Chapter 30: Reflections

1498 - Minji age 7, Jinwoo age 5

Spring came to the palace with cherry blossoms and warm breezes, and Jisoo found herself thinking about time.

Seven years of marriage to Hyeon. Seven years of building this life together. Minji was seven, Jinwoo five—both of them growing so fast it made her heart ache with the sweetness and sadness of watching childhood slip away.

She was twenty-six years old. Hyeon was thirty. They had been married longer than he’d been married to Jiwon.

The thought came unbidden one morning, and it stopped her in her tracks.

More years with her than with Jiwon. More memories accumulated. More life lived.

It didn’t diminish what Jiwon and Hyeon had shared. But it was a marker nonetheless—a quiet acknowledgment that life had continued, that new chapters had been written, that the story was larger than just loss and grief.

The Morning Routine

Breakfast was its usual controlled chaos.

Minji was reading at the table—something Master Kim had forbidden because it was poor manners, but which she did anyway when her parents weren’t actively stopping her.

“Minji, put the book away and eat your rice,” Jisoo said for the third time.

“But Mama, this text is about the moon’s cycles, and I need to understand it before my astronomy lesson—”

“You can read after breakfast.”

“But—”

“Minji.” Hyeon’s voice was gentle but firm. “Your mother asked you to put it away.”

Minji sighed dramatically but complied, setting her book aside with the air of someone gravely wronged.

Jinwoo ate methodically, as always, but paused to say, “The moon is round today.”

“How do you know?” Minji challenged. “You haven’t even looked outside.”

“Looked last night. It was almost round. Today it will be round.”

“That’s called a full moon,” Minji informed him with the superiority of an older sibling. “And you’re right, it was almost full yesterday, so it probably is full today.”

“I know,” Jinwoo said simply, returning to his rice.

Jisoo and Hyeon exchanged amused glances over their children’s heads.

This. This ordinary morning, with squabbling children and half-eaten breakfast and the familiar comfort of family routine—this was everything.

The Garden Walk

After breakfast, Jisoo took a rare moment for herself, walking through the palace gardens.

The cherry blossoms were at peak bloom, petals drifting through the air like pink snow. She found a quiet bench and sat, letting the peace of the morning settle over her.

“Mind if I join you?”

She looked up to find Princess Myeonghye approaching.

“Of course not, Your Highness.”

Myeonghye sat beside her, both women quiet for a moment, watching the blossoms fall.

“I was thinking about you this morning,” the princess said. “About how much you’ve changed since you first married Hyeon.”

“Changed how?”

“You came to him as a frightened girl, convinced you were ordinary, living in your sister’s shadow.” Myeonghye smiled. “Now look at you. Confident, capable, raising two remarkable children, respected throughout the court. You’ve become extraordinary without ever trying to be.”

“I’m not extraordinary—”

“You are. Just not in the flashy way Jiwon was.” Myeonghye’s voice was gentle. “Jiwon was brilliant and fierce, like a flame. You’re steady and deep, like a river. Both are powerful. Both are valuable.”