Chapter 94: Because I Missed You

“Please, have some.”

Haeryeong placed the teacup from the small tray before Gangcheon.

As Gangcheon stole a glance at Head Court Lady Yang, she bowed her head.

“This is pomegranate tea, presented as tribute from Guryong last year.”

“I prepared it because I thought its tartness would be perfect for when one feels languid from the spring fever.”

Within the cup, which was wider than those used for everyday tea, several pieces of ice and pear slices cut into the shape of flowers were visible.

As he lifted the cup, the floating pear petals swayed, gradually staining red from the tea.

“Is something the matter? If the pomegranate tea is not to your liking, shall I order another brew?”

Gangcheon lifted his head and looked at Haeryeong’s slightly furrowed face.

“Should a man who is already in your bad graces dare to complain? I was merely looking at it because the color is so beautiful.”

“It reminded me of the wedding robes the Empress once wore.”

When he turned his head away from the silent Haeryeong, he caught sight of the back of Head Court Lady Yang’s head, still bowed low.

“Are the garments the Empress will wear for the Founding Festival ready?”

“The seamstresses Your Majesty assigned are working diligently on them.”

“Since we are making several sets, it is taking some time, but they say all will be completed within this month.”

“The Empress suits red quite well, so prepare the attire for the banquet in red.”

“I shall prepare it as you command.”

Gangcheon offered a smile to Haeryeong, who was sipping his tea without joining the conversation.

“You will look very lovely in clothes made of red silk from Yeonan.”

Haeryeong wore a troubled expression.

“Since I was young, I have often been told that red does not suit me well.”

“Who would say such a thing? The wedding robes you wore the other day were quite beautiful.”

“My mother said it often. She usually had white or blue clothes made for me, saying that red made my skin look far too flushed.”

Only then did Gangcheon take a sip of the pomegranate tea and look at Haeryeong.

“If your cheeks are red, you will appear shy, which will make you even more beautiful in my eyes. Empress, do not pay mind to such things and grant my request.”

Haeryeong bowed his head a moment later.

“I shall follow Your Imperial Majesty’s words.”

Gangcheon watched the crown of black hair directed toward him and cleansed his mouth with the tea.

Strangely, he felt a surge of thirst.

Sweet tea was not a particularly good choice for quenching one’s thirst.

Between the sticky sensation in his mouth and the subtle sweetness remaining on his tongue, his thirst only seemed to grow.

Moreover, even without trying to be conscious of it, he felt his own scent growing more intense.

Despite sitting on a loft open on three sides, the thick fragrance of peach blossoms seemed to fill the entire surroundings.

As Haeryeong touched his lips to the cup and pulled away, his lips appeared exceptionally red today, as if the crimson color of the tea had transferred to them.

Gangcheon stared intently at those tea-moistened lips before setting his cup down and rising.

“I must be going now.”

Haeryeong rose along with him.

“I shall see you off.”

Gangcheon stood still, watching the man approach.

Haeryeong looked up at the motionless Gangcheon with questioning eyes.

“Is something wrong?”

Faced with the man asking why he wasn’t leading the way, the Emperor’s head kept dipping toward him.

As he drew closer, he caught a faint whiff of the Empress’s scent.

Gangcheon instinctively took a deep breath and kissed Haeryeong.

As he pressed firmly against his lips and wrapped his arms around the other’s shoulders, Haeryeong’s body went rigid.

Gangcheon rubbed his lips against the man’s while tracing his hand over his back.

He released his scent even more thickly, and after a moment, Haeryeong opened his lips with a sweet, exhaled breath.

Caressing the shivering back as if to soothe it, Gangcheon inhaled the man’s scent to his heart’s content.

As lukewarm saliva crossed into his mouth, his thirst finally felt quenched.

Like a parched beast, Gangcheon delved deep with his tongue and thoroughly licked every corner of Haeryeong’s mouth.

The hand that had risen as if to push him away was now clutching the man’s robe and hanging on.

The weight of it felt good.

He was simply pleased that the man was clinging to him with such trembling hands.

As he fully released his scent, Haeryeong staggered as if the strength had left his legs.

Gangcheon held him tight and kissed him even more deeply.

He fixed his gaze on the tightly closed eyelids, watching the movement of the pupils trembling beneath the thin skin.

After waiting for a long time, the man’s eyes finally opened.

When those eyes, filled with a moist heat, turned toward him with a confused tremble, a dull ache of arousal pulled at his lower abdomen.

However, the wet gaze soon drifted downward.

Seeing that gaze averted as if he didn’t even want to look at him, Gangcheon felt something surge within his chest.

Gangcheon gently rubbed Haeryeong’s tightly closed lips with his thumb.

When he pulled the lips back out—lips that were biting down as if to hide further away—a look of distress briefly flickered across the man’s eyes.

“Do you hate it that much?”

He asked, a smile touching his stiffly strained face.

What was it he hated so much that even his current efforts to be tender were unwelcome?

His body didn’t seem to feel that way, given how he reacted to the scent and the kisses.

“No matter how much you dislike it, is it not wrong to show it so plainly on your face? As long as you are the Empress, that is.”

“The same applies even if you were to be deposed. As long as you are in this Imperial Palace of Yeoran, you must smile for me. Is that not so?”

Gangcheon pulled the Haeryeong who was trying to twist out of his arms back into a tight embrace and whispered with a lingering smile.

“So, try to smile. Even if you do not wish to, smile. Even if you do not wish to kiss me, if I desire it, you must open your mouth. The same goes for the consummation. So, before I grow more incensed, smile for me.”

Trapped in his arms, Haeryeong shivered.

The eyes he had squeezed shut and then opened were becoming glossy with moisture.

It was truly ridiculous; he wanted to force the man to smile because he looked so unwilling, yet seeing those resentful eyes welling with tears made him want to simply coddle and soothe him.

Gangcheon said nothing and simply watched.

Haeryeong, who had been showing traces of tears on his hardened face, looked up.

His eyes were filled more with resentment than a glare, which caused a laugh to escape Gangcheon.

Haeryeong looked up at the much taller Gangcheon with only his eyes and parted his lips.

“Does Your Majesty hate me that much? Do you hate me so much that you would threaten me over something as simple as a smile?”

At the unexpected question, Gangcheon momentarily forgot his response.

In any case, this man deviated from his expectations every single time.

He thought the man only knew how to tremble and do as he was told.

To think he would ask so bluntly.

Gangcheon lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment, then asked back instead of answering.

“Why does the Empress think We hate you?”

‘Have I not been trying to treat you with tenderness in my own way?’

‘When you cry, I hold you and soothe you, and I have bestowed all sorts of jewelry and precious silks upon you.’

‘I even filled your palace with more servants because you were shorthanded, and did I not permit you to go hawking?’

‘Should it not be I who feels wronged by that question?’

While Gangcheon chewed over his own sense of injustice, Haeryeong let out a damp sigh.

Looking up at Gangcheon with his lips pressed tight, Haeryeong soon lowered his eyes and shook his head in resignation.

“Since your servant deceived his sovereign, it is only natural that Your Majesty would find me hateful.”

At those words, spoken like a sigh, Gangcheon blurted out a response involuntarily.

“I do not hate you.”

Haeryeong’s eyes, already round, went even wider in shock, and he blinked rapidly.

The sight looked like falling flower petals, or a butterfly taking flight.

Gangcheon wetted his lips with his tongue and continued.

“If I hated you, would I have gone out of my way to find the time to visit you like this? Why do you fail to understand my heart? What do you think is the reason I seek you out even after being told not to come?”

Haeryeong was scanning the man’s face with trembling pupils.

Gangcheon shifted his gaze to follow the man’s eyes and spat out his final words like a sigh.

“It is because I wanted to see you that I came. That is what I am saying.”

Haeryeong’s wavering gaze stilled.

The rapidly blinking eyelids slowed bit by bit until, at some point, they stopped moving entirely.

Gangcheon felt as though the intensity of that stare might pierce through his cheek.

He instinctively raised a hand to cover his jaw and furrowed his brow.

Because he had only just realized his own feelings while speaking them aloud, he could not hide his look of bewilderment.

Haeryeong forgot even to breathe as he stared at the Emperor, consumed by the man’s words.

‘What on earth is this man talking about?’

His tongue, which had felt as though it were stuck to the roof of his mouth forever, finally pulled away with a sticky sound.

“You mean to say… that you missed me?”

‘Why?’

‘What kind of emotional exchange have I ever had with the Emperor for him to even miss me?’

‘He pretended to be tender all this time just to test me; has he actually deluded himself into thinking it was real?’

As he waited for an answer, his eyes aching from being held open so wide, the Emperor moved the hand that had been rubbing his jaw upward.

Covering the rest of his face and leaving only his eyes exposed, the man scowled fiercely.

“Am I not allowed to?”

Haeryeong stole a glance at the dragon embroidered on the Emperor’s shoulder before looking up at his face again.

How was he supposed to believe a man saying he missed him while making such a face?

Even if it wasn’t a shy or affectionate expression, it should at least be a normal, smiling face for him to have any hope of believing it.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

A 90-Year-Old Ace Agent Retires to Become a Mom in a Gacha Game

another worldGender BenderOriginal

Read Now →
Not interested