In This Life

A Complete Circle

Song Ji

Song Ji's heart is utterly torn in half. 

One side is relief to see a familiar face that fights to keep her alive while the other half burns with memories that started all of this. The two sides continue to attack each other inside the girl's chest as Kwang So confronts Lady Yin Jidam before her eyes. His demeanor was nothing like the Kwang So she danced with at the ball or the one that she fell foolishly in love with. Madame Sok Hee was right, what a stupid, stupid girl she was. 

Kwang So's voice rang with power and authority, sending goosebumps across her skin and Song Ji couldn't imagine how Lady Yin Jidam continued to protest. 

"Why do you care about her so much, Jun Ho? Wasn't your heart already broken when your father doesn't even look at you?" She growled.

Jun Ho? 

Song Ji mentally sighed, of course, she gave all of her secrets and belongings to him, yet the one thing he gave her was a lie. She could see the true anger in his face now, yet he expertly held it back as he replied,"Speaking about fathers, why isn't yours here? Is he too despondent when he discovered his daughter lost her purity to a stable boy?"

In unison, Yin Jidam and Song Ji gasped, the mad lady whipped her head around and for the first time, Song Ji could see fear in her eyes. She has heard story about noble women losing their maidenhood before marriage, if it was ever publicly discovered Lady Yin Jidam could lose everything even her life if the king and queen knew since she was a lady of the crowned prince. 

Yin Jidam hesitated before answering,"Who told you?"

Jun Ho smirked, he was going to win,"That's not the question that matters, the important thing is how  are you going to make me keep it?" 

Yin Jidam looked back to me and sneers,"You want Mi Sook to be queen, of course you would tell them anyways... besides you have no proof of what I did."

"One of your maids saw you and even if you decline the truth, rumors are dangerous. Isn't that why we're all here in the first place?"

Lady Yin Jidam took one last evil glare towards Song Ji's direction as she hissed,"You can take the girl and if either one of you ever speak of this again, your precious little eunuch's secret will spread like wildfire."

And with that she stormed out of the garden leaving Song Ji surprised and completely alone with Jun Ho, who she thought wasn't quite the hero or the villain of this tragedy. 

+++

"What do you want from me this time lord Jun Ho?" Song Ji stared at the ground before her, her hands crawling into the dirt to keep herself steady. 

Jun Ho hesitated and released his clenched fist,"I don't expect you to forgive me but I am sorry for the things I've done."

"Did you know my mother died?" Song Ji blurted, surprising even herself. She wouldn't talk with anyone not even Mi Na about her mother, "She was sick before you took everything away and we had no money left for medicine. She passed away almost a week afterwards."

Jun Ho was silent but Song Ji continued, her voice monotonous as if she was reciting lessons in the classroom,"I had nowhere to go. I had no family left, it was just my mother. Then I was told to come to the palace because my mother had a friend here and I saw you," at this point, Song Ji no longer had the strength to hold back her tears. With trembling knees, she stood up and marched towards him, a motionless statue, with pure outrage coursing through every fiber of her being,"The person who took everything and everyone away from me. I wanted to blame you, my lord, for everything that happened. But it turns outs, I was the one to blame. I was a fool and it appears I was walking in circles this whole entire time because now I'm back from the start... with you again."