Chapter 188: The Twins

I woke up in my mother's bed were she was laying next to me and stroking my hair. It had been a long time since I let her do that to me, or maybe she hadn't stopped doing it to me everything I fell asleep, I really didn't know. I put one of my hands over her belly and I apologised for my outburst earlier before she pulled me into one of her overbearing hugs and apologised to us for keeping it all from us before Hana burst in as usual and rested her head on top of our new sibling as if mother's swollen belly was some kind of pillow. We got into an argument about it as usual before the youngest girl barged into my mother's room while she was still bed bound. She looked scary; her eyes were popping out of her face, her lips were wobbling all over the place, she had bruises and cuts on her face and her har was out everywhere like she was a ghost. But before she could get a word in my sister did what she did best and screamed to the top of her lungs, it was a miracle that the whole neighbourhood didn't come running out of their homes to see what had happened. And in an instant my aunt came rushing in and grabbed her by the hair and practically dragged her back to her room just as my uncle Hwi and aunt Hwa-Wol came by with her daughter who was only a few years older than us. Hwa-Wol immediately ran to help my aunt as my cousins ran to their father who they hadn't seen in god knows how long before my mother collapsed into his arms and broke down a little. We all gave them their space before my sister dragged me out of the bed and grabbed all of us kids into the courtyard when she told us that she had already come up with a plan that could work temporarily and we had to follow her lead no matter what. She usually bossed all of us around anyways so it was't like we could object even if we wanted to. We all just rolled our eye s and nodded in agreement before she filled us in...

I was willing to try anything at this point; our parents had provided us with the perfect carefree lives and it was only right that we savoured it as much as we could before we had to really grow up. And these idiots were messing up our routines; we didn't have our father to ourselves much apart from the small moments where we had breakfast together, he took us to school on his horse that he let me control for the past 2 years now, we would meet up with our parents for lunch breaks with my cousins in my father's study and we should sometimes stay with him and help him out with his work. He was finally giving me more responsibility and relying on me more so I could have an early start on my military career but now he was so caught up in this stupid investigation that would have been easily solved in a day if that older one wasn't being so difficult and was 'coincidentally' ill, so much so that she was apparently in some kind of coma the moment she set foot in our home. For the first time in my life had felt my temper being tested to knew level I didn't think existed before. My mother was sad, my father was absent for the first time, my aunt could only do so much and my uncle who we really needed right now was out god know's where with that corrupt Prince that hated my father. And my sister was right, if we wanted our lives back and go back to our grandfather's village as soon as possible we needed to help my father and make sure my mother gave birth smoothly without any problems.

We all waited at the table whilst we waited for my father to arrive, and as soon as he did she didn't even wait for him to sit down before 'telling' my father to bring down our guests to join us. We all looked at her like she had gone mad but she kept her cool under my father's stare who looked quite worn out already. He just sighed and nodded to a servant to carry out my sister's orders who was wearing her best outfit and made all of us follow suit. My aunts and uncle had their eyebrows raised at us but Hana had basically inherited my mother's face as she gave all of them a cheeky smile we all only knew too well before we all rolled our eyes again and my uncle Hwi snorted...until our guests joined us.

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I could only stick out my tongue and make a face to my brother as I was proven right about the first trick; our outfits and my expensive jewellery had the Bong's practically tripping up over themselves. A lot of people who interacted with our parents always commented on myself and my brother and how the rumours were true about us. And we all found out what my father did at their wedding to everyone involved, which had the boys in awe of my father once again whilst I was in hysterics. No matter how oddly my father treated my mother; and after hearing the story about their marriage, she did indeed belong to him.

Now; fortunately to myself and unfortunately to the rest of my family I had inherited a lot of things from my mother, including her sharp mind and blunt tongue when she wasn't acting as if she was our age. So I knew they would make a comment about our appearances and I was already equipped with the perfect comeback when I relied to the mrs that mothers didn't mind over-dressing their children sometimes. That shut her up, but then her eunuch husband started asking me about my accessories and I didn't mind telling him how much my father spoiled my mother continuously and how she didn't mind me wearing such things that could clear the debt they had been in for a number of years, and that put him in his place. I then carried on by going through the dishes to everyone one by one that I knew the wife had never had a chance to eat in her life before I hurriedly served the best pieces to everyone myself, starting with my father and uncle. My aunts looked at me fondly and I gave them kisses in return, my father and uncle on the other hand tried very hard to control their laughter before I commanded my father to personally feed my mother by hand afterwards and he nearly choked on his food right then and there. I had barely gotten a few bites in before I started again and I prised my aunts on how they raised their children and the achievements they had accomplished. Hwa-Wol's daughter was able to sort out medicine herself by the age of 9 and my cousins had their own achievements in the palace. I couldn't help but look over at them both who had their eyes to the floor at this point. There were a few other children who studied with the royal children and ever since the wedding, the Bong household had become a source of gossip for everyone in the market, so of course the royals knew about it first. In fact I'm pretty sure that one of the Prince's was 'having relations' with one of the concubines or whatever that meant, we had all met her at this point and had always provided us with gossip first so we knew how incapable they were of raising the children and this unless complaints and mishaps that happened there everyday. At this point my father gave me a stern look but I just batted my eyelashes innocently and he couldn't help but back off at this point and leave me to it. I carried on all night until I managed to get under their skin, humiliating them at every point with every sentence I spoke whilst everybody else stayed silent with their eyes pointed at their food...until finally the woman couldn't take it anymore and practically screamed to the whole table that Nam-Kyu anther husband were the ones who had hatched this 'stupid plan' by themselves but she didn't stop there. I had practice memorised every sin she committed against my mother in their past and used it against her psychologically until she exploded and not only confessed to her husband's involvement but she confessed to everything she knew about the other woman who was involved, completely oblivious to the fact that she had just landed her already embarrassing husband in a lot of trouble that could give not only him but the rest of his entire family the death penalty.