Chapter 130: Opium (Apyeon)

"I'm pretty sure that you have a powerful wife waiting for you at home, no matter how much she stalks you." "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 are using 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?" "Be quiet, you are inhaling opium for the first time and you're starting to panic." "Didn't you panic for the first time?" "I was completely numb when I first came here, and I have been numb ever since…" "Yeon left? So have I, to be honest." "I don't know what spell your brat of a sister put on me, but it's worked. And now you get to enjoy the irony of me chasing her around like she used to do to me."

When the effect of the opium began to happen, I did indeed feel more relaxed than I had ever been in my entire life. I literally felt all of my muscles unfolding themselves and I could just let my thought roam freely instead of bottling it all up and trying to make sense of them. I wasn't quick-witted like my sister who could see a solution to a problem within seconds. And I didn't have her patience either; growing up I always knew that my sister outshined me but I didn't care about things that she did like having a god education. I had only ever dreamed of taking over my father's position when he was old enough to retire…but I had to admit that scheming my way to get to the position that I was in now did give me good adrenaline rush and it made me feel powerful for once. I know that I was still nowhere near the level of either the prince or Seon-Ho and that the prince was going to start relying on me to catch Seon-Ho himself. Good god almighty, what web have I been caught in? The Prince was going to turn me against my best friend, who was himself going after my sister so I could never turn my back against him. His wife would also target him, but if he had Yeon with him then she would back down because of her fear against the Prince who could kill her children in her sleep. And if my sister married Seon-Ho, then she would be under the Emperor's protection, which was the safest bet for her. And then what about me? What wolld happen to me when the Prince lost to Seon-Ho? Wouldn't I have become the target of his enemies?

"Relax, I can see what you are worried about. When we become brothers-in-law, I will take care of you as well. And the rest of your men who work for him since they care about you all so much. All you need to do is to find a fall guy." "A fall guy?" "Someone who will take the blame for your sins working for him when you had to save your sister. And don't give me that crap about blaming someone innocent, everything who works for these corrupt people are corrupt themselves. And that is the last thing that you are. Think about it; it was the King who abandon you in the war, he was the one who made you fugitives and desperate for work, and he is the one who owes you for saving his life against my father. So when the time comes and I take down the prince, he will forgive you for the stuff you had to do for him." "You just have everything figured out don't you." "Always." "Everything apart from my sister right? She surprised you in the biggest way possible and even overtook your plans to kill your father and raise your own status. Is that why you can't let her go? Isn't that why you are trying to chase her down?" "And what is your point?" He snapped at me and I could only burst out laughing. "I hope you realise that setting your grudges against my sister have nothing to do with marriage, right? In fact, it is the opposite." "What are you trying to say?" "Do you even know what a marriage is? Have you ever seen one before?" "So you know everything? You know what a marriage is, right? Isn't that why you are avoiding your woman? No matter how much she has done for you, you know she is far too ambitious and bold to become the wife that you need." "Now what are you saying?" "Take her in as a concubine if you must, but find someone else to marry as a main wife."

I couldn't even reply to that so the full effect of the drug was about to kick in and I could no longer talk. But he was right; I loved my woman, but I had missed out on her life in the last 4 years since I was so focused on saving my sister's life. And I guess what happened to us had affected her as well, but not even I could imagine at what cost. She had become more independent, more competitive, she also sought to seek control of people in the palace when they all came to her brothel drunk as a skunk with no hope for their future. Apart from the princes, most of the men that came to the ihwaru brothel were men under powerful people who wanted to spy on their superiors so they can learn how to flatter, to bribe, to cheat their way into more powerful positions with the help of the kisengs who already drank with them and knew their habits and secrets. I had no idea what on earth she was trying to achieve, even though I knew where it was coming from, but she wasn't the type to listen to anyone either. I honestly didn't know where we were going or what we were doing anymore.

I didn't know if minutes or hours went by, but all could remember was that I couldn't even keep my eyes open anymore. And I didn't even know how long they were closed, until someone had suddenly kissed me on the lips. At this point, I couldn't differentiate between reality and dreams anymore since I was having some pretty weird thoughts that I had floating around my head when someone very softly put their lips onto mine. I had no problem kissing her back with full force, since she was my woman after all. But I had never kissed Hui-Jae like this before; our kisses were usually gentle, but not this time. It was full of a passion that I had never known before, never felt before and honestly not one I had thought of ever since I had first met her. But as soon as I regained my senses, I remembered everything that had happened between us and I realised that she still didn't know that I was alive, so she couldn't have kissed me. So if it wasn't her, then who kissed me?