Chapter 115: Seon-Ho

I felt nothing but coldness again without her touch, her gaze in which I could only see myself and without her working over me. I had barely managed to keep myself away from both alcohol and opium as my work was thriving...but I couldn't help but worry as to what on earth was keeping her from me. Thankfully Hwi was away with the Prince for one and no-one told him. Apparently they were both called away on the day of that fateful meeting thanks to that selfish prince but the rest of us had to act like she was with us. I looked for her every night, hoping to see if she had at least left me any clues. Our last memory together was her telling me that she couldn't wait for our married life to start so I couldn't possible be the problem right? Unless she hiding something from me...

I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn't even see the letter that had been dropped on my desk in the home that Yeon chose for us. It only caught my eye when I noticed that a servant had carelessly left a window open and a strong breeze was coming in. It landed on the floor right in front of me...and I almost collapsed onto the floor when I read the contents. I didn't even think to search in gibangs for her! And what the hell was she doing there in the first place? And why hasn't she contacted anyone yet? Unless...It wasn't my finest moment but I couldn't help but curse Hui-Jee as much as I could under my breath. Who else could put her there without being....surely Yeon hadn't become...but before my thoughts took a dark turn I made my way to Hui-Jee immediately to confront her.

The minute I showed up in the middle of the night, Hui-Jee took one look at my face and she confessed to everything, but no matter what she tried or how many times she visited her, she couldn't bring her home. When she talked about her brother or myself she just looked sad, but what alarmed me was the fact that she hadn't uttered a single word or even left her room, unless she was summoned to join clients, and even then she didn't even talk which was highly unlike her. She wouldn't usually hesitate to pull some of her tricks to entertain herself at the very least...something was wrong, it had to be...or something else had happened that she really didn't want me or her brother to find out...she told me that she was sent a letter that Yeon was there exactly like I did...but that it was Da-In of all people that was basically running the gibang she was staying at. I wasn't in the least interested about what happened to her to have become a kiseng herself, all I cared about was Yeon. And I didn't leave Hui-Jee alone either; I made her take me there immediately. She wasn't really happy with me but she now knew me well enough to know how persistent I could be. We rode on separate horses as we made our way whilst we left a message for everyone else to still act as if everything was ok to her brother.

I let Hui-Jee enter the place first as she led me to Yeon's room, which was even smaller than her room in her old home. It was hard to imagine that this is where she was for the past 2 weeks; the room was pretty much bare with only a few utensils...and her father's sword lay under her bed. I had a sinking feeling that was only getting worse before we looked around for her. We found her amongst the biggest liveliest table where the men where at least twice her age, all drunk and all spilling their drinks and food over her but she didn't even blink.

My heart broke when I saw her; she looked completely lifeless ands wasn't even paying attention to what was going on around her. She looked like she was devoid of all of her senses and she just kept her eyes on the floor. She didn't even look up when Hui-Jee called out to her...but when she heard my voice...she seemed to tremble a little and she tried to hide herself from me. The 'clients' started getting annoyed at this and they kept pulling her down. I got so overwhelmed with my anger that I reach ed for my sword, but luckily Hui-Jee exacted before I could and pull out my seal for them all to see before she yanked Yeon from their grasp and took her to her room, but she got pulled away by some acquaintances. Yeon wouldn't even look at me, but I couldn't help but to notice the attention she was getting and it was really pissing me off, so much so that I grabbed her and shoved her back into her room before blocking the door with whatever I could find before turning my attention onto her.

My woman looked small and fragile; as if one push of my finger would make her shatter like glass. She was malnourished, skinny to the bone and had a lot of new bruises that she didn't even bother to treat. As I made my way closer to her she kept on taking steps back until she was leaning against the wall. I grabbed her again and pulled her into my embrace but she tried to fight me off; I was getting really angry at how weak she felt but I tired to hide it.

Before I could say anything to her, Da-In barged in without so much as a knock from the sound of her voice. She was speaking but all my attention was shifted onto Yeon who was trying to trying to bury herself into my clothes and trembling at my touch, but the look on her face tole me that she wouldn't leave, and that she was here for a reason. Da-In was screaming at this point and there was not much else I could do at this time. Yeon took my hands into hers and tried warming them up in her own but she still hadn't uttered a single word to me. Da-In put herself right between us and tried to drag me out of the room but Yeon actually slapped her before pushing her onto the ground. I had never seen her act this way before at all, she was never the jealous type. It took everything in me not to throw her over my shoulder and bring her home but if I needed to know what the hell happened to her then I needed to let her be, as much as that killed me. I pulled her as close to me as I could before whispering to her that she could but if she ever let another man come close enough to even touch her that I wouldn't hesitate to take both of our lives. That finally got her attention as she looked up at me; she tried to back away again but I took her face into my hands as I kissed her. But when I told her I would be back again that was when she looked at me in a panic and tied to push me out of the way but I didn't move an inch. I told her to get ready for our engagement if she didn't want me to tell her brother where she was or what happened to her at the inn before I walked out. She was not going to get any from me this time, or any other time.