“Mi Sook?” Jung Sook queried as she stared at her friend over the tea table.
But the young woman continued to stare blankly out the window. Not one word passing her lips.
“Mi Sook? Are you all right?”
The girl turned her eyes towards her. “Hmm?”
“You look dazed. Is something troubling you?”
Mi Sook cleared her throat. Then she glanced around the room. No servants appeared to be loitering. But she stood up and crossed to the door, peeking first into the hallway before shutting the door firmly. She turned back towards her friend.
She crossed the room and bent to whisper into Jung Sook’s ear, “I’m pregnant.”
Then she collapsed into her chair once more.
Jung Sook furrowed her brow. “Is it such a secret then?”
Mi Sook nodded her head. “Oh, Jung Sook!” she burst out a moment later, moaning. “What am I going to do?”
Now her friend frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Dan Se doesn’t want any children!”
Jung Sook giggled. “Then he should have refrained from engaging in the activity that produces them.”
Mi Sook simply stared at her in consternation. “It’s not funny. He said that he constantly puts his life on the line to protect the king. And he doesn’t want to leave a child without an appa.”
Jung Sook instantly sobered. “Oh.”
She felt unease sliding along her own nerves now. She and Soo Ho avoided discussions of the risks he took as a hwarang.
She sighed deeply. “Still. He should have known when he took you to his bed that you would, most likely, eventually get pregnant.”
“Eventually? It’s been a month!”
“Has it?” Jung Sook’s eyebrows hit the ceiling. “Only a month?”
Mi Sook bobbed her head. She flushed a pretty pink as she admitted quietly, “He didn’t want to hurt me after my father beat me so badly. He waited for my bruises to heal before…”
“What a considerate man,” Jung Sook murmured approvingly. Then she smiled sweetly at her friend. “I think that any man who is such a gentle husband…would make an excellent father. And would happily welcome your child into the world.”
Mi Sook glanced up at her. “Do you really think so?”
Jung Sook tilted her head to the side. “Do you remember how you believed that Dan Se didn’t care for you when you first married him?”
The other girl bobbed her head.
“Were you right?”
Mi Sook paused. Then she shrugged. “No. I guess not.”
“You guess not?!” Jung Sook chortled. “I will refresh your memory. You had no idea how much that man already adored you.”
“Well, he led me to believe that he had married me only to rescue me from my father…and to honor his brother.”
“Exactly.”
“What?” Mi Sook gaped at her. At a loss.
“He led you to believe something that wasn’t true. And his feelings radically altered after he learned that you were as interested in him as he was in you. Don’t you think that perhaps his views on children might also have shifted?”
Mi Sook looked suddenly thoughtful. “Um…maybe?”
“Well, let me put it this way…. The man didn’t do anything to prevent a child from being created, did he?”
Mi Sook’s brow crumpled. “I don’t think so.”
Jung Sook shook her head. “Well, you have two options.”
After a few silent moments, Mi Sook couldn’t stand the suspense anymore. “Well, what are they?”
“You can tell him you’re pregnant, or…”
“Yes?”
“Not. And let him figure it out on his own.”
“What?” Mi Sook gasped, surprised.
“Then when he finally figures it out and asks why you didn’t tell him, you can admit that you weren’t sure that he’d be happy. And then, I’m betting that he will prove to you just how thrilled he is with the idea of you carrying his baby.”
Mi Sook’s face lit up. “Do you really think so?”
“Mi Sook. I have seen the way that man looks at you. He absolutely adores you. He does, in fact, worship the ground you walk on, I’m pretty sure. I cannot imagine that he truly wouldn’t want to have a baby with you.
“Though, I do understand his concerns about his job. It is a risk. We all know it.” She cringed as she remembered the injury which Soo Ho had suffered at the tip of a sword. And worse yet, the nasty one that Ban Ryu had survived.
“I know,” Mi Sook sighed. “It scares me. If Dan Se were to die, what would happen to me?”
Who would protect her then?
The wonderful man had stood up to her father. And defended her quite fiercely, she rather suspected since she hadn’t seen her father since. But if something happened to Dan Se someday, would her father reappear in her life?
“Mi Sook. You do know that you’re not alone anymore, right? Dan Se isn’t the only man who would defend you against your father. Your father-in-law would. So would my husband, Yeo Wool, Ban Ryu, Seon Woo. Even the king. They all know how much Dan Se adores you.”
“And they’re all aware that my father beat me black and blue,” Mi Sook sighed.
Jung Sook winced. “It’s all right. You’re safe. And none of those men look down on you because your father treated you ill. Least of all, Soo Ho.”
Mi Sook met her gaze again. “Because he was willing to defend you to the death to save you from such a man.”
Jung Sook nodded. “And to rescue Bo A too.”
Mi Sook’s lips tugged slightly upwards at the corners. “We truly did marry honorable men, did we not?”
“Indeed.” A smile teased Jung Sook’s lips too. “We were quite blessed in the marriage department.”
“Well…the second time for you,” Mi Sook acknowledged the horridness of Jung Sook’s first marriage.
“Yes. But it has all brought me to this point in my life. And, Mi Sook, I am blissfully happy now.”
“Are you?” her friend queried.
“I am. And I have a little secret of my own,” Jung Sook admitted with a sweet smile.
“Oh?”
“Your baby and mine are going to be the best of friends.”
Mi Sook’s face lit up like the noonday sun had suddenly appeared from behind a cloud. “You’re pregnant too?!”
“I am. One month along today.”
Mi Sook’s eyes widened in shock. “So am I! About one month, I mean. That means our babies…”
“…might be born the same day. And will definitely be the best of friends.”
“Or…maybe they’ll fall in love someday.”
“I guess there is a fifty percent chance that they will be a boy and a girl.”
“And a fifty percent chance that they’ll be the same.”
“They could be different and still be the best of friends.”
“Yet not have any romantic interest in one another.”
They sighed.
Mi Sook admitted, “I hope they’re both girls. Then they can be best friends.”
“Like you and me,” Jung Sook murmured kindly.
And Mi Sook smiled at her. Completely content now in the presence of someone who accepted her wholeheartedly and loved her unconditionally. “Jung Sook, I am so glad that I married Dan Se.”
“Because you love him?”
“Yes. And because he led me to the very best friend I have ever had.” She sent that friend a blazing grin. “You.”
