Chapter 47: Daleun (Different)

I had to get out of here before I did something that I regretted, because now was clearly the wrong time for me to ask him anything. And I had no idea why he was trying to sow discord between myself and the Young Master, but I still couldn't fully comprehend what sort of relationship I had with him. I only knew that I should never abandon him, and that feeling went deep down into my bones, no matter what he did. "I will visit you later on, I must continue with my chores now." "No wait!" "What is it now?" "You...you need to bathe." "Excuse me?" "You stink of rotten fruit, you should take a bath. Now that you are on punishment, I am afraid that it will be harder for you do these simple tasks since everyone has a reason to bring you down now." "You want me to bathe here? Isn't it inappropriate?" "Like I said, all of your daily rituals will get a lot harder from now on because you are on punishment. So it is better to just get it over with here." "What about the Young Master? Where is he?" "He is recovering from a cold he has, no-one is allowed to visit him when he is sick." "I see. Ok then, I just need my..." "I already have a change of clothes here waiting for you." "Dal? What happened to you? To your face?" "You can ask your precious Young Master. If you are ready to hear the truth that is." "And what is that supposed to mean?" "He isn't as innocent as you think he is. We all carry some childhood trauma, you more than anyone I have ever known. And I know for a fact that you will never do what he has done." "Are you going to explain yourself further or leave me in the dark like this? Just like he does?" "If you want information, I can give you that. But it depends on what you will do for me." What an overbearing and ill-mannered bull of a man, why couldn't he just give me what I wanted without all of these silly riddles and games? I fear that I may be a middle-aged woman by the time I figured out what was really going on with my stay here in this mansion, that was if Nam-Jeon was generous enough to let me stay here for that long. So after having one last look at the room, I proceeded to use his bath which was even more luxurious than mine. And for the first time in a while, I didn't have anything to distract me as soon as I submerged myself in the water for the first time since the accident happened, and it was not a pleasant feeling at all.

I was bathing in hot water that almost burnt my skin, but all I could remember was the ice cold water that I was pushed into that day. I was beyond frightened for the first few moments since I did not remember that I could swim, but what about the boys? How frightened and helpless must they have felt? And why wasn't there anyone to help them? What on earth could have happened to them if that girl didn't save them in time? And who were they? Was the second boy ok? Was he still alive? Was any of what I saw in the water even real at all or was I just imagining things? But why did my heart always feel like it was going to jump out of my chest and my stomach tied itself in knots when I thought about it? The very memory made my hands tremble, but why? There was nobody else there apart from the three children, so how could I have possibly witnessed what had happened? Unless...

"DAL! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND! WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT GIRL DOING IN YOUR QUARTERS?"I was so caught off guard that I almost jumped straight out of the bath and I barely had time to dress myself again before I heard Seon-Ho burst through the doors and almost tear Dal apart. I was still getting dressed behind the screen, but I could still get a small peak behind it and just in time to see Seon-Ho grab Dal by the collar and outright slam him against the wall by the entrance with an already very bruised set of knuckles. "My Lord! What are you..." "I told you! I told you the last time I was here that you are to stay away from her! Haven't you learnt your lesson yet!" "But she is being bullied my lord! And she doesn't deserve it!" "Whether she is being bullied or she lives like a queen under my roof, that is my concern and not yours! Yeon! Come out of here right now!" I was honestly too scared of him in this moment not to obey him, so I tried to come out as quickly as I could without escalating matters any further. "My Lord, what about..." "Do NOT bring up that girl's name ever again!" He didn't even look at me once as came bursting in through the bathing area and he just grabbed my arm and dragged me back to my room without an explanation.

"Wait! Young Master! You're hurting me! Please let me go! Stop!" I had to step out in front of him and out of sheer impulsiveness, I threw my arms around him to stop him in his tracks and calm him down. And it seemed to work for a couple of minutes and even felt his arms slowly wrapping themselves around mine. But in a split second he got angry all over again and dragged us both into my quarters and he shut the door behind us. "Seon-Ho..." "Just what the hell were you thinking! Are you usually this brainless! How could you possibly go to a man's quarter's to take a damned bath!" "He told you already! I am being punished because of what your concubine did and I am getting bullied left, right and centre! He told me it wasn't going to be easy for me to do my daily..." "is that the excuse he gave you! So he can say anything to you and you will just fall for it!" "What on earth is your problem! Why are you so angry at me! What have I done here apart from helping you with your plans!" "Plans? My plans? Is that all you can think of talking about between us!" "Well, what else do you expect! You always shut me out when it comes to talking about anything else!" He couldn't reply to that and he knew it, but I couldn't just let him leave without explaining himself to me. So I got in his way again and I blocked my doorway so he couldn't possibly just walk out. "Get out of my way." "Explain yourself to me. Why are you so angry at me?" "Because you are a liar." "Excuse me?" "You promised me that you wouldn't get close to anyone here. You have barely exchanged more than a few words with my servant, and you trust him enough to bathe in his quarters! Have you completely lost your head!" "Well at least he goes out of his way to talk to me! He listens to me and takes care of me!" "He does that on my orders!" "So why aren't you doing that yourself! Why does your father hate me so much! What have I ever done to him! Why do you both take your anger out on me!" Even now there was so much I could tell that he was dying to tell me things that he was being forced to hide from me and I was seriously beginning to loose my mind.

"Get out of my way." "You are not leaving here until you give me my answers! God forbid I do not want to offend you again, even though I sill have no idea what is setting you off like this!" 'Are you sure about that?" "What are you talking about?" "Why are you really holding me hostage here?" "I have already told you...." "Why do you keep doing this? You talk to me nonstop, you make me promises that you cannot keep and you still get so under my skin that I cannot stand it!" "I get under your skin? Me? Am I the problem here? Well, I sincerely apologise for being a burden to you since I have lost my memories. So you had better go and accompany your concubine instead of wasting time with me here!"

Any chance I had of storming off away from him was limited when he actually put his arms around my waist to grab ahold of me and keep me against my wall with his arms pressed next to my head. "That isn't what I meant and you know it." "So what do you mean then? Well?" "Where are you going now?" "I have chores to do in case you haven't noticed! Have you already forgotten that I am on punishment? Because of that concubine that you still haven't rid us of yet? And what is taking so long?" "Be quiet you brat, she will be gone by the end of today." Good, now let me go..." "Not yet." "Now what?" "I have to talk to you." "About what?" "About what happened in the water." "What are you talking about? You tried to save me and I saved you in the end. What is there to talk about?" "You. Where...look, I know that you cannot remember anything, but I need you to tell me if you can where you learnt to swim?" "And why is that important?" I tried to remain as calm as I could under the unusual circumstances, but I had a habit of forgetting how well Seon-Ho knew me before my memory loss, which was actually more than most married couples in this nation. "I am asking you because before you lost your memories, you have never even been in waters that deep before." "So what?" "Yeon, you do not know how to swim, not the way that you did when you...saved me." "I...I have no idea...I cannot answer that question until you begin to answer mine. I really do need to leave now before your father..." "What is wrong with you? Since when dd you become so desperate to get away from me?" "Will you stop taking everything so personally? Not everything that I do revolves around you, you know." I might as well have slapped him with the reaction he was giving me, but I was getting fed up of dealing with his unpredictable anger that never seemed to stop. There was always something that triggered him and I was always the one he was taking it out on. He never talked to me properly and he knew that I couldn't remember anything, and he still expected me to be able to read his mind.

"Do you really hate me that much?" "I do not hate you at all." "Then why are you being this way?" "Because I am confined, frustrated and in the dark all of the time. How would you feel if you were in my place? But of course, you haven't considered it at all have you?" "I am trying Yeon, I really am. But I cannot do everything on my own." "You wouldn't have to do everything on your own if you just opened up to me! I can help you and you know it."

He was still so close to me that I could feel his breath on my neck and his hands were actually cupping my face, as if to offer me the smallest fraction of warmth that he had left. And it really did go a long way, in fact, I almost ended up collapsing on top of him. I didn't want to be angry anymore, I didn't want to feel this frustrated, and I just wanted to feel...like I wasn't invisible, not anymore. I wanted to be in the beginning, but every single day I woke up without my memories, I woke up with dread and anxiety that I could no explain at all. There was something important that I was forgetting, import enough to make me suddenly come up with plans of freedom instead of just helping the Young Master peacefully. But there was no way that I could just abandon him either, not after everything that he had done for me. Surely, surely there must be some way for me to persuade him to leave this home before carrying out his grand plans because it was just taking far too long now.

"What are you doing?" "Please, please can we not just leave this home before you..." "I promise you that if I could do that, I would have never brought you here. My father...I just need his power and I..." "And what? Please talk to me, tell me so I can help you..." "You cannot help me, nobody can..." "But why?" "Yeonna...if you knew the truth...then you will leave me just like everyone else has. And you promised me that you wouldn't...".