The Painter and the Prince Who Cannot Be Painted novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: First Sun
Captain Jang brought the tray at dawn and told Do-yun he was crossing to the mainland until dusk.
"The King's physician wants my report," he said. "The sergeant keeps the gate. He doesn't come in, and neither do you go out."
"Yes, Captain."
"Be good, Painter."
The key turned, his boots went away down the lane, and Do-yun counted to three hundred before he moved.
Then he pulled two bamboo poles from the back of the woodshed, strung a rope between them, and hung up every bed sheet in the house.
It took him an hour.
He built the screen in the southeast corner of the yard, where the woodpile met the wall, and he built it tall.
When he had finished, a square of bare stone about as big as a room lay behind the white cloth, with the morning sun falling straight into it.
The hill and its spyglass could see nothing but laundry.
Gyeol stood in the door of the main room with his arms folded and watched him.
"Come on," Do-yun said. "Before the sun moves."
Gyeol did not move.
"Gyeol."
"I know. I'm coming."
He crossed the yard in his bare feet.
At the edge of the screen, where the shade ended and the light began, he stopped with his toes on the line.
He held out one hand, palm up, and let the sun fall on it.
It lay on his skin, pale and thin and winter-bright.
"It's warm," he said, as if he had not expected that.
"It's the sun."
"I know what it is."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Painter and the Prince Who Cannot Be Painted are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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