The Love They Never Had: The Nam Mansion

Chapter 50: Balgyeon (Discovery)

From that night on, my relationship with the Young Master was very on and off. There were times when we avoided each other to make sure that Nam-Jeon and the concubine didn't target us, and then there were times when he called me into his study for nonsensical things when he thought that I was getting too close to Dal. But it was starting to happen a lot more when a curly-haired man started making an appearance in the Nam residence. From the moment I first noticed him, he did seem a little familiar to me, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not remember him at all. We didn't approach each other straight away, but he always kept staring at me as soon as I was in his line of vision. He was almost as tall as the young master, but he was obviously very poor and it looked like he didn't bathe as much as he should have. And he was skinny, so unbearably skinny that I couldn't help but to leave out some of my food portions for him. I was never allowed to approach him and my 'security' seemed to have doubled since his arrival. But we did sort of develop a silent relationship over time where we indirectly looked out for each other since I sort of already knew that he didn't mean me any harm.
But the Young Master was not happy about it at all, in fact I couldn't help but to notice that he always found me something to do right where he could see me on the odd days that the man showed up, and did it with such an intense stare that there was nothing I could do about it at all, but my feelings about the Young Master were just getting more and more complicated at the same time. He was an impossible man to read, and yet I could feel deep down that he wanted something from me, but for the life of me I could not figure out what it was. And I started feeing like he frequented that brothel all over again just to escape all the tension in this yangban that was suffocating all of us. But he never stayed overnight and only stayed out for less than an hour, but god forbid if I didn't respond to his commands on time, he would throw a temper tantrum and find more 'chores' for me to do. But he didn't understand that every time he did this, he was incurring the jealousy of others since he had never gone out of his way to talk to anyone else in this home of his father's. A lot of the young maids had their eyes on him to help change their fortune, but whenever they tried to approach him, they would blame me for the rejection that they faced. Especially when I got transferred to his quarters just so I could have a room of my own, which was very spacious and cold indeed whilst he occupied his mother's quarters with the concubine. I had no idea what had happened to the maid's room, but I knew for a fact that my old quarters were too small for two people and no matter how erratically Seon-Ho was treating me, I still wished that he could just get what he deserved instead of compromising all of the time. I still had no idea what was taking so long with his plans, but if we were both free of his father, I bet that he would have worked hard enough on his own to have his own household where he could have enough rooms to do whatever he wanted to do with them...

"You are lost in thought a lot recently." "Stay away from me Dal." "Why?" "I have just finished grinding all of the Young Master's ink stones for hours on end after you invited yourself to dine with me in my quarters yesterday." "Well well, he really is becoming obsessed with you isn't he." "Shut up, he is just warning me to stay away from men as an unmarried woman, as he should..." "Apart from him though, right? He can go to brothels and flirt with whoever, he can have a pregnant concubine by his side and still find time to torture you, but you cannot be seen with any other man? Especially the new hire?" "You mean the curly-haired man that no-one speaks to me about at all?" "Yes?" "So, are you ever going to tell me about him? Since you are the one who likes to drop me these mysterious hints all of the time?" "And what are you willing to do to get those hints from me?" "Absolutely nothing at all." "Come on, are you still willing to stand by that man's side after everything he is putting you though?" "If he wanted nothing to do with me or if he hated me, why keep me around? Why do what he did for me?" "What are you talking about?" "You know what I am talking about." "No, I do not." "Are we really going to pretend that it wasn't the Young Master himself to set fire to the quarters so I could have his room?" "How are you so sure it was him? And why would a nobleman give up his luxurious room for a lowborn like yourself?" "So why would a nobleman such as himself take in a lowborn as myself without wanting anything in return? And why would you, a lowborn yourself who lords himself over others take such an interest in a lowborn such as me? Wouldn't marrying a noblewoman help you elevate your status?" "I have an eerie feeling that you are going to elevate all of our statuses, which is the only reason why he keeps you around." "Enough to give me his room? His quarters? His books? His art set? Why give me of all people such special treatment?" "That is what guilt does to a person I guess." "Excuse me? What are you mumbling about now?" "Nothing, come inside and I will treat you to dinner."