Climbing over the boulders that hid the pond, Hei-Ryung saw Tae-Yang pacing from the pond to the wall of the cliff. Dressed in a light blue hanbok that had a darker shade of blue for its sleeves made out of silk. Approaching him Hei-Ryung had greeted, “Hello.”

Slightly startled to begin with Tae-Yang replied, “Hello. You made it!”

“You look distressed.” Hei-Ryung asked Tae-Yang as he still paced from the pond to the wall of the cliff. Grabbing his wrists as he walked passed her, she pulled him towards her to calm him. Tae-Yang stopped to finally take a glance at Hei-Ryung where she could ask, “What is bothering you?”

Taking a few deep breaths Tae-Yang stared into Hei-Ryung’s eyes before answering, “I was not sure if you could get here without getting caught… I was really worried.” What Tae-Yang had mentioned was only the partial truth. He was nervous about how he should propose to Hei-Ryung about his plan to leave Jong-Il for Young-Bae. “How do you get away from Jong-Il to come here?” Tae-Yang asked in order to deviate Hei-Ryung’s suspicious.

“He does not pay much attention to me. He is always busy with other matters, and because I know what he does I can always leave when he will not know.” Hei-Ryung showed contempt as she spoke.

“If he does not pay any attention to you, why did you marry him?” Tae-Yang raised his voice with a slight tone of anger in his voice.

“It was not my choice to marry him… my parents had arranged this marriage.”

Clouded by his jealousy Tae-Yang had to remind himself, “That’s right… relationships were different during the Joseon.”

Hearing his mumbling Hei-Ryung asked, “What do you mean by different? Do people not have arranged marriages on the future?”

“It is not common in my time.” Tae-Yang explained after calming himself down. “We find someone who we are attracted to, get to know them and then decide if we want to marry them.”

“Do your parents know who you marry?” Hei-Ryung was curious.

“Parents usually do know if you get married. Our parents knew that Tae-Yeon and I were dating… Tae-Yeon and I were not even married yet…” Tae-Yang felt upset after hearing her name. Moments passed and Tae-Yang asked Hei-Ryung, “Your parents definitely love you. How would they feel if they knew how Jong-Il was treating you?”

“My parents do care about me…” Hei-Ryung reminisced of the days before she was married. “However, they do not see me anymore… They would not know what I am doing, nevertheless, know how I feel.”

“Hei-Ryung…” Tae-Yang stepped closer to her placing his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. “Would you do anything to be happy… to live freely without having to worry about getting caught reading books, speaking about whatever you wanted?”

“If I was able to… I would…” Hei-Ryung dreamed. “But how is that even possible?”

“The man I am staying with, Young-Bae. He looks exactly like me, if you got to know him, would you run away with him. If you’re with him I know you would not feel like a prisoner.” Tae-Yang explained.

“This man does not even know me…”

“He saw you reading here one day.” Tae-Yang explained. “When he speaks about you… you can tell that he is smitten.” Hei-Ryung’s eyes widened shocked to find out someone had found her. Tae-Yang reassured her safety, “It is okay he has not said a word to anyone but me. This place was quite difficult to find. He was the one who helped me find this place… Come to think of it… this place is really difficult to find… it is quite odd how he was the one to find this place… and not long after, someone who looks like him starts to meet up with you…”

“Do you think he was meant to find me here?” Hei-Ryung asked Tae-Yang.

“I cannot be confident and say yes… but it is rather ironic that these events took place one after another.” Tae-Yang explained. After a long pause, “Hei-Ryung… would you take a chance to date Young-Bae?”

“What about my parents… If they find out that I might be committing adultery… it would wreck their reputation.” Hei-Ryung contemplated.

“Hei-Ryung… I have come up with a plan…” Tae-Yang reassured her. “If your father knew how miserable you were… wouldn’t he want something better for his daughter?”

“What do have in mind?”

“A plan where you won’t commit adultery and your family’s reputation would not get hurt.”

Hello. I'm sorry for such a late update... it's a small chapter for after a long break... but have been super busy... please continue to enjoy the story :))