Body & Soul 🇰🇷 Part 1

Monologue 3

Seo-Yeon

Confucianism laws for woman in the14th century of our nation Korea; women were not allowed to work outside the home unless they had relatives in the palace. I worked a number of jobs in various households unknown to Seon-Ho and my brother. All women were required to speak only a little and never more than a man. From my childhood I had a sharp mind and I allowed myself to come up with various tricks to either expose a person or trick them int unbarring their own bad deeds. Women were supposed to be accompanied by familial men or in a group of women. I always roamed around alone ever since my brother was sent away and behind his friend's back. Women were supposed to uphold their family's honour by being meek and following men's orders without even the slightest hesitation; if she isn't educated, then that is better for her. I on the other hand had a compulsive thirst for knowledge ever since I could read; not only did I read for pleasure but I read to gain knowledge as my only chance to be properly educated died with my father. I had myself trained in weaponry and trouble seemed to follow me wherever I went. My brother was my only blood family and raised me himself; but he was never strict. Even know after being apart for 4 years and I had come of age, we both had finally acknowledged that I was too old to follow him everywhere although we were still extremely close; when Prince Bang-Won let us be anyways. I had carved my own path but we wrote letters to each other everyday and he made me inform him of my every move.

I was everything a woman in our society wasn't meant to be and I didn't have a problem with that. Seon-Ho on the other hand had been despised and trodden on all his life since the moment he was born, so it was only natural that he wanted to fit into society, or at least give it a chance to be kind to him now after his disparages had been cleared. For the goals he had in mind he would need a very powerful women by his side, as well as concubines with the amount of women that once laughed at his very existence were now throwing themselves at him wherever he went. Even kisengs had more of a use for him than I did...and he was in love with someone else...maybe it was for the best that I left him alone and stopped being a burden to him.

Seon-Ho

Yeon was beyond any human being I had come across before; let alone a woman. With her intellect alone she could easily have wealths and power in her grasp; but she didn't care about any of that at all. She was completely pure and didn't have a single selfish or wealthy desire. She was everything I had aspired to be, everything I was suppressed from, and everything that is foreign to my father's world. I was desperate to know more, to see more and learn about the things she was interested in; I wanted to understand what made her the way she was...and bind her to my side despite her own internal conflict about me. I was more than ready to look after her as I did for the past 4 years. She was someone who could help nurture me in return in both a personal and work sense, she would help me to break out of my shell that I had been confined in for so many years...she knew me best so she could help me be the best version of myself and help me figure out who I wanted to be outside of my political career. I wanted to smile as deeply as she did, laugh as she did, I wanted to stop being so serious and emotionless...I wanted to become someone people looked up to rather than tread on, to rely on...and she was the first person I wanted to take care of. No- I had to. She had given me so much already and even more hope, it was too late for her to have doubts now. She belonged to me and only me.