wooyoung journeyed out to the gardens after tea time. he passed the queen and a princess who were having tea together, him respectfully bowing and the queen ushering him to her side. wooyoung quickly sneaked a glance at the clock face of the clock tower, realising he probably has a few minutes to spare before choi san starts to think that maybe wooyoung backed out of the deal.
"wooyoung ssi, i don't think you've met my daughter yet. haneul, this is jung wooyoung, the-"
"the only moon dust in our country!" the princess, who wooyoung assumed must be san's sister, exclaimed with excitement, "oh, i've heard so much about you. they all say that you're the best out of all of them, and that whenever they go up to meet the moon goddess, you always seem to have the longest conversations with her."
wooyoung was amazed by how much the princess knew about him, the other moon dusts of other countries, and the moon goddess, especially. most mortals' knowledge of the moon goddess was limited to the myths, they weren't even supposed to know the stories of moon dusts going up to her castle every year for consultation and just catching up. "please pardon my rudeness, but how does your highness know so much about these things?"
haneul grinned, "i just came back from a journey around the world. i must say, wooyoung ssi, that the world is a wonderful place to explore. you should do that sometime. anyways, the main objective for the journey was for us to learn more about moon dusts, given that we only have you as our moon dust for the country. so i've learnt a lot about moon dusts and what you guys do. it is very fascinating, your role in society, since it could break and build kingdoms."
wooyoung smiled bashfully, head ducking down in gratitude and in self-consciousness, "why, you speak too highly of me and us in general, your highness."
"no, not at all!" haneul smiled, her smile big and wooyoung started to see the similarities between san and his sister — feline-like eyes, dimples adorning both their cheeks when they smile, and soft, comforting voices, "i really appreciate you and the moon goddess, of course. say, could you see my red string?"
wooyoung didn't expect anything less than that. everyone was bound to ask him if they could see their red string sooner or later if they started a conversation with him. wooyoung nodded, hovering his hand under the princess' before holding it gently, with her permission, of course. "it is thick and straining. that means that your other half is far away, but it wouldn't be broken any time soon. it seems to be faltering a bit as well, meaning that your other half is starting to learn about you. red strings starts to fade after you acknowledge your other half. but since you haven't met or learnt anything about them, it doesn't seem like it's going to fade any time soon."
"could you perhaps touch it so i could know where it's at?" she questioned. wooyoung nodded, fingers holding onto the thicker-than-usual — this means they're a bond made from heaven. it's usually something amongst the lines of those with royalties and nobles. — string. he plucked it and tugged it a bit, earning an excited gasp from the princess.
"i felt it, mother, i felt it!" she cheered softly to her mother, who smiled at her and wooyoung, nodding at him and him nodding back at her. it was a mutual thank you, a mutual acknowledging of the other — the queen acknowledging and understanding wooyoung's importance and how he brings happiness to people and wooyoung learning that the royals were just like any other family in the country.
a throat cleared behind them and wooyoung turned around, surprised to see the prince standing there with his hands behind his back. wooyoung could see the bits of paper peaking out of his thin waist, eyes darting up to see san grinning and eyes focused on him, too.
"mother, sister. i've come to retrieve wooyoung since he," san's grin widened, "promised to meet me after tea time. so, if you don't mind."
the queen was about to open her mouth to say yes to the request, but the princess beat her to it and threw a similar wide grin at her brother, "why do you need wooyoung ssi, little brother? i was just chatting with him about my red string. oh, actually, i heard from mother that you don't seem to have a red string. is that so, wooyoung ssi?"
all three sets of eyes were on him instantly and wooyoung felt like he wanted to dig a hole and just bury himself in it. he snuck a look at his — and san's — red string and gulped. look, wooyoung, he told himself, you brought this onto yourself.
"y-yes," wooyoung replied, eyes not lifting from the red string and hoped that the three royals only thought he was timid enough not to look at them when talking. "the moon goddess is probably taking her time to select the perfect match for his highness, though, and it should present to me quite soon."
the queen sighed and held wooyoung's hand in her's, which startled the youngest boy, "wooyoung ssi, don't feel so burdened to see our sannie's red string. it's the moon goddess' decision and you have no say in it. we should just let her take her time and like you said, it'll come soon. there is one thing i'm worried, however. the king, my husband is very eager for someone to marry sannie since he's the prime age of 19 right now. i'm afraid if it doesn't present itself soon enough, my husband would pair someone that has another soulmate to sannie. it—it wouldn't end good, would it?"
wooyoung shook his head to confirm the queen's thoughts, her hand tightening against his, "i'm afraid not. the moon goddess doesn't particularly like it when people go against her decisions. she puts a lot of time and effort to pair these people together. she bases it upon a lot of different things — compatibility, personality, the personal desires of both people... the list goes on and on. i've never seen anyone go against her decisions in my lifetime, but i wouldn't imagine it to be good."
"oh, gosh," the queen let out a deep breath, releasing wooyoung's hand to rub her temples with her thumbs. the princess immediately went behind her and started massaging her mother's shoulder blades, throwing a smile at wooyoung before beckoning san to come over to comfort their mother.
san walked over to her, but not before placing his poems and pen on wooyoung's lap. wooyoung stared at san, raising an eyebrow to ask him silently what do you think you're doing? and san just shrugging, smirking at how lost wooyoung looked. "mother," san voiced, his voice soft and endearing as he spoke to the queen, "it'll be fine. i'm sure the moon goddess is just taking her time and that i won't end up ill-fated. is that right, wooyoung?"
wooyoung nodded, "in fact, the end of the year is coming up. i'll have to go up anyway and while i'm there, i could perhaps inquire about the prince's fate?"
queen choi smiled widely at him, taking his hand in her's once again and held it warmly against her cheek, "thank you so much, wooyoung ssi. you are, really, the best out of all of them."
wooyoung smiled back at her and although he wanted to tell her that she is absolutely correct, he couldn't bring himself to say so. not when he lied about san's fate. not when he was the soulmate the queen and king was looking for the entire time.
—
a/n: to clarify the timeline a bit!
it is mid-october in the story right now since wooyoung has a few weeks until he turns 19. when i mean 'end of the year', i don't mean the december in our calendar but rather the december in the old chinese calendar.
okay, yes it's confusing. let's me explain. (look, it took me 11 years to finally understand so)
the old chinese calendar has 12-13 months and each month is based upon the moon cycle. the full moon would be the bang-on middle of the month, so that means that each month is typically 29-30 days (that's the average length of a moon cycle).
so! that means that the end of the year is usually end of january / start of february. so we still have some time before the technical end of the year in the old chinese calendar, so wooyoung wouldn't be able to negotiate with the moon goddess before hand.
or could he?
— WOOSARCHIVES.
