I was angry, beyond angry at Yeon who still hadn't approached me to to explain anything to me at all but was even avoiding me. She gave me everything that I had been struggling for all of my life to achieve on my own despite my father being a constant hindrance. But she also seemed to know more about my own life than even I knew, no wonder she was the only person who looked at me like she was looking right into my soul since I met her..."what are you doing! Why on earth did you bring me back here! My brother must be waiting for me in Ihwaru..." "and since when do you so publicly frequent a god-damned brothel! Have you taken a leave of your senses or are you really that bold!" Women were not allowed to frequent such places no matter what their social statuses were unless they worked there. At first it was Yeon's boldness in her speech and her different perspective on life that drew me to her, but I still was mostly unaware just how reckless she was being with the unusual freedom that she had. Yeon had never feared moral laws or the consequences that came along with breaking them since she was an orphan and there was no one who was responsible enough for her to take on the consequences either since her brother was only a few years older than her.
"I have been coming to the brothel since I regained my memories! And you more than anyone should know why I go there! Not even my own brother has a problem with it, so what exactly is your issue!" "What is my issue? Are you deliberately trying to make me angry?" "Well, since I anger you so much, then I should just leave you alone then! And you can go back to the kisengs that you alway surround yourself with!" This girl was really raising my blood pressure through the roof and she should know me well enough to realise that when I get to a certain point, that I no longer held myself responsible for my actions.
"Why? Why are you doing this to me? Why are you deliberately torturing me like this?" "Torturing you? Me? I have done everything I could to make you comfortable even though I knew what you were doing to my brother! The brother that you treated like a damned dog just to please that devil father of yours, I might add!" She knew where this conversation was leading up to, and I could tell that she wasting to do everything she could to distract me, but I wasn't having it. 2 decades; 2 decades I knew this girl and she had never said anything to me at all about the incident that changed my life entirely. And that act she put on before she lost her memories; an awkward yet excited teen-age girl who was battling a humiliating disorder in public and got overly-excited about anything and everything. And I had fallen for it entirely....
"Why...why are you looking at me like that?" "You owe me an explanation for your entire life and you know it! So start talking!" "Can't we do this afterwards?" "Afterwards?" "After yo have properly settled down in your work? After you gain the trust of the people in the palace to gain more support? I know that you are angry with me and you have every right to be, but I do not want to jeopardise everything that you have worked for..." "...STOP SAYING THAT! DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE PALACE! I WANT ANSWERS ABOUT MY LIFE SO TELL ME!" I literally had this girl caught between my arms that were placed on top of the wall she was leaning on so she could not escape from my grasp. But even as I did so and I was knowingly breaking the rule of the two sexes being so close to each other, she didn't even bat an eyelid or tell me to give her some space. She just looked up at me in defiance as she actually had the nerve to wrap her arms around my waist slowly like I had always imaged her doing so in my fantasies. She still smell really good and I hadn't touched her in so long, that I had forgotten that her skin felt like silk and it was really hard for me to let go. "What are you doing to me?" I still tried to show my anger to her, but her entire presence was really beginning to confuse me; right now I didn't know if I wanted to strangle her or kiss her. "What do you think I am doing?" "Will you really go this far? Just to distract me?" "I know that I owe you a long talk, but I promise you that now isn't the right time..." "and when will the right time be? When you finish that damned school of yours?" "I haven't even started it yet and you are already talking about it ending." "You bold brat! Do you have any idea what you are up against? How many people in the palace hated you father and will do everything they can in their power to stop you and your brother from making any achievements? You will be educated alongside men for gods sake! You think their egos will allow you to study alongside them!" "Brother! I am not a child anymore! I can take care of myself!" She hadn't called me that for such a long time and the word made me wince now; Yeon was no sister of mine, she was anything but.
"You can take care of yourself? How? You have been locked up indoors ever since you had your first fit! What do you know of the outside world? How do you think that you can survive in this world without your brother? And without me?" That last sentence came out more like a plea than a lecture but I couldn't help it; now more than ever after everything that happened between us, every little thing about Yeon was setting me off as if I was tied to her in some spiritual way. Never in my entire life had I felt so much responsibility towards anyone, now even Hwi himself tied me down as much as Yeon did but there was nothing I could do about it. The little humanity that I had been left with had all been transferred onto Yeon and now I could barely function without her. And god knows what plans she had after this school idea, or what Hwi had planned for her, even in terms of her marriage. Women were usually married off at the age of 16, but I knew that Hwi was going to do everything in his power to keep his sister by his side.
"Let me go, Hwi is waiting for me!" "If your brother wants to see you, then he can come here to pick you up his damned self." "Brother! What are you trying to do?" I could already tell that she was going to be stubborn and I had no time for it. "You will not frequent around such places anymore, do you understand me! Hwi must have lost his damned mind to give you this much freedom! You are already the talk of the entire kingdom, you don't need to sully your reputation like this." "I am just a disabled orphan, what reputation could I possibly have?" She scoffed back and I really could not take this anymore. All of her life she had been quiet and timid in front of me, but now here she was answering back at me with quips that even I could not respond to. But in her, I was starting to see my old self; the one that walked around with a grudge, a hot temper and an impulsiveness that almost destroyed me until Yeon made me slow down and really thank about what I wanted for myself. I had a sinking feeling in that moment that Yeon was hiding something even bigger than any of us knew and that was why she had changed her whole demeanour. She looked like she was ready to participate in a fight and I still had no idea what she was capable of. So until she told me herself, I wasn't letting her our of my sight and I didn't care what Hwi had to say about it since he clearly didn't care about his sister like he used to since he got his own woman.
"What are you doing! Stop...stop it...let me go! I start my classes tomorrow, you can't do this to me right now!" "Until you open that mouth of yours, you are not going anywhere! I will even cancel those classes of yours myself if you refuse to talk!" "NO! Not now! Let go of me!" She was really putting up a fight but she was no match for me, not by a mile. "Please, please I beg of you to let me go..." "NO! I WILL NOT LET YOU GO! NOT NOW AND NOT EVER! WE ARE TIED INTO EACH OTHER'S LIVES LON BEFORE I WAS EVEN AWARE OF, SO YOU..." I was always out of my mind with Yeon so I could not help but to back her into a wall with my fingers lightly clasped on her cheeks to make sure she was taking me seriously this time. "...NEVER EXPECT TO LEAVE MY SIGHT!" I didn't even know that I was crying quietly like she was until she wiped away my tears empathetically with her own devastated look. That was Yeon's charm; no matter what mood you were in or what you were doing, she always understood your emotions just by looking at you with those hazel eyes of hers...