Hwarang: Past Memories

Chapter 14: Truth

I didn't want to be like that again. I had experienced and learned too much to fall back to that. 

But I also wasn't dumb. I knew right from wrong and I knew I shouldn't have to tolerate someone's abuse. No one had a right to lay a hand on me. So what should I do? Wait it out and see? 

"You know, Soo-ho seems to be rather good with Jin-a," Ah-ro's voice spoke interrupting my train of thought. 

She had been sitting at a table, organizing her golden acupuncture needles up until that point rather quietly. I had silently thanked her for the brief moment to gather my thoughts and emotions. 

Now that sentence alone caused me to nearly tumble into a chair. 

I righted myself, "Ah... y-yes... apparently." 

I didn't know when or how but it was true and I knew that. Jin-a had taken a strong liking to Soo-ho for some reason, much to my dismay. They hadn't interacted often to my knowledge and yet she was enamored with him. Maybe blood truly was that strong?

I could practically see the gears turning in Ah-ro's head as she eyed me carefully. Her eyes trailed back to Jin-a, blissfully unaware anything was amiss. 

"I hope I'm not overstepping Yu-ri... But... what happened to Jin-a's father?" She asked, each word sounding nearly painful to utter as if she wasn't sure whether to speak them... 

The words felt like ice to my soul. 

No one had ironically enough asked me since I arrived that question. The rumors seemed to speak for themselves enough to where no one had personally asked me about Jin-a's missing paternal link and I hadn't said anything either. If they wanted to assume I was a widow, so be it. Truly it made things easier for me. 

She must have sensed my discomfort and walked over beside me before placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"I understand if it's too painful to speak about... but... Yu-ri... Is he really dead?" She hesitantly spoke. 

Her eyes were calculated. She was thinking long and hard about something. She had looked between Soo-ho and Jin-a enough earlier for me to become slightly uncomfortable and it seems those looks may have led to this very question... Even though it came out as a question, it seemed like she already knew the answer. 

And I was petrified. 

I could feel my face pale as blood rushed away from it. 

"Ah Yu-ri! I'm so sorry! Forgive me, I'm sometimes too nosey for my own good," She said, seemingly having noticed my pallid demeanor. 

She looked sincerely upset at herself. 

She had begun to walk away, but my hand caught hers. 

I slowly looked up at her confused gaze. 

"Jina-'s father... he... he isn't... h-he's not dead."

The room fell into silence. 

There it was, the truth. 

"But then..." 

I nodded, looking into her light eyes. Ah-ro, for the time that I'd known her, had no malicious bone in her body. She was clumsy, stubborn, opinionated, bold, but also true and pure-hearted... I had instantly trusted her with Jin-a for some reason and I knew it's because she really was no threat. 

She was a smart girl and it shouldn't surprise me she pieced together the truth I was about to release fully. 

"Yes, I'm sure you've figured it out... I, well, it's hard for me to say but... but I trust you Ah-ro. Jin-a's father is... S-Soo-ho..." I barely managed to get out. 

My face felt flushed. My body felt heavy and light all at once as if the breeze could knock me over. 

I had never fully vocalized this statement... this fact before and let alone to another person. It was a damning piece of information, one that could still destroy me; destroy what people thought of me. And yet, it oddly felt... good to release as well. A secret wound up so tightly within me that it felt like it could explode. 

To her credit, Ah-ro didn't gasp. Her hazel eyes merely widened and her jaw slightly opened. There were still questions racing through her eyes though and I could see she almost wanted to ask more... but politely held herself back. 

"I think it's time I tell you a story instead," I said and we both sat down for a tale I know all too well because I had lived it. 

-

"I swear I'll just one day smack Soo-ho myself," grumbled a Ban-ryu as he made his way over to Ah-ro's medical room. 

He had heard his friend, and brother-in-law had gotten injured during practice and had been sent over to get his thick skull looked at. 

The man was a mess lately. He had been for a while. He had thought Soo-ho was annoying after the Queen's passing and yet this was on a whole other level. But he partially understood why now. Yu-ri's arrival seemed to have stirred up something in him that the idiot hadn't wanted to acknowledge himself. The two had a messy past and history that could never be erased. 

Even if he thought he was extremely careless and reckless for having that past. 

He let out a deep sigh as he neared the door. 

Despite his frustrations, he knew Soo-ho was not the same child he had been years before. He had indeed changed. And he was now also family. So of course, he cared... worried even for him. Which was why he was here now. 

The sound of multiple voices in the room told him Ah-ro wasn't alone. A fact that wasn't unusual, but what was unusual, and stopped him cold in his tracks, was the other woman's voice he could just barely hear. Yu-ri.

"Jina-'s father... he... he isn't... h-he's not dead."

He knew the look on his face was one of both intrigue and shock. The story was that she was a widow. Yu-ri had never said or done anything to counter that claim either so he like everyone else believed it. After all, what else would a single mother be? 

As much as he knew deep inside he shouldn't be listening to this... he found himself pressing his ear a little closer. 

"But then..." Ah-ro had said, obviously as confused as he was. 

A moment of silence followed before the storm was released. A storm that even in his craziest thoughts, he'd never dreamed of. 

"Yes, I'm sure you've figured it out... I, well it's hard for me to say but... but I trust you Ah-ro. Jin-a's father is... S-Soo-ho..."

Soo-ho.

The shock of the news sent him nearly tumbling down the steps up to the room. 

Soo-ho. 

He actually... 

Ban-ryu felt numb and stunned. 

He thought back to every interaction he had seen between Yu-ri and Soo-ho, but also Jin-a and Soo-ho. The more he thought about it, the more similarities he connected. Jin-a painfully looked like Soo-ho at times, enough so that he was surprised this hadn't been noticed before, but he knew the mother keep a careful guard on her. Perhaps for that very reason. The way Yu-ri was so apprehensive around him and seemed ready to bite his head off at any moment... It all made sense now.  

His friend was actually a father and it was extremely evident he had no idea. 

He didn't know what to feel but while in the past he would have acted on his impulsive anger, he found himself pausing instead after the news settled in. 

And that's how he ended up listening secretly as Yu-ri recounted the heartbreaking tale of her past.