Hoya POV

After Daeun left my chambers earlier this morning, I couldn't relax at all. How did she know about the secret passage? That has been a closely guarded secret for over a thousand years.

"Jeonha" Woohyun called from just outside the door. "Daeun is here to see you."

Finally! Maybe now I'll get some answers. "Let her in."

I watched as she came in, greeted me respectfully and took a seat. "Hello, Jeonha. I'm sorry for surprising you this morning, but I felt it necessary to talk with you as soon as possible."

I gave her a stern gaze and asked "How did you know about that passage?"

She sighed a bit "It was shown to me."

"By who?"

"Lee Sungyeol" she replied straightforwardly.

That name again. "Do you even know who Lee Sungyeol is?"

She smiled "Yes, I do. He is your ancestor from about a thousand years ago."

I sat there in shock by how calmly she stated that.

"Are you okay, Jeonha?"

"I think I should be asking you that" I replied. "How could my ancestor, who has been dead for over a thousand years, possibly show you that passageway?"

She pulled out the norigae once more and placed it on the table in front of us. "What do you know about this norigae?"

Sungjong POV

After flipping through books for a couple of days, I gave a loud frustrated sigh. "What the hell! Why can't I find it?"

"What are we looking for again?" Sunggyu complained.

"I told you! We need to find anything we can about a green woman's ornament" I repeated for the umpteenth time.

Sunggyu sighed, but then a thought finally hit him "Do you mean a jade norigae?" He grabbed a book and started flipping through it.

"Norigae?" I was confused. "What is that?"

Sunggyu sighed in irritation "You really need to study more." He continued to flip through the book until he found what he was looking for. "This is a norigae" he said as he showed me a picture in the book.

"But that looks like..."

"What?"

"Give me that!" I grabbed the book from his hands and began reading through the section about the picture.

"Geez!" Sunggyu exclaimed. "A simple 'thank you' would be nice" he huffed.

"Sorry" I replied as I continued to read the section. "I just really need to learn about this thing."

"The norigae?"

"Yeah, it's kinda important."

"Why didn't you just say so?" Sunggyu chuckled. "I could have told you about that."

I looked up at him in shock "Really?"

"Yeah! Did you forget I was at the top of my class?" he smiled. Then he pointed at the book and said "As far as I know, this is the only set of jade norigae that are in the history books."

"The only ones?"

"Yeah. One of the norigae was commissioned by King Lee Jungyeop for his son Lee Sungyeol to give to his future Queen. It was rumored that when Sungyeol was just the Crown Prince, he lost the norigae."

"He lost it?"I was shocked.

"Yeah" Sunggyu continued. "When he took Kim Jiyeon as his wife and Crown Princess, the norigae was missing. You see, the norigae was meant to be a symbol of the future Queen, so everyone believed that his mother, Queen Lee Miju was the one who took it because she didn't approve of Jiyeon being the Crown Princess."

"Then why are there two norigae? Was another one commissioned for Jiyeon?"

"No" Sunggyu replied. "Jiyeon was the last Crown Princess. After her death, the chambers became haunted."

"So, Crown Princess Jiyeon is the one haunting those chambers?"

"That is what everyone believes. They say she has been protecting those chambers until a woman who is worthy to stand next to Sungyeol appears."

"But didn't King Sungyeol get married?"

"Yeah" Sunggyu chuckled. "He married a woman named Jang Daeun."

"What?" I was shocked. "Jang Daeun?"

"I know, right?" he laughed. "It gets weirder."

"What do you mean?"

"They say that Queen Jang was able to marry King Lee because she was able to wear a dress from the Crown Princess's chambers."

"If that is the case, then why are they still haunted?"

"Exactly! That's why it's weird!" he exclaimed. "They say that Queen Miju and a bunch of ministers even witnessed it, so she was chosen as his bride. But the weirdest thing about all this, is that she had the missing jade norigae."

"She had the norigae?" my eyes widened,

"Yeah" Sunggyu nodded. "She even wore it on the day they were married. The craftsman who made it even verified that it was the one he made and not a replica."

"Then why are there two norigae?"

"After she became Queen, she went to the craftsman and commissioned him to make a second one."

"Why?"

"She had it made as a gift to King Sungyeol. They say that the two norigae have inscriptions on the back of them, but no one knows what the inscriptions are because they were placed in the care of the temple."

"I don't understand" I was confused. "Why doesn't anyone know what the inscriptions are?"

"When they were placed in the care of the temple, all documentation about them was sent there too. Including all of the craftsman's notes."

"What the hell! Are you saying I have to go to the temple now?"

"Ideally..... yes. However, the temple has been known to be very strict about who they let view the records, when they are allowed to view them and what they are allowed to look at. I was told even your father wasn't allowed to look at all the records about the norigae when they discussed displaying them in the museum."

"Are you kidding?" I sighed.

"Listen, I don't know why this is so important to you" Sunggyu tried to calm me down "but maybe they have a reason for not disclosing that information." Suddenly a thought occurred to him "Hey!"

"What?" I sighed in annoyance because all hope of figuring this thing out was now gone.

"Why don't you go and look at the ones in the museum?" Sunggyu suggested. "You might be able to find out  whatever it is you are looking for by just seeing them."

After pondering over it for a little while, I finally went to the museum and looked at the norigae. At first I wasn't really paying attention, but then I caught a glimpse of something I hadn't noticed before. "No way!"