"Hello Noble Lady Nam; did you miss me?" "Good morning Your Lordship, how are you?" "I have just heard about this so-called concoction that The Mistress Jeong is making everyone have; did you drink it?" "I did not Your Lordship' I declared to the entire harem that my service for you was more important than her irresponsible orders ever could be." "You have done well Noble Lady, I have never seen anyone stand up to her in the way that you have so far." "Your Lordship...I wonder if it is appropriate for me to make a request to you?" "Well, this would be the first time that you have ever done so; what it is?" "Do you think that you can start calling me to serve you at least a few nights a week? It doesn't have to be every night, but a few nights at least." "And why would you call for this request? What do you have in mind?" This is now where I stuck on giving him that answer, especially with the way that he was looking at me so intensely that once again my mind took me back to the times where I would study side by side with Seo Hyuk. They had exactly the same intense gaze, that low husky voice when they talked very seriously and they even had the same thick eyebrows and lashes that kept on distracting me whenever I looked upon them, and I could do that for hours...
"My Lady? Why are you swinging so aimlessly? Shall I push you instead? Or should you like to go back to sleep, as you look quite tired." "Nonsense, it hasn't been that long since I woke up. Maybe it is just the Spring time that is making me quite fatigued lately..." "Valerian root is a very powerful flowering plant that is native here in Asia. It bears sweetly scented pink or white flowers that attract many different type of species...why do I have to learn all of this Hana?" "These socialites here in the kingdom are ruthless and are not above using everyone in the power to take our their competition, especially in the marriage market. You do not want someone else approaching my father to marry my brother, isn't that right?"
"Wait a minute, where is this new medicine that the physicians have been sending over to me? Na which physician has been sending it over to me?" "The Mistress Jeong is in charge of this harem, everything I s determined by her..." "So it was her and not The Princess herself?" "Well, we all just assumed that..."
"But what she is doing with this soup doesn't make any sense! We all know by now that one of His Lordship's mistress's died during her labour and that The Mistress Jeong has taken over for caring for the child. It even passed the blood test and nobody can dare to challenge that....but yet again...how many times does the eldest son inherit the throne? There are in fact more instances than one where brothers and fathers and sons and even cousins shed blood for the throne. Where there is power; multiple factions shall arise and...but that still does't make sense. If the baby passed the blood test, then why would The Mistress Jeong still carry out such a move? What does she have left to feel insecure about?" "My Lady...there are some rumours going around that he baby looks nothing like His Lordship...in fact, The Mistress has fired all servants to dare to comment about the baby's looks..." "She must be connected to the death of that mother then, why won't anyone look into this?" "Supposedly The Princess is, but she cannot find any evidence against The Mistress, that is why she has been actively away from court for some time now." "Bring my old physician to me straight away, I already feel sleepy after taking this medicine." "You have already slept quite a lot these past few days though..." "Exactly; do you not also feel that something is amiss with this medicine? Go find him discreetly and ask for a simple routine check please." "What if he refuses to come after what you did to him?" "Forget it, I shall have to go instead." I still had a lot to make up for to Bo-Geom in order to take down The Mistress Jeong and to bridge the connection between myself and The Seo's. I had no idea how this was going to work, but I still couldn't just give up before I had tried everything that I could to salvage the situation. Or so I thought before i was directed to her personal chambers after I had been very vocal about seeing him alone, only to have walked right into an...intimate session between Bo-Geom and Seo Hyuk, who were trying to be as quiet as possible.
It was in that very moment that finally felt my heart shatter into pieces as I watched the man that I had always fantasied about myself making love to his wife right in front of me. And just as I had always imagined, he was the one in full control of his wife's right in there bedroom. "S-stop. Please husband, we must stop before someone sees us..." hearing the girl moan like that was driving me crazy; they were even too busy to even see that I had stepped into the room. What choice did I have other than to back away slowly and try to calm myself behind her doors?
"I haven't seen you for a while now wife; and you promised to give me children as soon as you could..." "When did I say that? And more so, it does not give you the right to just barge in here and...." "And?" "Take what you please just like that!" "Is that so, wife? Maybe you are simply unaware of your beauty, even though your are forced to crossdress, but you are the prettiest little man that I ever did see." "Husband! Stop it! Quickly get dressed before someone barges in here..." "What the hell are you talking about? Why would anyone barge in here? Wife?" "It is just a passing comment husband..." "Is that why you have that small bruise on your face that you failed to cover up with enough makeup? Tell me, has anyone suspected you of your true identity yet?" "Of course not..." "Then stop looking away from me and tell me who hurt you wife." "It wasn't anyone....ouch! Husband! You are hurting me! Let go of my arm! Hyuk!" "I will not leave until you give me my answers wife! I am already to be parted from you in the palace, but I will not have anyone hurt you!" "Husband please, someone will come inside and see us." "Wife...do not tell me that it was that spiteful bitch that my sister integrated into our close circle? That senseless and naive girl whose presence I was forced to tolerate for how many years now? It was her, wasn't it?" "Husband, please forget it and go back to your study; how else did you thin that she would react after what you all did to her?" "I didn't do a damned thing to her! I had no idea what my sister was up to with her initially, but I didn't care either! I waited for you in my childhood and when I was old enough to come to the kingdom for you, I did just that. You are my wife now and you tell me when someone hurts you, or I shall drag you out of here and back to the village to your family..." "Ok husband, alright, please calm down. It was her, but she threw me out of her service in public, so I will never have to cross paths with her again in The Imperial Harem. Husband, where are you going! Husband!"
I used to think that Seo Hyuk was the most upstanding, honest and patient man that I had ever known in my lifetime. But who could have possibly imagined that he was badmouthing me to his wife when I had done absolutely nothing to this man at all! I was devoted to him, I liked him and I wanted to be around him as much as possible, was that really so wrong of me? I could not even remember a time when they were both in the same room together when we all moved to the kingdom together, so how could he treat me like that? What on earth had I done to him? "Seo Hyuk..." I never thought that it was possible, but he did not even hesitate to slap me right across the face before he walked all over me as I collapsed to the ground in shock. "If you touch my wife even again, then i will make sure that this entire harem turns their back on you, including His Lordship who is clearly in love with you by now, although I cannot fathom why myself...or maybe he isn't at all." "What do you mean? Of course he loves me and cares for me!" "You remember this well Kim Yeong, that you are nothing but a carbon copy of my sister; it is her place that you have taken in this harem with the education that she gave you so that she could marry and live well without getting my family into trouble! What is the matter? Why are you crying now? You were in awe of the luxury that my family possessed and now you have it, so what do you have to cry about?" "Husband! Pease stop it..." "No! She will learn her place here after biting the hands that fed her! She will know her place here as a slowly concubine no matter how powerful she becomes in the future! I can guarantee that if my sister heard that she hurt you wife, then Hana would have torn her limbs apart right now and replace her just as easily!"
Hearts were made to be broken, but you should still never allow someone to be your priority when you were only their option; this is what I had learnt from staying at the side of the lovestruck Lord who kept looking at me as if I was his only woman in his entire world despite the fact. Every has it been said that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation. And right now I could not understand what hurt the most; missing him or carrying on with my life here in this gilded cage, pretending that I did not know him at all. My broken heart would have to continue living each and every day here until my dying breath in the same palace as my first love and his wife whom he clearly preferred over myself. But I could not live in the distance of the ocean between us like this of the rest of my life. Fine; if he wanted to replace me like this, then I would need to the one to drive them away so that I could never look upon these malicious people ever again in my life.