Chapter Text
Perhaps the encounter had been promised two hundred years ago.
Yes, Kim Gaon had to admit it.
(He... Kang Yohan was my husband from a previous life.)
But at the same time, he vowed.
(I will never fall in love with him again. Never.)
*
Kim Gaon's encounter with her crazy boss, Kang Yohan, was truly shocking and fateful.
When Gaon was assigned to the Public Trial Division of the Supreme Court in Seoul, he went to his boss Kang Yohan's office to greet him on his first day. As Gaon entered, a man in a vest who was standing by a large window looking out turned around. He was the star judge he had often seen on TV, but in person he was even more fearless and beautiful than in the video. As Gaon was admiring him, the man stared at Gaon's face with a look as if he were seeing a ghost.
(I wonder why, he's staring at me so much...) The man stared at him for so long that Gaon was puzzled. But at the same time, his deep obsidian eyes sucked him in and he couldn't take his eyes off him.
"I'm Kim Gaon, I've been assigned to the office today, please..." Gaon opened his mouth to introduce hisself, but before he could finish, Yohan walked right up to him and grabbed both of his shoulders.
(What?) What happened next was nothing short of shocking. To his surprise, Kang Yohan suddenly covered Gaon's lips with his own lips while he was chanting his introduction.
(...What?) When Gaon couldn't move because he didn't know what had happened, Yohan tilted his face and sucked Gaon's lower lip. Yohan continued to bite Gaon's half-opened lips several times while changing the angle.
"You haven't changed at all. Your lips are exactly the same as they were, Kim Gaon." Yohan looked into Gaon's stunned eyes, and smiled with satisfaction.
"What the hell are you doing?" Gaon finally came to his senses after all of Yohan's hasty tasting. What the hell was his boss thinking, kissing a man he had never met before, before he had even introduced himself?
"Don't you remember me?" Yohan put his hands comfortably in his pockets and tilted his head. Is this an overused pick-up line? Is Gaon being targeted by his gay boss since his first day on the job?
"I'm sorry, have we met before? I'm not very good at remembering people's faces." Gaon replied curtly.
"I'm sorry to hear that, because I remember you very clearly. I remember what your lips tasted like... and much more." Yohan grinned as if he remembered something.
(...That's a hell of a thing to say!) Gaon was taken aback. If it was just a passing acquaintance, but this boss was talking as if he had kissed Gaon in the past. Gaon, as expected, would never forget the person he had kissed.
"I think you've got the wrong man. They say there are three faces in this world that look exactly alike..."
"No, it's definitely you." Yohan responded confidently.
"I recognized you as soon as I saw your resume. You are my wife... from 200 years ago." Gaon's head finally started to hurt. What to do, this boss is apparently paranoid. He had dismissed it as an old pick-up line, but he hadn't expected him to say that the last time they had met was two hundred years ago. Of course, neither he nor Gaon, who was 29 years old, could live in such a historical time and kiss.
"...You're not going to say it was a previous life, are you?" Gaon asked fearfully.
"That's right. I was king, you were my beloved concubine, and after 200 years of separation, I've finally found you." Perhaps Gaon was facing a nasty stalker. Anyway, it would be better to cut this greeting short and get out of here as soon as possible.
"I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about. Anyway...I'm Kim Gaon, the Left Jury Judge. Can I go back now that I've said my piece?" Gaon said quickly.
"I don't mind. We're going to be together every day from today anyway, so you can take your time to remember the past." Yohan did not seem to be offended and smiled.
"Even if you can't remember, we can always start a new relationship. Isn't that right?" Yohan put his hand on Gaon's chin and tried to bring his lips close again.
"I'm sorry, I can't help it." Gaon fled from Yohan's office as if he were flying away.
*
Oh, what should I do? Tomorrow Gaon has to start working with his crazy boss who thinks Gaon is his wife from a previous life. Gaon's fidelity was clearly at risk if he didn't somehow prevent himself from being alone with
him. After all, he had kissed him before they had even introduced themselves. The next time they were alone, there was no telling what he would do to him.
His first day at work had gone horribly wrong, and Gaon was exhausted. As he closes his eyes in the dark, he somehow recalls the feeling of Yohan's lips on his face during the day, and Gaon desperately tries to think of something else. As Gaon struggles with himself, he falls asleep and...
He had amazing dreams.
*
-Previous Life
"So, Prince Yohan still hasn't forgiven you?"
"...Yes." Gaon, dressed as a court lady, sat in the library, rubbing ink and sighing. The archives of the Prince's Palace are located in the palace of the Joseon Dynasty. It was the job of Gaon, the court lady attached to Prince's Palace, to maintain this library.
The next king, Prince Yohan, resides in this Palace. In other words, this is Prince Yohan's library, but he, the owner, has never visited it before. Apparently, the prince is not very interested in old books.
Therefore, Gaon, a lowly court lady, has never had an audience with Prince Yohan. However, the other day, when Gaon rushed down to the river in the court, he threw Prince Yohan into the river and got soaked. Prince Yohan did not look at him, but was supported out of the river by his subjects who came to help him. The prince was very angry with the court lady who pushed him, and Gaon was ordered to write a letter of remorse. Gaon rewrote the letter several times and went to the Prince's Palace, but each time the prince behind the curtain corrected the letter and sent it back to him. He wonder how much longer he have to keep doing this before he will forgive him.
"You have no fear, do you? How dare you push the prince into the water?" The man sitting across from Gaon, flipping through a book, laughed.
"I didn't expect to see him there." Gaon glances at the man with resentment in his eyes. This man, an aide to the prince, comes to the library and interrupts Gaon's work while reading a book.
He must be about thirty years old. He looks much older than Gaon, who has just turned 20, and his chiseled, well-defined eyes and nose are fearless and beautiful. He is a beautiful young man, no wonder he is popular among the court ladies. Somewhere in his heart, Gaon is thrilled to be able to spend time with such a man like this without anyone knowing.
(But that doesn't mean I can't behave as my heart desires. I'm in the Prince's Palace, which means I'm Prince Yohan's person, and I'm not allowed to adore anyone but the prince for the rest of my life. First of all...I'm a man.)
Yes, he was dressed as a court lady with a peach-colored upper robe and indigo-colored lower robe, and his hair hanging down, but Gaon was actually a man. Originally, Gaon's sister was supposed to be a court lady, but she refused and ran away with the man she loved. The boy, Gaon, who was reputed to be even more beautiful than his sister, had no choice but to be offered as a substitute for her. The only people who knew that Gaon was a man were the court ladies who lived in the same cell with him, and the senior staff, which was like a foster parent to him. Thanks to their arrangement, Gaon has been able to continue his service at the palace without revealing that he is a man. If Prince Yohan, his master, were to find out about this, Gaon and the court ladies who shared his secret with him would be in trouble.
For their sake, Gaon could never cross a dangerous bridge like falling in love with this man.
Besides... there was no way this man would accept Gaon as a man. Gaon's beauty had grown to the point where even the court was talking about him, but if they knew that he was a man, the men in their excitement would immediately run away.
But Gaon didn't know the most important thing at this time. He didn't know that the man in front of him, who often visited him secretly, was Gaon's master, Prince Yohan himself, who had ordered him to write his reflections. In order to meet Gaon, whom he liked the moment he met him, he frequented the library without revealing his identity.
(Anyway, for now, I have to think about releasing Prince Yohan's anger first... reflections, reflections) Gaon stared again at the blank sheet of paper spread out on the table.
"I tried my best to write it down, but I don't know what's wrong with it. If I don't know, I can't fix it." When Gaon showed the man his remarks, which had been corrected in red and thrust back at him, he took one look at it and smirked. "The words are used incorrectly and the Chinese characters are wrong. It's no wonder the prince won't forgive you."
Gaon's cheeks flushed as the mistake was pointed out to him.
"If that's the case, could you please tell me what I need to fix?"
"...Sure." The man suddenly leaned forward and put his hand on Gaon's chin across the table, bringing his beautiful face closer. The man's breath could be felt on Gaon's lips. Gaon, who had never had a man do that to him before, felt as if he had been shot and could not move.
"I'd be happy to teach you, but I can't do it for free. I'm sure you get paid when you read aloud or copy."
"Even so, I don't have that much..." Gaon couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement as he admired the man's beauty up close.
"I don't want your money, I want your innocence. You've never kissed anyone before, have you?" The man slowly brought his own lips closer to the first reddened ones. Gaon kept his eyes down and turned his face away so as not to be further captivated by the man.
"Please don't, I've told you before. I am Prince Yohan's person."
"That's quite a loyalty you have. To the prince, you are just one of his many court ladies. And no matter how many times you write to him, he will never forgive you." The man kept his hand on Gaon's chin and looked at him with an amused expression.
"But still. Please let go of your hand ......." The man watches Gaon's face for a while, then releases his chin and puts his hand on the knot of Gaon's upper garment. When Gaon jerked and shivered, the man slid his hand down to stroke the cord and pulled himself up, taking the decorative cord that adorned his chest.
"That's all I'll take today."
"......" This alone was enough for Gaon, who had never been touched by a man before. With Gaon frozen in place, the man carefully placed the decorative cord in his pocket.
*
(... what?)
Kim Gaon woke up to the sound of his alarm, and as he looked at the white ceiling of his room, he thought about the dream he had just had. Gaon had become a court lady and was desperately writing a letter of remorse to ask for forgiveness from Prince Yohan. He did not even know that the man in front of her was Yohan himself, but he begged him to teach her a lesson. And Gaon almost lost his lips to Yohan in return.
( What?!) Remembering the shocking development clearly, Gaon jumped up on the bed with a bang. His boss, whom he had just met yesterday, had appeared in his dream and had almost kissed him in his dream.
Moreover, the content of the dream was a bit similar to what Yohan had said in his delusional dream: they were not married, but Gaon knew in his dream that Yohan was the next king. Apparently, the words and actions of his crazy boss from yesterday had left such a strong impression on him that he was so inspired that he dreamed about it.
(I never thought I was so easily influenced...)
The content of the dream was so embarrassing that Gaon held his head in his hands. He couldn't let his boss know that he had had such a dream. He could take advantage of his weakness and do anything to him. Gaon washed his burning face with cold water and went to work at the courthouse, determined to be unfazed no matter what happened and to accept Yohan's crazy words and actions.