Her lips that were still as red as a rose against her milky white skin, her long black hair that was still as thick as a small log that I liked to rest my nose into after coming home from a long day of work. Her hands that were still small and nimble yet soft at the same time and knew my body inside out, her neckline that I couldn't tear my eyes away from and her slim waist that I could control with my hand alone…this woman hadn't aged at all and hit was driving me crazy just standing in front of her without being able to touch her just yet…whereas I had aged somewhat in the absence of her care, her tender loving heart and body that was devoted to me and her food that could fill me up for almost and entire day. My hands were rough from red blisters of the snow, my clothes were almost torn into shreds by the poor upkeep and even my hair that she loved to play with for hours on end was beginning to suffer. I needed help beyond my own physical needs, I needed help mentally to get back where I was so I could take back what was taken from me and get back to a normal life that I more than deserved to live with my wife on my arms and children in her belly just like everyone else did.
"…I am warning you for the last time, return home to your wife and…." I wish that I had an excuse for what I did next when she so recklessly uttered those words, but the truth was that I did not. I was still rather shellshocked from everything that I had experienced in her absence since the day I took down The Third Prince and my unfortunate run in with the person who was responsible for ruining my life and others alongside me, including the woman that I was to marry a long time ago. It was still no excuse for me to lash out to Yeon as violently as I did, but she already seemed to be prepared by throwing herself around my and pinning my arms down so that I could restrain myself.
"Yeon! Forgive me, I just…" "Nam Seonho, you need to leave here and do not come back if you are just going to keep coming in and out of my life like this. This…was a mistake; we should have just stayed away from each other if it was going to end like this before we even had the chance to…." "No! I will not give up, not this time! No matter how long it will take, I shall not leave you behind this time, not now and not ever again! Forgive me please and just give me one last chance!" "What do you want from me? To come to your home as what? A mistress? A concubine? With your wife who has almost destroyed us more than once! Have you lost your mind! She holds your life and career in her hands, what do you want me to do about that? It was always impossible for us from the start and we should have just gone our separate ways a long time ago! What are you doing! Let go of me! I said let go!" "You will never hide from me again! I have always found you wherever you went and enough is enough now!" "Bu you are…" "I AM NOT MARRIED TO ANYONE, AND I WILL NEVER BE TO ANYONE IN THIS LIFE APART FROM YOU! Will you follow me or will I have to drag you to my home by your hair! Leaving you behind was something I could not avoid back then and I will be sorry for it for the rest of my life! It was a big mistake on my part and I shall not suffer for what happened to us anymore, not when I have you by my side!" "You…you are thinking of exploiting me even now? That was all you cared about, even back then! How could I have been so stupid as to have allowed you back here and…"
"I just wish to share my life with you once again! If you want me to stop coming to these establishments and even give up drinking for good, then I will! I swear to you that I will! If you do nor care for these things, then whey should I anymore? Please understand me for this last time and I will never let you down again!" "How many more chances must I give you to clean up your act! You have everything you want now and now what are you trying to achieve? You left me no choice but to move on when you abandoned me for my enemy! My enemy who almost destroyed my family for you! Because of you! Just to possess you as you did to me when we….just let me go so I can at least look back on our good memories together. I will not fall for your false actions, words and promises ever again."
She was just angry at me, she had to be, because there was not a chance in hell that I was going to live in this world without her. We had suffered enough for 10 lifetimes, we have been separated enough times and this will not break us! Nothing will break us like it almost did in the past and nothing can break us in the future!" "What will you do? Will you take me by force!" No matter how angry she was, she knew that she crossed the line when she challenged me in the state that I was, and I could tell that she knew it when she started to cower in front of me. Why could't she understand that we had wasted so time already and we had so much to do to make up for all of that? It was useless to sit around and fight with each other when we knew who was responsible for tearing up apart and we needed to get back at her before she did something worse. "You…really will not listen to me this time?" I stood so close to her face that she had no choice but to touch me once again, but all I needed from her was to see her hesitate just once so that I could put an end to this farce once and for all. And even if she didn't hesitate, I was still going to take her back with me no matter what she said or did.
"I…cannot leave this place again, I cannot abandon these women again, not after what happened with your uncle…'" "Enough of this; I will bring you back with me and you had better settle yourself soon, because we have a lot of work to do girl." "You…how can you treat me like this!" "Because you cannot survive in this world without me, I have made sure of that long ago when you were still dependant on me under my father's roof." "I am not a toy available as your beck and call, I will not put myself in the pit of hell for you again, only to get burnt myself again!" I wasn't going to win this argument with her for the very first time and that was aggravating me more than anything else. She was spoiled me, indulged me and obeyed me without question, but now looking at her closely beyond her beauty, I could tell that she was exhausted, she was broken and she had nothing more to give. I should have let go for her sake, and I probably would have for a while if we were strangers upon meeting, but we were not. I knew what she was capable of, I also knew that what she could do was to ensure the safety of her family and how to restore justice for all of us. And that was far too tempting for me to let go of; so much so that I could feel that darkness that my father instilled in me cloud my raging emotions, cloud my judgment and even my heart as I began to bark orders at my men who were still guarding this brothel to set this place on fire, because I couldn't t let the solutions to all my problems go without trying everything in my power to bring her back to me to live the life we were supposed to live together.
"Are you crazy! Have you lost your mind! Call of the order and…." "And I will never let you live here peacefully for the rest of your life if you keep rejecting me like this. I will sell off each and everyone of these girls here to my men so you will have no more distractions from me. I will burn this place to the ground so that you do not have a home to seek shelter in afar from mine and I have the power to ensure that no merchant on these market stalls in this kingdom will sell you anything every again! Seo Yeon, you have no safe haven in this village apart from me and my home! So will you come with me willingly or not!" "You…your crazy…why can't you just leave me alone!" "Because you saved me, more than once, and you can do it again. You can save all of us, even your brother and his family from impending doom…and because you owe me." "I owe you nothing! I gave you all of me and it still wasn't good enough for you!" "Yeon, if you wanted to give up so easily like this, then you should have never saved me when we were children in the first place! You shouldn't have saved me in my father's yangban, you shouldn't have saved me when I found you in the other village and you should have never followed me into the palace. And you should have never surrendered yourself to me in the first place!" "You…how can you possibly…you forced me more times that we…." "And you never rejected me, you never said no, and always put me before everything." "Fire! Quickly! Get water! Save the girls and…"
She didn't give me a choice; even then when I had set fire to her brothel, she was worried about everyone else apart from me for the very first time and I just didn't know how to handle it. This pain was a lot worse than any battle that I had been a part of, and I prayed that I would never face such attitude or harsh words from her again. My emotions from dealing with my 'other woman' were still running high and I was in such a desperate situation that I had no choice but to cover my hand over her mouth and nose so that she would pass out peacefully before I threw her over my shoulder and I got her out of there and everyone else before they seriously got hurt. I had already pre=arranged other brothels for them to stay in, but I would never divulge that information to her ever again. A lot of things happened since I left the palace to escort The Third Prince into exile, so there were a lot of things for her to clean up before we could get revenge on the woman who had very limited time left to either repent for her mistakes or pay for them dearly.