well."
As Mun-a swallowed, the man took out another piece and fed it to her.
Though she pouted, Mun-a obediently ate every confection he offered.
"...Nari is truly mischievous."
"Indeed. My personality is so poor that I always repay what I receive in full. Therefore, do not speak of yourself as a lowly thing or draw lines between us."
He licked the sticky honey from his fingertips and smiled with bewitching charm.
Yeo-won watched the pair—looking like a perfect painting—with her breath caught in her throat.
Why does this hurt...?
The way they smiled so brightly at each other made her chest ache strangely.
It was a warm, tender scene, yet tears threatened to rise.
At that moment her vision began to blur.
The sign that the dream was ending.
Yeo-won could not tear her eyes from the two figures as they slowly faded.
Just then the man turned his head in her direction. For an instant she had the illusion that their eyes met.
The person inside the dream had never seen her before.
With the final thought that a faint golden light seemed to flicker within his brown eyes, Yeo-won slipped back into unconsciousness.
*
Something tickled the tip of Yeo-won's nose while she slept.
Something soft and warm kept brushing across her cheek and lips.
In her drowsy state, mistaking it for the blanket, Yeo-won pulled it into a tight embrace.
The fluffy texture felt pleasant, so she buried her face deeper, and a moist sensation swept over her cheek.
The strange feeling made Yeo-won's eyes flutter open.
While she blinked in a daze, a small whimper sounded and the soft creature sprang out of her arms.
"I told you to bring her, yet you've grown quite bold, Cheong-sil."
"Aigoo, no it isn't! Lord Shin-wol! Cheong-sil was only trying to wake her up, it is!"
A sweet, resonant voice and a thin child's voice rang out at the same time.
Yeo-won bolted upright in alarm. The man who had helped her earlier was holding a fox pup by the scruff of its neck.
"...?"
She darted her eyes around, desperately trying to make sense of the situation.
Behind the man called Shin-wol stretched a spacious traditional room.
Antique framed paintings hung on the walls, and expensive-looking ceramics decorated the space.
Lowering her gaze, she saw a luxurious blanket embroidered with golden thread.
Realizing this was not her own room but an unfamiliar place, Yeo-won's face drained of color.
Was she still trapped in the dream?
"Did you sleep well?"
The question pinned reality firmly in place. Yeo-won's mouth opened and closed without sound.
Kidnapping, human trafficking—every grim possibility flooded her mind.
When the terrified Yeo-won remained frozen, Shin-wol met her eyes and crouched down.
"Your complexion is poor. Did you have a frightening dream?"
His hand brushed her forehead and Yeo-won flinched.
She was still searching for words when the fox dangling from his hand answered for her.
"No it isn't, Lord Shin-wol! That is the face of someone who is scared, it is!"
"Hmm. Of what?"
His eyes narrowed.
Cheong-sil studied Yeo-won's expression carefully, then shouted with confidence.
"Aha! This human is scared after seeing Lord Shin-wol, it is!"
"...I see."
Cheong-sil puffed out his chest with a triumphant look, even snorting a little.
A fox making expressions might seem strange, yet to Yeo-won it looked exactly like that.
No—the expression was not the real issue. The fox was speaking. The wording was a little awkward, but the speech itself was surprisingly fluent.
Thinking her time to die had finally arrived, Yeo-won's face turned deathly pale.
At the sight, Shin-wol gave a short, amused laugh.
"Tell me. Is it true you are afraid of me?"
The once-warm room suddenly filled with cold air. The temperature plunged so quickly that Cheong-sil finally realized his mistake. He tucked his tail between his legs and began to tremble.
Shin-wol's expression darkened further.
"I have helped you twice, yet..."
He seemed to take her silence as confirmation.
Twice... Something stirred at the back of her mind, but she had no time to think it through.
His face was on the verge of losing every trace of amusement. Yeo-won forced her stiff lips to move.
"I-I'm not scared."
"Then why are you stuttering?"
His gaze was sharp, warning that he would not tolerate lies. She glanced away from the sinister golden glow of his eyes and saw the fox still dangling from his hand.
The culprit behind this entire situation stared at her with desperate, tear-filled eyes.
This is all your fault.
When her answer was delayed, a low voice sounded above her head.
"Oh dear. It seems I truly am frightening after all."
"N-no, that's not what I—"
Startled, Yeo-won looked up. The moment Shin-wol's face filled her vision at such close range, her mind went blank.
Sharp nose, a jawline as if carved from stone, golden eyes, and mysteriously sensual lips—he was beautiful enough to have gathered every captivating feature in the world.
There were times when something too breathtaking left one utterly speechless. His face was exactly that.
Perhaps because she was too flustered, the words slipped out before her brain could stop them.
"...It's because you're so handsome. It took my breath away."