Chapter 158: Vulnerable (Chwiyaghan)

Of course I was angry at Yeon for what happened yesterday and I had planned to make her pay for it. Moon-Bok & Hwa-Wol had plans to leave with Hwi soon back to the capital where he promised to look for Hui-Jae, so we can hold her accountable for a lot of things and bring her in front of the Princess Consort of the Third Prince, who was just dying to her hands on her brothel as her own place of spies. Yeon was unsurprisingly speeding through her academia so she could focus on her embroidery business that she was making plenty of her own money on. But she was being oddly quiet this morning and I still hadn't seen her, even at breakfast time. I was going to have a full day of cases on my hands and it looked like I could wrap up this Inspector General business by myself since Sung-Rok had mysteriously disappeared out of nowhere. "Hwa-Wol?" "Yes ,Young Master?" "Would it be alright if I ask you to say behind for a day or two? I actually need your help with something?" "What is it?" "I am buying the local brothel and I wanted your help in checking the girls, since I have very little people that I can trust. I know that you have no plans to return to that lifestyle and I respect that, but please just take one look at them and draw up a report for me? I can pay you for an honest day of work and I will also pay you, Moon-Bok to check over the girls and give me their medical reports?" "It does't sound like such a bad idea, as long as it is for only a single day. And I would require a face covering as I am now a married woman…." "I can provide you with everything that you need, including a carriage and provisions for the ride home." "Will you not return to the capital then?" "Maybe in a few months, let us see what happens." "And can we expect a wedding anytime soon?" "Her brother has already consented to it, she doesn't know yet." "Congratulations! Very well, we will leave shortly after breakfast and…." "And please update me if you run into Hui-Jae, so I can avenge you both as well as Hwi."

I got myself ready for a change and I made my way over to Yeon to check up on her since she was still being quiet. I personally made up a tray for her and I planned to just drop it off, but I instead caught her coming out of a bath quite late in the morning and getting dressed. It was indeed a sight to see and it made me want to stay with her for a change instead of the other way around, like it usually was. "I am taking your brother to work with me today and Hwa-Wol is going to check out the brothel with her husband. Stay home today and catch up with your school-work and your brother has given you orders to stay away from those men himself and that troublesome girl. I will give you the chance to kick her out of here. But I want you to stay home today and wait for me. I should be home by tonight and I have something to tell you. Get dressed in your best tonight and I shall take you out…" she had her back turned to me the entire time until the very last moment when she looked at me with her eyes full of fear. She looked as vulnerable as I had ever seen her for the very first time and my heart dropped to my fee before I knew it. Finally, this was the time that Yeon had run into an obstacle in whatever plans that she had come up for herself and she was going to finally start relying on me properly like she did with her brother. He wanted to keep her close, but we both knew the dynamics of their relationship would change once they got married. She wouldn't be able to rely on him as much as she did now and she would finally turn to me and trust me as she should…purely because it would erase some of the guilt that I had for her for scheming around the most innocent person in my life. It didn't have anything to do with love at all, it didn't…it didn't…

She didn't approach me and I didn't approach her at all. We both felt like there was something standing in-between us and now I knew that it was my sincerity she was doubting since I was still so focused on my ambitions and how I had made them centre around her. I only wanted her to feel the pressure to make me seriously after everything I had done to her and make this was a way to repent for my sins against her and her brother. But it looked like I had done a thorough job, enough to confuse her and put her walls up against me. She was keeping so much from me and now I could tell that she wanted to confess everything to me and she was afraid to. And as for myself? If I wanted to keep this jewel with me, I had to stop torturing her for every single thing and respect…her body at least. For now. That would be a good start, even though I was burning for her right now.

"If there is anything that you want to talk to me about, then you can tell me everything when I take you out tonight. But I want you to finish your schooling as quickly as possible so we can focus on our future together…" "Seon-Ho? Are you really going to marry me? For your plans?" "I will marry you at any cost Yeon, do not doubt that." "Are your plans that important for you?" "Yes." "And what if…my plans interrupt your plans?" I walked up to her so fast that I didn't even realise it until I had her face in the palm of my hands and her backed into the wall behind her. "You…will become my wife really soon, so your plans will not matter as you cannot go against mine. Unless you trust me enough to tell me and I can work my way around them, just for you." "What if they hurt you? What if I loose you over it?" "We will be bound together in matrimony, I am not going anywhere until you are." "You are hurting me." "And you are hurting me! Every single day that you reject me, that you keep your distance from me and you hold your plans away from me, you hurt me! I know that I am a selfish, arrogant and ambitious piece of shit, but I at least took care of you though my darkest times! But you! You saved me over a decade ago and you didn't say anything about it at all! You watched me court someone else and you didn't stop me! You watched me go against your own brother and you didn't come forward sooner! I always fight for you and you never do the same for me! So you will be punished for this, by sacrificing your dreams and becoming a young mother for me! You will be my wife! You will carry my children! And you will stay inside my home so I can forever have you in my sight! You can do whatever you want to, but it will be under my roof. For my pain, you will sacrifice your freedom that you cherish so deeply, since it has caused you nothing but trouble and delusion that you can live an independent life of isolation away from me!"

I was completely incensed with this woman who drove me crazy, but I wasn't cruel enough to torture her physically. I let her go from the moment that I heard her whimper under me, but I forced a kiss on her before I left to mark what was mine. "Seon-Ho…" "You will address me as husband from now on, even in public. And I have your brother's permission to smash those boy's face in if I see them anywhere near you. Now help Hwa-Wol and Moon-Bok pack their things, and I want seafood for dinner." "But I thought that you were going to take me out…" "Forget it, you do not deserve it. You will make dinner from scratch for the two of us and the wine as well. That should keep you out of trouble for today at least. And I swear that if I find out that you left home today, I will pull you out of school myself. Your brother has given me authority over you in his absence." "What do you mean?" "You do not need to know that. But as we will start living like a married couple sooner or later, I will have our things transferred to a joint bedroom where it shall be your duty to tend to me. And as soon as I am done with my plans here I will help you with your uncle so we can return to the capital where I belong and where it will be your sole duty to tend to me and me alone. So whatever plans you have girl you had better finish them up before you finish school, do you understand me?" "Shall I be your wife? Your concubine? Or your slave?" "Whatever suits me the most." "Am I staying jus because of your plans? Or something more that you will not admit to?" "One of us will break before the other, and it will not be me, Seo Yeon. By the way, your old maid is waiting for you downstairs. Take her in and keep her close to you at all times, even in school and when you do your other work."

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"Young Mistress! What are you doing! Why are you smashing everything up!" "Did you see the expensive gifts that Yeon gave to that kisaeng girl? Real jade, real pieces of gold for her daughter…for a kisaeng? And for me? What did she give me? Plastic jewellery and charity! That girl even got animal skin fabric for the winter! She flirts with men, she has a fiancé who is dying for her and how does she have all of these materials that are above her station! But I get trash! I am not a beggar that needs alms!" "What is going on here! My mistress was kind enough to give you gifts and you are this heartless to throw them away!" "And just who the hell are you!" "I am the Young Mistress's Seo's servant." "Very well, then you can tell her to stop with her fake charity act! Who else doesn't know that she is just trying to pretend to be good to help her fiancé's image of a General Inspector going into the field of scholars? Who does she think that she is trying to fool? It won't even do you any good to complain against me as I am his esteemed guest!" "Esteemed? Even I can tell that the Young Master only chooses to entertain women to make my Mistress Seo jealous, even her own brother can see trough this act! Who are you trying to fool yourself! Exactly how many men do you want to chase before you come across someone foolish enough to want to marry you? For you to believe in your own delusions and throw away these high quality gifts? No wonder your own family cut ties with you, you grateful cow!"

Why! Why did everyone everyone around me feel the constant need to degrade me and insult me as if I was worth nothing at all! I was even being insulted by a damned servant! "You have no idea how the Young Master wonders around in his spare time to gift her the best of everything, even her food that she eats is hand-picked by him. Everything he gives her has sentimental value, but I guess that you wouldn't know what it means to be courted by someone genuinely since you like to do marital acts first." "How are you be so arrogant with me!" "You are a guest here and are unfit to lecture the servants of this household! Instead of grinning and bearing this humiliation, you should just leave instead as the Young Master wishes! Who are you to impose any manner of being a mistress? Even the Young Mistress Seo has a better show of respect than you ever could. Everyone is competing for her attention, so what about you? Have you ever been invited to anything without hanging onto her!" "You…dare to say such harsh words to me! Someone! Quickly tie her up and sell her off tomorrow!" "Who is being tied up and sold on without the Young Master's permission? A mere guest who is on her way home?"