Chapter 73: Cheobeol (Punishment)

I couldn't get that afternoon out of my head, no matter how much time passed by, the memory consumed me day and night so much so that I had began to perform poorly in my duties for the first time. After the Young Master ushered Yeon out whilst still trying to take advantage of the situation, he waited for his father to come into his room with his arms folded behind my back as if he was expecting the worst from him. But for the first time in his life, he didn't take his father's words to heart and wrestle with the disappointment, but in fact he just looked like he was completely over the situation. In fact I felt like he was actually angry that he still had to put up with his father at all. I did not know why he couldn't see the benefit in his father's lectures, but I guess that his cousin had turned him against his own father as well as making him forget exactly who had been taking care of him for all these years even if he didn't allow me to talk to him. Then as soon as his father went to bed he almost ran to his cousin's room...and he was there all night long. I waited for him to come back to his room until the early hours of the morning in the freezing cold but he didn't at all. In the end I had no choice but to drag my feet all the way to my own quarters with a heavy heart and nothing but panic running through my mind. No matter how much he had changed around her there was no way he was going to cross that line with his only friend's sister...right? He had been doing a good job of keeping her at a distance for her sake only, so he knew better than to do something so reckless now. And to be honest after all of that torture I had been through, I figured that it would be best if I came clean with my feelings before she snatched him away from me, because at this point, I could see that everything about her was starting to bother him to the point where he just could not sit still anymore. If he heard anything about her he would argue like a rabid dog, if he saw her shadow walk past his bedroom then he would instantly come out and watch her walk away.

Yeon, Seo Yeon, how exactly was she different from me? We both came from a poor fate and yet why was she the only one in this world it seemed to be blessed with the chance to start her life over again? She went from having a more miserable existence than myself to now becoming almost a mistress that I was being forced to serve as if she was somehow better than me. It was like the Young Master himself had forgotten that she was still from the lowly class, no matter what her circumstances were that got her there. And her brother, how was he any better than the Young Master himself? I mean, maybe in terms of skills since he was the son of the one of the best swordsman in our era, and even the Young Master himself was generous enough to have never called him a lowborn since they met, and yet he seemed to tease his sister with that fact non-stop to...control her? Keep her close to him? Who even knew what the Young Master wanted with her...but I don't know. Maybe...it wasn't love? Or the love that we all thought of. Was it an obsession? Or did he want to own her as a plaything until he eventually got bored of her? Was that what made him dress her up to his taste right down to her makeup? She got to wear silk, velvet and even fur in the winter just for loosing her memories and as for me? The one who tried to befriend the Young Master in childhood to make sure that he wasn't too lonely? I got ignored no matter what I did. When I tried to follow him into the courtyard to make sure that he didn't get lost, when I tried to comfort him after the death of his mother and when I tried to do everything that Yeon did, I got called out as a gold-digger who was trying to aim for a higher position with the master. Even if i was a slave and she wasn't, she still had a much lowlier status as I did, so why...unless...did he already like her? And just didn't know it? Until he finally got her to himself?

These senseless thought plagued my mind constantly to the point where I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, so I went back to the mutt's quarters, taking the same route as the Young Master dd so I could have at leas followed his footsteps to feel close to him. But the moment I had noticed that the guards had fallen asleep and that her windows had been destroyed I felt myself tremble in panic. I tried not to do anything to wake up the guards so I tip-toed around to the windows, only to see Yeon treating the young master on her own bed. He was topless! In front of a young lady! With no hint of shame whatsoever! And he was just...was just watching her treat him. Just exactly how close were they for an unmarried woman to see a man half-naked without any hesitation at all. She was so close to him that she was almost practically on top of him. And anytime she pulled away for any reason at all he would grab her arm and pull her in closer. It was like she had to be in his sight at all times. They barely spoke to each other apart from the few questions that she had for him and I could tell it was making him angry. She asked him why he was making her take care of him but he wouldn't answer her. She asked him why he got close to her now in spite of all the distance he put in front of them and he didn't answer her again. Then she asked him if he had made any friends at Ihwaru to help take care of this and he plainly stated that he had never let any woman come close enough to touch him. We both looked a little shocked and relieved, but of course nobody had noticed me and I couldn't help but notice how he was smirking at Yeon's reaction who seemed to be blushing a little too much for a simple answer. And she took so long trying to treat him it was a wonder that he didn't fall asleep right there and then. But now he was the one who had questions for her; where had she been, who she had been talking to in her quarters, why hadn't she checked in on him in a while, why didn't she tend to him first etc...and we both raised our eyebrows at this, although again I noticed a little smile curving onto her lips. She asked him what business was it of his what she did with her time since he wanted nothing to do with her. And that really got him angry as he immediately placed his hand behind her head and basically pulled her so close into his face I momentarily thought that they had kissed! I had my heart in my throat at this point as I heard him practically seethe that everything about her was his business. He was holding her tightly again but she didn't even wince this time, she was too preoccupied with his stare again...before he fell asleep in her bed, still holding onto her as if he depended on her very existence. It was at this point that I had to turn away; my heart ripped into shreds like paper, my hands clenching in anger and my mind going into overdrive to come up with ways to return her to her brother so she could leave all of our lives as swiftly as she had arrived. But there was no way that I could pull this off myself, the young master wouldn't let me near her now. No, I needed help, I needed someone powerful enough to intercept the Nam's in their plan. And i knew exactly whom to turn to.