.seventy four.
Eun quickly got dressed and started pacing the room in worry. Jangmi only watched him, sheets wrapped around her body. The tenth prince ran a hand through his hair and sighed in frustration, thinking himself weak and stupid for what he had done. So many thoughts raced through his head. He loved his wife and didn't want anyone else. How could he have allowed himself to stoop so low? Had his father been alive, as well as Yo, perhaps they would have congratulated him for it. It was encouraged for a prince or a king to have more than one woman. But it was not something Eun ever wanted or needed, not when he had Hak Soon.
"I've done something terrible." He muttered to himself in horror, his hands now touched his face, rubbing his temples as though this were just some bad dream he would wake up from any moment now. "She will never forgive me for this."
Jangmi found herself rolling her eyes at his words. Then she gave a scoff that immediately drew his attention back to her. "You are a prince and she's merely the Grand General's daughter." She mentioned the title with disdain. She had never actually met her in person, but the prince certainly seemed to hold her in very high esteem, and that made Princess Jangmi's blood boil. A worthless girl, merely a military daughter, valued more highly over her, a princess. The tenth prince was clearly very blindly in love. "You have nothing to apologize for. If anything, she should apologize to you for being such a huge burden in your life, your majesty. She's blind, and she has the nerve to provide you with sickly children. She isn't worth your time--"
"Quiet." He snapped at her.
It hurt him to hear Hak Soon saying those things about herself because he knew she really felt that way. She felt like she was just a burden on him because she could not see. But hearing someone else say those things about his wife made him absolutely livid. He wasn't with his wife out of pity, and she certainly wasn't a burden on his life. Many times he often felt like he was the one bringing her down. She was going to marry his brother at one point, one of the best soldiers in Goryeo, and also said to be one of the more handsome princes. Yet she had been forced to marry him--slow witted and average in appearance according to the masses.
He pointed his index finger at her menacingly. "Don't you dare say those horrible things about her. She's not a princess, but she's my wife, and she's worth more to me than someone like you."
With that, he abruptly ended their conversation and stomped out of the Heaven House.
As he left, she called out to him loudly. "I'm not giving up now that I have you. You will marry me. You have to."
Night had fallen already as he made his way back to his house and Minji was having dinner with the children, Han, Soon Deok, and their daughter who was the same age as Jinki. When he entered the room, all eyes looked to him, and recognizing his footsteps, Minji hurried to his side.
"Love, where have you been?" She asked him with worry flooding her words. "You left early in the morning and I was worried something happened."
He looked at the ground, he could not stare her in the face out of the shame he was feeling. She cupped his hands and brought her lips to his, but he turned away, grabbing her wrists gently in his hand and placing her hands by her side. He didn't feel like he deserved her worry or her love in that moment. Not after what he did. Minji's expression dropped instantly when he denied her affection. He had never been like that to her, only during the time when he thought she was only pretending to love him. But she truly did love him now and she didn't think there was any reason for him to be upset at her. Han and Soon Deok quickly noticed that there was something wrong and the two stood up.
