Yeon Joo remained alone inside the dark monastery room after everyone had left, while the thin cloth wrapped around her body did little to protect her from the cold air entering through the wooden walls, and the exhaustion from the drug, the journey and the humiliation made even sitting upright feel difficult.
She had not received a proper meal since the previous morning, and although one attendant had left a small bowl of water near the door, Yeon Joo was too weak and angry to crawl across the room to reach it.
Her entire body trembled as she leaned against the wall and pulled the cloth more tightly around herself.
“Lee Yeong will look for me,” she whispered, although her voice no longer sounded confident.
“He will not stop until he finds this place.” However, the Grand-Aunt had already ordered everyone to stay away until the day after tomorrow, when Yeon Joo’s hair would be shaved and she would be forced to enter the monastery permanently.
The thought made her fingers move toward the necklace resting against her chest.
The pendant had been flashing since she arrived, as though it had been waiting for her to make a decision, but Yeon Joo hesitated because she knew that pressing it would take her away from Lee Yeong again.
She remembered his face when she disappeared the first time, as well as the broken history she had discovered after returning to the future, yet she also knew that she could not remain inside the room until they cut her hair and removed the necklace from her.
“I am sorry,” she whispered as though Lee Yeong could hear her from the palace.
“I need to survive first.” Yeon Joo pressed the pendant with the little strength remaining in her fingers.
The blue light immediately spread across the room, surrounding her weakened body until the cold wooden walls disappeared from her sight.
A moment later, Yeon Joo fell onto the ground outside the emergency room entrance of Hankuk University Hospital.
The hospital staff initially froze when they saw a barely covered woman appear beside the automatic doors, but one of the nurses quickly rushed forward after noticing that Yeon Joo was unconscious and breathing weakly.
“Get a stretcher now!” Several nurses lifted her onto the stretcher before wheeling her directly into the emergency room, while another nurse covered her body with a blanket and began checking her pulse.
“Her blood pressure is low.” “She is severely dehydrated.” “Start an intravenous line and prepare blood tests.” Soo Bong had been standing near the nurses’ station when he heard the commotion, and the moment he saw Yeon Joo’s pale face beneath the blanket, the medical chart in his hand fell onto the floor.
“Yeon Joo?” He ran toward the stretcher.
“What happened to her?” “We found her unconscious outside the entrance,” Nurse Min answered.
“She was barely wearing anything, and we do not know how long she had been outside.” Soo Bong looked at the bruises around Yeon Joo’s wrists, while anger and fear immediately replaced his confusion.
“Who did this to her?” “She is not conscious enough to answer.” The nurses moved Yeon Joo into an examination room and asked Soo Bong to step outside, but he remained near the door while pressing Professor Lee Jong Suk’s number with trembling fingers.
Jong Suk answered after the second ring.
“What happened?” “Professor, you need to come to the emergency room now.” “I am preparing for surgery.” “It is Yeon Joo.” There was silence on the other end of the call.
“What happened to her?” “She appeared outside the emergency room unconscious, and she looks as though someone kept her without food for several days.” “I am coming.” Jong Suk ended the call before Soo Bong could say anything else.
Inside the examination room, the nurses carefully cleaned Yeon Joo and dressed her in a hospital gown before connecting her to the monitors.
The doctor examined the bruising around her wrists and arms, while another nurse collected blood for testing.
“She has no serious external injuries, but her body is extremely weak,” the emergency doctor said.
“Her blood sugar is low, she is dehydrated and there are signs of severe exhaustion.” “Could the drug in her body cause this?” Nurse Min asked.
“We will know when the blood results return, but she may have been given a sedative before being left without food.” Yeon Joo briefly opened her eyes when the intravenous fluid entered her body, but the lights above her appeared blurred and the voices around her sounded distant.
“Soo Bong…” she murmured.
Soo Bong immediately came closer.
“I am here.
You are safe.” “Do not let them take my necklace.” “No one will touch it.” “Lee Yeong…” Her voice faded before she lost consciousness again.
Soo Bong stared at her.
“Who is Lee Yeong?” Before he could ask anyone, Jong Suk entered the emergency room while still wearing his surgical scrubs underneath his white coat.
He moved directly to Yeon Joo’s side and examined her pupils before checking the monitors.
“How long has she been unconscious?” “She opened her eyes for several seconds, but she could not speak clearly,” the doctor answered.
“Her condition is consistent with malnutrition, dehydration and severe physical exhaustion.” Jong Suk looked at the marks around her wrists and then noticed the necklace still glowing faintly beneath the collar of her hospital gown.
His expression changed because he immediately understood where she had been.
“Transfer her to the VIP wing.” The emergency doctor looked at him.
“She does not require intensive care.” “She needs privacy, security and constant monitoring.” Jong Suk turned toward Soo Bong.
“Call her parents.” Soo Bong nodded, although he still had many questions about Yeon Joo’s disappearance and the unfamiliar name she had whispered.
Within the hour, Yeon Joo had been moved into a private room in the VIP wing, where her mother arrived with tears covering her face.
Mother Kim sat beside the bed and held her daughter’s cold hand.
“What happened to my child?” “She is stable,” Jong Suk assured her.
“Her body is weak, but the fluids and nutrition will help her recover.” “Why does she have bruises around her wrists?” Jong Suk remained silent for a moment.
“We will ask her when she wakes up.” Mother Kim carefully moved Yeon Joo’s hair away from her face before covering her more securely with the blanket.
“I will stay here.” “You should rest as well.” “I will not leave my daughter.” Jong Suk understood that arguing would be useless, so he ordered the nurses to bring a reclining chair and food for her before leaving the room.
Meanwhile, inside the Joseon palace, Lee Yeong stood near the window of his chamber while the darkness slowly covered the courtyard.
The investigation had been stopped, the witnesses had been released and his Grand-Aunt continued preparing the royal consummation as though Yeon Joo’s disappearance no longer mattered.
Suddenly, a sharp pain tightened around his chest.
Lee Yeong placed one hand over his heart and closed his eyes.
The feeling was painfully familiar.
It was the same emptiness he had experienced when Yeon Joo disappeared through the blue light and returned to her world without him.
“She left again,” he whispered.
Eunuch Jang looked at him with concern.
“Jeonha?” Lee Yeong did not answer.
He could not explain how he knew, but the invisible connection that always made him feel Yeon Joo’s presence inside the palace had suddenly disappeared.
His heart continued pounding painfully, while the chamber around him felt colder with every breath he took.
At the same time, the Queen sat inside her residence while several attendants prepared her ceremonial robe for the royal night.
She knew nothing about Yeon Joo’s real location or the Grand-Aunt’s involvement, and she remained under the impression that Lee Yeong would soon be brought to her chamber after drinking the aphrodisiac tonic.
“Make sure the bedding is prepared properly,” the Queen instructed her trusted chamber maid.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” “And no one must discover that I am no longer untouched.” The chamber maid lowered her head.
“The evidence will be placed beneath the bedding before the King arrives.” The Queen looked at her reflection in the mirror and smiled faintly, believing that the night would restore her position before the three new concubines received their own turns.
However, Lee Yeong had no intention of entering her chamber.
After midnight, he changed from his royal robe into dark travelling clothes, while Seon Yeo waited beside the hidden gate with two horses already prepared.
“The guard confirmed that a monastery carriage left through the service gate on the morning Yeon Joo disappeared,” Seon Yeo said.
“The tracks lead toward the northern mountains.” “Then we follow them.” “Your Grand-Aunt ordered the palace gates closed for the consummation ceremony.” Lee Yeong pulled the hood over his head.
“She has already interfered enough.” “What about the guards?” “They believe I am inside my private chamber preparing for the Queen.” Seon Yeo handed him the reins.
“If we are discovered, the court will accuse you of abandoning another royal ceremony.” Lee Yeong climbed onto the horse.
“I will abandon every ceremony in Joseon before I abandon Yeon Joo.” The hidden gate opened, and the two men rode into the darkness before anyone inside the palace realised that the King had disappeared.
Far away in the modern hospital, Yeon Joo remained unconscious while the necklace against her chest flashed once beneath the blanket.
At the same moment, Lee Yeong felt the pain in his heart grow stronger as he followed the carriage tracks toward the mountain monastery.