I smiled at the wooden bars that kept me locked inside the cell. It wasn’t my first time there. No, it really wasn’t. And just like before, my mind began wandering around facts I thought were long forgotten. It seemed that there was really no way for me to forget about Ae Ri, even if she was who she was and I was just a mere general…

“Jong Woon!”

I lifted my eyes only to met the tears of a long forgotten wife…

“Oh, my poor Jong Woon!”her arms encircled around my neck. “Why did they lock up for? What are they thinking?! After you saved Dongham they’re locking you up?! Those…”

“Mi Ru, calm down,”I gently her back, wondering why was I feeling so ice-cold on the inside when there was a woman crying in my arms. And not just any woman, but my wife! “Everything is alright. They have all rights to lock me up since I disobeyed the royal order and haven’t returned as they wanted me to,”I explained, trying to calm her down.

“Why did you do it?! Why couldn’t you just return to the capital like the king requested you to do?! Didn’t you miss your father? Me?”

“Mi Ru…”

She withdrew herself from my arms. “Sincerely speaking Jong Woon, I kept on hoping that maybe you’ll write a letter one of these days. But you haven’t. you’ve changed, Jong Woon. And I wonder why?”

The same answer I gave to Donghae would have gone to her too. But I couldn’t hurt her even more, so I preferred to look away. Even so, I couldn’t stop myself from noticing her frail figure, her white face with dark circles under her eyes, her pale lips trembling… Was that my doing? Was I at fault for her looking lik