"She's nothing but a bed-warmer now."
The words reached Yeonhwa before her feet even touched the cold floor.
Whispers had been rustling through the dormitory like dry leaves since dawn, and though none dared say them to her face, the voices behind her back had grown bold.
"She looked smug yesterday."
"I bet she thought she'd stay by his side forever."
"She's back now, isn't she?"
Yeonhwa sat up on her mat, smoothed her robe, and breathed deeply. The silks felt tighter somehow…less like dignity, more like armor.
Across the room, Lady Sunae applied rouge with careful precision, her voice rising just enough to be heard.
"Some girls just don't know how fleeting favor can be," she said, flicking her brush. "A night does not make a queen."
Mira threw her hair into a loose braid and hissed under her breath. "She's been going at it since the sun came up."
"She's angry," Yeonhwa said, standing calmly. "Not at me. At her own reflection."
As they walked to the courtyard for morning drills, the silence followed them like a shadow. Girls moved out of Yeonhwa's path, some with smirks, others with downcast eyes. She had become a storm cloud. Unapproachable. Threatening.
In the corner of the courtyard, Lady Sunae leaned into Lady Yujin with a pained expression. "I would be mortified. To return so soon."
"Maybe she cried," Yujin offered with false sympathy.
"Maybe he didn't finish."
They giggled.
Yeonhwa passed them without a word, her chin high, her silence louder than retort.
The bullying became craftier as the day dragged on.
At tea preparation drills, she was given cracked porcelain.
During the midday meal, her bowl of soup had twice the salt.
A fellow maiden accidentally spilled oil near her slippers.
Mistress Choi didn't bat an eye. Neither did Mistress Sook. Perhaps they saw it, perhaps they didn't. Perhaps cruelty among women was simply expected.
Yeonhwa endured it all.
But Mira…sweet, steady Mira…was beginning to fray.
"This is insane," she muttered. "They're animals."
"They're afraid," Yeonhwa whispered as she rinsed her cup. "They think getting close to me will stain them."
"But you did nothing wrong."
"That doesn't matter."
It never did.
That evening, during posture training, the court fell under a strange hush.
Yeonhwa felt it before she saw it…the shift in the wind. Like the moment before lightning strikes.
A lone messenger entered through the east corridor.
He didn't speak. He didn't carry a scroll. He bowed once to Lady Hyerin, whispered into her ear, and handed her a folded silk.
Then he left just as quietly as he came.
Every girl in the room had stopped breathing.
Lady Hyerin looked up from the silk. Her eyes scanned the court, her expression unreadable.
Then she turned toward one of the back rows and said, "Lady Bomi. Come with me."
Bomi blinked. "My Lady?"
Hyerin gave the faintest nod.
Bomi stood, visibly trembling as she straightened her sash. Her mouth parted, perhaps to ask why, but she seemed to understand.
She followed Hyerin out of the hall, her steps stiff, her face pale…and then flushed.
They all knew.
No one needed to say it.
The King had summoned her.
The silence after her departure was thick as honey.
Then, slowly, like a cracked dam, the gossip rushed in.
"He chose her?"
"After Yeonhwa?"
"So fast?"
"I didn't think he'd want another so soon."
Lady Sunae stood near the jade pillar, her arms folded, lips pursed in smug satisfaction.
"Well," she said with a shrug, "you can't expect him to settle."
Yeonhwa stood frozen in the center of the training floor. Her hands were clenched inside her sleeves. Her face was blank.
But inside, something shattered.
Mira whispered, "This doesn't mean anything. Maybe it's just… maybe he's testing them."
"He didn't test me," Yeonhwa murmured.
And that was the truth.
He hadn't summoned her for review.
He had taken her.
That night, the dormitory was insufferable.
Bomi's mat was empty.
Lady Sunae and her companions cackled over rice crackers and whispered as if the entire court weren't listening.
"She's probably still in his bed."
"Do you think she'll come back?"
"Or maybe he'll give her chambers in the Inner Palace?"
"Like that happens," Mira snapped under her breath.
Sunae's gaze drifted toward Yeonhwa's corner.
"I hear men like a certain… energy. Maybe Bomi is more his pace."
Mira opened her mouth, but Yeonhwa touched her arm.
"Don't," she said quietly. "They want us angry."
"They want you destroyed," Mira whispered. "And I'm not going to sit here and let them bury you alive."
Yeonhwa smiled faintly. "Let them dig. They may find something under the dirt that bites."
As the room quieted and girls began to drift to their sleeping mats, Mira leaned closer to Yeonhwa and whispered, "If he doesn't summon you again, will you be okay?"
Yeonhwa didn't answer right away.
Then: "I was never okay when he summoned me."
And she turned to the ceiling, letting the silence hold her tight.
But sleep didn't come.
Only the thought of another lying in the bed she had just warmed.
It is not like she liked him or anything, but the thought of another maiden's voice filling the same air she had gasped in made her feel uncomfortable.