Chapter 125: Seon-Ho

I originally thought that if I gave the situation between myself and the Seo's time, that Yeon would eventually come back to me or even just start checking up on me. I was so confident in that belief that after a month, I started putting out extra food on my table just in case she showed up. It was true that I was kept busy myself with my new status and work which sometimes took me out of the village. It was also true that I could have people under me do that work for me, but my father never let me outside of the village unless I was carrying out work for him. It was a lonely task to venture out on my own and I couldn't stop imagining how much fun it would be if I had both of the Seo's at my side like I always used to, but I at least now had new places to take them once I repaired our relationships. As soon as I found myself free in new places and experiencing new things, I realised what Yeon had left and why Hwi didn't always keep in touch when he came home from his so-called missions. I guess it wasn't impossible to deny that they both wanted fresh new starts away from our toxic village. And so did I, now that I saw how beautiful the world outside my home really was, and yet...and yet I could not leave just yet. In all honesty, the moment I started looking at Yeon in a different light, I had a small hope that I could forget the palace altogether and just elope with her somewhere far away. But the fact that she went out of her way to fulfil my dream job in the palace only reminded me of how much I should commit to my mother's promise; I was now a powerful man who could make a lot of changes in the world, in my mother's world. But the only person who could truly help me out with that was Yeon, she had such a unique perspective on everything and anyone that I had hope that I could really make a change on the world that would last instead of expecting people to follow another noble man's empty words.

"This view is so beautiful, I could never have come here without you my love." The shadow of Yeon that I had kept seeing every single time I either got high or drunk was now starting to follow me in my subconscious mind every time I was alone. "You know I can take you to more places if you had stayed with me." "Do you really think that I didn't want to stay with you? After everything I have been though with you? And for you?" "Then why?" "Because there is no better time than for me to focus on my own family whilst you get settled into your new job and work." "What does that even mean? You can do that by my side, I can help you just like you helped me..." "You know I cannot do that until you repair the relationship that you messed up with my brother. And you knew that he was always going to take me back to his side." "And what do I do without you?" "You build up and empire for me to come home to. You fulfil you're every wish and every goal you have." "I can't do it without you." "Oh really? You always used to mock my obsessive reading along with my brother." "We were just children back then." "And now?" "You...you are unlike anyone I have seen before. No man or woman I have ever met and your patience, your understanding and how you make people open up to you." "So you only want me to come back to you to help you with work?" She pouted the way that she always did when she couldn't get her way with myself and her brother, which was quite rare. "No, of course not." "Then what do you want me for exactly?" She whispered into my ear and I could not help myself but to pick her up into my arms and take her back to the accommodation where I was staying which was just right around the corner from where I was standing right now. I had it all to myself thank goodness, I didn't need anyone around me to witness me talking to shadows that didn't fully exist. In my imagination, Yeon was wearing fitted clothes with her hair completely out with cherry red lips and her perfume to match. She was so light in my hands and her long hair that she managed to maintain quite well in my home kept brushing against my chin, I found myself almost loosing control even though I was just conversing with her mere shadow. "I want you back for everything that I want you for." "Which is?" She playfully crawled onto my lap as soon as I 'dropped' her onto my bed. "Do you have no shame, woman?" I remember grumbling and trying to resist with all of my might whilst she tried everything in her power to get my attention, which including playing with her clothes rather seductively, which took me by surprise. "Yeon!" "What?" "What are you doing! I....I..." "You ween't looking at me, so I wanted to make you look at me. Only me, forever." As usual, she managed to stun me into silence with her forwardness that was so unusual for women in our 13th century Goreyo Dynasty before I started to feel my face getting hotter. "What? Why are you looking at?" "How on earth could you..." "Well, it's not my fault you're handsome, is it?" She pouted again as she tried to climb off of my lap, but I held her back this time. "What? Are you going to scold me like an old man again?" I had to admit that at first her childish antics did used to draw a laugh out of me, but now I found it so endearing of her that I could only hold her tighter in my arms do something I had never done in my entire life; play along properly for once and savour it. She bought out so many personalities in me that were so different to my usual rigidness, quiet, lonely and ruthlessness, that I wanted to play with her all day long if I could...if only I could...

"Are you really that upset that you will not even look at me?" I whispered as she tried to bury her face into my shoulders. "You don't care about me." She pouted sullenly yet again whilst her small megs kept colliding into mine, and I could feel butterflies in my stomach. She wanted my attention, she always did and more of it every single chance she got. The person who betrayed her, the person who caused her to loose her memories for 4 years, the person who treated her so badly when she first woke up in my mansion alone. She saw how badly treated and neglected I was from everybody we came in contact with for our entire lives, and I was still the only one that she wanted...she was the only person who wanted me and could open up to me as much as she possibly could so easily...

"Come over here and let me show you how much I care about you..." I was just about to let myself loose on her before I could hear hard and heave footsteps making their way over to me. I could only sigh as Yeon made her usual face at the sight of Sung-Rok before she disappeared completely into thin air. This girl was driving me crazy and I needed to at least find out where she was soon before I completely lost my mind and lost everything that I had worked hard for.

"What are you smiling at?" Sung-Rok asked with an irritated tone in his voice; he already kew what I was thinking about at least without having to ask me. "What's your problem?" "My problem is that desperate noble woman keeps stalking us at every city we go to. And yet she is still a far better option that that..." "watch your words." I warned him and all he could do was to roll his eyes at me. "I have no idea what spell those siblings cast on you, but you had better get yourself out of it." "And why is that?" "Because you are one of the few youngest scholars in the department and you carry a lot of influence with the Emperor himself. Sooner or later, the seniors will start sending their illegitimate daughters over to you as concubines to try and control you as well." "Good god, why can't they just leave me alone?" "They are seniors, of course the corrupt ones will do anything and everything to trap you into their servitude." "It looks like it is time to clean up my office as well as yours." "And with the Emperor's ear, I doubt it will be that difficult." "The war between father and son has started, and who know's Hwi's tricks better than myself?" "It is true that he has been unusually sloppy as of late..." "He isn't the sloppy type." "Then...?" "Seo Hwi is nobody's lapdog, he used the Prince for his own gain but informed him of my father's murder plot against him as reverse psychology. How else was he going to gain the trust of the most paranoid and deadly prince that was walked this kingdom? But now that he has his sister, he wants to cut the prince loose and he is getting desperate. I know him well, we know each other like the back of our hands. He is leaving me all of these clues so I can finish off the Prince myself since I was the one that introduced them to each other more or less, even if I was forced to by my father." "And you are stupid enough to do this? To take him down?" "Consider this my act of repentance against the Seo's, and more so Yeon. No matter how mature she has gotten, her brother is basically her substitute father in this life and she will always need to be close to him. Her brother has more or less raised her as his own daughter and he needs her more than she needs him. His woman, she may be beautiful and bold, but she doesn't know how to take care of him, not like his sister does. She isn't domesticated at all and is far too presumptuous, even bordering on impudence. The Seo's need each other and I..." "so what are you going to do about Hui-Jae?" "If Hui-Jae wants me, then she will have to do a lot for me to even consider taking her in as she is an orphan madame of a brothel." "You re going to take her in?" "There are two kinds of women that a man like me needs; a tender and yet intelligent wife..." "and a stupid woman who is wiling to sell her soul for survival?" "An emotional sparring object if you will. Hui-Jae comes from the class that is willing to cross any line for survival, and she knows the court inside and out. She can help me out in that aspect, and..." "And her hatred for the Seo girl will bring her to you quicker than you trying to track her down yourself." "Exactly. So, where is she?" "She is currently hiding behind your accommodation and trying to steal some food from the kitchen." "Yeon is going to hate me for this. But then again, she should't have left me without any explanation at all."