The Love They Never Had: The Nam Mansion

Chapter 66: Banhyang (Repercussions)

After Dal had shown me exactly what was going on in the brothel, I suddenly started to feel overwhelmed, to the point where I had a hard time breathing. But even during my panic attack and despite everything i had just witnessed, i knew that I had to go hime before Nam-Jeon punished his son cruelly for his concubine's mistake of setting me free. No matter how i ached to just run home and say there, I could not turn my back against the Young Master now. If he was in love with somebody else...that was his own business. I have never claimed the Young Master for myself and i was not about to let anyone use my foolish little crush against me, or him for that matter. The stakes were raised much higher now and I needed to put my own burdens aside for now and devise a plan for myself- one that Dal couldn't figure out and interfere with on his own childish whim. "We need to go home, before the Master Nam kills his son if he finds out that I have left." "Will you forget about the Young Master already? Don't you want to regain your memories? I can show you everything..." "And how will you achieve that?" "Excuse me?" "Dal, everyone in the Nam yangban knows that all i wanted from the moment that I woke up were my memories. You knew that, so why are you only offering to show me around now? What do you want to achieve by provoking the Young Master? He had his...woman, and you can do whatever it is that you want to achieve now that he is distracted with all of the women he has in his life. Besides, you were not a part of the 'friendship' that i had with the Young Master, so what exactly can you show me?" I had him there and he knew it whilst i began to walk around the neighbourhood in hopes that I could remember something, anything that I could focus on before i made my way back to my brother. But I couldn't go directly to that home with Dal on my tail; no matter how many times this man had been beaten up, he always seemed to come back from death's grip...and as much as I really did not want to acknowledge this, it looked like i needed his help in order to achieve my goal...and the Young Master's alike.

"Where are you going?" "Leave me alone! I told you i want to go home...." "Yow will not go home! We shall never return to that home again! I will take you somewhere far away from there and i will give you a good life..." "Dal." "What is it?" "Why me? Why are you constantly hounding me? Following me around? Sowing discord between myself and the only man who knows me from me previous life, despite me being disabled? And orphaned? I have nothing that the Young Master can benefit from, despite all of your home's constant barage of insults that I have to put up with. The Young Master may truly need my help, or he may even just be using me for his own means. And even then, it is only my business. You are nothing to me but his servant, so please, I beg of you, just leave me alone!" "NO! Why should I! Why should i let the Young Master have you all to himself when have nothing! I have no mother, my brother is dead and my own father refuses to acknowledge me!" "What? What on earth are you talking about? The Young Master told me that you were an orphan..." "He doesn't know! Of course he doesn't know! He doesn't recognise his own brother trying to help him win over his father's affections, not even when i went so far as to cut the cord between himself and his only friend and sister just to get into the palace..."
Dal was raving at this point and probably unaware of what he had just confessed to. I was seething with rage at this point and it was taking every single fibre of my being not to rush back to my home and have my brother kill this man for the both of us. But the threat of Nam-Jeon was still looming over us and to take him down, I might actually have to keep Dal alive until then just to keep everyone else alive until the day that I took my revenge. But before Seon-Ho could find me, I had to take advantage of the opportunity that I had to walk back to my brother's home and wander about as much as i could until i remembered something, and all I could think about was the bloodstain on my table just as i saw my brother leave from a distance. Please, please let this go right and do not let anyone catch me here, not here and not now...

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What was this i was feeling now? In the midst of this disastrous plot i was pulled into, since when did Seon-Ho start lying to me? I could always tell when he was lying to me before because we both knew he couldn't lie properly to save his own life if needed. But never in my life will i forget the sheer look of terror on his face when i asked him about my sister, despite my so-called lover following him around everywhere he went recently. i had to admit that it hurt me a little, especially since Seon-Ho never even told me that he liked Hui-Jee as well, but I had eyes of my own and I have clearly seen that he has never really crossed the line, not like she did today in the brothel when she instigated that fight with his concubine. But as for my sister, well i could already clearly see what was going on with him when he didn't, since there was no other person in this world who knew him as well as i did. He had always been oblivious to the truth, even if it was dangling in front of his very eyes due to his impulsive behaviour and anger issues. He always had to be right and when he wasn't, he would go out of his way to make sure things went how he wanted to. So i wasn't entirely surprised when he denied if there was something going on with my sister, but I had to pull her out of there before he figured it out. A man who had never been loved before in his entire life would only turn to obsession when he first felt his heart flutter, and I was never again going to be a hostage of his, no matter what situation we were in. My sister deserved a lot more than an infatuated man who couldn't break free from his own abuser, so what chance did he have to even protect Yeon when she needed it? Then again, thinking about their interactions that day in the Nam yangban, I was pretty sure that he was relying on her for everything, the way I would have. But they didn't have a sibling relationship, in fact, i always minimised their interactions as much as i could. But now? What was happening now? Was he using my sister like he was doing me? Or did he genuinely trust her? If he did trust her, then he wouldn't let her go no matter if i took my sister to the other side of the world. But that was a situation that I had to think about later.

Seon-Ho wanted me to hand in the third prince's weapons for his private army but that was impossible without taking away my own head before i could even get to my sister. But she wasn't here to help me come up with a flawless plan like she usually would, so I had to figure this one out on my own. I had been Nam-Jeon's dirty little errand boy for far too long now and I was taking rounds at deaths door almost every single day. Now what should i do? Should i just follow Seon-Ho's advice and just hope for the best? I could not confront Nam-Jeon since he had my sister's life in his hands and even if I took her away, it wasn't like she could remember who I was anyways, so there was no point in abducting her even if i wanted to. There was only one possibility left, but it was so outrageous that I might as well confess to all of my sins and kneel onto the ground and ready my head to be chopped off. I wasn't stupid, but I wasn't nearly as smart or as bold as my baby sister, who would surely come up with something fantastic that would not only guarantee me my life, it would also backfire on whoever was pulling my strings...but there was someone that I hoped not to implicate, no matter how crazy that sounded. I still couldn't let go of the only friendship that i had, even though i had every right to do so and worse.
Nam Seon-Ho; the man who helped me to bury my own father even after everyone in the village had turned their backs on me. The man who looked upon my sister without a hint of disgust or prejudice. The man who kept me company on most days, who sparred me and challenged me endlessly and the man who even helped me when Yeonnie had her fits...I was angry at him for betraying me, there was no doubt...but I wasn't sure if I hated him...

I was so lost in thought that I didn't even realised that Yeonnie was outside of our home in the dark way past her curfew time and was with that lunatic that I had beaten up only a few hours ago. I felt my protectiveness rise up in anger as i longed to vent out my anger at someone to at least take away the tension I had been feeling for years without a single form of release. But as I got closer, my eyes fell upon my sister instead who was looking at everything in our home and touching it as much as she could whilst the lunatic was ranting and raving about something that she was clearly not interested in. I didn't know what to do apart from hide from them both, but nor before she caught a glimpse of me from the far corner and she had her eyes firmly stuck onto me just like she used to when I came from work or coming back from being with Seon-Ho all day long. And I missed it. I missed her care for me, her comforting words when i had a bad day and her affectionate little gestures when she felt sensitive as girls did. She would reach out for my hand and hold it as soon as I came home, she would help me to wash my curly hair before drawing up a bath for me and she would cook on her good days when she didn't have a fit. And her food was amazing; she was 5 years younger than me, but she sometimes acted like the mother that we never had. And I was missing her now to the point that I was fighting very hard to hide my tears. But I could never get away with anything around her, not even when she could barely remember who I was. And when i saw what she had left for me as soon as she managed to leave, i finally felt my burdens slowly leaving me. Just you wait for me baby sister, I am going to do everything in my power to get you out of there...even if it will cost me my own life.

But my baby sister and my crazy best friend were not the only problems I had to deal with, not by a long shot. i could just about handle them both, but I was not going to be made a cuckold by any women, not now, not ever and not during a time like this. I had only stayed away from my so-called woman to protect her, but she should never have crossed the line in my absence, especially since I found out exactly what she was planing against everyone that I loved and treasured far more than i did her. If i let her continue with her plans, she was going to turn Seon-Ho into a very dangerous man who would only hold onto my sister far more than he already was, and i didn't even want to think about the lines he would cross again just to get what he wanted. So i had to find me a woman and quickly, before her reckless actions killed us all. And as for my feelings for her, well they were long gone after my suspicions had been confirmed tonight. As far as i knew, i was a single man with heavy burdens that only the right sort of woman could help me handle.