The Love They Never Had

"Master Dal!" "What is it! I am right in the middle of something…!" "Master Dal! You are hereby under arrest as the suspect who massacred the county magistrate, his family and several of his acquaintances who were close to The Third Prince Yi Bang-Won!" "What! What on earth is this! Are you just spouting nonsense to scare The Fifth Prince's patrons away from his brothel?" "Really? Rich patrons, I am sure. Shall we let them know what the Master of this brothel has done! What sort of crimes he has committed!" "Long time no see, brother. But I fear that you must have lost your mind due to the fact that I am getting married soon to…" "To who? Who ate you getting married to so soon after you have received your first wife and son? Oh, unless you are talking about marrying your brother's woman? My woman, who has been marked by my touch?" "You bastard! Do not make up lies!" "Young Master Nam! I suppose that you have a reason to show up in the middle of my brothel and disturb everyone so early in the morning like this?" "Forgive me Your Highness, but I am only carrying out the orders of The Third Princess Consort and I am arresting The Master Dal for the massacre of her husband's men. If you should wish to dispute this, then you need to take this up with he Third Princess Consort yourself." "Forgive me, but what are the charges again?" "Murder on the scale of a massacre." "I do not understand?" "Then allow me to explain in The Young Mistress Seo's quarters."

I kept staring at him, hoping that he would at least give me a glance in return, but he wouldn't, not at al, although he headed straight for my quarters and held onto my hand as he used to, but there was something off about it this time. It didn't feel genuine for the first time and…what on earth was that awful smell on him? Why wasn't his eyes focused? And his posture wasn't how it normally was, he was slouch like my brother does and it always annoyed him, to the point where he would tell him off about it all of the time. What was wrong with him? Did something happen that I wasn't aware of? "Yeon, your servant will arrive here in about an hours time, I want you to keep her with you and follow my instructions without asking me about anything, alright? I have a lot of work to do after this, but I will try my best to visit you every single day until we leave this place…" "is that is? You are not angry about me being here? You will not give me orders to leave here at once?" "And who am I to order you around when there is nothing tying you to me? Not even a marriage document?" His tone was cold and calculating, his hands were rough and almost broke mine in return, and he was actively avoiding making eye-contact, which sent my heart sinking onto the floor. Who was this person in front of me? Because he wasn't the man that I knew? Sitting in front of me was a man who was a shadow of his father and his brother who almost assaulted me.

"So, let us get into this for everyone to hear, shall we? The Master Dal not only strung up the newly-appointed ministers and humiliated them greatly, but you also tricked this county's magistrate by entrusting him with the county's refined copper in his family home before slaughtering all that was there, even his witnesses. You then sought to blame the whole thing on myself, killing 3 birds with one stone." "What on earth are you talking about? You are no longer a General Inspector and you cannot go around accusing people of crimes wit baseless evidence!" "That is because everyone else who was involved in this crime are now dead! That is why I was locked up in your quarters as soon as I was found alive from the war! For an entire year! And it if wasn't for The Third Princess Consort who saved me, then I wouldn't be alive to tell the tale now! But that was what you were counting on, wasn't it? My disappearance that allowed you to do everything and anything in my name as my ex-servant!" "Seon-Ho? You were locked up in the same residence as I was? That is why you didn't reach out to me at all?" "Yes my love, it was your so-called fiancé here that locked me up in deplorable circumstances and that is why we couldn't meet for over a year. I never abandoned you Yeon, but we were torn apart by these 2 people!" "What? But why…" "Young Master Nam! Do not even thinking abut twisting this girl's mind with your lies, just like you did when she was a hostage! You're hostage!" "My father's hostage!" "Yeon has always been your woman and you made sure of that when you…"

"Enough of this! Explain the rest before you have us arrested!" "Master Dal here knew that all of the men of The Third Prince are extremely close and they all hang out together socially with the exception of Jeong Beom and Seo Hwi. Master Dal entrusted this family with copper that could treat the plague, only for you to let it go with my old associates from my previous job who are known to dislike me. You let them steal the copper when they were passed our drunk and then you slaughtered all of them for punishment of loosing them all. The Third Prince is furious beyond words and wants you escorted to his residence effective immediately." "Nam Seon-Ho, since when do you work for The Third Family?" "Like I said, I am indebted to he Third Princess Consort and I am only returning a favour to her." "And what evidence do you have for this?" "We have letters proving the time when your new friendship was forged just days before the incident took place and instructions on moving the copper to his family home with specific times and locations for the materials to be transported in and out of the capital."

"Young Master Nam, you of all people should recognise my handwriting, and I have no idea why The Third Princess Consort is interfering in these political issues rather than harem etiquette." "Your Highness The Fifth Prince, you are the only Prince amongst you're brothers who is renowned for your gift in calligraphy. You have gotten engaged lately, isn't that so? You carved 15 different styles of writing in the love token that you bestowed to your fiancé, on the back of her bronze mirror, isn't that correct? And I am sure that we call find all styles of writing if we compare the bronze mirror to these letters, right?" And that was all it took for my man to have them both arrested on the spot with my for wide open so that everyone in the brothel could hear what was going on and be picked up as witnesses if they wanted rewards or merits from the palace.

"Men! Let us be on our way to the palace!" "Seon-Ho…" "Young Master Nam, The Lady Min has appeared once again and wishes to apologise to The Young Mistress Seo." Call it intuition, but something told me that this was about Seon-Ho, so I dropped his hand as quickly as he picked it up and I walked away, hoping for him to do something to stop me like he usually would. He didn't, although I still felt his eyes burning into mine as per usual, and it was packed with more aggression that ever before. "Very well, Young Master Nam, you should be on your way to the palace now with your new arrests whilst I tend do The Lady Min on my own." I walked away without giving him any time to say anything at all, which was beginning t feel more painful than anything that I had experienced before. If he didn't love me anymore, why not simply admit it rather than forcing himself to be around me? And for what? He wasn't even angry that I was here anymore and I would much rather him be honest with me so that we could both…just move on and focus on our individual goals." "I shall come back for you…" "There is no need for that at all! You can simply go about your business and do not bother coming back here at all." "I already told you that I will…" "And I am saying that I do no wish you to. Never come back here again, for I do not want to see you're face ever again. I am a branded woman now in this seedy world and I have no place by your side at all." "Do you really mean that?" "What does it sound like to you? I shall leave here as soon as my business is concluded and I shall join my brother before the both of us enrol in our new jobs that are waiting in the palace for us." This was getting more and more painful for every minute that I spoke, so I walked away from him for probably the very last time with my heart so sore that I feared it was about to burst. Or maybe I was already far too numb from everything that I had experienced already; whatever it was, I wanted to end my life as soon as my goals were over and accomplished, because I could not survive in a world where I lived separately from a man that I was very dangerously beginning to loose myself in, even if he did start to resent me for throwing myself onto the same path that his own mother had no choice but to follow at all. Nam Seon-Ho, please forgive me for everything that I have put you though in the past and in this lifetime, and I hope that if I am deserving enough, then we can be reunited in our next lives. 'I look at you and my heat pounds when for years, I did not think that it beat at all. I wouldn't have crossed our dangerous boundaries, come out of hiding, tracked you down r declare my love for you if you didn't matter to me at all.'