Chapter 100: Yi Bang-Gan (The Second Prince)

I ran back home to find her as soon as I could to ask her why she ran away and interrupted our little session that I wasn't over yet. I ran straight past my father who was waiting for me and I ran to her room, but she had blocked the door. At this point I had completely lost control of my senses, and after everything I had been though I didn't care about etiquette and societal behaviour as I needed Yeon to take care of me as soon as possible. I had almost broken the door at this point but I had completely forgot about the random people that were in and out of my father's mansion, and now had him on my heels to deal with as I saw him coming straight for me. The last thing I wanted for him to do was to bother Yeon so I had no choice but to divert his attention away from her. But before he cold even get a word in edgewise we all heard a carriage pull up in front of the mansion, and within seconds we all had servants running around like headless chickens. I didn't even have time to ask them what had happened, that brainless Prince Bang-Gan came strolling in with the usual amused look on his face. Even my father looked speechless before he caught onto what was going on and made his respective bow.

I looked over at my father and I almost snorted in laughter when I saw how desperate he got; his eyes really lit up upon seeing the prince and so did his demeanour like the only reason the prince had shown up was to save him and redeem his place in his fathers palace. He ignored us completely while he kept chuckling at the sight of the precious Nam mansion being treated like it was part of the market place. My father started grovelling at this point at one one the most simple and naive princes that existed as if he would do him ant favours in the first place. But the minute he did that, the Prince couldn't stop looking pleased with himself at they sight of him when he told him that it was Yeon he came to see instead. My heart almost dropped, the look on Yeon's face when we were brought into the palace that this was the last place she wanted to be and I knew for a fact that her brother wouldn't like it either. And before he could let me talk he had already made his way inside our home as if he knew it inside out and sat on my father's favourite table just as Yeon herself came out looking just as stunned as I did. The Prince's men cleared out the mansion so we could continue with...whatever was going on.

He had his men carry alcohol to the table and pour out a line of drinks for himself and another person as he called Yeon over to the table. I closed my eyes in frustration; Yeon hated vices such as drinking, god knows she had given myself and her brother enough lectures to last us a lifetime, but who was I to interfere with a Prince's wishes? A part of me already wished that she didn't come back to my mansion if people from the palace were going to be looking for her. I still couldn't get the way that Prince Bang-Won still looked at her that day out of my head as his brother proceeded to converse with her. He started off by complimenting her for how he posed that plot to his father as a woman and Yeon managed a small weak smile before he encouraged her to take a drink. The look on her face had me concerned as I could tell she was trying not to throw up on the spot. He talked to her a little bit about their brothers before he got down to business, and hired her to work in the palace under him as a lady-in-waiting in the new year.

I almost collapsed onto the floor in shock...no....no! Yeonnie was the one pure thing that I had in my life that was far away from the palace as anyone could be and that was where I wanted her to stay! How could I consider her my escape if she was once again to be confined in the same place that I was! And how was I going to explain this to her brother when it clearly looked like I had a hand in this? I could also see the mixed emotions in her face, she looked like she was going to cry for a second before she seemed to come to terms with the request with the saddest look on her face, although she did request if she could start at a much later time as she wanted to spend some time reconnecting with her brother. They carried on drinking and talking; he wasn't exactly hiding the fact that he clearly took a unique interest in her despite the rumors of his sexuality spreading all across the kingdom. The more he smiled and laughed at her the more angrier I was getting, to the point where had cut my hand with my sword and didn't even realise it until my father nudged me for the mess I was making in front of our royal company. I saw that Yeon had noticed as well and looked at me with a concerned look before I stormed off to my old room where I had to start packing anyways and I waited for her to come and find me.

I waited, and I waited, thinking that she would come for sure to tend to me but I was actually getting worried when she didn't show up. I had to eventually send out a servant to find her but when they told me that Bang-Won had taken her to a party that was happening in the village, I ended up tearing my room apart in fruition. From the Princes, to that boy that came to collect her...out of all the women in the village, why did it have to be Yeon that they wanted! Yeon, who everyone else ignored form the beginning! So why did all of them flock to her now! I was the one she liked from the beginning! The only one! I pushed her away multiple times, kept her at at a distance an even had to be a little mean to her on a few occasions but she acted like none of that ever happened as she just kept coming towards me and me only. But in the end I had had enough of sulking around on my own,, if Yeon had taught me anything, it was not to wait around for anything to happen. I bathed, got dressed in my dress robes before making my way to this so-called party.

There was a wedding party going on and all the guests had started dancing around the venue full of cheer and liquor. The prince had seated himself with the families and had his beady little eyes fixed on someone in the crowd. I tried to follow his gaze and I almost had my breath taken away when I saw Yeon dressed beautifully in an outfit that complimented her figure that I was dying to see more of. She had her hair held up loosely which made her look much more mature than I had ever seen her, her makeup accentuated her features and she had her regular infectious smile on her that could have lit up a whole village...but she was dancing with that guy again.

After what seemed like an age she finally saw me just as I was about to storm off again. This time she had finally excused herself from him and she began to chase me. She caught up to me a few times but I kept pulling myself away from her until she had to throw her arms around my waist from behind me to stop me. She apologised for not chasing me up before and explained that she couldn't leave the Prince's side and that he wouldn't let her. She took my hands into hers to examine the state that they were in before dragging me to a pharmacy to clean me up. "Who is that man? Who do you know him? Where did you meet him? What is your relationship? What does he do for you? How many times do you meet up?" I unloaded all these questions onto her and she couldn't help but start laughing at me. I was getting angry at her and she knew it, but when he asked me the same exact questions about the kisengs in the gibangs where I used to drink, she had put me in my place...which just infuriated me even more. Until this day I had never really come across someone who could shut me up so easily and I wasn't used to this. The more silent I was the more amused she was until I just continued to stare at her. I asked her why her face kept heating up every time I looked at her and she couldn't answer me at all. She tried to leave a few times but I kept pulling her down until I had to physically force her onto my lap and to throw my arms around her so she couldn't move. She froze onto my lap as I began to trace her facial features that I had never noticed before getting a whiff of her perfume and I started to lean in close to her to the point that my nose was resting on her cheek. Thing were going well until my hands suddenly had a mind of their own as they started to wonder up her top. It was at this point that she started to freak out a little but I was getting impatient now, there were very clearly a lot of passionate feelings between us, so why was she fighting it? And why hadn't she officially confessed her feelings to me that the entire village knew she had for me? We were almost fighting each other at this point as we...just completely lost in each other that I soon found myself on top of her. We both froze momentarily before I made the choice to progress the situation...until my hand came into contact with a very large bruise I had noticed in the centre of her back...but before I could even ask her about it she had pushed herself off of me and ran before I could even begin to catch up with her. I just stayed where I was, wondering what the hell I was doing and why I couldn't control myself around her all of a sudden...and I needed to find what exactly it was she was hiding from me and why. In fact, I already knew that Yeon had been working behind my back and I knew of the harsh treatment that she suffered and never spoke of. That was how she was able to gather information about everyone and do what she did. But as she hadn't spoken of it to me, I could only wait until she decided to trust me, before I could do anything to her in return.

But from that point on she avoided me every chance she got, and my anger and confusion got the better of me. I ignored her for a few weeks, thinking that she would come to me and she did, but it was only when she thought I was asleep. She tended to me in such a way I hadn't seen before that I had a hard time controlling my tears. She took care of my training wounds, she brushed my hair out when I was asleep, she straightened my clothes, lit up incense that she thought would hope me sleep better and it did. She even began stroking my hair with enough force that it really did help me loosen up a lot more around her. I could feel her wrap herself around me every night but during day time she was nowhere to be seen, or rather she was avoiding me and my questions that she refused to give me. But her stay was coming and end and I had to do something to make her confess to me; at this point , revenge or not I had no idea how attached I was to her before all of this happened. And now her brother wanted to marry her off as soon as he got home? Was he being serious? He was so protective of his sister that he didn't let her out of their home unless I was there. God knows I made my mistakes and I would post certainly pay for them for the rest of my life, but who on earth was he going trust with her in this lifetime apart from me? maybe...maybe he had figured something out? And he was just testing me? No...there was no way he could know anything before I told him myself, that was the very least that he deserved. Yeon was an entirely different matter, so I hired a few men at my own new expense to get in with Hwi so I could place him on my path. Wherever he wanted to go I would bear the financial responsibility and know the locations of where he would take his sister at all times. And when he finally did, I had enough men ready to report her new location to me so I could swoop in as soon as I was done with my work. And in the meantime, Yeon busied herself in her own self-studies whilst she regained her freedom in town. For probably the first time in her life since her father met his unfortunate end, she was no longer confined to her home and was now entitled to all the freedom that no other women in strict households were accustomed to, which did cause some problems for her, but it was nothing that she could not handle.