Jang Okjung Live in Love: The Lost Episodes - Final
Disclaimer: I own nothing. And though historical figures are mentioned in this work of fiction, remember that this is a work of pure, unadulterated fiction and is therefore in no way related to the factual historical events that surrounded them. There will be blatant historical inaccuracies so read at your own risk.
Standard rating of PG15 applies. There will be strong language and adult concepts. You’ve been warned.
Jang OkJung, Live in Love:
The Lost Episodes
The Final Episode PI - The Beginning of the End
In the months following Okjung’s passing, Soon ruled with an iron first and a cold heart. He became reserved and showed no warmth or affection to anyone except his son and his closest, most trusted companions. And though he had been adamant about leaving the queen’s position vacant, or he saw no one truly fit for the position, the council refused to sit by idly and watch the much sought after seat gain dust when there was a perfectly healthy “suitor” readily available and waiting.
But rather than elevate the woman who had driven the love of his life into the arms of the grim reaper, Soon brought in a queen regent to maintain the position of the queen until such time that an appropriate suitor was found. The entire Western faction watched in silent anger as Okjung’s dearest friend Hyangi was instated as Queen Regent.
Life in the palace carried on with minimal disruptions but within about a month of Okjung’s death, rumors started flying about that the King was leaving the palace during the late hours of the evening to see a woman. And Choi Sukwon was not deaf to the rumors nor blind to the stares she received as she walked about the courtyard with her ladies in waiting. All the court ladies and maids were now well aware of the fact that Choi Sukwon had never held the king’s favor and therefore had no real power--she was a royal consort only in name.
And with the king frequently leaving the palace at night Choi Sukwon had little standing left with the Western Faction. She may as well have been a wallflower for all the power she had left. It hadn’t helped much either that the king had returned one evening with an infant, claiming that his distant cousin had died and the family had asked that the baby boy be adopted into the royal family.
Almost immediately rumors started flying around the palace that the baby was in fact the king’s child by the woman he was seeing outside of the palace. But those rumors remained unfounded, the adoption made official, and the child handed over to the queen regent to be raised as her son.
On the evenings where the king remained in the palace, Choi Sukwon watched sourly as the queen regent carried the new infant to Chwiseondang,Yoon’s tiny hand clutched tightly in her free hand, to meet the king, where they would play together like a perfect little family. And like always, Choi Sukwon would bite her lip and glower angrily, hating how the heaven’s had abandoned her.
Tonight though, was different. On this evening, Yoon had gone to bed early and so the king sat with his queen regent on the bridge that had once stood as a meeting place for the king and his beloved Okjung when she had been alive. Different even more was that Choi Sukwon was nowhere to be found.
Both Soon and Hyangi had their faces turned up towards the stars and the moon, a wistful smile playing on both of their lips as she recalled a time when she and Okjung were young girls aspiring to create the prettiest dresses in all of Joseon.
Soon chuckled and turned his gaze to his queen regent, taking her small hand in his bigger ones. “My queen...”
Hyangi turned and smiled sweetly at Soon. “Yes, Your Majesty?”
Soon sighed heavily and gripped Hyangi’s hand tighter. “Hyangi-ah...”
Hyangi laughed gently and squeezed Soon’s hand in assurance, the sweet smile still ever present on her lips. “Yes, Your Majesty?”
Soon lifted their joined hands up and placed a gentle kiss on the back of Hyangi’s hand. “Thank you, Hyangi-ah, for being a mother to Yoon all this time and for allowing me to make use of you like this without objection. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for taking such good care of my son, the seat of my queen, and of me.”
The corners of Hyangi’s brown eyes crinkled as she smiled knowingly and turned her face up towards the stars once more. “There’s no need to thank me Your Majesty. For my dear friend Okjung, there is nothing I wouldn’t do.”
Soon could only smile apologetically at the woman whom he had used as a pawn to ward off the Western faction. “I’m glad Okjung had a friend like you to rely on outside of the palace.”
Hyangi nodded understandingly and continued to gaze at the stars that seemed to twinkle so brightly in the sky. “The time has finally come, hasn’t it Your Majesty, for everything to return to where it once was?”
Soon nodded and gazed up at the heaven’s, praying that everything to come would turn out as well as he hoped. For the sake of the two young princes, they had to. “I don’t mean for you to leave the palace though. If on the other side of those stone walls, there is someone waiting for you, then you can leave and spend the rest of your days with him without any repercussions. You will not be bound by the same laws as a deposed queen. However, if it happens that there is no-one, I would like for you to remain in the palace at the level of a 1st rank Bin.”
Hyangi silently contemplated the king’s offer, carefully weighing her options. “If it is alright with the person to whom the seat I currently occupy belongs, I would very much like to remain in the palace. Beyond those stone walls, I have no-one. As you well know, Your Majesty, I was orphaned at a very young age and my brother has his own family to worry about. But I would be just as satisfied, Your Majesty, with a small private residence on royal grounds where I may marry someone I love and someday have children of my own as beautiful as Crown Prince Yoon and Prince Joon.”
Soon smiled at patted Hyangi’s hand affectionately. “Then it is settled. As soon as everything is returned to its rightful place, your living arrangements will be taken care of.”
Hyangi smiled back sweetly, and for the rest of the night the king and his queen regent sat on the bridge hand-in-hand, knowing that tomorrow’s sunrise would bring with it a new future for everyone.
-End PI-
Part II