Joseon in the kingdom was a world away from the Goreyo Dynasty that my parents grew up in and looking back at it now, I think my father especially would have beeb disgusted with this new world and that is why he chose to retire from the kingdom just before the twins were born. The world of the kingdom had fallen into complete chaos as I witnessed lowborn families falling into misery on the day of my parent's death and my orphanage on my own birthday as I escorted this so-called Mistress Han who was already telling me everything that I knew about my family due to my noon Hana discovering mother's diaries quite early on in my youth and reading them to me so that I could never misunderstand the beautifully unique person that she was by her enemies who wanted to part her from my father. This woman who had caused my mother's life so much misery and doubt about her own husband's love and fidelity to her, I was going to make the remaining hours of her own nothing less than the same torment that she herself inflicted onto others, including my precious Aunt Hwa-Wol.
"...your mother was a real slut, let me tell you! She chased your father around ever since she could walk, despite her own absurd and embarrassing illness! Of course, you father was an illegitimate half-breed monster himself who was the ill-omen of our village ever since he killed his own brother to again his position in his father's household..." I never thought that I would be able to admit to this, but every single word that this slut was slandering my father with was leaving myself with a new level of rage that I had yet to experience. I may not have had the perfect relationship with my father, but that was between him and myself and I will be damned to hell if I let anyone slander him, even a pathetic woman like this one. No matter how different...or similar I was to father, I grew up watching him be respected and revered everywhere he went despite his meaningless birthright. My mother was right, this damned Confucius laws that we took from China only served to cater to the noble class and leave everybody else to fend off themselves. This bitch whom I was going to kill was a kisaneg, a mistress and a fraud, so she technically held a lesser status than my mother ever had, even when she was just a mere orphan with her brother trying to survive in this putrid kingdom. Now I knew why she was so passionate about raising us children far away from this place as she could. I had my fun here under the alias of Baek Gwang Hyun with women, men and even physicians alike, but now it seems like it was time to do something about this place before it followed us back to the kingdom, and before anyone knew about the sudden deaths that had occurred in my family as of late.
"...anyways; I was the one that your father declared his live to first, so rightfully I should..." "No." "No? What do you mean, no? What do you know about us before you were even born?" "My father loved my mother dearly; even madly enough...to want to practise being in a relationship with before he courted her..." "Courted her? Do you think your father really courted your mother? At all? No, delisted their close relationship growing up, your father had your mother as soon as she went out of her way to seduce him..." "ENOUGH! I have escorted you to the kingdom as promised, and now I shall return home." "NO! You cannot just leave me here! On my own! I have been framed in the palace for something that I did not commit! And you! You are her son, aren't you! I can guarantee that she has educated you to become just like her, isn't that right! Under your father's orders! So you can help me and I..." "And pray tell me, what can you do for me in return?" "I...what do you want? Tell me and I can grant you a single favour on my behalf..." "I think you can recumbent me for a position in this kingdom." "Do you mean a government job?" "No...not yet. Just a regular job within the law, but outside of the palace..." "Are you talking about becoming an attorney? At law? What is your name, anyways?" "My name...is Baek Gwang-Hyun...no...in fact, it is now Kang Han-Soo...yes, that seems like an appropriate noble name to use within this rotten kingdom of ours..." "What are you talking about? What is your actual name?" "Why is that any of your business? I shall only stay with you if you complete this favour for me, tonight." "Tonight? But I am in dire straits....look at me! My clothes are torn, my makeup has faded and I haven't bathed in days! I need to fix myself up before..." "I believe that a woman in your position would have enough servants around you to serve you, even outside of the palace, isn't that right?" "Well, I suppose... I can go to the residence of The Lady Won, and borrow her ward Soo Yang to pass on a message to the few ministers that I have in my corner..." 'Then I suggest that you get on with it; for the sooner you do, the sooner we can both get a meal inside of us and I shall do my upmost to help you, My Lady."
This was a perfect plan for me as everyone knew of the scandalous reputation that The Lady Won held with one of the few male kisaengs in her youth, which I had foolishly aspired to become during my double life away from my mother's paternal village. But that all came to naught when she married under my mother's wise advice and as for Soo Yang, I remembered her well. She was a ward of The Lady Won as her parent's travelled quite a lot for her father's work in the palace and she was always kind to me as far as I could remember. Soo Yang...if she could become a messenger for this lady, then she could also become mine to the village that I could never break myself away from, not after the harrowing events that had just taken place...
I didn't even realise that I was hungry myself as I had ridden my father's weary old horse through the trudges of this worn out land and quite late at night. It was only a few hours before everything took place that I was eating my mother's meal that she had cooked for me especially on my birthday. I made her feed me by hand for the occasion and I refused to get dressed before then. I was already 18 years of age, but I still did everything in my power to make my mother spoil me just like she did with her husband. The endless massages, the herb baths she drew up for him, her hand-stitched clothes and her never ending meals that included all of the eggs that he could digest in a single seating wasn't enough for him, he had to take up all of her tine when he would come home at random hours of the day, just to feast his eyes on her. He almost threw me out of the door when he saw me draped over his precious wife's lap, if it were not for the fact that my mother defended me as she always did, no mater the repercussions later on...
"...My Lady, if your husband is calling for you to serve him in a different place today..." "He is angry at me for sending the twins away before he could make any formal arrangements for them, or rather send them off with his never ending commands. He is angry at me and naturally I cannot avoid him, but I shall put my son Hwan to sleep first before I tend to him." "But what if he..." "I know he will punish me, but as my husband, I cannot do anything about it, can I?" I was very young when this night occurred, but I remembered crying for a long time as I could sense the anxiety in my mother's voice and I wanted to do anything to keep her by my side, and I think that she knew what I was doing. My mother was always at peace when she was taking care of me, rather than him,..
"...life is all about finding appropriate ways to fight troubles that time your way, no matter how unprepared you are. If you are always frightened, then there is simply no fun in living, is there baby?" "My Lady, you really should go now..." "I will not go; serve me tea and snacks for now." "But...isn't that being rude? To your husband?" "I have done nothing wrong, so why should I give into him? He knows that I have every intention to serve him since I have gotten dressed up, that is all he needs to know right now. He has only summoned me once and I am starving by waiting on him. How can a sick person serve their husband in bed?"
"Is that so, wife? Is this your reasoning for making me wait a damned house on you?" "I am doing so to protect you, husband and your reputation..." "Enough of this! You are to come to the river where everyone can see the woman to sows discord between her husband and his children!" "My children! My children all have plans and goals of their own without you shaving it down their mouths, husband! And since you have no intention for me to serve you, then I shall just take my leave..." "You are not going anywhere! You put that boy to bed and you come to our chambers instead since you want to behave this erratically!" "Kang Han-Soo? Are you listening to me? I have done as you asked me to, so..." her words were cut short with the sounds of sudden choking and screaming. Life is all about finding appropriate ways to fight troubles that time your way, no matter how unprepared you are, and that is exactly what I did when I packed a few essentials before making this journey tonight with the enemy of my parent's.
"For your constant efforts into breaking up my parents that have now led to their sudden death, I have given you a rather painful medication in the meal that we have just consumed in this little inn. You will feel as though your limbs are constantly being torn apart, by courtesy of the man you once tried to kill but failed. This deadly little liquid has been beseeched onto you by non other than the infamous Moon-Bok, who has been a vital member of our village. You can say that this is his revenge upon what you have done to him, his wife...and his daughter Bo-Geom, whom you have personally taken in as your personal physician in the palace. Who knew that women could be just as malicious as our men, isn't that right...Han Hui-Jae?" I did not hesitate to take her back to her former brothel that was still owned by our father and I threw her outside a few feet away from the entrance where I watched her wriggle in pain and eternal suffering that was sure to carry on into her next life, wherever that may take her.