Ji Hyo enters the room, filling the table with pastries as the men stood outside. She could feel the woman’s gaze crawl over her.

The woman, Yoo’s arranged bride sat dazed, observing Ji Hyo. Though she had disguised herself and the mess she tried to put on her face, Ji Hyo could see her beauty shine under her boyish clothes.

Wearing her warmest smile, Ji Hyo bows her head lightly, “Nice to meet you, Miss Yoon.”

The woman finally realized that she was still staring at Ji Hyo. “N-Nneh.” She bowed her head lightly, “Lady…”

Ji Hyo smiled, “I heard you traveled far, please enjoy this as a token of my hospitality.”

She sat up straight and smiled back, “Thank you for your hospitality, I appreciate it, though you didn’t have to trouble yourself.”

Ji Hyo sits down and offers her the fresh pastries. The woman sits up straight and rejects the offer. Turning to Ji Hyo with a refreshed sense of equal, she projected in her most blunt voice.

“To be honest, I don’t like you,” she looks at Ji Hyo. “Not only that, but I don’t plan to be friends with you.”

Ji Hyo only reads her expressions with a blank face.

“Therefore, you don’t have to be nice to me,” she ends it with a sweet smile.

She took a bite of the pastry.

“Yes,” Ji Hyo smiles and takes a sip from the cup of tea.

This woman, she spoke so directly without worrying how others would feel. It reminded her of the time Yoo warned her about the wild horse and its owner. A smile escaped her lips.

Yoo’s bride-to-be was interesting. She liked her brazenness. Miss Yoon had a character that not many women are willing to show.

At the corner of her eyes, she could see the woman looking around the room and sneaking glances at her while not trying to be obvious.

“Miss Yoon,” she puts down the cup of tea as the woman look at her. “May I ask for your name? Even if you don’t intend on becoming friends, I should cautiously watch my words.”

The woman smiles intently. “Yoon Eun Hye.”

“Yoon Eun Hye…”

“Do you only stay home and cook all day?” she abruptly interrupts Ji Hyo. “How boring.”

“It is my duty to take care of my husband’s family.”

Eun Hye stands up, with her hands behind her back as she paces in the big room filled with classic paintings and furniture.

“Such exquisites.” Eun Hye turns around. “Lady Song, what do you do in the Kim’s mansion all day? I almost died of boredom in that man’s place.”

Ji Hyo chuckles, amused. “Lieutenant Yoo and General Kim have been busy with political duties over last month. Why don’t Miss Yoon, you, show me how you enjoy time in Mongolia? Who knows, we may become more than acquaintance after this?”

Eun Hye flashes a mischievous smile.

*

Jong Kook and Yoo stood outside of the room.

Though he was embarrassed from the action earlier, he still couldn’t figure out why Ji Hyo had to smile so brightly at Yoo. What were these two hiding from him?

“You don’t have to look at me like that,” Yoo spoke first. “I won’t tell you.”

“I wasn’t going to ask anyways.”

“Really?” Yoo looks aloof, “From the gaze in your eyes, I can see the curious cat right through you.” He could hear the soft clench in Jong Kook’s mouth.

Calming himself down, “Why is your bride here?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“You’re in my house yet you’re not willing to tell me anything. Just why are you here?”

“You wouldn’t believe it anyway, no use in telling you.”

Jong Kook’s jealousy that had just calm down rose again.

Yoo looks back inside, seeing the two women sitting face to face, talking.

“Hyung,”

Jong Kook turned to him.

“How do you get rid of a nuisance? People have only been leaving me, but why does that annoying woman keep lingering around me?”

Jong Kook couldn’t help but grinned. “Who knows, maybe she is your fate?”

“Tch,” Yoo annoyed, turns back inside but they were gone.

***

“Did you find her?”

Yoo shook his head.

Jong Kook fussed, hitting Yoo’s back. “Did you really have to bring your bride over to kidnap my wife?”

“She’s not my bride!”

Frustratingly, the two men had been trying to find the two women for over an hour now. They stopped at an alley of taverns.

(Listen please: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeZQ0jkOHSc )

~Somewhere in a shady tavern….

Two feminine figures blend in the crowd. Men; ranging from wealthy to commoners cheer through the various gambling and drinking.

“I bet BIG!” A feminine yet hoarse voice shouts.

The dealer waits, looking up suspiciously at the customer.

“What? Too scared to open? You haven’t seen such a pretty man before???”

The dealer stammers a ‘no’ before revealing the dices.

“AHAH! See I told you,” Eun Hye yells out and laughs wildly as her fake mustache sweats with the alcohol on her upper lip.

Next to her, a delicate fan closes with a clap and a new face is revealed. A mustached Ji Hyo smiles devilishly. Peering at the dices, she takes in a deep breath, smirking.

Eun Hye reaches for the money on the table but a fan clapped at her hand.

Ji Hyo grins, “I bet small,”

“That-“

Eun Hye raised one eyebrow, seeing the disoriented table. She raises one hand and slams it on the table, causing the dice to roll down on the floor as the middle piece of the table falls down.

She turns and glare at the sweating dealer, “Why you-“ she didn’t even finish talking and Ji Hyo stands up, waving the fan in her face.

“Let’s go. No need to waste our time in such a scamming place.”

They were ready to leave when the dealer falls to his knees, begging them not to leave. The person in second hand punished the man and persuaded them to stay.

Eun Hye was so close to smacking the man’s head but restrains herself and gathered the winning money instead.

They were offered the luxurious wine and top VIP tavern room.

Finishing her drink, Eun Hye chuckles. “I see, Lady Song, you are more than meets the eye.”

Ji Hyo gulps down her cup, “I also see that Miss Yoon, you have quite an eye for such games.”

“Of course, all and fair.”

Ji Hyo felt her head rambling on and the wine her in. Sighing, “It’s been a while since I had this much fun.”

Eun Hye’s eyes widen then relaxes, “I though you weren’t used to these type of things, considering your status.”

Ji Hyo giggles, “From Pohang, hundreds of kilometers across Goryeo, I have yet to find someone who enjoys outting as much as I do.”

“And I though all you do is stay home and cook,” Eun Hye giggles.

Ji Hyo shook her head, glancing at Eun Hye who had raised another jar of wine. “Miss,”

Eun Hye puts the jar down and catches her breath and looks at Ji Hyo, listening attentively.

“Maybe you should consider drinking with Lieutenant Yoo since his alcohol tolerance is quite low, you might be able to know him more.”

Eun Hye laughs hysterically, “Him? That man? Ahahaha~” She hits the table a few times and tries to contain her laughter. “Standing like a statue all day, such small eyes, don’t know whether he is asleep or awake, drinks??? Unbelievable.”

Ji Hyo sips another gulp of wine, burning , she hissed. “This is so strong~” yet she takes another sip, “but it’s so good~” she finishes the whole jar.

Eun Hye felt a surge of happiness and stood up, “Here, another drink!”

Ji Hyo covers her ears, “You’re so loud!” her face had a red crimson color. However, she stood up with her cup.

Eun Hye gulps down the alcohol and pours another cup. “Here, to a new drinking partner. I, Yoon Eun Hye Altantsetseg (Golden Flower), would like to know you, the mysterious woman of that man, more!”

“To a new drinking partner, may you and Lieutenant find everlasting blessings!”

Eun Hye scowls irritated. “Yeah right,” she swallows with a loud hissed, “Ugh~ It burns~”

“Where are the ladies?” Ji Hyo shouts.

A group of women, dressing provocatively, enters the room. In their arms, each side had two women. They laughed hysterically, drunk and deaf as they gambled away with women, music, and wine.

***

Two figures in hanboks, a silk covered hat covering their faces. At first it seems as if they are giggling and playfully wandering.

One is pushed into the open and struggles to move back with the other one. Two very tall, femininely from the front but masculine from the back, wore two large sets of wigs and an angled silk hats walked together, shoving each other back and forth through the alley of taverns and casinos.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Yoo whispered as he tries to pull the skirt down to avoid revealing his long legs but tries to hold it up so it doesn’t fall.

Jong Kook, a very powdered flushed cheek with one mole to the side of his upper lip scowls. “Stop making yourself so obvious!”

A red-lipped Yoo glares at him, “As if you are any better, your muscles will tear up that shirt pretty soon.”

The two men fidgeted in the tight clothes and skimps through the alley. Shyly yet walking fast-forwarded.

Jong Kook felt a big smack on his buttocks, making him stand stiff. He turns his head and a giddy man grinned at him. He felt his spine chill in disgust.

Yoo ushered him along, trying to avoid a fight.

“Let me-“

“Come on, you’re the one who wanted to disguise like this.”

After being harassed through the street, they finally made it into a tavern.

***

After searching the whole floor, they were grabbed by a mean looking man and lead to a room where they heard familiar voices.

“Here, I found you two rare, unique women for you lads.” The man points to them, “Here, a sultry yet round who will pleasure you all night long, and here, a seductively yet tall flower, so tall, she’ll block all the ill merits headed your way.”

A disoriented Eun Hye and bored Ji Hyo scans the two ‘women’.

Yoo and Jong Kook looks at the two ‘men’ from behind the silk that barred them apart. Their eyes widen to realization. No wonder they couldn’t find them, they had disguise themselves as men.

“Get out,” Jong Kook ordered in his low voice, causing the man to jump.

Yoo tolls in for the gisaengs to leave the room. Eun Hye protests, ordering the women to sit back down.

Jong Kook couldn’t wait any longer as he sees the gisaeng sits on Ji Hyo’s lap.

“What do you take us for, sending in such low rated gisaengs,” Ji Hyo hummed as she fans herself.

Jong Kook wipes the lipstick off with his sleeve, staining the hanbok before he strides towards her. He glares at the gisaeng sitting s close to Ji Hyo’s chest. Her skin had shown off her well-defined collarbone.

“Get off,” he orders the gisaeng but she ignored him as Ji Hyo turns to the gisaeng.

Smiling cheekily, Ji Hyo teases the gisaeng, leaning in for a kiss as their nose touched. She angles her head to kiss the gisaeng. The gisaeng was forcefully yank by Jong Kook out of Ji Hyo’s arms. Ji Hyo tries to pulls the gisaeng back but couldn’t as Jong Kook drags her out of the room in her disheveled clothes.

“Let go of me you abnormal gisaeng!” Ji Hyo shouts. Instead, he turns her around and pins her to the pillar. With the silk hat still between them, Ji Hyo huffs and puffs, threatening to throw ‘her’ out of the tavern.

“You don’t have to, I will go,” he coldly replied.

“Go then, stop holding onto me like a maniac.”

“If I let you go, who knows where your lips will land next.”

“Ugh, really this woman,” Ji Hyo groans and tries to push. Though she tried ad tried, her body sweated and her moustaches fell off before she knew it. Gasping, “My mustache, my mustache, where’d it go???” she tries to search.

But a tense Jong Kook only gazed at her as his cold and jealous gaze soften. Teasingly, he purposely held onto her closer.

Flipping the silk over the hat, he cleans closer and kisses her.

Ji Hyo pushed and pushed but he held her head still and gathered her in his arms. He releases the kiss to cut her words again and again until his tongue slipped into . She had finally stopped protesting and reciprocated his kiss…

Only to moments later, they are outside of the tavern and Ji Hyo severely pukes. Jong Kook pats her back, given up.

Seeing how drunk she was to kiss another woman, he wanted to punish her. But now that she was puking so badly, he only wanted to cuddle her in his arms.

“Come here,” he takes her by the arm as she groans and moans. He piggy backs her and pulls his skirt high to walk. Eyes stare at them but he could give no damn now. He found his wife and he’s taking her home. Who cares about his image as a General now? No one will recognize him anyways.

***

It was nightfall when they reached the Kim’s mansion. He sat her by the pavilion closest to her chambers. Wiping her face with his sleeve, he sighs.

“Wake up,” he gently shakes her. She slowly opens her eyes and gaze at him.

“Chinky gisaeng,” she calls him, pointing her finger. She hits her head. “I must be crazy,”

Jong Kook held up her face in his hands.

She pushes his hands away, “Yah! I’m a married woman, don’t touch me!” Ji Hyo was already drunk as her cheeks became rosy.

He burst in laughter at her outbursts.

“I’m telling the truth. I may dress like a man but I am a very faithful wife.”

He hiccupped from his endless smiles, smiling from ear to ear. Jong Kook looks at her face as he leans down and looks at her, trying to get her attention.

“Ji Hyo-ah,” he called her name more softly.

She looks up at him, raising her hands and holding his face, she smiles widely. “Chunky Gisaeng, why do you look like my Jong Kook? Huh?” She pinches his cheek, “Change your face, only my husband can look like my husband, understand?”

Mesmerized by her drunkness, he firmly holds her face and smiles. “Understood.”

“Good job,” she lightly pats his cheek. It was a moment of silence that he took her words to heart.

(Listen please: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuSmZzLG1xI )

“I like you,” the words slipped out of his mouth. But she couldn’t comprehend anything, only smiling and looking at him blankly.

He pulled her closer until their faces were inches apart as he looks deep into her eyes. “I said I like you, do you hear me?” he spoke louder, emphasizing it.

“I really like you.” He whispered once more.

Ji Hyo still drunk but stopped everything she was doing and only look at him.

Lightly shaking his head, “No, I love you.”

He leans forward and presses his lips on hers. Ji Hyo stayed still and let him kiss her as softly.

Her lips were warm and cold, he could taste the bitter liquor on her lips. But something else was sweet.

It felt like the whole world has stopped.

He moved back as he looks back at her. She slowly opened her eyes and looks up at him.

No expression, making him wonder if he did something wrong. Maybe he should apologize, kissing a woman, on top of that, a drunk woman was not really gentleman-like.

Before he could utter another word, a pair of hands wrapped around his neck and Ji Hyo move forward, placing her lips on his again.

This time his eyes widen in surprise, not expecting that from her. He slowly raised his arm around her as he felt her hands on his shoulder.

He closed his eyes and let the kiss continue as he slips his tongue in , tasting the sweetness of her pink lips. The liquor had turned sweet as they exchanged fluid and soon, Ji Hyo had sat on his lap, straddling on top of him.

He felt a great urge in his body. It wasn’t lust. It was more of just expression, nothing to do with lust like he had with Ara. It was the longing and desire he pushed himself away from. His hands worked its way to her shoulders, making her robes loosen off to her shoulders.

Jong Kook and Ji Hyo finally pulled apart as they catch their breaths. Their foreheads lean on each other. They opened their eyes and look at each other.

Jong Kook moved the loose strand of hair out of her face as he touched her cheek. Leaning in, he teases her with kisses on her cheeks and the corner of her lips.

He wanted to make her his. To truly become his wife, to become one.

He could feel her leg prying on his, with her hands running through his hair, her kiss intensified as she commandingly took over his mouth.

Closing his eyes, he tries his best to hold himself back but Ji Hyo’s biting his bottom lip didn’t help it. His hands that held her in his lap had somehow reached its way to her abdomen, slightly crawling to the plumpness of her chest.

Their lips part, grasping for breath as Jong Kook lie by her shoulder and she by his forehead.

It was addicting, longing. How he had wanted to take her, right here, right now, in the vast pavilion. Her luscious lips that on his like nectar, her soft yet sturdy hands that took control of his body, reacting to her every touch.

But an uneasy feeling mulled him over.

She leaned down and grabbed him into another kiss as he tries to stop her.

“Ji Hyo,” he tries to call her but her tongue made its way into his mouth, devouring his words, silencing him with her need to feel him.

He tugs harder but her grip was tight. The more he tried to stop her, the more she protested against him. With all his might, he caught her hands that sneaked into his white undergarment shirt, opening his chest view.

“Ji Hyo,” he looks at her.

Her sloppy bun had turned messy and loosen, her long hair had strands going over her face.

“Let’s stop here, you are drunk.”

A somewhat sober Ji Hyo glares at him, disappointed.

“You don’t want me?”

His eyes widen, perhaps taken back, “It’s not that I don’t want you-“

“Why? Am I going to dirty you?”

“Wait-“

Ji Hyo pries herself off him slowly, “It’s fine. I’ll take this as compensation of your act of a husband.” Fixing her clothes, she gets up and headed towards her chambers.

He runs after her. “Don’t misunderstand me,”

“Yes, sir.” She lazily answered and continues but he firmly catches her.

“Ji Hyo-ah, you are misunderstanding.”

She turns around and glares at him. “I remember everything.”

There was a silent moment before she spoke again.

“From my understanding, there is no misunderstandings. I know exactly who I am. Song Ji Hyo, daughter of Minister of Justice and military officer of Yuan, the supposedly official wife of Kim Jong Kook, General of Goryeo, Son of Minister of Defense, Nephew of ex-Marshall.”

She takes a deep breath.

“Yet, I guess… I will never be good enough for you.”

She releases her hand from his grasp. Suddenly he yanks her back into his chest. His face had grown dim and furious.

She remembered… she said that she remembered everything. Jong Kook felt betrayed. His heart wrench and she could hear his teeth clench faintly.

Knowing fully well why she had become so distant after her arrival back in the Song’s Mansion with Yoo, Jong Kook felt betrayed but guilty.

“Please release me, I need to rest.” She had formally addressed him.

He didn’t want to let go, knowing that if he had released her, they would really grow apart. Yet… his grip loosens.

“It was a fun night, Husband Kim. I really enjoyed playing with fire.” She turns around and didn’t look back. He watches her leave him alone. As if they had not just kissed, as if they were not on the verge of making love…

He walks to her door, attempting to knock, fighting to the urge to burst into the room and confessed the truth. He ended up walking back to his chambers.

You can never control who you fall in love with, even when you're in the most sad, confused time of your life. You don't fall in love with people because they're fun. It just happens.

-quote-

******

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