The Love They Never Had: The Chase

Chapter 188: Harsh Realities (Gahoghan Hyeonsil)

"She is just a lowly maid, who the hell does she think she is?" "Isn't she the maid of the Young Master Nam who just returned from the war?" "Isn't she already his mistress? Isn't she half a concubine then?" "The more we talk about a mere maid using her Master's sedan chair in front of us, the Prince's servants, the more trouble we will end up in ourselves. Just ignore her since she holds no official title yet. Forbearance will calm a stormy sea temporarily." "I heard that she can sing quite well, it does put a man's mind at ease after a long day of work. No wonder he is very fond of her." "What sort of song can she sing?" "I think i heard her sing The Peony Pavilion" last night to help put him to sleep." "Then maybe she should sing 'A Gem Intactly Returned.'. "What does that mean?" "He will never sleep with her, no matter how hard she tries! Do you not know how infatuated he was with his best friend's sister? He swore to only marry her. And if he is being quiet now, it means that he is scheming to find her sooner or later, just you wait." "Men! Find that damned maid and slap her!" "You wish! Who dares to harm a maid of the Royal Prince! Another maid?" "We are the same, so who can insult who exactly!" "I serve a Prince whilst you betrayed your former mistress for a sexless relationship and glory, who are you caring the same! How dare a cheap and characterless girl like you argue about being my equal! Your mistress got rid of you and she would do it again if you hadn't betrayed her! Your so-called promotion is just meaningless!"

"You dare to insult me! Here, take this slap instead!" How dare she? Just what on earth was wrong with the people here? Why did no-one respect me? This was supposed to be a fresh new start for me, but I had no idea how everyone knew about my past after being here for less than a week. "What is wrong with you? Are you delusional or something? How can a lowly maid hit one of her own! Just take this slap from her once and learn how she crawled into that man's bed, maybe all of our fortunes will chance because of her." "I do not dare too seduce anyone's husband, no matter how desperate i could become and no matter how many beatings I receive, I will not corrupt myself with such filth!" "You whore! You bitch! Who are you to insult me so! Tell me! Who told you all of this! Who told you about....you slut! How dare you slap me back!" "Do not forget how you came to be here and from who's graces. Who do you think you are, apart from the world's biggest fool!" Very well, if this wasn't going to stop, then I would do everything in my power to put a stop to such nonsense before the Young Master heard about it and changes his mind about me. Never again would i be looked down upon again as a cheap maid.
"What was all that ruckus outside? And why is your cheek so bright red? Did you fall down somewhere or something?" "I just got into a scuffle with the other maids...." "What! What did you just say? With the Prince's maids! Have you lost your damned mind!" "What? It wasn't my fault, I didn't start anything at all! It was them so I...." "So you what? Don' t you realise than within an hour, your bad behaviour will be known throughout this place! The residence of a Prince! How can I excel in my plans if i do not start from humble beginnings with a humble maid to serve me! I originally thought that you were just wilful and arrogant, but I didn't think that you could ever be as stupid as your sister was, if not worse! And i know you, you probably proved them first and presented them with a chance to humiliate the both of us!"

"My Lord, please calm down..." "CALM DOWN!" You want me to calm down! My plans could only be carried out successfully with the reputations that the Seo's had! I had planned that out since childhood! But I have lost them now and i have no answers for why! But now i can only start over from scratch after the death of my powerful father and now i have twice the pressure on me and i have no idea if i am succeeding or not! And i lost Sung-Rok and I need the Prince's rescuers to carry out his work and mine! And how can i do that if you are hell-bent on upsetting him and embracing me! Let me remind you of what you asked of me; to become my MAID! You cannot dress ostentatiously, you cannot use my sedan chair when i do not even do it and you cannot fight anyone here! Or i shall kick you out of here faster than you can blink! This is not a place for you to run amok" "But Master! Everything I do has been for you only!" "Did i ask you to embarrass yourself!" "Embarrass myself! Run amok! You clearly keep comparing me to Seo Yeon and that is why you keep nitpicking at my faults! That is why you find me repulsive! I am not her! I never can be and I never will be! She was just a slut who seduced you by trying to hitch a ride on a dragon to become a phoenix! She never actually did anything for you at all!" "She is trying to use me? What about you then? Why are you sticking to half-breed like myself so badly! Nobody wants to be around me unless that have ulterior movies for themselves! So what do you want? Why won't you leave me alone!"

"Am I really so cheap in your eyes? That I only want you for power and wealth? "Master! master! Bad news! The maid's quarters are on fire! The horses are running rampant! We have to search everyone's quarters!"

I tried not to let my fear and panic get the best of me as our accommodation was searched rather hap hazardously, making the Young Master ashamed to even look me in the eyes. I had no friends or allies here, so I had to carry out my own dirty work by myself and i could do nothing but pray that it all worked out for the best and no-one would find anything on me at all...that was until the evidence that I had disposed of an hour ago by Kim Aerum's side suddenly popped up right under my own blanket! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it, was a ghost haunting me or something? Who could have possibly figured out that it was me? And who could have gone to my room without the Young Master noticing anything at all? That was impossible...simply impossible..."

"Men! Arrest her and send her to the Department of Penalties!! Lives have been lost due to this reckless and delusional woman! And as for you, Young Master, His Royal Highness wishes to speak to you about this incident!" "Very well, i shall join you now." "No! Wait! this wasn't me, I didn't do anything! Why am i being sent to a jailhouse for servants! Someone is framing me! Please, Young Master! Save me!" He just walked past me, after everything that I had done for him and everything i had been through just to say by his side. But looking back at it all, he was nothing without the Prince now and he needed his favour no matter what. But as I was being dragged to my feet to the jailhouse, I couldn't stop thinking about how this wouldn't have happened if this was Yeon. She was lucky and untouchable; everything she touched turned into gold, every prediction she had turned out to become true and every idea that she helped benefit everyone around her.
"Young Master? Are you ok with this? Moving on from her? Do you have any regrets? Young Master..." "No, I do not regret it. Life needs to move on and so do my plans. I should be a scholar by now, but everything was taken from me once again and now I must not waste any time in starting all over again." "Even...even if you do still hold her in your heart, I am willing to do anything to help you, since I have nowhere else to go. I am willing to endure any hardship and obstacle for you." "I decided to forget her from the moment that I decided to take you on." "Really? Are you sure about this?" "I will be responsible for you, I just need a little time to move on, so don't you dare mention any of the Seo's to me ever again." "I am willing to wait, don't you worry about that, no matter how long it takes me..."

"Have you all heard about the fire that just took place? Almost everyone in there died, apart from one maid that ended up in the courtyard lake..." "What? The lake? How is that even possible? The lake is in full view of the quarters of the Prince, how could anyone do that? Unless it was a ghost?" "Haven't you heard? When the fire broke out, all of the quarters in the entire residence was searched apart from the eastern one." "What? Really? Why?" "Apparently, the Prince is holding a very esteemed guest in there that he will not let anyone see, so it has to be a woman." "A woman? Really?" "It isn't like hey could keep a man confined in those conditions, right? Apparently is a great seductress that works as a Madame in brothel's. Apparently, she earned so much silver without even sleeping with a man at all! She is the kind of smart woman that people talk to, not degrade." "Really? Well, it makes sense, why would she injure the servants?" "Do you girls have anymore information about her?" "Forgive me, but I have tried every possible way to find out, but everyone is being so tight-lipped about it." "Couldn't you even ask her own servants?" "They reside in the quarters with her, and have their own paths that they take. She really must be important for the Prince to go this far for her. It really is the most unusual thing that I have ever heard of." "If that is so, the servants must not be from this residence at all! They have to be new ones, surely."

A seductress? A kisaeng? Who didn't have to sell herself at all? Not even once? I could feel my heart since into my stomach as ai already had a very big idea on what this woman could potentially be...but no, it wasn't possible. She should have died 2 months ago after all of the things that I was told she would go through, there was no way that she could have survived, and been brought here of all places where the Young Master was. Fate couldn't possibly be that cruel and unbending, no....I had to do something about this, before the Young Master heard these rumours and started investigating this himself. I needed to get rid of this woman, even if she wasn't Seo Yeon herself, i wasn't going to allow a woman like that to be around my man who was already gossiped about by everyone for his good looks and big build that was getting bigger every single day with the amount of time that he spent training himself after the war. And more importantly, I had to let Hui-Jae know about this before I made another move on my own again.