Chapter 142: Backfire (Yeoghwa)

I felt her tremble in my grasp and it was slowly starting to awaken something in me, a sense I thought I would never feel around women, or not even have time to think about. Yeon had already changed in my home but now she looked like a completely different person; she always kept her hair out now which made her look a lot more mature, her clothes weather rags or anything else suited her figure perfectly and her perfume still distracted me. So whenever I felt her tremble, knowing that she was vulnerable only with me…and I loved it. "What's the problem?" "I can't go live with an engaged man? What will people say?" "Since when have you ever cared about what people said about you?" I raised my eyebrows at this, disliking the lengths she was still going through to avoid me. "Of course I don't care what people say about me. It's you and your reputation that I care about." She tired to leave again but this time I had had enough as I hoisted her onto my shoulders and made my way to flag down the nearest carriage to make our way to our new accommodation. Yeon kicked and screamed the entire time but when I sat her down I placed my hands somewhere where I shouldn't have, but it was all I could think of to shut her up enough for us to have a peaceful journey to our accommodation at least. The certainly did the trick as she didn't make a single sound, and she didn't even try to push me away when I kept getting closer to her "The maid disappeared long ago and Hui-Jee was just a stupid crush that should have never happened in the first place. But you won't believe me at all, will you." She looked like she had something to say to me but changed her mind "every word you spoke to me for 4 years was a complete lie, so why would I believe you now? Its probably part of your so-called revenge plan on me." "Oh really? So you're telling me that it's a lie that you're in love with me?" That got her attention as she threw me a very angry look before I replied again "let's see how long you can keep this up for before you completely surrender yourself to me then." "It will be a very long time since I will never let you touch me again. You already have a woman that you need to be faithful to in order to achieve your great plans. Your world has no place for me and I will not become a mistress and my brother will definitely not let me become anyone's concubine, not even yours. So just go home and do not look for me again."

Her words, tone of voice and body demeanour had completely changed in front of me and I had no idea what to do about it. Yeon wasn't someone that I could get violent with and I couldn't even drag her by the hair to keep her with me. This was hurting me a lot more than anything my father and so-called woman Hui-Jee had put me through and it was putting me on edge. Didn't she love me anymore? Did I do too much for Hui-Jae? I needed her but….I also wanted to make Yeon jealous so, did I do too much? Wasn't she supposed to blindly follow me everywhere because of her feelings for me? Why was she making this so difficult for us? Just…please surrender to me so I don't have to scheme around you, Yeon. Do you have any idea what you have already put me through in your absence? Why are you also hiring me just like everyone else does? Why don't you want to stay by my side? Why can't you just look at me as someone who can protect you instead of making me scheme just to have you?

I was in a lot of pain emotionally, to the point where I couldn't get myself off of the ground and I just lay there with my heart trying its best t just be swallowed deep into the ground. Yeon hand't completely left my sight yet and I was still deciding on what my next move should be, when she was suddenly arrested by a group of servants that were associated with the embroidery place that she worked for. I wasn't going to lie, a part of me wanted to see how far she would go on before she eventually begged me for my help. But we had a relationship before we were hit by these deep feelings and I still needed to be there for her, no matter what.

"She didn't steal anything! Ae-Cha is brand new to this place and is only visiting for a few hours! How could she steal charcoal when she has nowhere to put it? You are being far too unreasonable!" "Madame! She is right! I really didn't steal anything at all! Sister? Please help me!" "Shut up! Who do you both think that you are! A burglary has indeed happened in our embroidery rooms and the Masters of this place are not merciful at all. Your friend over here has committed the crime of over-stepping her authority and thus causing our masers harm to their health. We have it on good authority that a maid who wishes to remain anonymous has helped us find traces of ur expensive charcoal on her very chima (skirt)." "But you haven't even bothered to examine the evidence for yourself? Are there no inspector generals around to examine his case first before going straight to punishment? Where is the charcoal then? For we cannot see it anywhere?" "She has obviously hidden it in your quarters! I have already sent men to check!" "Well you shall find nothing, since my quarters was set on fire an hour ago! I am currently homeless with nowhere to sleep tonight!"

"So you are involved in this case after all! What a coincidence that your accommodation should burn down right after stealing from your own workplace!" "Do you have proof of that! Well? Do you? Unless you wish to punish us without evidence, which will have your workplaces shut down in a week once the general inspectors learn about this!" "So you want proof? Very well, I shall give you just that! Men! Have these women stripped searched so we can put an end to this immediately!" I kept looking over at Yeon and just waited for her to finally acknowledge me so I could step in to help her. She should at least have that much trust in me, so I could protect her, even if she could see through my plans for her.

"How dare you! Who are you to conduct a body search on anyone! Aren't you afraid of the repercussions?" "Why can't we conduct body searches on thieves? Give me one reason? Well? Go on then? I am merely instructing my staff, what does it have to do with you at all? Or are you determined to loose this job that you have worked so hard for." All of this time I thought that Yeon was just being stubborn and hard-headed. But the threat of her loosing her job as an embroiderer really just shut her up, which was so unlike her. Maybe I wasn't understanding the situation fast enough since I had grown up with the girl, but maybe this was a bigger deal than I had realised and Yeon must have made many plans within this one plan. Yeon…she really wasn't a little girl anymore. And maybe she had grown up far more than I had anticipated or even wanted to acknowledge.

"Men! Search them thoroughly! Do no let them conceal anything!" "What are you doing! You are not allowed to touch anyone!" "Be quiet! Do you want to wake up the entire village! Stay quiet, lest you shut down our workhouses!" "Yeon! I didn't do anything at all! Do not let them strip me in front of all of these men! Yeon! Please!"

"Just what is going on here!" I didn't give anyone a chance to even touch Yeon before I stepped in, even though I really wished that Yeon would have turned to me for help. But even now as I stepped in to protect her, she wouldn't even look my way at all. She kept her eyes onto the ground and she was very lucky that we were in a public place right now, otherwise I would not have been held responsible for my actions towards her.

"And who are you? Who do you think you are to stop…" "I am a general inspector from the palace itself! Who gave you the authority to body search these women? Your masters are not even present, so what are you playing at? With what authority have you caused this scene? And how do we know that you are the one who in fact burnt down this woman's residence so you can frame her for this act of theft!" "I…well, I…" "Yeon? Who is this man? Is he the one…" "Be quiet, Ae-Cha! Do not interrupt the elders when they speak!" "Maid! Take these women to my residence where they can change into some warm clothes! And I want them back here to take part in this so-called charcoal investigation once and for all. And it will be up to me if this place gets shut down or not, now go!" In hindsight, I should have realised the relationship between the maid and Ae-Cha from the beginning, but the truth was that I really had no idea at the time. My mind was all over the place, which really wasn't like me at all. Who was I to know that what would happen in the future from this very event would change all of our lives, and not necessarily for the better. And it would all start with these pair of girls that we would never look back on again.