Chapter 6: Kang Da-In

I watched him follow her for the 100th time with that...gleam in his eyes that wasn't there before until that bitch wormed her way here into the Nam household. I held onto my glass shell that my father had just bought me from his overseas trip so tightly that it broke in my hands. I had blood pouring down my dress, my jewels, and my dignity; everything Nam Seon-Ho refused to acknowledge ever since his father brought him to his rightful place in his mansion; even if he was illegitimate, he was still a noble.

That girl...Yeon or whatever her name was... She thought I didn't know her and her story, but in truth, I was the same age as him, the handsome nobleman I always saw with those two poor rats trailing after him everywhere like leeches sucking off his nobility. Even if he was a bastard he was clearly better than them. But the girl...his friend's sister who had a crush on him as well...I used to wet myself laughing at how she used to excitedly flatter him whenever she saw him like a jumped up little dog but...but he used to entertain her with a smile whereas myself...he would just give me a cold stare before walking past me like he didn't even know who I was. But I was noble just like him so what the hell made that stupid little epileptic girl more special than me? She didn't even have a father as we did! Or nobility! Or even grace! But he still smiled laughed at her lovingly no matter what she did. He protected her no matter what she did and cared for her no matter what. So why couldn't it be me? I was a Kang for goodness sake! I had enormous wealth that only a fool would pass upon.

All this time I couldn't stop thinking about them together, even though I knew he didn't like her as she did. But there was always something there, something I feel he wasn't acknowledging. Even when his father brought him to the palace long ago and met my family, I always tried to get his attention but he just looked so...miserable without those two leeches, but especially without her even if he didn't know it at the time. When I think back to all those times when he would run like his feet were on fire if he heard her scream in pain, or cry of laughter...whenever she made a noise he was always there for her by her side.

But to think that she went far enough to seduce him by faking her memory loss so she could live with him and do god knows what in the same home only sent me over the edge. I would write her threatening letters warning her to leave him and the mansion, send her bloody animals hacked into pieces, and mess with her things by bribing the servants...but t was strange she never seemed to react to any of it...but now I guess Seon-Ho fell for her tricks and starting caring about her enough to protect her from everything I had put so much effort into...my rage was turning bloody as I had started to take my anger out on the animals my father just got me. I started ripping off the heads of the precious birds when I started to notice him just watch her the minute she moved in. I saw everything from over the wall we had in between our mansions; she gave him a good scare, drawing his own sword at him when she 'couldn't recognise him but he was just fascinated with her! The way he looked at her as soon as her back was turned...and started watching her in her room when she had no clue... I couldn't help but think back to all times I tried to welcome him to the neighbourhood but he just looked at me with disgust.

I screamed in frustration; ripping off my new clothes and throwing them onto the floor. What was it going to take for him to look at me the way he's been looking at her? Did I have to dress like a ghost to get his attention? Should I fake epilepsy? Why couldn't he see that I was a beautiful noblewoman without my biological mother just like Nam Seon-Ho was a handsome man without his own mother...together we just completed each other.