.eighty nine.
-
"He has lost his mother, his grandfather, his home, everything he has ever held dear to him. I am the only person he has left."
-
Minji stood in the hallway with two children in her arms, tears streaming down her face as she heard his footsteps growing more and more faint with every step he took away from them. Hajin had set Soo Hyun down on his feet and only held Eun Bi now. She cut the small distance between herself and Minji, and grabbed her by the arm in an attempt to get her attention. She tried to urge her to continue without Eun. "We have to go now if you want to escape. The soldiers are coming and we don't have much time." From where they stood, they could hear the commotion as Eun emerged into their sight. He did not struggle as they apprehended him. They asked him where the rest of the family was, but he refused to speak. Without his cooperation, they instead took him away to the presence of the king.
The general's daughter gave a shake of her head, refusing to follow. She only continued to stand there, as though lost in her own thoughts and her grief. "I can't leave without my husband. Without him...I am incomplete."
Memory after memory flooded her mind of the past six years. How it was all coming to an end so suddenly. Back when she first arrived in Goryeo, she never imagined the tenth prince would be someone important in her life. Now he was her husband who she loved dearly, who she had given four beautiful children. She could not let him go just like that.
She remembered how she and Eun fought in the private baths on that first day. How he seemed to hate her from the very start. She didn't know where she was, or why everyone kept calling her Hak Soon. She later found out that she was Park Hak Soon, the youngest daughter of Grand General Park. Her sister was Soon Deok and she was friends with Prince Jung of Goryeo, and Princess Yeon Hwa of Goryeo. Her life and everything she knew was gone, and she had to adapt to a new place.
She recalled how he had fought with her and Hajin at the eighth prince's home when they caught him spying on one of the servants. He had been so arrogant and mean to them, saying that he could do whatever he pleased because he was a prince.
She recalled how he gave her a ride to the eighth prince's house on his horse, immediately catching on that she didn't remember how to ride a horse and was scared to do so. He had found entertainment in watching her suffer.
How he walked her home one night after she left Jung in the palace.
His birthday party with all the other princes there. They were all happy to celebrate his eighteenth birthday and had gotten him drunk for the first time. Minji recalled how he had told asked her to marry him while being completely and utterly drunk beyond all reason. Minji thought it was a joke at the time, yet she didn't know he had been considering it for a while now.
She remembered feeling like her world was crumbling around her when he really did ask for her hand in marriage, and how that proposal ended up making more than one person unhappy. Soon Deok had wanted to marry him, since she had a crush on him since they were kids. Jung and Minji were unhappy because they had been promised to each other, to be married once they turned eighteen. Their plans had been interrupted by the tenth prince and the king had decided to please him.
Minji remembered her wedding day, and she wished she could have been happier in that moment. She didn't know that she would grow to deeply love her husband as much as she did now.
Their year of getting used to each other. Eun had fallen in love with her more quickly than she did with him, and when she became pregnant, she remembered being unsure about it. She didn't want to lead him on and make him think that she was in love with him. But she didn't want to stay waiting on Jung forever. She finally accepted that their love story had ended and would never be.
