[incomplete fanfic] how yul goon didn't marry chae gyung
This has been sitting on my desktop for over a year and, in cleaning things up, I've kind of hit the realization that it's probably not going to see the light of day again. A snippet more than anything else.
So here it is:
how yul goon didn't marry chae gyung
reapingfolk
fandom: goong (shin/chae gyung, yul/chae gyung)
summary: "Sometime before morning came, she fell asleep with her head on his shoulder, drooling rather obviously onto a shirt that could buy a good portion of land with the money it was worth."
His mother gave him a call early in the morning, just as the sun was beginning to illuminate the old, gray buildings of central London. He knew that it was her - no one else called his land number - and he had a sneaking suspicion as to what was so urgent it necessitated such an early call. The Korean newspapers had all been taken over by the recent news of the Crown Prince's engagement to a rising ballerina from his High School. Hyo-Rin. That was her name. Hyo-Rin. All the better for Shin then, Yul thought, and rolled over, trying in vain to muffle the shrill shrieking of the telephone with his pillow. That didn't work. He knew it wouldn't. His mother was always much more stubborn than him and if there was one thing Yul knew with absolute certainty, it was that she always had her way.
"Hello?"
"Yul, pack up your things quickly. We're returning to the Palace."
That woke him up.
"Mother? What?"
"Shin's recent engagement has caused quite the uproar at the Palace and we need to - "
"I read the papers. Hyo-Rin sounds like she would be very suitable to be the Crown Princess. Mother, what is wrong?"
The silence stretched on and for some odd reason, the image of his mother smiling came to Yul's mind.
"Because the Crown Prince is already engaged. That's what's wrong."
/
Her name was Chae Gyung. She was in the same year of school as him and an art student. Her family was of average income, her house was of average size, and even her friends were average friends. Everything about her and her life was average - only that wasn't completely true and no one knew about it except for the members of the Royal Household. The promise made to her grandfather had to be kept, even if not in its entirety. Her name was Chae Gyung and she would enter the Royal Household as a princess, even if not as the Crown Princess. Chae Gyung, whose very existence (coupled with Shin's utter resolve to marry Hyo-Rin once she accepted his proposal) eliminated the most hated law of the Palace, the one that exiled both Yul and his mother so many years ago.
Chae Gyung. Art student. Average girl. Fiancee.
She was his fiancee and she was the only way Yul's mother could return to the Palace and so he would marry her. There was nothing Yul would not do for his mother, who suffered so greatly for so long. Yul would marry this girl and adjust her to life as the Second Princess in the Palace. He would treat this average girl kindly.
Only she wasn't average. Ordered to go meet his intended bride, Yul showed up at the art school only to encounter an out of breath minx, who exchanged quick introductions as she stripped right in front of his eyes. That night, Yul had the pants washed and folded before placing them gently at the bottom of his dresser drawer. There they would stay until a month after his funeral. Chae Gyung found them as she searched desperately for anything that still contained his scent and her quiet tears were heard by no one but the empty bedroom.
He went to school with her for a week before he allowed her parents to tell her they were going to get married. A week of connecting fingers, friendly smiles, complaints on the terrace, and fast food from passing vendors. He was in love with her before she even saw him as anything more than a new friend. He was going to be married to her before she even knew he liked her. Relationships worked so strangely when you were a prince.
/
They were married in a quiet ceremony a month prior to Shin Goon and Hyo-Rin's elaborate wedding. She was the first princess, who was not a Crown Princess, to spend her wedding night in the Palace. Because he could tell that she was nervous, even though the secretaries warned that nothing was to be done until they were both of age, Yul recited her all the old poetry he memorized as a child. Sometime before morning came, she fell asleep with her head on his shoulder, drooling rather obviously onto a shirt that could buy a good portion of land with the money it was worth.
When the sun filtered through the paper screen windows, it went straight through his skin and muscles and ribs and his heart warmed in the presence of its light.
He remembered what she said right before she fell asleep, after he sang her the song of the forgotten child. Already half asleep and not even aware that she was leaning on him and not the wall, Chae Gyung, princess, girl, wife, murmured, "You know, I'm really glad you're not the Crown Prince. I think it's much better to be a prince like you than a Crown Prince any day."
With drool on his shoulder, a sun rising in his ribs, and those words still resounding in his ears, Yul felt something wet slide down his right cheek. The discarded prince started to cry.
/
She was winning everyone over. That was just her way. From the maids to the secretaries to the Dowager Queen, Chae Gyung had become the beloved favorite amongst all the members of the goong. Not faced with the harsh restrictions placed upon the Crown Princess and being the first non-Crown Princess to live in the Palace, she was an anomaly, free to do more than anyone else. They all loved her and, as Yul began to notice, so was Shin.
Not at first, no not at first. At first, Shin barely paid the new princess any attention, focusing instead on his own bride, his quiet, royal Hyo-Rin a sharp contrast to Yul's own unruly, energetic wife. Despite this, Shin, like everyone else in the Palace, could not escape Chae Gyung's optimistic efforts to liven the Palace and make it both habitable for herself and others.
So here it is:
how yul goon didn't marry chae gyung
reapingfolk
fandom: goong (shin/chae gyung, yul/chae gyung)
summary: "Sometime before morning came, she fell asleep with her head on his shoulder, drooling rather obviously onto a shirt that could buy a good portion of land with the money it was worth."
His mother gave him a call early in the morning, just as the sun was beginning to illuminate the old, gray buildings of central London. He knew that it was her - no one else called his land number - and he had a sneaking suspicion as to what was so urgent it necessitated such an early call. The Korean newspapers had all been taken over by the recent news of the Crown Prince's engagement to a rising ballerina from his High School. Hyo-Rin. That was her name. Hyo-Rin. All the better for Shin then, Yul thought, and rolled over, trying in vain to muffle the shrill shrieking of the telephone with his pillow. That didn't work. He knew it wouldn't. His mother was always much more stubborn than him and if there was one thing Yul knew with absolute certainty, it was that she always had her way.
"Hello?"
"Yul, pack up your things quickly. We're returning to the Palace."
That woke him up.
"Mother? What?"
"Shin's recent engagement has caused quite the uproar at the Palace and we need to - "
"I read the papers. Hyo-Rin sounds like she would be very suitable to be the Crown Princess. Mother, what is wrong?"
The silence stretched on and for some odd reason, the image of his mother smiling came to Yul's mind.
"Because the Crown Prince is already engaged. That's what's wrong."
/
Her name was Chae Gyung. She was in the same year of school as him and an art student. Her family was of average income, her house was of average size, and even her friends were average friends. Everything about her and her life was average - only that wasn't completely true and no one knew about it except for the members of the Royal Household. The promise made to her grandfather had to be kept, even if not in its entirety. Her name was Chae Gyung and she would enter the Royal Household as a princess, even if not as the Crown Princess. Chae Gyung, whose very existence (coupled with Shin's utter resolve to marry Hyo-Rin once she accepted his proposal) eliminated the most hated law of the Palace, the one that exiled both Yul and his mother so many years ago.
Chae Gyung. Art student. Average girl. Fiancee.
She was his fiancee and she was the only way Yul's mother could return to the Palace and so he would marry her. There was nothing Yul would not do for his mother, who suffered so greatly for so long. Yul would marry this girl and adjust her to life as the Second Princess in the Palace. He would treat this average girl kindly.
Only she wasn't average. Ordered to go meet his intended bride, Yul showed up at the art school only to encounter an out of breath minx, who exchanged quick introductions as she stripped right in front of his eyes. That night, Yul had the pants washed and folded before placing them gently at the bottom of his dresser drawer. There they would stay until a month after his funeral. Chae Gyung found them as she searched desperately for anything that still contained his scent and her quiet tears were heard by no one but the empty bedroom.
He went to school with her for a week before he allowed her parents to tell her they were going to get married. A week of connecting fingers, friendly smiles, complaints on the terrace, and fast food from passing vendors. He was in love with her before she even saw him as anything more than a new friend. He was going to be married to her before she even knew he liked her. Relationships worked so strangely when you were a prince.
/
They were married in a quiet ceremony a month prior to Shin Goon and Hyo-Rin's elaborate wedding. She was the first princess, who was not a Crown Princess, to spend her wedding night in the Palace. Because he could tell that she was nervous, even though the secretaries warned that nothing was to be done until they were both of age, Yul recited her all the old poetry he memorized as a child. Sometime before morning came, she fell asleep with her head on his shoulder, drooling rather obviously onto a shirt that could buy a good portion of land with the money it was worth.
When the sun filtered through the paper screen windows, it went straight through his skin and muscles and ribs and his heart warmed in the presence of its light.
He remembered what she said right before she fell asleep, after he sang her the song of the forgotten child. Already half asleep and not even aware that she was leaning on him and not the wall, Chae Gyung, princess, girl, wife, murmured, "You know, I'm really glad you're not the Crown Prince. I think it's much better to be a prince like you than a Crown Prince any day."
With drool on his shoulder, a sun rising in his ribs, and those words still resounding in his ears, Yul felt something wet slide down his right cheek. The discarded prince started to cry.
/
She was winning everyone over. That was just her way. From the maids to the secretaries to the Dowager Queen, Chae Gyung had become the beloved favorite amongst all the members of the goong. Not faced with the harsh restrictions placed upon the Crown Princess and being the first non-Crown Princess to live in the Palace, she was an anomaly, free to do more than anyone else. They all loved her and, as Yul began to notice, so was Shin.
Not at first, no not at first. At first, Shin barely paid the new princess any attention, focusing instead on his own bride, his quiet, royal Hyo-Rin a sharp contrast to Yul's own unruly, energetic wife. Despite this, Shin, like everyone else in the Palace, could not escape Chae Gyung's optimistic efforts to liven the Palace and make it both habitable for herself and others.