Growing up in an inconspicuous village such as ours, it did leave a particular strive for hunger of gaining merits, both inside and outside of the village. And as for as long as I can remember, there was nobody like The Seo Group in our village who could even compare to that. The Village Chief Seo Hwi suddenly turned up on the day that I was born and his sister was the one who assisted my mother with my brith despite being an unmarried woman at the time and she had kept me close to her ever since her brother managed to fertilise some of the land and allowed my parents to become farmers instead of beggars. I was not an ungrateful child, especially being born a girl into such a time where we were deemed as useless. It was only when Physician Moon-Bok and his wife gave brith to Bo-Geom that all of the villagers collectively changed their attitudes towards women and little girls entirely. The ex-kisaeng dressed up her daughter like a doll and let her be educated by her father at the same time, which myself and many others could provide witness to how many times she helped her father in essentially saving all of us. By the time she was 10 years old, she was already an expert in treating severe colds, stomaches and things of that nature. Soon enough, all of the mothers of the village hoped to educate their daughters alongside their sons for the very first time, and then came along Hana, who was more or less the only equal to her big cousin Chul. Hana dressed like a commoner like the rest of us most days as she was confined to our village for being a female twin, but not even the ugliest of rags could hide her peerless beauty. She was practically her mother's twin and full of her father's personality. She could be as sweet as sugar to people who were sincere and genuine in their motives and interactions, but buddha help the person who was not. Hana had a particularly unique and educated way of torturing her victims, mostly with kindness and with others, she only needed to use her silver tongue that she was born with to expose their misdeeds and let the village laugh at them. She was born with a certain mischievous nature about her that was only forgiven due to her sex, whereas her brother was as a no nonsense sort of person. He was introverted, quiet and observant sort of person; the kind that almost every single mother wish their son would turn out to be. But to myself, I was imagined that he was the sort of person that I would end up marrying,..no, not the sort of person, but the person exactly. A lot of people fell for that aloof act of his, but I personally knew that if he could get along so well with his rambunctious cousins, then there was no way that could be his real self, right? He had to be hiding his true self, but for what reason...?
"Kim Yeong? Eonni? How are you?" "Seo Hyuk? I am well...how are you?" His random greeting caught me so off guard, that I could not even think of what to say to him next. He hardly interacted with anyone, apart from his own family. He helped everyone out as the nephew of the Village Head, but I have never really seen him open his mouth to anyone before... "...I noticed you staring in my direction all morning as I wait for my father to come back from the fields. Is there something on my face or something?" "I...oh no! I was just wondering...thinking about..." "Thinking about what exactly?" "I...I mean..." "You know what? Why don't you accompany me inside my home for some tea whilst I wait for my father? In fact, why not bring your parents along as well? I may have something to discuss with them." My parents? Really? He wanted to talk to my farmer parent's instead of another family that was just as highly educated? I couldn't have ran fast enough to the fields to collect my parents, dressed them in their best clothes and perfume and went to The Nam/Seo home for tea, which eventually turned into a dinner date with the whole family. I had to admit that I was a little taken aback when I saw his sister later on and just completely took over the conversation from a general one to one more specific with a lot of opportunities for my family to take, if only I agreed to her conditions with the full support of her father. I did think that it was strange when she started complimenting my beauty and stating that I was good enough to be taught ladies etiquette and manners straight from the teacher herself; Bo-Geom's mother! Even Hyuk was smiling at me and joined in the conversation quite cheerily when he started to mention what sort of wife he would like for himself as he was 16 year sold at the time and at the perfect age for it. Looking back at that dinner date, he really did do everything to make myself and my family feel as if he would marry me, and why wouldn't he? I agreed to pose as his sister when we went out into the kingdom together, which was my very first time leaving the village. I know it all sounds so stupid because I was technically older than Hyuk, just like Bo-Geom was...it was just that he had that special way of only paying attention to you once you caught his attention. And The Seo's were a capable bunch at such a young age; Bo-Geom was the first to be sent off for her education to become a fully licensed physician, along with Chul who somehow managed to become a Personal Guard of the Emperor himself on some sort of special recommendation. Then soon Hyuk himself started going into the palace on occasion when he was called for, although I still had no idea what exactly he was doing there since he was a master at keeping his life completely private. And then his little brother Hwan and cousin Geom followed pursuit, and overnight, it just seemed as if the entire village lost it's soul without them. Many a time did I witness the Village Chief lost in a daze and looking in the direction that his eldest son left to move into the kingdom. There was a general sadness that was beginning to suffocate us all in the village, so much so that I knew that I had to follow The Seo Twins the day that they moved into the kingdom to follow the cousin Chul with his brother Geom following closely behind. I offered any service that I could just after I had completed 'my kisaeng training', which Hana herself kept on repeating how necessary was for me to have so that I could have a loving relationship with my own spouse like her parents did. And who wouldn't want that? They were the only couple who were so affectionate with each other, that they started to make you girls like myself in our small and isolated village believe in love at first sight and almost want it to the point of fighting for it.
Being in the kingdom opened so many doors for me to become a known socialite under my new alias; as far as everyone was concerned, I was a part of The Seo Family and nobody could say otherwise. Hana even had her father come out to the kingdom a few times and parade as my own father, which was honestly a dream come true for me; to have a man as powerful and as kind as the wealthy Nam Seon-Ho treating me as one of his own and spoiling me until the very end...I should have seen the trap that The Seo's were setting me up for from the very beginning; but being in their inner circle and being accepted was not something that would happen again. I was there when Bo-Geom was accepted in the palace as a physician, I was there when Seo Hyuk and Chul both got their positions in the palace as an Imperial Guard and Astrologist by the recommendation of The Mistress Han and then much later on, he became the tutor of the adopted son of The Third Prince, who was well on his way to becoming the next Emperor. Soon, it was just myself, Hana, Geom and Hwan on the rare occasion that we would venture into the kingdom and spend all of our days shopping, visiting the best places to socialise and looking through the markets to get the best fabrics and other resources for The Village Head's sister who ran the embroidery house that practically fed the village. It was there that I came across The Third Princess entirely on my own, who was rather curios about the materials that I had just bought. I had no idea why back then everyone would compare me to Seo Hana and play this silly little game that we would impersonate each other, but fate seemed to have taken that game seriously, as that day was one of the days when we played that game. She herself was right behind me, but as soon as The Princess introduced herself to me, she had suddenly vanished into thin air and I could not find her for the rest of the day. Nonetheless, I made connections with The Third Prince's daughter along with all of the new friends that I had made in the kingdom with Hana's help, I soon became her new friend that she endlessly vented to about some meddlesome concubine who was known as The Mistress Han. I relayed everything to The Seo's each and every time and soon Geom was the one who came up with the plan of finding a mystery woman that would drive this unknown concubine insane enough to put her in harms way, and the Princess, although I could not understand why, I usually found myself going along with all of their plans just for the sake of it. I was not highly educated at that point, but everything changed for me after I had met The Princess, Hana was insistent that I started to study to become a real socialite to hang onto my new alias here in the kingdom away from the poverty of my parents and at such a young age, it was all that I wished for. Hana, who I thought my friend at the time, even had me study alongside her brother, which was almost a miracle in itself since he hardly allowed her into any of his rooms in that splendid home of theirs. It was another highlight of my trip here in the kingdom where I hardly had to follow any rules or follow through with any sort of routine at all. I could look at Seo Hyuk and be around him as much as my heart wanted to, and I treasured that time immensely; but as soon as Hyuk and Chul made their place in the palace, I started to feel empty in my heart and my mind. I had lost my study and debate partner, the man I would cook meals for and would speak to until the late hours of the morning. To put it plainly, I was heartbroken, to the point where I was naive enough to accept a position to draft myself into becoming a concubine for the adopted son of The Third Prince, Dae-Jung, that was how desperate I was to even get a chance to see Hyuk again, even if it was the one time. But who knew that I would have been accepted on the spot to become an attendant to Dae-Jung? It was Hana who personally educated me and even assured me on the day that I could take her name and identity once again to enter the harem of The Royal Palace. I was chosen when my husband -to-be was rewarded with a second-honour position in his father's court; and he was to take over his father's private army and appoint frontier officials for their family's court.
My first inkling that I had fallen into a trap was that absolutely nobody in the crowd celebrated his achievements at all' nobody cheered or congratulated him at all. The second inkling I had was that I was somehow given a different last name instead of Seo which I had used throughout my summer here in the kingdom, which I knew would instantly cost me all of my new friends that I had made in the kingdom. And the third was that his own adopted father had to personally go out of his way to help his son look good for this farce ceremony; even going as far as sending him his own perineal servant to fix up his clothes and help him sober up in time and even hand him medicine to fix whatever injuries he had sustained prior to that day. But what I was not expecting was how similar he looked like Hyuk and Hwan and even their father! They children could have all been triplets and nobody would have been none the wiser, in fact I remember gasping so loudly to the point where I had garnered some attention from the other chosen concubines and even the adopted son himself, who looked at me so similarly, it felt like I had relived this look before, but from someone else...I truly didn't understand what was going on until myself of all people were sent to my new quarters to begin training to become a concubine...I was going to be a concubine instead of Seo Hyuk's wife, even thought she had as good as told me that I could be as long as kept up with my studies...but now I could see that I was just a tool that was groomed and prepped to become the concubine of a man that The Seo's paired me up with, and I had no idea why or what to do since I had nobody to rely on now, expect for The Third Prince's daughter, who wanted me to become some sort of spy for her in her adopted brother's harem. I didn't have any of my belongings with me, I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to my parents and I couldn't even risk sending a letter to The Seo's in fear of compromising their identities as well as mine. I was disorientated by that days events that it isn't even strike me that I was somebody's wife, until I was introduced to a mistress that went by the name of Jeong, who had some ties to A Master Jang that I was unaware of. She was a domineering woman that had come from The Ihwaru Brothel that myself and Hana were forbidden from entering. Only Bo-Geom could due to her profession, but she didn't make it a routine habit of going there. Who could have known that Mistress Jeong was only the first obstacle that I had to defeat to survive in this ghastly place? And she was the one that held onto the most power despite never being given an official title of a concubine? It seemed as though my studying had paid off despite never taking it seriously myself, only enough to stay by the side of Seo Hyuk, and I was already deemed a threat her due to the special circumstance that I was 'lucky to have.' And as for Dae-Jung himself? Well...