Her hands fisted in frustration as she watched the old man shake his head in protest.  Her heart was twisting painfully as she begged him to reconsider what he was doing to his son.***

            “Sir Jung please, just tell him.”

            “It has only been five days, and we agreed to go for a month,” he persisted not convinced.

            “I miss him, and I do not know how much longer I can hold on.” she confesses holding herself.

            “My dear, I know my son, and he will go back to his old ways if I give him what he wants.” he explained trying to keep his voice down.  They were standing near the fireplace away from ear shot, so that not even Lady Jungcould hear their bickering.

            “You don’t really know that, he’s changed,” she pleaded searching his eyes.

            He sighed clearly not agreeing with her but none the less he looked at the broken expression on her face as her lip quivered.  “Give it one more week…then go to him,” he muttered.

            “Oh, thank you.” She gasped.  She fought the urge to embrace him as everyone chatted away in the living room.  Her heart skipped with joy as her smile grew wider and her eyes brimmed with thick tears.

            “It kills me to see my son in the condition he’s in now, but if it’s to teach him a good lesson then so be it,” he whispered.

            Shin Hye felt that a week was still too long, but having no other choice she agreed to it.  Nodding he excused himself and joined her father as she walked away up to her room and laid on her bed.  She found her hands reaching for her brown sketch book and pulling out a pencil she opened it to the first blank page and began to draw.  Longing to see those dark eyes, she began to sketch them.  After she was done she found herself drawing his straight nose and then, his lips, his upper thin and bottom full.

            Signing her name in the back she retraced his name with her pencil over and over, it was the first pencil portrait she had ever made of him.  Turning it she stared at it and smiled.

            “Just one more week,” she whispered.

 *****

            Another day had come to an end, Yong Hwa sat next to the windowsill watching the stars shine brightly.  The moon hid behind dark gray clouds slowly brushing away to reveal its brightness.  He felt the cold rush into his room and closing his eyes he inhaled and let out an unsteady breath.  The only thing that clouded every space in his mind was her, he longed for her deeply.  Turning to her portrait he stared at it and standing he walked over to it and took it in his hands.

            He brushed his fingers over it tracing her name at the bottom right corner.  It had only been five days since he last saw her and to him it felt like eternity.  He had promised that he would never bother her any longer and even though it was a painful promise he had to stand by it.

            “I can’t do this anymore,” he whispered as he pulled out her wedding ring from around his neck.

            In just five days he had decided to flee the mansion, finding somewhere else where the pain was less for him.  Here in this small dark room he sat staring out the window, the cold breeze lightly invading the privacy of his chamber.  Closing the window he stood and lit a candle giving the room a dim shadowy look.

            When night time fell he laid in bed fiddling with her ring and thinking of the life they might have had.  Sometimes he tossed and turned all night unable to find slumber.  This was more than he could bear at times.  Lying on his side he stared off into nothing and slowly felt his eyes close.

*******                               

               She lay snuggled under her covers staring at nothing as the candle made the room form shadows around her walls.  Closing her eyes she twirled her long almond hair around her index finger. There was not a second in her mind that Yong Hwa wasn’t there. He clouded every corner of it.  She missed him terribly and laid there wondering what he might be doing right at this moment.  Rising off the bed she made her way downstairs and sat in a rocking chair close to the fireplace.  Sleep was far from her as she stared into the flames that made the wood crackle and pop.

            “I see that I am not the only one that can sleep?” Min-young asked from behind.

            “No.”

            “Still thinking about him?” she stated walking over to her side.

            “Why is it so difficult to stop thinking about him?” Shin Hye then asked still staring at the flames.

            “Because you love him, and that’s what love does,” she said while running her fingers through Shin Hye’s hair.

            “Do you think I’m crazy?”

            “No not at all, I actually admire you,” Min-young confessed.

            “Why ever would you?”

            “Yong Hwa was…an ugly husband to you Shin Hye, but yet you stuck with him, you never gave up on him.  I understand you now, at first it was hard to do so, but now that I find myself in love as well, I know that I wouldn’t be able to let go of mine either.”

            They both sat there in silence a while longer until the flames began to die down, and then with the last flame gone they both stood and headed their separate ways to bed.

 *******

            Morning had passed by so fast and dinner time was around the corner, deciding to go to the market Shin Hye hoped into her carriage and went on her way.  She hadn’t been there in a while and missed walking through the crowded market filled with shoppers.  As they arrived she descended her carriage and went about the small stands looking over the last of the vegetables that were being sold.  Winter would come any day now and all the vegetation would die.  It would be about six months before any farmer could start working the ground to sprout fresh fruits and vegetables.  Business would go down and so would the market.

            Her father had thought smart when they had gotten enough money to get themselves back on their feet.  He invested in cattle, chickens, and many other animals’ that could provide food for the winter.  He would grow them and make sure the cows were bred to produce more.  The farm had been built and all the animals were safely inside the big red barn.

            Waiting to get eaten.

            She chose not to think about that, and she also chose to stay away from the animals. She didn’t want to get too attached to them and then find that it was her dinner plate on the table.  Making her way deeper into the market, she could see that the large crowded place was filled with so many shoppers.  They each went about every stand taking whatever they could, filling their baskets with all kinds of vegetables.

            “I failed to see the point of going to the market if there is nothing here, most of this stuff is rotten,” Yong Hwa protested to his mother.

            “We need to take whatever we can for the winter,” she replied.