Sungjae barely spoke during the lunch he had with his six friends the next day. They were all used to see him eating so well. That day, he barely had any appetite.

How he got seduced by the most tempting gisaeng in the kingdom and rejected her was all over Hanyang since that morning. Rumours spread really fast, and it wasn't something Sungjae would ever like to hear. He was really worried that it would hurt Sooyoung more than she showed.

Dong Gun reached his shoulder, "Are you alright? You barely eat anything."

"The food tastes too bland."

"It tastes great. You're the one who doesn't feel like eating" Eunkwang replied.

"Is this about what happened last night?" Minhyuk asked.

"I hate that crazy gisaeng" Sungjae cursed. "I never had anything with her, but she creates conflicts as if she has the right to do it!"

"How is your wife doing?"

Sungjae sighed heavily. "She showed a calm face to me this morning. But I'm worried she's actually really hurt inside."

He sighed again. "How can a gisaeng like her even performed in the palace? She has to be far than qualified for that! How could she be there last night and created that mess?"

"Pulled some strings" Ilhoon answered, pouring Sungjae another cup of tea.

"In the palace?"

"Well, basically it's Kim Taehyung. He's one of her clients. HE regularly supplies gisaengs and slaves to the Left Minister. Left Minister was the one that organized the party. I heard that minister is also Kim Sowon's client."

"Sounds like her clients consist of the whole kingdom" Sungjae spat.

"So that's how she got her way to appear at such a prestigious event."

"The first and the last, I heard" Changsub reminded.

"She created enough damage. I wish I could banish that woman outside the country. She and Kim Taehyung together."

"Maybe there's a way" Minhyuk said.

"How?"

Minhyuk looked left and right and moved forward.

They were all sitting around a circular table in a private room of their favourite restaurant, yet Minhyuk still considered it was necessary to lower his voice.

"Kim Taehyung's game is on the illegal territory."

"Like what?"

"Forced slavery and ion."

Sungjae frowned, "So it's not just a rumour?"

"Definitely not."

"Forced as in?"

"He buys girls from poor peasant families and sold them as slaves and es."

"............I hate to say this, but if he pays the peasant families and they receive it, it's not illegal."

"He sends them to China, Japan and other countries without proper documents, therefore not paying the fee stated by the Emperor's Law."

"............How many girls we're talking about here?"

"Thousands of girls."

"Thousands? How could the government not know this?"

"He has a close friend within the government that solved out all his troubles, by taking half of the profit he gets."

"Don't tell me—the Left Minister?"

"Exactly."

"But—the Emperor? Does he know?"

"He doesn't."

"What? How could he not know?"

"The Left Minister has so many secret subordinates within the government. In the palace and the whole kingdom."

The atmosphere changed to be serious and tensed.

"He's smart enough to cover his sins from the emperor. My father said the emperor actually has suspicions, but he'd rather turn a blind eye rather than investigating The Left Minister properly, because it means he also chose the wrong person to trust."

Minhyuk was whispering by then. His other six friends were dead silent. Minhyuk was one to talk. His father was The Right Minister.

"Exposing The Left Minister should start from exposing Kim Taehyung. He's the tip of the mountain."

Sungjae's hands were already in fists.

"I want to bring that Kim Taehyung down" he vowed, "Tell me how."

"Do you know the Bichun Tribe?"

".........do you mean they really exist?"

The Bichun Tribe was a famous legend between Joseon men. A tribe that lived in a village only the Gods knew where, extremely skilled in martial arts, and would do any secret mission as long as it's for the good, with a certain price.

"They really exist. They are good, but basically they sell their skills. And they are expensive."

"I have enough money" Sungjae stated.

Members of the Bichun Tribe were said to be able to melt into walls and disappeared to the air. They could kill without people realizing it wasn't a natural death, steal anything that was guarded even by the angel of death and discovered all the secrets buried in anyone's past.

There were so many rumours about them that it got a bit hard to believe, yet some insisted that a part of those were true.

"You can hire them to spy on Kim Taehyung. Gather evidence. Then expose him."

"I'll do it. I'll pay the price. Let me meet them."

"Yah, Minhyuk-ah," Eunkwang cut, "Do you realize what you're planning? You're pushing uri maknae to go against Kim Taehyung, then against the Left Minister."

"The Left Minister has to be stopped. He's swimming in sins. He corrupts the Kingdom's money and kills people without any of them getting prosecuted. I am ashamed I've been silent all along" Minhyuk argued.

"You are putting Sungjae's life in danger. Along with all his family."

"And that includes all of us, don't you think?"

"I want to do this. I want to destroy Kim Taehyung."

"Sungjae-yah. You're starting something really serious here" Eunkwang pressed. "Do you realize the risk of this? This is not just about kicking the guy who once chased your wife. This will lead to trying to overthrow the Left Minister."

"My family owns most of the rice supply business in the kingdom. Our employees amount to 10,000 people across the nation. And every season, we pay taxes to the government. The Left Minister controlled our country's finance, for goodness sake! I have enough reason, and right, to seek for justice. If the Left Minister is vile, I want to do my best in making sure he stops controlling the kingdom's finance. If destroying Kim Taehyung can lead to that, then all the better."

Eunkwang went silent then. There's nothing else he could say to dissuade Sungjae from not doing this.

"Let me meet the spies from the Bichun Tribe, if you really know how to contact them. I'll pay the price readily for their service."

"I'll let you know when and where, as soon as possible" Minhyuk assured.

*************************************************************

"................Park Sooyoung, you can't be serious!!!" Joohyun yelled.

The four friends heard about what happened with Sooyoung, Sungjae and the insane gisaeng at the palace the night before, and promptly visited Sooyoung at her house.

During lunch, they just heard that Sooyoung decided to invite Kim Sowon for a meeting.

"I've never been more serious."

"She is beneath you! And she's tried to take your husband from you! How could you invite her for a meeting? Her head will blow up so big until her neck wouldn't be able to carry it anymore!"

"I'm not used to hate someone behind her back. I'm used to speaking my mind to anyone I disagree with."

"As in who? Your parents? Your sisters? Your husband? This is Kim Sowon, Sooyoung. The crazy gisaeng who's using every possible way to snatch Yook Sungjae from you! Why are you becoming the person who reach out to her? You're degrading yourself."

"I want to tell her personally that I want her to stop trying to take my husband from me."

"Yah, she will not see reason. This is not someone you can reason with!"

"Joohyun unnie is right. The last thing you should do is talking to her as if you are equal."

"I've never thought gisaengs are beneath me. We are all humans. They just take a different path than I do. I couldn't choose the family I was born into. If destinies were mixed up, I might be the one ending up as a gisaeng and Kim Sowon becomes a lady of wealth and respectable background. It's not what she is that troubles me, it's what she's doing to take my husband that I don't like. And I intend to say this to her face to face."

"It will not be useful. You will only end up hurting yourself" Seungwan warned.

"She is an evil woman. Please don't trouble yourself with trying to meet her. You should avoid her at all cost, not trying to approach her."

"I'm sure your husband will not allow you to do this anyway" Seulgi said.

"He is my husband, but this is my decision. I'll tell him when it's over."

**********************************************************

The four friends could do nothing to dissuade Sooyoung from trying to talk to Kim Sowon. The next day, Sooyoung really wrote an invitation letter for the gisaeng, asking to meet her in a restaurant in town.

Taeyeon was asked to deliver it, because the family's courier was under Sungjae's command, and Sooyoung didn't want her husband to know what she was doing.

Taeyeon returned an hour letter. Livid and shaking from head to toe.

"She spat on my face, as if I was a cheap mule."

Sooyoung immediately turned pale at that.

"I'm sorry. I'm—"

"I wish she were dead" Taeyeon cursed.

"I'm sorry I made you—"

"Agassi—I swore I'd spend the rest of my life for you. And you didn't do anything wrong. You have the right to send me there. But I wish someone would just kill her already!"

****************************************************

Sooyoung was really troubled that day. She was hurt by the way Sowon treated Taeyeon. In her heart, Taeyeon was not a maid. She's like an older sister. Taeyeon was a birthday gift for her when she was only ten years old. They were inseparable since then.

The insulted feeling and anger she felt when she thought Sungjae had an affair with Sowon was different with her anger when she insulted Taeyeon.

Both scarred her inside, though.

"Are you alright?"

Sooyoung looked up and realized Sungjae was talking to her.

"I'm sorry, Sungjaenim. What were you saying?"

"You're not thinking about that gisaeng, aren't you? I've told you she's not worthy to even be considered as a human."

Somehow, she couldn't be honest with him. At least not yet.

She played with her soup, not realizing how worried Sungjae was looking at her.

She still thought she must speak to that woman, at least once.

*****************************************************

If she wouldn't come to her, Sooyoung would be the one to find her.

It was partly unfathomable, how what she did to Taeyeon made Sooyoung even more determined to talk to her. She really was not used to hate someone behind her back, so she needed to talk to Kim Sowon personally.

It had to be done when Sungjae was away for lunch with his friends. She also even had to ask for a palanquin and several guards from her father's house to bring her, because it would make Sungjae knew of what she was doing later, a lot later, hopefully after she managed to put some sense into that Kim Sowon's mind.

Taeyeon had begged her, practically begged her, with her knees and forehead on the floor, to not meet and find Sowon, because it would be futile.

This was Sooyoung's flaw.

She was raised in a very well-educated family, where conflicts were solved by speaking to each other, and everyone got a cordially satisfying solution. Basically, everyone she knew in her life, except Kim Taehyun, was good. She couldn't grasp the fact that some people were evil from the core, and they were beyond help. Speaking to Kim Sowon, Sooyoung thought, would at least make her understand that she was hurting another woman.

And so, despite Taeyeon's beggings, Sooyoung went with the palanquin and guards from her father's house.

The house Sowon rented was in a shadier part of the city, a place she had always been told to avoid to visit since she was a child. It was where most of the gisaeng houses, gambling places and restaurants that were often also the nest for ion and criminals were situated.

To one of the streets in this area Sooyoung was brought. One of the guards reminded her that she should not even set one foot there, but nothing could stop her.

Kim Sowon's house was good enough for one woman to live. It was large enough for her needs and had a lawn in front of it, which was well-kept and tidy. It would even pass as the house of a respectable scholar had it not been for the fact that it was the house of the black-hearted gisaeng.

When Sooyoung stepped down from her palanquin, she prepared herself to enter the front gate, but was immediately surprised to hear the screaming of a woman, and the whining and begging of another woman.

"UNGRATEFUL SLAVE! I FEED YOU, CLOTHED YOU AND PUT A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD, AND YOU BURNT MY BEST HANBOK!!! JUST DIE, YOU !!!"

In front of her very eyes, Sooyoung saw a maid collapsing to the ground, protecting herself, as Kim Sowon hit her frequently with the stick of a broom.

The maid was lying on the ground and sobbed for her mistress to stop hitting her.

"I'm sorry, Madam, I'm sorry! I was tired and sleepy, I didn't mean to burn your dress when I iron it. Please forgive me!"

"FORGIVE YOU!!! BURNING MY BEST DRESS AND ASK TO BE FORGIVEN??? GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!! I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE EVER AGAIN!!!"

"Madam, please!!! You don't have to feed me, but please let me stay! I have nowhere else to go!!!"

"Then go to one of the brothels and sell your body for a place to stay!!!"

"NO, PLEASE!!! I'll be good, Madam, please!!! It will never happen again!!!"

All of these were exchanged as Kim Sowon repeatedly spat on the maid and hit her with the broom stick. Sooyoung, Taeyeon and all of the guards were too shocked with what they saw to react.

"YOU DON'T WANT TO LEAVE, THEN? THEN I WILL JUST KILL YOU, WOULD YOU LIKE THAT???"

"I'd rather die than live in the streets. Be merciful and just kill me."

"Huh? Really? Well, as you wish then—"

Kim Sowon lifted the broomstick high to hit the maid extra hard, but Sooyoung screamed, "STOP IT!!!"

Sowon and the maid were surprised, then turned to their direction.

"...........daebak. Really a day to deal with annoying " Kim Sowon said, seeing who was standing at her gate.

Taeyeon had enough, she grabbed the sword of a guard and ran to Sowon, but the guard managed to stop her before she ran far enough.

"I'll buy that maid" Sooyoung declared.

"She's not for sale."

Sooyoung took off her jade bracelet, giving it to one of her guards.

"Give this to Miss Kim. I need a new maid."

"This stupid is mine, and you'll do best to stop acting like an angel and get the hell out of my house!"

The guard walked to Sowon and offered the bracelet.

"This is not for sale!!!" Sowon screamed.

Sooyoung took off her gold bracelet, her emerald necklace, her emerald earrings, and her jade hairpin, giving them all to Taeyeon.

"Give me your maid, and take these jewels."

Taeyeon was too angry to do it herself, so she shoved the jewels to the hands of another guard.

When Kim Sowon saw the jewels, she knew the price of them all could suffice to buy ten female slaves.

"Surely it's more than enough to buy her. Give her to me."

"You're an idiot" Kim Sowon said to Sooyoung, "What do you get from playing an angel like this? She's worthless. She's lazy and burnt my dress."

"I need a new maid" Sooyoung repeated.

She was just raised like that. Even when faced with evil, she didn't have it in her to reply with dirty words. Because she was just not born like that.

Sowon pushed the maid with the tip of her shoe.

"Go. I don't want to see your face ever again."

The maid ran like the wind to Sooyoung's side, collapsing on her feet and kissing her shoes in gratitude.

"Gamsahamnida, Cheonsanim (Angel Lady). I'm indebted to you my whole life. I'll live and die for you."

"It's alright. Stand up. Taeyeon unnie will help you."

"You know what's the other reason I hate her?" Kim Sowon taunted.

Sooyoung looked at her direction and waited.

"She's pretty!" Kim Sowon yelled, "Some of my clients chased her around my house and wanted to bed her as well. Thank God she's a prude and keeps avoiding them, or else she'll take away my business! If you don't take care, your Yook Sungjae might bed her as well, hahahahah!!!"

Sooyoung became very still, and she fist her hands until her own nails hurt her palms.

"My family was right. You're not someone I can talk with. I was foolish. I thought I can convince you to stop chasing my husband like a brainless woman. But he was right, you're too far gone to understand decency. Coming here is not a waste, though. I've seen the real you. It's such a pity. I admit that you are a beautiful woman. But with such a black heart. You can try whatever you want to get my husband. However, it will never happen. A good man could never stoop so low to bed such a cruel woman. Besides that fact, I will also hold on to him tightly my whole life. In this life, or the next, I will never surrender him to you."

With that, Sooyoung turned around and entered her palanquin.

*******************************************************

Sungjae was so worried with Sooyoung's behaviour the previous night, that he hired a group of the respectable gisaeng dancers that danced at the Crown Prince Wife's gathering to perform for his wife. He was going to surprise her with that and came home directly after lunch, without resuming his work for the day, only to discover that his wife had gone somewhere none of the guards knew.

They only said she went with the guards from her father's house.

He had a bad feeling about it, and waited for her at the front gate of Yook Family House.

He was surprised to see her palanquin back with a maid he didn't recognize, and seemed to be almost collapsing to the ground.

The second Sooyoung exited her palanquin, Sungjae held her wrist.

"Where have you been? Are you alright?"

".............I'm fine."

He could read panic and fear in her eyes. Her silence was enough for him to drag her to the nearest room with doors: the office of the rice business.

"Where did you go? Why did you take none of your guards, and went with your father's guards?"

She said nothing to that.

"Park Sooyoung, I'm asking you, where did you go? Why did you cover it from me? Are you in trouble?"

She was still silent at that.

There's something in her silence that made him went insane. She must have gone somewhere she shouldn't or else she wouldn't do something like this.

The maid he didn't recognize was bruised and bleeding.

And Sooyoung wasn't wearing her usual green jewels that she always wore with her green hanbok.

Had someone black mailed her?

Was someone threatening her?

What was she hiding?

Sooyoung was looking down to the ground, but she heard a clang and looked up.

Sungjae had taken his small knife, and unsheathed the jewelled cover.

It was a different knife with the one Sowon used to trick Sooyoung.

But it wasn't what mattered. What mattered was Sungjae was holding it on top of his own vein behind his wrist.

"Park Sooyoung, I swear to God, if you're not going to be honest with me, I'll cut my own wrist."

Her eyes widened and ran dry.

"Please don't."

"Where did you go? Tell me! You went somewhere you shouldn't, right?"

She began crying, but still said nothing, so Sungjae pressed the knife onto his wrist.

"I went to find Kim Sowon!" she confessed.

"WHAT??? WHY???"

"I just want to tell her that—I don't want her to keep chasing you."

Sungjae threw his knife to the ground.

"Sooyoung-ah, she's beneath you!!! You shouldn't even bother yourself! What happened? Are you hurt?"

"I arrived when she was beating her maid. So I bought the maid with my jewels."

"She's insane, Sooyoung-ah. And I'm yours. I'm yours inside out, there's no need to confront anyone. Why did you have to do that?"

"I just—I just wanted to talk to her once. But now I see that it's futile. She's evil. When I saw her beating that maid, I—"

"Are you alright, though? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No. No, I'm fine. But that maid, Sungjaenim, if I wasn't there, she would have died from the beating, or at least broke some bones."

"............why do you care for others when you don't even care for yourself?"

"Going there was because I need to be clear with my own conscience."

"Did she hurt you with words, then?"

"Yes, but it's the words of a deluded woman, it holds no importance."

Sungjae pulled her into a hug.

"Don't scare me like this. Always tell me where you'll go, I think of the worst when I don't see you."

"Ne, I will. I apologize."

Sungjae took a deep breath.

"I forgive you. As long as you promise this is the last time you went somewhere without telling me."

"Ne, I promise."

"Good girl."

"But why are you not working, though? Did you finish early?"

"Oh, I almost forgot! I hired the gisaeng dancers from the Crown Prince's Wife gathering. You looked really down since last night, and I wanted to cheer you up."

"You hired dancers?"

"Yes. They're ready at your pavilion and will perform for you until you feel better."

"Omo, gamsahamnida!"

*************************************************************

The dancers danced merrily and cheerfully, until Sooyoung smiled widely and was clapping her hands. They performed three dances that depicted three different stories, in their bright and beautiful dresses. She was so elated that she even tried to dance with them at the end.

Sungjae was happy to see her happy, and that erased the fact that she went somewhere she shouldn't from his mind.

If it was really something she had to do to understand what an evil woman Kim Sowon was, maybe it was necessary.

He'd go to his family's favourite jeweller the next day to buy her a set of new jade and emeralds to replace what she lost.

The name of the maid Sooyoung saved was Dahyun. She was badly injured that the family's physician said she needed two weeks bed rest to be healthy again. Taeyeon checked up on her from time to time. She had high fever from her wounds for three days straight, but gradually got better thanks to proper rest and nutritious food.

A letter came for Sooyoung on the same day she went to Kim Sowon's place.

It was from the Crown Prince's Wife, Princess Soojung, delivered personally by her Chief Palace Maid, Lady Song Qian.

The envelope was thick. The princess seemed to pour everything she wanted to say to an intelligent female friend for the past few years. It was ten pages, front and back.

However, there was also a separately folded paper that seemed to be written in a hurry.

Dearest Sooyoung,

I know the gisaeng Kim Sowon is troubling you. If you want, I can make her disappear forever, and she would never be a thorn in your life, ever again. All you need to is ask.

Sincerely,

Jung Soojung

**********************************************************

Author's Note:

I know a lot of you have followed Sarang Iyagi because of the lovey-dovey moments, but I will not make this story simply fluff.

This is the foundation of the story I made while having the beloved Lady Kartini in my mind. Like I told you before, you might get an idea if you'd google "Kartini" for what I want to write in this story.

Sooyoung is not someone who deliberately disrespects Kim Sowon simply because she was a gisaeng and wanted to steal her husband.

She saw gisaeng as just a profession a woman could do. And although she's furious with how Sowon is chasing Sungjae, in her deepest heart, she saw the logic of her wanting Sungjae. He's handsome and rich. It wasn't something irrational if Sowon wanted him. She wanted to talk to her to make her understand that Sowon was hurting her.

In her mind, a woman would understand another woman. She saw the problem in her perspective. She would have understood another woman's pain. She couldn't understand that there was a fact that there were women who had no problems hurting other women as long as they got what they wanted.

Seeing Sowon beating Dahyun was an eye opener for her. Sooyoung grew up in a very rich family, with a lot of maids surrounding her. No one in her family ever treated a maid badly. She had never seen violence did to a maid. In her world, maids were a part of her life, people who were paid to make her and her family's life easier. They were humans who also have rights and deserves to be respected. Moreover, Taeyeon was like a sister for her.

What Sowon did to Dahyun finally made her understood that Sowon was a bad woman through and through, and there was no use trying to reason with her. Not because she wanted to steal her husband, but because she abused a weak woman who has worked for her and needed her protection.

I'd just like to make that crystal clear.

There would be lovey-dovey moments ahead, for the fluff lover.

This is a chapter I've been wanting to write for a long time, and I finally could make it happen, as it opened the gate for something bigger in this story.

I hope you'll stay with me and Sarang Iyagi.

However, I need to prepare my brain cells for the next update, and might start a new short story before that. It’s my plan to update the next chapter in two weeks.

Thank you so much for following my stories, including 99% Mine.

Remember to tell me what you think about this chapter and see you soon!

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