It was a fine spring's day in the village where our grandfathers followers had created a land of their own under his name. The flowers were in bloom, the village crops had just been planted and everyone was just beginning to wake up to a celebration. They were people of no importance to the rest of the world; but to my mother, Seo Yeon, my uncle, Seo Hwi, my late god-father, chief Park and my father Nam Seon-Ho, they were the most important people in the world. They were the people who were left stranded and devastated in the war's that our previous emperor's started for one corrupt reason after another; widows, orphans, spinsters and so on that had collectively come together almost 20 years ago and more and had the initiative to establish an entire village away from the royal family's watchful and greedy eyes. There were no social backgrounds here, no-one was better than the other apart from my uncle who had become the village chief as soon as he was free from the shackles of the palace and everyone poured their money and incomes together so they were all equally taken care of. It was also our home away from the city, the place and the rest of the world where people went to despicable lengths to compete with each other for power, money and fame, and all to end up in an early grave with nothing to their name. To be honest, I despised the rest of the world outside this peaceful village, as did my father and uncle. But as they had businesses all over the place in multiple cities, they were more accustomed to travelling almost everyday, whereas I was the happiest when I was a part of everyone else here instead of being the grandchild of a national traitor on my father's side and the grandchild of one of the greatest swordsman in our nation's history at the same time. It was a confusing and complicated existence for me to have two grandfather's that couldn't have been more different from each other if they had tried. My twin sister Hana got away with everything under the sun since she could win everyone's heart's under the sun with a simple smile, and most especially my father. But I wasn't as easy going as she was, I wasn't as forgiving as she was and I was for damned sure not as easy to please as she was. In fact, it had been said that I had a rather difficult personality to deal with by my siblings and cousins multiple times. And it was true, I had no idea why I was the way I was…sometimes I felt as if only my mother could understand me at all…
My mother; my crazy, spoilt, childish, erratic and ever loving mother that my equally crazy and childish twin sister had 100% taken after, only she loved me enough to drive me crazy sometimes. She had been obsessed with me from the moment I was born whilst my sister Hana herself was completely obsessed with my father and never let him out of her sight from the moment that she first opened her eyes. My father constantly reminded me of how much my mother loved me when my mother ran around to take care of everyone in the village apart from him. That was the kind of person my father was around my mother; I had no idea what kind of spell my mother cast on this powerful man who was even the right hand man of the last prince, who had survived more than 3 wars and could run the palace's court with his eyes closed. He was powerful man in the city and no one dared to mess with him after everything that he had been through. But when it came to my mother, he was just as much as a child than even my sister was. He constantly needed my mother's attention, love and care and he could sulk for an entire week if she so much as missed having dinner with him. My father who was a quarter-noble and had more money than anyone I had ever met only wanted my mother's food, the tea that she made and the clothes that she personally hand-stitched for him despite her having her own embroidery business. He even had her make shoes for him for every single occasion that one could possibly attend to, which he did. He had to always be in the same room as her, to accompany her in everything that she did and everywhere that she went to, and she always watched everything that she did, no matter how small or unimportant it was. She even raised us literally in front of his eyes in his study every single day until….
"Hyuk? What are you doing here? Hwan is looking all over the village for you?" "What more does he want from me? Haven't we returned here just to celebrate his birthday? I have done everything that mother has asked me to do…what? Why are you laughing at me?" "Because you go off on a rant every single time everyone mention's our dear brother's name, that is why." "What nonsense…" "You have been doing this since he could talk and he stole all of our mother's attention." "Hana! Stop making up such rubbish…" "Aww, my dear brother, do not worry, because you will always have me at your side." This was the sarcastic remark that my twin sister always came up with as she batted her long eyelashes at me, as if that was supposed to make me feel better at all. Both my mother and sister teased me to no end, but my sister really took it too far, and just as my aunt Hwa-Wol's daughter Bo-Geom was making her way towards us with a smile on her face at the sight of my sister wrapping her arms around me so publicly.
"Let go of me!" I hissed at Hana who had to choose this moment of all times to cling onto me just like she used to when we were children and shared the same bed. "Why? Is your dream woman making her way towards us?" "Hana! For goodness sake, you are a married woman now and you still won't let go of me?" "You're my twin brother, of course I will never let go of you. And I won't let anyone take you away from me, either." "Hana!" "You know what you need to do, dear brother." "For goodness sake! Please Hana, I beg of you to let go of me, I am begging you on mu knees!" "Hana? Hyuk? What on earth are you both doing? You know that you are not children anymore, right?" "Forgive us sister, my bother here seemed to be in a playful mood and couldn't bear to part with me today." Hana had the damned cheek to lie and stick her little tongue out at me behind Bo-Geom's back as I tried to straighten myself out as much as possible without trying to look too obvious and give myself away. I was almost in my 30's now, but never ever had I looked at another woman in the way that I hd always looked at Bo-Geom, who had inherited her mother's beauty and her father's passion as a physician. She had all of the qualities that my mother had, which was honestly very rare in our era. My mother was more advanced than any man I had seen whilst juggling family responsibilities and helping her brother run this village that she had inherited from her father. My mother was a champion in multi-tasking and I guess that I had pretty high standards in what I wanted for my own spouse. Yes, Bo-Geom was older than me, but that wasn't even a problem to me at all. I was honestly attracted to how mature she was and always had been compared to the silly young girls that pranced around to attract any attention they could get. Even my father despised such woman, despite being used to a brothel setting due to my uncle Hwi's wife, which was another story in itself. And not only was she beautiful, she was more intelligent than any noble woman that I had ever come across. And she wasn't a woman to sit on her husband's money and status to show off and waste time, she was the village's physician and I fully supported her in this work.
"Hyuk?" "Y…yes?" "How are you? I saw that you arrived here last night, but I was far too busy with patients to greet you…" "No! I mean, do not worry about it, I know how busy you are and…what? Why are you smiling at me like that?" "I am smiling at you because of your thoughtfulness and kindness, Seo Hyuk. Not many people understand the nature of my work due to my sex, they think that I can manage everything at the same time, but they don't seem to understand that I am just a single human being as well." "I think you're forgetting who my mother is." I replied with a small smile of my own and my eyes locked onto her hair which was just as beautiful and scented as her mother's who used to be a kiseng and a world renowned beauty at that. She had a pretty small face with slim and yet perfect features, and a rather slim waist to match like my mother's. And she didn't wear common colours like other girls; she preferred autumn colours that brought out light brown eyes…
"Brother! Where were you? I…" my ever tactful and drunk baby brother launched himself into my arms even though it was his 16th birthday right in front of Bo-Geom, who couldn't stop laughing at my brother's antics. I could only silently thank Buddha that Bo-Geom was kind and thoughtful herself before I had to haul my not-so-little brother onto my shoulders before my father saw the state he was in and finally went through with his threats of punishing him so severely that he wouldn't be able to walk for a while. I couldn't believe that I had such troubling siblings that couldn't wait to pounce on me as soon as they saw me, this is exactly why I wanted to have my own property in the village to move into. I could only hold onto my brother and dig my nails into him to calm myself down as I took him to my adopted sister's home as she was helping my mother with the birthday decorations.
"Brother…brother…I miss you, brother…" I could only roll my eyes as I practically dumped Hwan onto our sister's bed and come as close as I could to smothering him with a pillow and blanket before I stormed off outside to find my mother. Only she could soothe me in this moment where I was really tempted to strangle my siblings to death.