Episode 1
- ‘Joseon Revolutionary Monarch’ is a work of fiction. -
“Mihyeon~, Hyeokbin~”
Wonbeom muttered to himself and drank straight from the soju bottle.
He took several consecutive swigs, yet he did not get drunk.
In the photograph, Mihyeon and Hyeokbin smiled innocently at him.
Two people he could never meet again.
With a sorrowful expression, Wonbeom caressed the bracelet and gazed down at the black Han River drenched in autumn rain.
Today, just like that day a year ago, the rain fell ceaselessly.
***
One year ago.
“Oppa, since it’s your birthday today, we’re going to have a family party this evening. Come home early.”
“Okay. I’m looking forward to it.”
Wonbeom was an ordinary head of household at forty.
Born in a countryside village in Chungcheong-do, he had barely graduated from the history department of a private university in Seoul and had already been married for eight years to Mihyeon, who was a year his junior.
On one wall, honeymoon photos and wedding pictures still hung neatly without a speck of dust, just like during their newlywed days.
With that same lovely expression she had when seeing him off on his first day of work, Mihyeon saw Wonbeom off to work.
“Dad, I like chocolate cake, so make sure to buy a chocolate cake.”
And Hyeokbin, their little angel born just one year into their marriage.
He was Wonbeom’s beloved son, so precious that he wouldn’t hurt even if placed in his eye.
“Hyeokbin, let’s go buy the cake with Mom before Dad gets home later.”
“Okay, Mom. And Dad, this.”
“What is this, Hyeokbin?”
“It’s a family bracelet I made with my teacher at daycare yesterday.”
“I see. Mom is wearing one, and Hyeokbin is wearing one too. So this one is for Dad?”
“Yeah. The teacher said if you wear this, you won’t lose your family no matter where you go.”
“Oh, thank you, my son.”
What his son tied around Wonbeom’s wrist was a crude knot made by weaving together several strands of colored thread, yet it felt as if it bound his beloved family together as one.
Around quitting time, the downpour was so heavy he could barely see ahead, and with rush hour traffic piled up, his way home was endlessly delayed.
Wonbeom called Mihyeon, who would be waiting and worrying.
“Mihyeon, the traffic is terrible because of the rain. I’ll get there as fast as I can.”
“Okay, Oppa. Drive carefully since it’s raining.”
After a struggle of about thirty minutes, Wonbeom finally managed to reach the intersection in front of his apartment complex.
“No, this isn’t a place that gets jammed…”
Perhaps because of the rain, the intersection in front of his house was blocked to the point of impasse, more so than usual.
“Did something happen?”
Forgetting that it was even raining, he rolled down his car window and asked the police officer directing traffic.
“A truck slipped on the wet road and caused an accident.”
The officer replied brusquely, as if annoyed, continuously shaking water droplets from his raincoat.
“Oh my, the poor things, what a pity.”
Several neighborhood women held up umbrellas outside the police line, looking toward the bakery with pitiful eyes and murmuring amongst themselves.
Police cars and ambulances stood in front of the bakery across the street, and paramedics could be seen rushing about busily in the rain.
A massive truck was embedded in the bakery window at the intersection, and a man who appeared to be the truck driver repeatedly scratched the back of his head while arguing with a police officer.
And as the car inched forward, the interior of the ambulance, which had been hidden by the truck, came into view.
Lying inside was unmistakably Mihyeon.
And beside her, Hyeokbin lay as if asleep.
On the ground, the chocolate cake was crushed into a miserable mess, dissolving in the rainwater.
***
A year had passed, but Wonbeom still could not let go of Mihyeon and Hyeokbin.
The bracelet he had not removed even once since that day.
As if believing that this bracelet would someday reunite the three of them completely, Wonbeom clutched it tightly to his chest and leaped into the Han River.
***
When he opened his eyes, Wonbeom found himself lying face down on a slope in front of a well in some unknown place.
His body was stiff, and he could not get up right away.
Summoning his strength with difficulty, Wonbeom lay flat on his back.
Everything around him was unfamiliar.
He was wearing clothes that looked like something from a historical drama, as if he had wandered onto a broadcasting set, and beside him lay a discarded carrying pole.
Fortunately, the bracelet his son Hyeokbin had tied on his right wrist was still there.
‘Where is this?’
‘I definitely jumped into the Han River…’
“Orabeoni, Wonbeom Orabeoni.”
He heard a voice calling him from somewhere.
Across the slope, he faintly saw a young woman climbing up, breathing heavily.
He clearly remembered jumping into the Han River…
The more he tried to recall, the more his head pounded as if it would split open.
“Orabeoni, were you sleeping here again instead of cutting wood?”
A familiar voice.
It was unmistakably Mihyeon’s voice.
To hear this voice again.
“It can’t be.”
This must surely be a dream.
Though faded and frayed from age, she was clearly Mihyeon, dressed in a neatly starched hemp jeogori and chima, meticulously cared for.
Though he did not know why she was wearing such clothes.
“Mihyeon.”
Wonbeom choked back a sob and pulled her into a tight embrace.
“Orabeoni, what’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry, Mihyeon. I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for? And I’m Bong-i. Your betrothed, Bong-i.”
“Bong-i?”
She looked much younger than the Mihyeon in his memories and had an unfamiliar daenggi hairstyle.
Yet the one who had come to his side and was sitting primly by his head was unmistakably the vivid image of Mihyeon from his memories.
Her small and petite frame, slender neck line, softly gathered jawline, straight nose, and even the mole below her left earlobe.
She looked slightly younger than when he had first met her in college, but she was definitely Mihyeon.
“Orabeoni, but who is Mihyeon?”
Bong-i asked in a thoroughly annoyed voice.
“Mihyeon—no, Bong-i, the truth is…”
“The truth is what? If you don’t speak properly, I’m really going to get angry.”
“It’s… actually, I can’t quite remember.”
Knowing that no matter what he said she wouldn’t believe him, Wonbeom had no choice but to feign memory loss.
In fact, he himself could not understand exactly what situation he was in right now.
“I was definitely at the Han River just a moment ago…”
“Han River? This is Ganghwa Island.”
“This is Ganghwa Island?”
“Yeah. It’s been about five years since you and your mother were exiled here from Hanyang.”
“Exiled?”
Exiled? As if this were the Joseon Dynasty or something.
“Orabeoni, you’re strange today. You really don’t remember?”
Bong-i looked down at Wonbeom with worried eyes and gently placed her warm right hand on his forehead.
“Then what is my name?”
“Your name? Yi Wonbeom.”
“The name is right, but…”
His head began to hurt again.
“Bong-i, sorry, but could you take me home?”
“Okay, Orabeoni.”
Perhaps deeply worried, Bong-i gripped Wonbeom’s hand tightly and helped him up as she answered.
Holding Bong-i’s hand and passing by the well, Wonbeom caught his reflection in the water and was startled out of his wits.
He saw the figure of a fresh-faced, gaunt yet simple-looking country youth wearing clothes little different from Bong-i’s.
“This is me?”
“Orabeoni, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing. Just a bit dizzy.”
“This won’t do. Sit here by the well for a moment. I’ll go and bring your mother.”
“Would you?”
“Just wait a little. I’ll be right back.”
Releasing the hand that had been supporting Wonbeom, Bong-i hurriedly ran off.
Watching her retreating figure, Wonbeom could not help but be surprised once more.
Because tied around Bong-i’s right wrist was a bracelet of a familiar shape.
It was the very same knot that Hyeokbin had tied around Wonbeom and Mihyeon’s wrists on that day a year ago.
At that moment, his head pounded as if it would shatter, and all manner of things flooded into his mind.
Wonbeom’s name was definitely Yi Wonbeom.
The problem was that he was not Yi Wonbeom of 2018, but Yi Wonbeom of 1848.
‘I’m the Prince of Ganghwa, Cheoljong of Joseon?’
***
Cheoljong.
Childhood name: Wonbeom.
Personal name: Byeon.
His grandfather, Prince Euneon, was the illegitimate son of Crown Prince Sado.
His father, Grand Internal Prince Jeongye, was the illegitimate son of that Prince Euneon.
And Cheoljong was the illegitimate son of that Grand Internal Prince Jeongye.
For now, he was a royal in name only, barely surviving in exile with his mother.
Whether one looked at his bloodline,
or the situation he was currently in,
no matter how one looked at it, he was a royal entirely unfit to be king.
The twenty-fifth king of Joseon, who died young at the age of thirty-three.
‘To think that I am Yi Wonbeom, the Prince of Ganghwa, Cheoljong.’
After gaining the memories of Cheoljong ‘Yi Wonbeom,’ Wonbeom lay sick in bed for a full three days.
His ‘mother’ kept watch by his side with unblinking eyes for those three days.
Wonbeom’s grandfather, father, and older brother had all died early, accused of treason.
The reason he and his mother had been exiled to this place, Ganghwa Island, was also because his older brother had been implicated in treason.
Wonbeom’s mother, afraid that she might lose even him in this place of exile, had not eaten a single meal during the three days Wonbeom lay sick, keeping watch by his side.
Every morning, Bong-i came to find him, held the hand of the lying Wonbeom, and sobbed until evening before returning home.
Wonbeom was not in pain or discomfort anywhere.
‘I definitely jumped into the Han River.’
On his right wrist was tied the knot his son Hyeokbin had fastened on the morning of the day he died a year ago.
And this knot was definitely on Bong-i’s wrist as well.
Bong-i said that Wonbeom had made that knot for her.
But Wonbeom did not want to give up hope.
Perhaps it was indeed the knot that would reunite Wonbeom’s family of three, just as Hyeokbin had said.
‘Then does that mean Hyeokbin is somewhere out there, just like Bong-i?’
He had to find him no matter what.
To find Hyeokbin, Wonbeom first needed to accurately recognize the situation he was in.
Wonbeom, who had entered the body of Cheoljong Yi Wonbeom.
He should have been glad to be alive again when he thought he had died, but the problem was that he had been reborn as none other than Cheoljong.
It was now 1848.
In 1849, Queen Sunwon, the legitimate wife of Sunjo, would adopt Yi Wonbeom, the Prince of Ganghwa, and place him on the throne.
After that, Queen Sunwon’s regency and the Andong Kim clan’s sedo politics would continue, and Wonbeom would be reduced to a puppet king.
He didn’t particularly care about becoming king or whatnot.
However, the problem was that he would lose Mihyeon, whom he had found with such difficulty, once again.
The story of the Prince of Ganghwa, Cheoljong Yi Wonbeom, and Bong-i, to whom he had been betrothed before entering the palace, was so famous that it had even been made into a TV drama.
On the grounds that Bong-i was a commoner, Queen Sunwon would have Wonbeom marry the daughter of Kim Mun-geun instead of Bong-i.
And in the end, because Cheoljong could not forget Bong-i even after becoming king, Queen Sunwon would eventually poison her.
This above all else had to be prevented.
‘She’s Mihyeon, whom I’ve met again against all odds.’
‘I have to find a way before becoming king. A way to protect Bong-i.’
On the fourth day, Wonbeom rose from his bed as if nothing had happened.
It was clear that if he continued lying here like this, he would be unable to protect Bong-i or find Hyeokbin.
When Wonbeom rose, his mother and Bong-i were overjoyed.
However, Wonbeom’s demeanor, so clearly different from before, made them uneasy.
They were clearly worried that he might fall ill again.
Wonbeom realized that putting them at ease was his first priority.
From that day on, Wonbeom returned to being the perfect Prince of Ganghwa, as if his previous state had never happened.
And so a year passed…
***
One early summer evening in 1849.
Wonbeom stood face to face with Bong-i at the well.
“Bong-i. You have to listen carefully to what I’m about to say.”
“Yeah. What is it?”
Unable to contain her curiosity, Bong-i asked back.
“Soon, someone will come from the palace.”
“Are we being pardoned from exile? Really?”
Was Wonbeom’s exile finally coming to an end?
Bong-i was simply overjoyed that the man she loved could end his grueling life of exile.
“No.”
“Then could it be?”
It’s not a pardon from exile?
It was not common for someone to come from the palace all the way to Ganghwa Island.
It was surely an important matter.
If it was not to end his exile, then it could be the opposite.
Bong-i worried that he might be ordered to take his own life, just as Wonbeom’s grandfather, father, and older brother had been.
“Don’t worry. Soon, someone will come from the palace to take me there.”
“Nothing bad will happen to you there, right?”
“Bong-i, if I go to the palace, I won’t be able to come see you for a while.”
“Orabeoni, can’t you take me with you?”
Bong-i looked at Wonbeom with tears welling in her eyes and said.
‘I want to take you with me too, but now is not the time.’
“Bong-i, if I take you now, you’ll be in danger. Wait five years. I’ll come back for you in five years.”
Wonbeom had no power whatsoever yet.
If Bong-i’s existence were revealed now, she would only be put in danger.
At least, that was how it had been in the original history, so Wonbeom decided to erase Bong-i’s existence for the time being.
‘Five years should be plenty of time.’
He vowed that he would definitely create the power and justification to bring Bong-i to the palace within five years.
Therefore, Wonbeom’s conclusion was that he had to become king.
Not the Prince of Ganghwa, not a puppet king, but a king capable of protecting Bong-i and himself.
“Orabeoni, you have to come get me.”
“I promise. You must never untie the knot on your wrist. Understand?”
Wonbeom cupped Bong-i’s cheeks carefully with both hands as he spoke.
Bong-i struggled to hold back a sob that felt ready to burst forth at any moment, but she could not stop the tears from flowing.
Wonbeom wiped away the tears running down Bong-i’s cheeks with his two thumbs.
‘Mihyeon, this time, we will never part.’
They held each other for a long time, trying not to forget each other’s hearts.
Less than a fortnight after that day, a person came from the palace.
And that night, Wonbeom came face to face with Queen Sunwon.
The legitimate wife of Sunjo and the daughter of Kim Jo-sun, the power broker of the Andong Kim clan.
When her grandson Heonjong ascended the throne at a young age, she ruled as regent, becoming the de facto ‘king’ of Joseon during the era of sedo politics, showing the extremes of in-law rule.
“Your name is Wonbeom, is it not?”
Beneath neatly parted hair, two resolute eyes glared at Wonbeom.
“Yes. It is the name given to me by my late father.”
He answered, unable to hide his tension.
“King Jeongjo quite cherished your grandfather, his half-brother, during his lifetime.”
Withdrawing her icy gaze and bringing the teacup to her lips, Queen Sunwon’s expression showed no particular change.
“That your father, and even you, are illegitimate sons is truly a strange twist of fate.”
Wonbeom saw Queen Sunwon’s lips twitch slightly to the right.
Queen Sunwon was clearly mocking Wonbeom’s lowly bloodline, continuing from illegitimate son to illegitimate son.
“Do you find it unfair?”
“……”
Wonbeom said nothing.
“Today, I shall choose the next king between you and the fourth son of Prince Namyeon.”
The fourth son of Prince Namyeon, his sixth cousin, was the very man known as the renowned Heungseon Daewongun.
Since Wonbeom was now nineteen, Yi Ha-eung, the Heungseon Daewongun, must already be in his thirties.
Queen Sunwon of the Kim clan was of the Andong Kim lineage.
To continue the Andong Kim clan’s grip on power, she had to choose a king to her taste before Prince Gyeongwon Yi Ha-jeon, backed by the rival Pungyang Jo clan, was appointed as the next monarch.
Conversely, Wonbeom needed the power and justification that came with being king to protect Bong-i and, of course, to find Hyeokbin.
To do that, he absolutely had to be chosen by Queen Sunwon today.
“If I choose you today, you will become my son. If not, I will send you back to Ganghwa Island where the mother who bore you awaits.”
If he received Queen Sunwon’s choice, it meant he would become king as the adopted son of Sunjo.
However, if he was not chosen, he would clearly not leave this palace alive today.
There was only one way.
“Do you wish to become king?”
In the dim inner palace, only Queen Sunwon’s two eyes blazed with light as she glared at Wonbeom.
This single answer could potentially distort the history he knew.
Cold sweat trickled down his back.
“Do you wish to become the King of Joseon?”
“I wish to return to Ganghwa Island.”
“……”
Silence filled the room for a moment.
Queen Sunwon looked at him wordlessly for a long while.
And the next day, he became the twenty-fifth king of Joseon in the Injeongjeon Hall of Changdeok Palace.