The Noble: A Sequel to Hwarang: The Saga of the Sooks Book #4

Chapter 17: A Lost Love

Ban Ryu had slept throughout the remainder of yesterday. And her mother had returned at sunset to relieve her. As promised. Still, Soo Yeon insisted on sleeping on the yo bed in the corner of his room. She wasn't about to leave her dear Ban Ryu.

And, of course, her father heard of it.

From the doctor.

So the next morning, Lord Kim Seub appeared in Ban Ryu's room. To visit his daughter.

But he entered the room while she was still sleeping. So was the patient. Lord Kim Seub stood next to his bed and stared down at a face that in slumber looked years younger than it was. And the noble lord could suddenly see the lad as a young boy again. Kim Seub recalled a day that he'd forgotten long ago. And a truth that no one else knew. No one else living, that was....

Long before Lord Kim Seub had met his wife, he had loved a girl. Sook Min. He had been an adolescent. As had she. She had also been born to a noble family. And her father had bought the house next door to Kim Seub's home.

She had lived in that house for a brief season. But it had been long enough for the young lad to take a fancy to her. She'd been a tender thirteen years old that year. He'd been fifteen. It had been a year before he'd met Bit Na.

He had nursed a soft spot for that other girl for several months. But as he pondered it, he realized that that soft spot had never hardened. Not even when Sook Min had been betrothed to another man a few short months after meeting Kim Seub. Her father had insisted that she marry that other man. Before her fourteenth birthday.

She, as well as Kim Seub, had been heartbroken. But she had recognized her path in life, and she had taken it. Waving goodbye to him one cold night in early spring. To marry his nemesis. Park Ho Gong. Kim Seub had believed that fate was extraordinarily cruel. Until he'd met Bit Na.

Still, he had never forgotten Sook Min. Nor lost his special devotion to her. She had been his best friend during that happy season of his adolescence. She had faded from his life for several years. Until one day, he had run into her again. After he'd married Bit Na. And after Sook Min had given birth to her son. A beautiful, little boy with wide, chocolate eyes. Just like his eomma. The lad had been four years old the day that Kim Seub had first met him.

Sook Min had decided to visit the market herself that morning. Hungry for a treat from a particular stall. One that always ran out of its goodies early. With her little boy in tow, she'd slipped out to the street just after the sun had risen. And bumped into Kim Seub in front of the stall that sold her favorite rice cakes.

Lord Kim Seub had stood frozen for several long seconds. Staring down at his first love. And at the tiny boy clinging to her hand. That little boy had glanced up at him with eyes fringed by the longest eyelashes Kim Seub had ever seen. That innocent face had seared itself into his consciousness. And he had wondered how he could feel such dislike for a guileless child. The son of his archenemy, Park Ho Gong.

"Lord Kim Seub," Sook Min had bowed to him as a great grin had spread across her face, "this is my son, Park Ban Ryu."

She had turned to address the boy, "Ban Ryu, bow to this man. This is Eomma's good friend. From long ago."

But that proud, little boy had refused to bow to him. Instead, his dark eyes had seemed to challenge Kim Seub. As though he had known that the man was his foe.

"Ban Ryu!" she had scolded him. And prodded him.

Finally, the tiny child had relented and bowed to the man. Stiffly. Or so it had seemed to Kim Seub.