Our Country: The New Age🇰🇷

Chapter 16: Seon-Ho

As soon as her brother took her away, I couldn't stop thinking about all of our times together, even just before Mishil ruled everything for us as I came back home after a long day on my own. The first place I went to was the quarters we both shared, the quarters I had been avoiding ever since her arrival where we basically lived like a married couple when he could. I could just watch Yeon for hours busying herself to take care of us both and she used to just cling onto me when I 'did my boring work' that she complained about to no end. And god forbid if I worked an hour to two without paying her any attention at all, she would just place herself on my lap like a child and play into her childish behaviours before I could even look at her again. We had all really accomplished a lot, and honestly I really didn't know if I would even have the courage to do what I did and go against filial piety to take my own father down if Yeon didn't do what she did best, which was to open up my eyes to my position in this household despite my own delusions. It was time to wake up as the Seo's lives were on the line and I was going down a dark and lonely path myself if she hadn't showed up. 

The first thing that I did was to take off my shoes and go straight to bed since Yeon wasn't around to undress me and even wash my feet on occasion after work. I needed to remind myself of what I was doing and why I was doing it for; a chance of having a real family, a home and maybe making amends with my best friend. But in case things didn't go well between us and he couldn't forgive me, I at least had the memories of his crazy sister to keep me same for a while before I found her again after reading the letter that she put in my robes.

The day I brought her home after she ran away, I ordered a servant to bring Yeon to join me for all of my meals from now on every day and to attend on me in my father's presence. He looked suspicious but I just told him not to interfere, for I was going to put her in her place from now on, just to make him give up the subject. He looked at me for a long time before looking almost impressed and just walked away. The servant came back without her and told me of her refusal. I sighed and marched to her room, prised the door open with my bare hands and hoisted a flustered-looking Yeon onto my shoulders, and brought her to my room without saying a word. She shouted at me the whole time but I didn't care. I released her onto the floor and before she could say anything the servants had brought in our food. I told them to stay until we had finished eating so she couldn't have a chance to leave. She gave me an angry look but I just smirked back before grabbing her leg and pulling it towards me so she could eat next to me. I placed her bowl in her lap and placed my arm up her skirt so it was resting on her bare thigh under the table out of view from everyone so she knew to obey and not try anything. She tried hard to smack my hand away but I held on tighter before she gave up frustratingly.
After breakfast, I dismissed the servants and grabbed Yeon by the arm to help me dress for work. I held her so close to me I could feel her breath upon me. She shook in my grip and it honestly gave me pleasure to see the effect I had on her for once. Her cheeks were turning pink and my smile widened. But I was out of time and had to go to the place. I grabbed her by her waist and kissed her for a long time before leaving. And I could tell she was slowly letting go of her anger from that day. My plan was working; I knew her temperament well. This went on for a week or two and honestly, I was having fun with it.

But it was still a slow process. I had one last trick up my sleeve though it was a low move, I was desperate. I needed her beside me at all times, even my bed felt cold without her. I woke her up one day and told her to be ready at a certain time to go out with me in the market as we still hadn't had a chance to go outside as a couple as we had impossible schedules. She wore the clothes I laid out for her before coming to dress me, holding me in her gaze as she did.
I took her out with a firm grip on her hand which she tried to fight off but I just held on tighter. We then 'coincidentally' ran into Msihil. The sight of her made Yeon recoil and look at me in anger. But I held her tighter until I felt her wince. I greeted her with a smile much to Yeon's annoyance but I walked past her to both of their surprises and took her to the very same kite stall myself and Hwi I both hid Hui-Jee from Chief Park. As I expected Mishil followed us. The stall owner gave the girls the same spiel he gave me and Hwi about kite destinies and I told Yeon to choose a kite. Yeon gave me another surprised yet cautious look and went to rummage through them but I held her hand back, wanting Mishil to take her pick first.

And she took the bait; excitedly rummaging through all the kites until she found one she liked. She practically pushed it into his arms and I couldn't stop myself from laughing. He gave her a pitiful look which only enraged her. She demanded to know her destiny from the kite and he told her in a quiet manner that she would bring bad luck to her husband as she had an inauspicious birth date and would be riddled barren her whole life. Mishil gasped and fell back onto the stall, her face as white as a ghost. I pulled Yeon in front of me and told her to choose a kite. She once again held me in her gaze as she did so, not even looking at what she had chosen and gave it to the stall owner. He told her the meaning of her kite; that she would bless her life-long marriage with luck and bare up-to two healthy children. She looked startled by this revelation, as did I. From both our birthrights and background we were not fit for marriage, either of us. But who else was she to marry if not me?
We then looked at each other and started laughing. I took her by the hand and we ran like two free children with the world at our feet. I took her into the field she would pass on her way to her work and she jumped into my arms still laughing with excitement. I was thoroughly enjoying myself to this new side of her. After a while, she sat me down against a tree and threw herself into my lap held me in a tight embrace that knocked me down. She buried her neck in my shoulder and I just held her in silence. I took in the beautiful surroundings with my beautiful woman for the first time in my life and I was so grateful for it.

The next day, I ordered her to be brought to my room upon arriving home from the palace the next day as my father was out of town for his own work. She came, looking rather curious at my mood. I just laughed at her and pulled her close to me, resting my head upon her shoulders for a while. I closed my eyes and breathed in her scent after a long time. It took her a while but she held me in her arms as she used to after I would come back home. I just looked at her and kissed her just like our first, long and hard. I sent the servants away and locked my door. I picked her up in my arms and lay her in my bed still kissing her. "Do you think it's true? The kite's destiny?" She whispered to me as she began undressing me. "Don't worry" I replied with a smile "I'll make sure to live up to it with hard work. Isn't that what we have been doing all this time?" She blushed and I laid her beside me enjoying this newfound bliss that took me away from what I had been raised up to be; I finally had a new future carved out for myself.
We started talking about the future again but in detail this time; our children's names, how many we wanted, where we could live, our aspirations for them, how we could support ourselves, how we could spend time with them and not place suffocating selfish goals for them. Hearing from her how their father raised them single-handedly after their mother's early death showed me a whole new experience of fatherhood that I had never known before. It actually brought tears to my eyes; I couldn't deny no matter how cruel my father was it was an experience I craved myself but I was determined to follow in the footsteps of the man I looked up to even if I never got the chance to meet him myself.

I couldn't help myself from lifting up her top and tracing her small slender stomach with my fingers, imagining what is would be like for her belly to be swollen with my children, as many as I wanted. Twins, triplets and so on; I could imaging myself with a herd of children all different shapes and sizes, boys and girls; Yeonnie had given me everything I needed emotionally...but it would be amazing if she gave me a big family to drown out the hollow silence I had lived with for years by myself in this hellhole. There wasn't a single shred of warmth and colour here that Yeonnie brought just by smiling alone. We started undressing each other playfully, filled with such hope that didn't die out until the day she was to leave.

But then I couldn't sop thinking about Hwi either; how I helped him to bury his father after my father refused to help him for fear of being implicated, how we were inseparable we were ever since then. We both went after my bullies that wouldn't leaves alone and his new ones after what had happened to his family. We sparred tougher, swam together, and had our first drinks together at a really young age. Before I even looked at Yeon, Hwi was the only person that I had in this life that I held dear into my heart after everything I was going through at home. And even though I had my part to play in this mess, he knew full well that this wasn't entirely my fault, and him abandoning me the way I never did with him led me to finding what I had been missing out on my whole life in his sister. I didn't know how I was going to approach him with this subject of marrying his sister since she was the most precious thing that he had. He dedicated his entire life to taking care of his sister instead of selling her when he could have, and now she was the most precious thing in my life as well. How was I going to take her away from him for the third time now? Unless i really humbled myself and show him exactly how I have been taking care of his sister in a way that he never could, now that he had become the right-hand man of the third prince. And as for myself, well, I was lucky to get away with my life and reputation in the palace, so I knew that I always had a place there. But I was exhausted and maybe I should focus on the plans that I made with Yeon. Maybe I needed to be in a different environment so I could start treating her fairly instead of treating her how my so-called father had treated me, like a possession instead of a person.