Body & Soul 🇰🇷 Part 2

Chapter 208: Seon-Ho/ Seo Yeon

My hands instantly reached out to my baby Hwan, which Hana wasn't too happy about. I now knew what Yeonnie meant when she said that Hwan belonged to Hana, who at least tried to wiggle herself in my lap as I held him. My baby...I couldn't help smiling as I looked at yet another version of myself. Hyuk had already passed out in exhaustion from his studies. I lay down next to him, placing my hands on his small chest, my mind wandering back to the days my boy made me so proud of him I could barely believe he was of my blood sometimes and kissed him on his forehead, already planning his first official introduction to the military before the King passed away. I then looked at my daughter who stubbornly refused to let go of myself and her baby brother; her beautiful hair had already grown as long as her little kneecaps. I took her hands in mine and placed them on my face, looking at the other girl in my life whom I couldn't bear to part with. I prayed that she took her time growing up and would stay my baby forever. Now I fully understood why Hwi adored Yeon so much even when he was her carer more than her brother. I lay down next to all of my children and felt more of my demons float away as if they had ever existed at all.

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I held my husband in my lap as he was surrounded by the twins who had practically climbed on top of him so he couldn't leave again. They all laughed and played together all day as I just held my baby and watched them; as I saw my man back in his natural habitat as a normal human being with his own emotions and thoughts. He was so elated to be back at my father's village he took all of us out until the early hours of the morning until we reunited with my brother's family. They hadn't seen each other for a long time and missed each other just as much. Just witnessing that alone was worth every hardship we faced in his absence.

Hwi had finally found a way to rid himself of the prince once and for all after all these years and I had begun to tell everyone my plan of how to rid us of Chun-Ae once and for all, but I needed everyone's help. Seon-Ho almost broke down when he heard these words but I held his hands tightly in mine under the table to help calm him down in front of everyone. I told them what I had discovered and how I was going to use it. Once my husband put all the pieces together of things I had hidden from him thus far, like why it took us so long to get pregnant again after the twins, our missed meetings when I first had to walk away from him, how she was having our children watched, all of it... I have never in my life witnessed him getting as angry as he did at that moment. His face turned almost purple with rage as he began smashing everything in the room. My brother looked just as angry as he did but he had to psychically restrain him which took a long time. Hui-Jee rushed to the children while I just stayed in my place without flinching, watching once again how no one but my husband was inflicted with such pain he lost all control over and over again. The more I watched the more I vowed to wreak the same pain on the same person who almost destroyed our family. I observed my children a lot more closely from that point on; Hana spent quite a lot of time with her little friend that helped her put Nam-Kyu away whilst Hyuk and his little sweetheart spent quite a lot of time together. My brother's son's were gaining more merits and experiences from the palace, but I think what was starting to surprise everyone was just how much Hana and Chul had began to spend more time together whilst Geon practically attached himself to his father since they had hardly spent much time together at all. Truth be told none of knew how to react to Hana and Chul so I had to convince both men to calm down and decide what happened when the children got older. But all 4 of them still went out together every single day and it was getting much harder to take all of them back home again into the lives of their parents and in the palace. We all had a long talk about it until we decided that after my brother cut his ties to the Prince that he would retire full time to our father's village. My husband on the other hand would continue his duties in the palace for a while longer even after they achieved their goals but that he would pull the children out of the palace as soon as their education was over and would allow them the freedom to reside in the village for half of the year if they wished so, under supervision of course. We all knew they preferred their village lives but when they grew up they might change their minds when they were older.

After a long day of planning how to take everyone down, I tended to my children who were all waiting anxiously for their father to put them to sleep. I waited alongside them until he finally arrived to help bathe and dress them himself, something he hadn't done for a long time. He looked exhausted but he always made time for them no matter how he felt. He kissed me before falling asleep in their beds, all of them piled on top of each other as if they were holding onto each other for dear life even in their sleep. I stayed up for a while, bonding with my baby and waited for the day to come when we could finish this once and for all.