Chapter 111: Seon-Ho/ Hwa-Wol

I thought about calling out to her again, but then I had second thoughts, so I hid myself before she could even turn around properly. Now just what the hell what she up to now? Why would she change her appearance again if she wasn't up to something? I saw her look around again until she was called in for a meeting of some sort. I followed her as soon as all of the women disappeared but not before she ran into what appeared to be the madame of the establishment. I kept myself out of sight but close enough at the same time in case she needed my help; by the way the madame and the other girls were staring at Yeon, it was already clear that she was not popular at all in this place. "...so, the tutor had agreed to come out of retirement just to teach you ever since he heard you show off your talents to him for all the world to see. You know, if it isn't bad enough that the girls that we house here are all of noble lineage and we barely have any men around to take a look at them, now you; a lowborn phrased epileptic comes and steals all of the attention that should be given to them as if you're actually worth something! Why exert all of this unnecessary effort if you know that no man will ever want you?" She scoffed, before she bumped into Yeon so hard that she almost fell onto the floor...but not before Yeon moved ever so slightly no the madam had no choice but to fall onto the floor face first! In front of everyone! She didn't even look back as she made her way outside again as I followed her out towards the market with no supervision at all! I know she was grown up now but I really didn't like the fact that she just went anywhere at all without any fear of harassment or bad talk about her. But that was the difference between us; because of what my father had put me through my entire life I was constantly conditioned to be flawless in my appliance and think 5 times before I took any action at all. But Yeon...she had never cared what anyone thought about he even form the beginning. She didn't look at the people who mocked her fits...she only cared about her brother...and myself...

She courted a lot of attention as she made her way, but she was completely oblivious to it a she made her way to an old noble home that looked like it hadn't been taken care of in a while. She greeted the old man who appeared to be waiting for her quite fondly before they stared taking a wha around the front courtyard. I was honestly quite impressed when I recognised him, my father used to try to do everything he could to hire this renowned tutor for my brother, but he never could quite fathom how much he was despised by everyone he thought worshipped him. "...did anyone give you a hard time about myself coming out of retirement just to teach you?" "Well...it's not important sir, I just want to learn everything that I can." "Well,, I have to say that it I most unusual for women to become this highly educated. There are some women who possess a high intelligence level...but I have to admit that with your beauty...are you sure that you would not rather just settle down into marriage?" That question stopped her in her steps as it did mine. I needed to hear this answer no matter what.

"No...no I do not think I could marry at all." She replied quietly as she kept her face pointed to the ground as she kept walking along. "Really? That is a big decision for a woman to make as it is their main duty in society, to marry and to provide their husbands with children..." "...from the moment I had my first epileptic fit in public, I knew that I would never have that privilege...courting, dates, finding love...having children...even if my epilepsy has been dormant for years, that filth is still mixed in with my blood. So how can I dare to think that I could serve a man or give him children with my condition...it would be extremely selfish of me..." "I imagine you have already countered that possibility?" "I...I dumbed myself down for a decade; no makeup, baggy rags, childish hair and behaviour..." "well well, I wasn't wrong about you. It takes a strong person to prepare for a lifetime of loneliness, and you haven't seemed to have left any details out..." I collapsed onto my knees when I heard this...and I had so much regret about how I treated her and saw her. I could've done better. I should have paid more attention to her from the start. I should have spent more time with he ran my father's home instead of creating so much distance between us that she had clearly gotten used to. Who knows what she knew and heard about me when she was putting on that act? But most importantly...why did she hide it from me? Why did her brother hide it from me from the moment he had introduced me to her? Why?

I just sat on the cold ground, oblivious to the servants who were walking past me and taking about me as I heard the rest of their conversation about her education plan, which I couldn't help but notice was almost identical to mine...but how would she know that? But luckily she seemed to have already half completed her studies. I couldn't even imagine that such a thing would make me as nervous as I was becoming; she was taking on far more subjects than even I would have been able to comprehend at the same time...but when I heard her say that she was also taking on 'a kiseng education' I had had about al I could take and I planned on confronting Hui-Jee once and for all. Yeon was becoming far too bold for her own good and now I knew who was responsible for this. She was so damned reckless that every step she took by herself unchaperoned and without he broth ray her side was enough to cause me so much stress...she couldn't go on like this, no matter what her plans were now.

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I had just settling down after a long day managing the gibang after the passing of the former madame, a very close friend of my long dead mother who worked in this very establishment. I had just began to undress when I seemed to notice a man staring at me far off in the reflections of the mirror. I didn't even have time to turn around; as soon as I caught wind of his familiar scent, I turned around and I instantly ran up to Moon-Bok and his men, who had chosen to surprise me. I had seen Yeon do this so many times with her brother but I had hard had him to myself from the moment we met. We were either always constantly around other people, taking care of his sister or doing errands for the third prince. Even when he came here it was always with his men...so now that we were finally alone I couldn't help but feel...excited. "I take it you missed me" he chuckled, holding me even tighter. "No, don't let go yet, I'm not done with you." I held onto him for as long as I could before I could feel some of his old scars getting hard and rigid as if he had not tended to them like he promised me that he would. I let him go and I shot him a sour look but he only looked at me apologetically before I just rolled my eyes and I pulled him into another room where we kept the medical equipment. But of course, I could never get things to go my way. We were barely alone for 10 minutes before a very angry Seon-Ho can bursting in the room ad demanding that we have a talk, but from the way that Hwi was rolling his eyes I thought that maybe he was just angry in the moment and that he would have a chance to calm down since I didn't know him that well. I was wrong.

"What's the matter?" I asked him in a dull tone "do you have any idea what that brat of a sister of yours is up to now?" He almost shouted at Hwi who just pretended to ignore him as I still tended to his man. "She's at the etiquette place I sent her to and completing her education? What's wrong with that?" "Are you kidding me right now? You would get a heart attack when you couldn't find her at home after we trained and you just sent her off alone!" "Well, it's not like I've got much of a choice now is it! Remind me again, who exactly got me involved with the damned prince in the first place? And how? For how many years!" Hwi seethed, getting just as flared up as Seon-Ho was, but I remembered that Yeon warned me to keep out of their fights since it was rare and it would always blow over in a matter of minutes. "If I wasn't forced to do what I did then believe you me, I would have taken my sister somewhere far away so we could forget the past and start over again. But now the Prince won't let me go and I have no choice but to have her in various people's care in my place when I am gone. The madame-in-charge is a contact of one of Chief Park's acquaintances so I have no choice but to put my trust in that, since I am now bound to the palace thanks to you and our father." He spewed bitterly before turning on Seon-ho "and why do you suddenly care about my sister and what she does? If I am not mistaken, I'm pretty sure that you have a powerful wife waiting for you at home." "she...is not my wife and she never will be." "Your concubine then or whatever" "No! You don't get it...she's not even my concubine. Legally...she's nothing at all...she's just..." "...someone you took in to make Yeon jealous?" I finished incredulously. I could barely recognise him to be honest, this was not the man I met when I met his best friend Hwi and this was most certainly not the man who pursued me as...as if it was expected of us. But looking at this man now and how angry he was getting that the woman he had never considered as anything more than a sister for a decade and had kept her at a fair distance for the entirety of her stay, was now so far away from him...he looked like he was a man possessed...

I do not really know why but in that moment I swore that I felt a tinge of...jealousy? From what I had witnessed they had barely got to spend any time together and he was already raging like a mad man when he had no rights to her at all...as for myself and Hwi..."you cannot be serious. You got the girl who tortured my sister and you thought that would make her want to stay with you? And here you are, asking me to marry Yeon alongside that poisonous little...how on earth do you expect me to take you seriously when you want to take the most precious thing I have and do what exactly? Torture her with that witch around her because I hid my sister's true nature from you?" "You are really going to just leave her there? Penniless?"

"Yeon isn't penniless, she is sure to be working odd jobs everywhere she goes." I really regretted not saying that quietly but it was too late now and I had to tell her bother exactly how she made money so they would both stop fretting over her. "What do you mean?" "Look around you, have you not noticed how quiet the gibang has gotten?" "Hwa-Wol" "Yeon...she gave the kisaengs here house training so that they had more options in life. And it worked; most of the girls here have been married off and are flourishing in their new roles as housewives that they paid for. So Yeon has money, don't you worry about that."