Yi Ha

## Yi Ha(이하)

* Minister
* Royal Guard

### Professions

Minister
Royal Guard (formerly)

### Affiliations

Royal Family of Ga Guk
Bi Yeong Ship Mu (formerly)

### Status

Deceased

**Yi Ha** was the former captain of King Jin Hyul's Royal Guard 21 years prior to the start of the series timeline. He later married the cousin of Queen Ahn Young and served as a minister in Jin Hyul's court. He also became the foster father of Prince Yi Hwi upon his separation from his twin brother at birth.

## Appearance

Yi Ha was relatively tall and had short, slightly disheveled hair that he parted in the middle. As a member of Bi Yeong Ship Mu, he wore his uniform, which included an armor over a simple baji jeogori ensemble. He tucked his sleeves in forearm guards and his pants into a pair of knee-high hwaja, and he wore a piece of long cloth that covered his forehead, seemingly of different color to the other soldiers.

When he became a minister, he wore light-colored variations of baji jeogori and donned a dapo over the ensemble. He also occasionally wore a dark-colored po, as well as a light cloth that covered his forehead, similar to when he was still a royal guard.

## Personality

Yi Ha was loyal to King Jin Hyul and Queen Ahn Young when he was a royal guard and when he later became a minister. When he performed his duty, he tended to be cold and had a deep sense of responsibility, which could be implied to be his attributes that led to his promotion as a minister in the government. He also gave the Crown Prince a high concern and priority, even if it meant sacrificing his foster child as the prince's decoy. However, this idea did not entirely meant for the minister's ignorance towards Hwi's welfare, as he showed signs that he might also be against the idea himself. Nevertheless, he was shown to prioritize duty over his personal preferences for the sake of the crown prince's safety and protection.

He was also seemingly sharp, as seen when he was able to sense some distress from a fleeing lady-in-waiting of Ahn Young without telling him something, as well as when he noticed the infant prince subtly hold his finger amidst the baby's unwell condition. Because of his quick thinking and response to take the baby away, he was able to save the baby at a crucial time and, eventually, in the long-term sense, allowing the child to live.

Despite his rather serious demeanor, he also exhibited a caring and paternal instinct, being able to nurture the child to grow into a rather bright individual. Nonetheless, he showed a strict upbringing to the child. He also possibly prohibited or merely did not support Hwi in his hobby for painting unlike his wife, who supported Hwi and even covering for him from his foster father whenever he painted.

## History

### Professional Life

Though it is unknown which faction he belonged to in the Royal Guard, Yi Ha was the one who arrested Sa Hwa Hyeon, Sa Baek Hwa's father, due to treason upon orders of King Jin Hyul. During his arrest, he also carried out Hwa Hyeon's execution in front of his family.

At some point, he became a minister of Jin Hyul, who he is loyal to together with Minister Seo In Seon Woo.

### Adopting the Second Prince

Sometime during Jin Hyul's reign, Queen Ahn Young gave birth to twin princes, but one of them was barely breathing. Despite the king being informed of the latter's condition, Jin Hyul did not allow the royal physician to attend to the child, brought about by his personal desire not to have the twins fight for the throne in the future like how he himself was able to ascend to the throne by killing his rival twin brother. One of the queen's ladies-in-waiting heard of this and immediately returned to the queen's quarters. Minister Ha noticed her and, filled with curiosity, went to the queen.

As the queen desperately ordered her ladies-in-waiting to fetch for a physician, Minister Ha asked his cousin-in-law about the situation. Ahn Young explained the situation about her second-born child being on the verge of death, whom the king did not want to be attended to by a physician. Minister Ha cradled the child and initially believed that there could be nothing left to do for him, but the baby prince held on to the minister's finger, as if showing his will to live on.

As a result, Minister Ha took the child with him with utmost secrecy and escaped the queen's chambers shortly before the king arrived. Meanwhile, Ahn Young made the king believe that the child had died. As Minister Ha was fleeing, Physician Ma noticed the minister and grasped the situation at hand. The minister asked him to forget what he saw to enable their escape, but the physician informed him that the child would not be able to last the night. As a result, the physician took the child instead to tend to him and asked the minister to look for a place for the child.

From then on, Physician Ma resigned from his position, while Minister Ha informed his wife about the situation, asking for her permission whether they could bring the child under their care. His wife happily accepted the offer after being unable to have a child for many years. Months later, Ahn Young delivered the couple the child's name as Hwi.

As the child grew, his foster parents nurtured him as their own child; he was especially close with his mother who specifically honed his natural talent for painting. Amidst their loving warmth and affection for Hwi, they ensured not to let him leave their residence to ensure the child's safety and to keep his true identity hidden.

Several years later, Seon Woo met with Minister Ha at the latter's residence, supposedly to have the seven-year-old Hwi enter the palace to become Crown Prince Yi Jeok's decoy. As Hwi happily obliged, his foster father brought him to the palace and introduced him to Crown Prince Jeok. However, the latter did not favor his ministers' idea and ordered to send the boy back home, claiming that protection from Bi Yeong Ship Mu sufficed. In the end, Seon Woo advised the crown prince to befriend the child. Hwi also left his foster parents' home from then on to reside in the palace. Later, Ahn Young thanked the minister for having nurtured the child until his return to the palace.

### Death

After Jin Hyul had died from illness, the king's consort Yoon Yeon Lee orchestrated the Jeogwa Revolution, which deposed Crown Prince Jeok and Hwi from the palace, dissolved Bi Yeong Ship Mu, and caused the death of Ahn Young at the hands of Yeon Lee's co-conspirator, Baek Yoo Shin. From then on, Seon Woo advised Minister Ha to stay low from Yeon Lee and her men, especially that the ministers and their pursuers knew about the second-born prince's existence and identity. However, Minister Ha was later found and, upon Yeon Lee's orders, killed alongside his wife at the hands of the erstwhile queen regent's men.

## Legacy

Hwi, Jeok, Seon Woo, and Wol Young Hwa were informed of the news by Gil Mu Jin, which fueled Hwi's grief as well as conviction to firmly take on the role of the crown prince's decoy as part of his personal promise to protect Jeok, especially that Hwi and the crown prince were then both orphaned. Moreover, with Minister Ha's death, Seon Woo thought how he became the only remaining person left who had knowledge of Hwi's royal lineage.

## Quotes

* (To his wife) "*I know it will be hard… But I could not shake off the baby prince's tiny hands that held onto me… Those tiny hands showed… his will to live!*"
* (To Hwi) "*From now on, you will eat the same food, wear the same clothes, experience the same things, and receive the same education as His Highness. You must become the prince's shadow, alright?*"

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Twelve Nights* webtoon, chapter 9
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 *Twelve Nights* webtoon, chapter 89
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 *Twelve Nights* webtoon, chapter 86
4. ↑ *Twelve Nights* webtoon, chapter 8
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *Twelve Nights* webtoon, chapter 90
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 *Twelve Nights* webtoon, chapter 87
7. ↑ *Twelve Nights* webtoon, chapter 88
8. ↑ *Twelve Nights* webtoon, chapter 0.1