What he can't understand is why everyone is so in love with Hae-Soo.
She's beautiful, of course. He can see that well enough, he's not blind. But there is no shortage of feminine beauty at court. His mother, who the king barely speaks to anymore, is still beautiful. The gisaengs, and to a lesser extent the court ladies, are selected specifically for their beauty. Before the accident where she lost her memory, his brothers paid barely more attention to Hae-Soo than they did to the court ladies, or to the furniture. Since then Wook has stolen every moment with her that he can, never mind his sick (now dead) wife, and Eun makes pathetic babyish attempts to flirt with her, and the Wolf-Dog follows her around with his eyes like a beaten puppy. Even the iron-set face of Court Lady Oh softens slightly in her presence. Not because Hae-Soo suddenly changed appearance, but because she is now...what? Happy all the time, now that she no longer remembers her family far away. Charmingly innocent, that is to say charmingly stupid.
She'd make the perfect wife for any young man. A smiling, patient, uncomplaining wife, always trying her best to please. Even her blatant ignorance of the simplest matters is an asset: it makes her insecure, and therefore tractable. He understands it. He doesn't want to understand it, but he does.
Yeon-Hwa sidles back up to rejoin the birthday party, her face suffused with that special kind of pain which only the Wolf-Dog can inflict on her. Wang Yo's blood boils.
Yeon-Hwa does not look at him. She does not look at anyone in particular. Her eyes slide over the whole royal array evenly, as a proper princess's should. Polite half-smiles to the last, even as she's about to be sold off. No one looking at her would believe that, a few moments ago, Wang Yo had taken her in his arms.
He remembers the heat of her body against his, her fast heartbeat. She had not shown any fear when he suddenly pulled her close, though fear would've been the appropriate response. In her eyes he had read rage, and calculation, and something else.
She does not love him (that honor is reserved for the Wolf-Dog), nor want him on the throne (that wish is reserved for her full brother), and yet she had been willing in that moment to kiss him, Wang Yo is sure of it. Why? Physical lust, twin sister to the lust for power. Yeon-Hwa has both in abundance. But it's the Wolf-Dog she most wants. For him, and him only, she will attempt to be Hae-Soo.
An ill-fitting role.
Wang So comes in, unaware of the trap laid for him. He smiles at Eun but it's an uneasy smile, for he has never really been a part of their family.
"Will you really give me anything?" Eun says. He's as much a puppet as the little figures he made for Hae-Soo, who chimes in right after: of course he will, the 4th Prince is a man of his word and will get you anything, no matter how rare and precious. Yo can barely contain his glee. "Then...show me your face without your mask!"
Hae-Soo rushes forward, the horror clear on her face. "Prince Eun, wait...that's not what I meant—" She flounders about like a confused child. Meanwhile Yeon-Hwa does nothing, stands still as a stone carving. She wants the Wolf-Dog but is loath to admit it in public. Wang Yo's campaign of endless jibes has achieved this much, at least.
Slowly, Wang So takes off his mask. What's under it is nothing really, two small red lines, but the shame of the act will not soon be forgotten by anyone in this room. Yo laughs out loud, he can't help it. He's laughing, not just at So, but at everyone here, not least himself. They are all so ridiculous in their grasping for what they can't afford.
The price of taking the Crown Prince's throne is a mountain of corpses, the corpses of murdered brothers. But the Wolf-Dog, raised by foreigners, is brother to no one in his heart: the price is easy for him. Thus someone needed to make clear to him the hopelessness of his proud ambition.
Yeon-Hwa seems to wake up when the Wolf-Dog storms out. She tells Eun to apologize, smooths things over when Yo lets his own pride gets the best of him and taunts the Crown Prince, brings the mood of the party back to something resembling normalcy. When the task is done and Eun is back to opening presents, she falls again into stillness, closed up inside in her own private pain.
A few days later, they meet again and have practically the same conversation.
"Wang So will not help you. Wook is too weak-hearted to win the throne, and even if he does, you'll be no more than princess. Only I can make you queen."
"You forget about your wife. Aren't you ashamed to be talking like that?" Yeon-Hwa is not ashamed. Her hand comes to rest on his chest, toying with the silk-brocade outer fabric of his jacket, considering him.
Yo takes her hand in his and presses down hard. He is careful not to use his nails: he will not leave any marks that could shame her to the rest of the family. But pain he can inflict on her, and will.
"Let go!" she says loudly, and then, in a whisper, "Divorce her or have her killed, I don't care which. Then maybe."
"You are in no position to say 'maybe'," he whispers back. He steals a light kiss on her neck, licks his lips and lets go. His point is made.
She turns her back on him abruptly and walks away, prim little decisive steps. She had shivered when he pressed his lips to her neck. Lust, of both kinds. There is so much darkness in her, he can't believe his brothers don't see it. He wants to rush in behind her, grab her by both elbows and hold her fast. Instead he merely watches her retreat, moving neither quickly nor slowly, her back held perfectly straight. Even in her desperate situation, she will not bend for him.
You have to admire that, Wang Yo thinks.