“Cough! Cough!”

Woo-hee crawled out of the pond and coughed up the water she had swallowed.

“Haah… haah…”

No matter how much she coughed up, she felt as though water still lingered in her chest.

Her hands trembled.

‘Who…?’

Not knowing who had saved her, Woo-hee barely managed to lift her head.

A man sat beside her, just as thoroughly drenched as she was.

Their eyes met as he wrung the water from his sleeve. Her blue lips trembling, Woo-hee struggled to speak.

“Th-th-thank you… for s-saving me…”

She did not know who he was, but he had saved her life.

Without him, she would surely have drowned.

‘Ah, the kite…’

Her relief at being alive lasted only a moment before Woo-hee looked at the kite still floating on the pond.

She had to bring it back.

But the water was too deep for her to reach it.

‘What do I do?’

Just then, the man rose to his feet.

“This is no place for the likes of you. Leave at once.”

“P-please, forgive me…!”

Her hands moved before she could think.

Woo-hee seized the wet hem of his trousers with both hands.

“I know I have no right to ask, but could you please retrieve that kite for me?!”

She knew how shameless a request it was.

She knew very well how shameless it was to ask the man who had saved her life to retrieve a kite as well, but she could not reach it herself.

The man looked down at Woo-hee with an unreadable gaze as she clung to his wet trousers and pleaded.

“I must bring that kite back. Otherwise, Her Grace will scold me. So please…”

“To think you would jump into a pond for a mere kite.”

Clicking his tongue, the man pulled his leg free of Woo-hee’s grasp.

“Please…!”

Woo-hee tried to catch the hem of his trousers again, but he stepped toward the pond before she could.

“Ah…”

She watched blankly as he waded into the water.

Without hesitation, the man walked to the center of the pond and took hold of the kite.

The pond had been so deep to her, but the water apparently reached only his neck. He walked all the way to the middle, then waded back out.

Thud.

“Here.”

He tossed the wet kite down carelessly and spoke in a curt voice.

“Th-thank you!”

Clutching the kite he had tossed her, Woo-hee bowed her head over and over.

She bowed again and again, holding the wet kite as though it were her very lifeline.

“Don’t risk your life over something so trivial. You’re still young. Would you throw your life away for a thing like that?”

“I don’t know how I can ever repay your kindness…”

“Kindness?”

The man scoffed.

“So this is what earns gratitude in Yeon? Not saving your life, but fetching a scrap of cloth I wouldn’t take even if someone gave it to me. Your gratitude must come cheap.”

At his words, Woo-hee realized he was the man she had heard about.

The royal from Wol who had been brought here as a hostage.

“Get out of my sight.”

At his harsh command, Woo-hee fled.

His voice was so fierce, and she feared he might snatch the kite away at any moment. She ran without even thinking to look back.

Only after she had passed through the inner gate and left the grounds could Woo-hee turn around.

Of course, there was no one there.

As Woo-hee stood gazing back in a daze, the other maids snatched the kite from her arms and left together. Yet she remained rooted to the spot.

She could still feel his hand around her waist.

***

Crack.

“Ah…”

Startled by the sound of a dry twig snapping beneath her foot, Woo-hee glanced behind her.

Of course, there was no one there.

Who would be wandering around at this hour, well past midnight?

Besides, this bamboo grove was deserted even in broad daylight.

No one would come here at night.

Under any other circumstances, Woo-hee would not have had any reason to be there at that time of night either.

‘There’s no one here, is there?’

As the inner gate came into view, Woo-hee looked around.

Once again, there were no soldiers standing guard.

Perhaps they were not needed. Even without guards at the gate, the hostage could not escape from the imperial palace.

The small pouch that Woo-hee clutched to her chest contained rice cakes, a delicacy cherished by the people of Wol.

Wol’s customs were very different from Yeon’s.

However, Hobuk, where Woo-hee had been born and raised, shared a border with Wol.

People who had crossed over from Wol were a familiar sight there.

From an early age, Woo-hee had become accustomed to their food and customs. Sometimes she and her cousins would visit the refugee settlement to play with the children who lived there.

However, after her father scolded her, she was no longer allowed to go back. Until she was ten, though, she had visited often and played with the children from Wol.

It was there that she had learned to make their rice cakes.

They were quite different from Yeon’s rice cakes.

They were made from various grains and prepared in different ways.

Above all, Wol’s rice cakes had a distinctive aroma.

Woo-hee had made them in secret.

They weren’t for her, of course. They were for the man said to have been brought from Wol as a hostage.

It had been three days since she found Consort Suk’s lost kite.

The other maids had received all the praise, but Woo-hee had barely given the injustice a thought.

Her mind was occupied by the man who had saved her life and retrieved the kite.

The kite hardly mattered. Without him, she would have died.

She would have been remembered only as a poor maid of honor from Hobuk who had drowned in the pond.

How could she ever repay him? How could she thank him for his kindness? After two days of contemplation, she decided to bring him food from his homeland.

According to rumors, he had been brought here more than three years ago.

Having been away from home for three years, he must surely be missing Wol’s cooking.

But who in the palace, or indeed in Yeon, would prepare it for him?

Yesterday, she asked the few people she knew at court to help her gather the ingredients. Today, she secretly baked the rice cakes.

Fortunately, Consort Suk was spending the day with the Emperor. Everyone was busy attending to her, leaving Woo-hee unnoticed.

This gave her time to make a few rice cakes, although they did not taste quite as she had hoped.

It had been so many years since she last ate them that she could no longer remember exactly what they tasted like. Perhaps she had misremembered the recipe as well. She did not know how closely her rice cakes resembled Wol’s, but these were the best she could manage for now.

She only hoped they would repay him for his kindness in some small way.

She owed him her life. She didn’t want to simply turn away and forget it; she wanted to repay her debt to him.

‘I’ll leave them quickly while no one’s around…’

She had no desire to bump into him.

There was something about him that frightened her a little. All she needed to do was leave the rice cakes somewhere he would find them.

Stepping through the inner gate, Woo-hee first looked towards the pond.

As she expected, there was no one there at this hour.

It was so quiet that she couldn’t hear the slightest rustle.

Had she not seen him with her own eyes three days ago, she would have found it hard to believe that anyone lived there.

There was no sign of human presence. The place seemed abandoned.

What would it feel like to live somewhere like this for three years?

It must be agony to leave one’s homeland, be dragged to a foreign country, and spend years in such isolation, never knowing when that life would end.

‘Which building does he live in…?’

This place was called the Separate Residence.