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Sam Sook had been oddly attracted to the little boy the very first time that she’d seen him.  In the marketplace.  She’d been a child too.  Though clearly a couple of years older than he.  Possibly more.

“Eomma?  Who is that boy?” she’d asked her mother as she’d stared at his beauty.

A head shorter than her, he’d stood gazing longingly down at a pile of apples.  His straight, dark hair brushing his shoulders.  He’d had positively perfect features.  Gorgeous high cheekbones.  Smooth cheeks. Finely sculpted, thin lips.  The straightest, most elegant nose that she’d ever seen.  And absolutely beautiful obsidian eyes.  Like two polished stones, they had twinkled under the sunlight.

“That’s Kim Yeo Wool.  He’s the king’s nephew.”

“Why have I never met him?” Sam Sook had queried curiously as she had continued to study the young boy.

“His mother keeps him at home usually.”

A tiny furrow had dug itself into the middle of her brow as she’d gazed up at her mother.  “Why?”

“She’s protecting him…because his father isn’t in the picture.”

“What do you mean, Eomma?  Where is his father?”  Sam Sook had glanced around.  As though, perhaps, she could find the man for him.

“No one knows who his father is.”

Sam Sook had had trouble digesting those words.  “But how can his mother not know who his father is?”

“Oh, she knows.  But she’s not telling anyone.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I, darling.  Come.  Let’s check out the stall over there.”

But Sam Sook’s attention had been riveted on that little boy. 

And her heart had released a pang as she gave thought to him and his sorrowful situation.

To grow up without a father.  What a horrid thing! 

She adored her own appa.  She could not imagine not having him in her life.  Not following him around.  Not having him teach her things.  Or talk to her about different subjects.  Or simply smile at her.  The light of his countenance – and his pleasure in her – illuminating her life.

Her tender heart instantly developed a deep compassion for that little boy.  And she determined that if she ever met him again, she would be kind to him.