Destiny's Children

17. Ya-gora

“My lady… we have reports of an outsider being hidden in our territory…”

“WHAT?... How did it even happen?.. where was the security ??”

“ Forgive us my lady… but .. one of the houses of our land had betrayed us..”

“Who is it??”, The lady hisses.

“The…the Jeons… my lady…”, the informer gulps.

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“ Inform the King about this immediately… the time itself is treacherous enough… He must be informed about all certain possibilities……..”, the lady takes a breath, “ And bring lady Soyeon to me… put the household under house arrest meanwhile…”  

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“Somi!!! Child where have you been?... You do know that it’s not that ideal time for us Jeons right?!...”, the lady in her early 30s scolds her dear niece who had been missing the entire morning, “And where is that lad? Did you take him out again??”

“ Soyeon!! You know how the boy always yearns for open sky ….”, Somi tries to nag, to which Soyeon only sighs.

Jeon Somi, an almost 20 years old lovely young girl who in relation is darling niece to Jeon Soyeon, the lady of Jeon household and her only living family. Due to the short age gap between these two ladies, the relation of Aunt-Niece has become more of sisterly.

“Somi….”, Soyeon starts again.

“Come on  Soyeon…. What happened between you and King Taehyung… was not your fault… And for God’s sake you had entire right to say no to a forced marriage… And how much older was the King  than you? 20? 30?... He shouldn’t even wish to get married… Why nobody is seeing the absurdity in it??”, Somi bursts out finally. She did had had enough throughout the years.

“It’s not because I said no to his proposal Somi….”, Soyeon sighs tiredly. This conversation always makes her feel exhausted.

“What do you mean?”, Somi asks.

“It wasn’t King Taehyung who proposed to take me as his wife…. It was your father… my dear brother… who proposed the king to take my hand in marriage as the queen recently had recently passed away and I was an eligible noble for marriage”, Soyeon sighs for the nth time.

“WHAT??”, Somi shouts in disbelief, “Why…why did you never tell me???”, Somi sniffs on the verge of crying.

“Because… your parents died in that shipwreck a few months after the … the  deal … And I didn’t wanted you to have any negative image of the parents you just lost… and beside you were so-oo young back then .. how could I??.... After your parents died...I... silently wrote a letter to the King … asking for understanding my refusal… I took over Ya-gora as it’s Duchess… and you as my ward…I thought the King was kind enough to forgive… but of course I was wrong…”, Soyeon stops to breathe,               “ Apparently I insulted the trust between the two families.. I insulted the King … and I insulted my brother’s dying wish…. Simply by taking control over life decisions… I apparently insulted brought shame to the friendship our ancestors had made…”, Soyeon takes another hard breath to control her emotions, “They said I was not fit to rule Ya-gora as the King himself didn’t trust me.. and I do not blame him… He hadn’t even seen me in the first place and I broke a royal promise the first chance I got….”, she laughs dryly, “ They handed over the entire estate to the  Manobal family… We knew them well.. all nobles know each other… and the king was kind enough to let us have our family house within the estate… nobody forced us to leave", She smiles sarcastically, ".. but we lost the trust… and that’s why I am asking to continuously to have some control over your actions… The time is not right Somi… especially now.. the smell of treachery all over the Empire since last year… no one trust no one these days… and we are already marked…!”, Soyeon finally stops.