Chapter 47: Han Hui-Jee

As soon as I heard her name I recognised her immediately. Since Yonnie had regained her memories I was the first person she sought out. At first I wasn't going to tell her anything but as soon as she showed me who she really was without her epilepsy; her strength, her wisdom, her stubbornness and her...knowledge in military affairs I was in pure awe of her at how she hid herself so well I ha don choice but to disclose everything I knew...not that she was surprised, she had already guessed most of it. What did strike me about it though was that she was not at all angry about that despicable Seon-Ho and how she was basically his hostage. I knew she had always liked him since the day we flew kites together, but this was going too far...until sh din turn disclosed to me how the whole ordeal took place. I had guessed it anyways but I guess Seon-Ho's denial about it made me resent him more than I should...I realised with small humiliation and a little regret that he did in fact receive a lot of hate for the deeds his father carried out as he himself was untouchable. I knew his father forced him to tear the Seo siblings apart but I had no idea he was behind every action Seon-Ho took when I assumed he did it out of greed for his own ambitions.

I knew Yeon had a plan but she took her time with me as we did only meet once 2-4 years ago...but I knew she had trusted me because she easily saw...the loving bond I had with her brother. I introduced her to my closest friend in the gibang; Hwa-Wol and we started bonding as women as Yeon's mother had died very early in her childhood and she wasn't surrounded by any women at all. It was myself and my friend and a few other kisengs she got comfortable with that showed her the true meaning of womanhood; something she was clueless about although she had no fault in that. We taught her how to use makeup, how to shop for the right clothing materials, the importance of accessories and scents...before I knew it I had given her a kiseng education as I could tell she had a lot of plans and tricks up her sleeve until it was the right time to take Nam-Jean down. I finally felt close enough with her to disclose my mother's case which was the reason why I chose to stay in her gibang that I grew up in. No more than a day or two later she came back with information that I had spend most of my life looking for. It took her and Hwa-Wol and even Madame Soul to hold onto me all night as her brother was nowhere to be found as usual as we confirmed it was Nam-Jean who ordered her death. And when we figured it was tied into her brother's plan which she had already guessed on her own since she had been following him when she could, that was when she started involving myself and Hwa-Wol in her plans. The sooner it was done the sooner we could be reunited with our men for good.

Yeon wrote me letters either daily or weekly depending on what she had been up to in order to cover her tracks to her brother in case anything untoward happened. We both knew he would have a heart attack if he knew what his baby sister was really up to despite her already meeting him and telling her the brief description of her plan. We both knew of every soul she had interacted with both in the Nam mansion and outside of it; to her tutors, her work colleagues...and even the fact that it was Chief Park who was secretly training her upon the wishes fo her late father who wanted to teach Yeon himself...before his untimely death. I informed her about her brother's new friends which she met privately unknownst to her brother and kept them as informed as I was. We were already a growing family all together, but for some reason she insisted on protecting Seon-Ho as well. As unhappy as I was I couldn't say anything about it; myself and Hwi were both angry with him, rightly so. But I knew deep down that he would be just in as much pain if anything happened to them as well so from the moment I had her trust, which was not easy coming from her I decided to keep my mouth shut about Seon-Ho. I was still resentful towards him and was not in the mood to apologise for my behaviour any time soon.

We had everything how we wanted it; I even had kisengs ready to wait on her orders as she requested, she even passed their instructions onto me first my only condition in helping her was that I was not to be left in that dark at any point at all. If she wanted to use my women I had to know why. And it wasn't a hard request; Madame Soul was a lot more tender to her than her brother on account of their father. She recognised a lot of him in he, so she was free to use the gibang however she wanted. But I sensed that there was something going on with her deep down...and Seon-Ho as well. I knew that for a long time he kept coming to my gibang to hear news about Hwi rather than chase me, which he gave up a quicker than I had expected. But something else was going on with him as well, he was getting drunk way beyond his limits for a while now. I could sense the usual guilt he had, accompanied by...longing, vitally and a new sense of determination and purpose. At first I was angry at his selfishness...but now that I saw him on a few occasions with Yeon, it was starting to make a lot more sense. The once proud but pained and shameless man who pursued his only friend's woman for only a few months had now turned into a lovesick little puppy trailing on her shadow, it was like he was a completely new person! Yeon was Seon-Ho's lifeline, and the light in her brother's eyes, and myself and Hwa-Wol had a hard time not adoring her, she won almost everyone over with her kindness and patience.

However there were 2 girls Yeon was particularly weary about; Seon-Ho's servant Kim Chun-Ae and his neighbour, Sang Da-In. I remembered Chun-Ae well from ihwaru although we were not close. She was one of the few unfortunate ones who had no choice but to...help her mother out as a young kiseng. Her plight reminded me to to thankful for my own situation...I was not a kissing myself but it did not stop other's from assuming the worst from me. She kept close to her masters so I couldn't really touch her although I kept her in the back of my mind as I had to deal with this girl now who tried to make Yeon suffer more than she already had to...and I was not happy about that at all. "So...you're the girl who's been making my sister-in-law and her platonic brother miserable" I took a good look at her; she was young for sure but she carried a lot of arrogance and airs that a lot of noblewoman in our village did. And her attitude towards me was the same as the rets of them which only pissed me off a lot more than I already was. I should be by Hwi's side right now but I had to deal with this bitch first whilst they were locked in the palace until the trial began.

She screamed and cried at my very touch; my apparent filthy low-born touch so I couldn't help myself but slap her a few times before I tasked Hwa-Wol with the questions. I needed to release every emotion I had bottled up since I was separate form my lover just as soon as I met him for almost 4 years. We interrogated her about everything she did to them both...and she didn't even deny anything. We were thinking about what to do with her so I could take my mind off not being with our men when suddenly Madame Soul walked into the room...with her papers declaring that her parents had cut her off for embarrassing them after leaving her fiancé and that they wanted nothing more to do with her...and they had signed papers that they wanted to leave her here.

The look on her face was completely priceless; it was as if someone had doused her in ice-cold water. She literally couldn't utter a word as she was picked up and dragged to an empty room we had, ready for her new life.