Chapter 59: Umjig-Ineun Gyeheog (Plans in Motion)

"I promise you that I will never let anyone hurt you Yeon, I promised him long ago and now I am making you the same promise that I would always protect his sister, no matter what happened between us...." I promised him, I promised that I would protect his sister...my god, he was admitting it to me right now. And he seemed genuinely disturbed by what I was saying, to the point where he was unaware of the own words that were coming out of his mouth for the first time. He wasn't guarded, he wasn't being cold and distant, he had even pulled me away from everyone instead of having a conversion with me in public like he did most of the time. In fact, he really wasn't pulling away from me at all, even though I had indicated multiple times that it was time to sort out the chaos happening outside once and for all. He was behaving...as if he really didn't have this before. So who was I to break this up, at least for now. Even I wanted to savour this precious moment between us before all hell broke loose when my brother came for me or when I investigated exactly had happened, although I was already starting to get an idea of the events that happened. If he was innocent, would find a way to help them both and if he wasn't...well I would have to come up with a plan for that too, no matter how much it would kill me to do so. And to my brother Hwi, I am sorry for everything I have put you through and I promise you that your struggle will come to an end soon. I will help you no matter what so we can both go home together...

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I had been forced to commit a lot of sins in my past just to survive in this world that I was determined to overthrow on it's head. But it was only now that I had realised that there were some sins that came in such tempting forms and it was almost too easy not to recognise it. But from the moment that this strong and bold woman threw herself into my arms as if I could be her only saviour completely threw me off and it was doing something to me that was making me forgetting everything that I had been through, every bad thing I had to do and even what I did to her brother temporarily. She was looking at me with such a pure look on her face that I really couldn't think at all. In fact, the more that she kept looking at me that way, the more filthy I felt whilst holding her. I did try to push her away from me, but then she just had to put her small and soft hands around my waist and I was completely stuck. There was something happening to my body that I had never felt before and I was afraid that it would scare her off, so what choice did I have but to keep holding onto her. But as I got even closer, she just smelled so damned good and she felt so damned soft that I didn't want to let her go; not now and not ever.

"I know that I can trust you with everything, and I thank you for everything that you have done for me." Such sweet words that were coming out of her pretty little mouth were akin to her pouring sweet honey into my already bruised ears from all of the insults that I had to hear about me from the moment that I was born. And it felt so good, to the point where I could actually feel some warmth around where was supposedly.

"Brother...we should go..." "Not yet! Please god, not yet. Do not let go of me yet." "Brother....what are you doing...?"

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I must have waited a total of 4 hours in the rain before I decided to give up and just go back home to find her instead. I barely had to step foot in the courtyard before I could hear everyone shouting at the pregnant concubine and demanding answers as to why they were not given what was promised to them. And she wasn't equipped to handle any of this at all; the woman who betrayed her own status in the most cunning of ways was now being shouted at by the people that she betrayed with a child in her belly that came form unknown origins. The Young Master...well he wasn't very experienced with women at all, to say the least. Or that was what I thought when I heard some strange sounds coming from somewhere that wasn't far from my quarters. At first I was tried, emotionally drained and completely soaking wet, not that anybody here could tell or even care at all. I was the one who had the servants lives in my hands, and they dared to fear the so-called Young Master instead? I was the one who allowed the concubine to breathe easy despite Yeon's constant threats towards her, and yet she didn't think enough to start catering to me and look after me so I could put in a good word for her for the man who wanted nothing to do with her from the start. But as everyone else in this residence was so concerned with their own problems, then why couldn't I investigate what these noises were and why they were getting louder? It sounded just like...

I didn't even get the chance to finish that thought as I saw a complete nightmare unfolding right in front of my very eyes. They....the man I had served for my entire life and the woman I had been waiting for to open up to me were practically on top of each other and...and she was not even aware of what I had spent all day planning for her. And instead, she was stuck in her grasp of a man who knew exactly where he was and even dared to smile at me as he...defiled her in such a disgusting manner. Even I was too shocked to say anything and I could only stay frozen onto the spot and watch him almost suffocate the girl to death in his embrace, even when she was trying to push him off of her. But instead of looking after her and thinking about Yeon in that moment, he was just focused on pissing me off and teaching me a lesson about saying away from someone that couldn't even remember him at all.

My world came crashing down in that moment and all of my plans for revenge, for justice and for my rights went out of the window when he stole the most intelligent woman I had ever met and stole her from me. I was still completely soaked in my clothes and now I was facing betrayal from the one person who I had always thought was easy enough to control. But my plans had been disrupted from the moment that she showed up. This girl who was supposed to be the laughing stock of the entire village was now slowly but surely becoming my rival in taking my pawn away, and just when I thought that I...that we could...to be honest, I wasn't exactly sure of who my enemy was at this point; him or her. But either way, the Young Master wasn't innocent in this. In fact, he was publicly using the girls' affections for him just to compete with me after he had driven away his only friend. Very well, if he wanted to play this game, then I knew for a fact that Seo Hwi liked to hover around the manor just to catch a glimpse of his sister. So I wonder how he would react if he saw with his very own eyes what they were both up to, and I doubted very much if he would like it at all. In fact, they're so-called grand friendship seemed to be barley hanging by a thread at this point, and it seemed like the girl could potentially ruin it all, just like she had brought me to ruins.

So I picked myself up and I had myself a long and hot bath after I had sent a servant to chase both of them up on behalf of the Master Nam. I wasn't going to let them have a moment of peace from now on, not for the rest of their lives, and I already knew quite a few people who could help me to achieve that. Starting with the hysterical concubine who was waiting for him in his quarters with her belly protruding everywhere and making a scene. She was going to loose her own baby at this rate and looser her chance to frame our enemies, what an idiot of a girl. If only she had even a quarter of Yeon's brain, then she cold have ruled this household properly a long time ago.

"Where is he? I have looked all over this property for him! How could he just leave me to deal with that mess on my own..." "And what did you expect? You continuously argue and beg to be in charge of this home and every single time you get the chance you always mess it up. No wonder nobody can take you seriously at all, you cannot even convince anyone here that you are carrying the Young Master's child at all." "It isn't my fault! I have tried everything that I could to pursue him, to seduce him and everything else that I could possibly think of! He only has that girl in his eyes, in his heart and everything else!" "What are you talking about? He hasn't seen the kisaeng girl for a long time now, so how can he..." "What world are you living in? You know what? I am thoroughly convinced that he just made up a girl's name to throw me off of this so-called cousin of his!" "Now what are you saying?" "You haven't seen the way he is with that girl in our quarters. He only has his eyes on her, no matter what she does! If she makes a mistake, he will go out of his way to teach her no matter how busy he is! If she accidentally hurts herself, he will run over to her as if she is a child! He only eats her food now, he only drinks her drink, and apart from his work robes, he only wears what she makes for him!" "So what the hell are you going to do about it? Just sit there and complain? Throw a tantrum? Punish Yeon? That will only push him away from you even more, to see you hurt the only person that he cares about? Have some common sense woman, I thought that you were the second Chun-Ae? You have not surpassed any one of her achievements so far in all of the years that you have been here." "Well, what do you want me to do about it? I have tried everything and I am useless without my servant who is still missing." "You need more than a servant." "So where is he? Has he left? Has he gone out to the brothel again? What are you...doing with his clothes? Dal?" "I am just observing...what should have been mine..." "What are you talking about? You both wear the same quality of clothes and accessories and..." "His clothes get passed down to him from his father by touch, it is not the same at all." "And why does that matter? You are just a..." "I swear to god woman, if you address me as a servant then I will smash your face into the wall and make you have a miscarriage right here and now."

"What is wrong with you! How else are we supposed to address you? You are a servant here. Why else..." "Why else would you choose to lie with me to get pregnant in the first place? Why else would I hold all of the power here, more than the young master himself! Why else have I been using him since the first moment I saw him after his brother's death! And why else would I back up the Master Nam so much?" "Will you eep your voice down! Someone will hear your and we will both be done for! It wasn't easy getting pregnant, you know!" "I am tired of keeping quiet now! In some months, my years of schemes, my childhood trauma and my efforts have gone to waste! He had a woman that he needed to elevate his plans and yet here you are telling me that he and Yeon..." "So what are you saying? Why are you so upset now?" "Because I have been putting myself behind for all of this. And now, it is time for me to take my rightful place as the true young master of the Nam residence." "What are you..." "Nam Seon-Ho isn' the only the half-breed bastard of this household. We are in fact the same age only months apart. And that is why you should cherish your pregnancy as much as you can, because either way; you will give birth to a true Nam boy." "You...are a Nam? You...." "Yes I am, why else do you think that I killed my oldest brother? It was my only choice."