8

It is Not Love That is Blind, But Jealousy

Kim Ssook walked cautiously as she looked around at the bodies of the men on the street, wondering what had happened here. One minute she was sure she had seen Lady Kim and now…

Did Lady Kim do this?

The only reason that Ssook was even here was because the Muwoldan had heard that Lady Kim had been captured by her in-laws and she thought she might need to help her out.

But it didn't look like Lady Kim needed any assistance at all…

"Kim Gwabo?" Ssook called out softly, her eyes then shifting to the palanquin in the middle of the road. She could sense movement inside and knocked. When there was no answer, she reached out to open the door but all of sudden, a group of men showed up out of nowhere and surrounded her, their weapons at the ready.

"Who are you?" One of them asked and walked up to her, raising his sword. Ssook could tell these men were probably part of the group assigned to escort Lady Kim back to her in-laws.

She was just about to pull her dagger out of her sleeve when the palanquin door burst open and someone in a white widow hanbok tumbled out. The person jumped up to their feet and Ssook's eyebrows went up in surprise as she recognized a very hassled looking Lady Kim. She watched as one of the men approached her and nearly choked when Lady Kim slapped him in the face.

"How dare you treat me like this!" She shrieked at them before turning to see her standing there. She quickly took Ssook to the side. "What are you doing here?" Lady Kim whispered to her. "You're going to sabotage my plan." Ssook wasn't sure she understood.

"I heard you got captured so I thought –" she began. "Wait… your plan?"

"You know what they say, beard the lion in its den," she explained in a hurry. "I let myself get caught on purpose so I could carry out the mission." Ssook stared at her in amazement as Lady Kim faced the group again. "This woman is my friend!" She announced and glanced at her, gesturing towards her to leave. "Get out of here!" She urged her under her breath.

Kim Ssook simply bowed lightly and got away from there. She still wasn't sure what Lady Kim planned to do but her only consolation was that it was clear now, this woman could take care of herself.

x-X-x

Park Danho wasn't sure what he watching unfold before him but it was the most amusing thing he had seen in a long time.

But then again, waiting around while his friend went to pick oranges from a tree in the yard of an abandoned home was not exactly his idea of adventure either so next to that, this was definitely exciting.

Lord Yulmu had recently started making regular trips to a particular ancestral home for reasons he suspected had to do with Dongju and Danho tagged along as part of his job to escort his friend home safely afterwards. Nothing ever really happened during those visits so he had made a habit of using that time to roam the empty streets, which also worked as a way to give Yulmu his privacy.

He was just turning the corner back towards the house when he heard a commotion. He took a step back out of sight to observe from a distance and see if there was any sign of danger.

The first person he noticed was the Muwoldan woman Kim Ssook standing next to a palanquin and she was surrounded by a group of angry looking men with weapons. She appeared to be frozen on the spot but Danho wasn't going to intervene; he knew she had the combat skills to handle things if they went out of hand.

There was a loud thud and someone popped out of the palanquin. Danho blinked in surprise when he saw it was Lady Kim, looking like she had no idea how she ended up there.

What is going on… wait, are these men here for Lady Kim?

A sudden feeling of protectiveness gripped him, not all too different from the time he had seen that widow with a weapon outside Lady Kim's house.

The one he had let die.

It had been an unlucky coincidence that soon after the incident, Lord Yulmu happened to need him to capture and question the very same woman for information regarding the missing man. He had just about convinced Yulmu that he had done so and then killed her with the assurance that she had nothing of import to say.

In this case, however, as much he wanted to, he couldn't exactly reveal himself and take everyone down; most definitely not in the presence of witnesses. That's not how he operated. He decided to wait a little longer before seeing what he can do.

He saw one of the men approach Lady Kim and Danho had to hold back a chuckle when she whipped a tight slap across the man's face while the others looked at each other in confusion.

Seeing a group of people looking for widows that had run away wasn't an uncommon sight around the Widow Village, but if the widow that the men were looking for happened to be Lady Kim, he was quite confident they didn't have a chance against her.

"Danhoya!" He heard a hushed voice call out to him from behind the home with the orange tree and spotted Lord Yulmu stepping out the back entrance with a woman he didn't recognize. With one last glance at Lady Kim, he quietly rushed to Yulmu's side.

"Yes, my Lord?" He looked at the woman accompanying his boss suspiciously but Yulmu smiled at him.

"Don't worry, she's a friend of Lady Kim's and needs some help."

Danho learnt that his guess was right; this was indeed the work of Lady Kim's father-in-law, a man named Park Jong-Chil, who was trying to take her away. The mystery lady with Lord Yulmu was Lady Kim's friend and had requested to Yulmu that Lady Kim's abductors be reported. On the Prince's behest, the local law enforcement shortly arrived and arrested Park Jong-Chil and his men, a favor Danho was sure had been put in place because Dongju, who had somehow happened to be there as well, was entangled in the situation. However, he couldn't complain about Yulmu's suggestion that he and Danho escort the Widows back to their village safely.

As they walked back to the Widow Village, Lady Kim and her friend led the group, followed by Yulmu and Dongju who seemed to be having a conversation of their own. Danho was slightly disappointed he didn't get to spend time with Lady Kim; the only acknowledgement between them was her soft bow in greeting when she first saw him after the police took away her father-in-law and his goons. From his vantage point at the tail end of the group, he couldn't help but feel a little jealous of Lady Kim's friend, especially when they were leaning into each other and talking under their voices.

They seem close.

Danho shook his head; there was absolutely no need for him to be bothered by that; he decided to be content with the fact that he could personally ensure Lady Kim reached her home safely that night.

x-X-x

Nokdu laid out his bed on his side of the room while Dongju busied herself with hers. Neither had said anything yet but after the events of earlier that night, things had become slightly awkward.

"Why didn't you leave with your mistress?" Dongju asked suddenly, not looking at him while she continued to fold her sheets. "You could have easily just run away and escaped with her."

"Why were you even there?" Nokdu questioned back at her. He told himself his mood had nothing to do with Yulmu's presence and that it was his genuine curiosity to know how Dongju had gotten herself to be a part of this.

"What does it matter to you? Why do you care why I was there?" She snapped back. Not having a rational explanation for that, he decided to nip the argument in the bud and try to sleep. Luckily, she seemed to be in agreement with him on that.

He squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to distract himself with plans for his next steps; he needed to lead the search for the missing man away from the Widow Village. As part of his scheme to enforce the impression that the man had left the Kisaeng House, he planned to go to Asawon with a scarred face and linger there just long enough for one of the undercover Muwoldan women to spot him and report back to the team, hopefully taking that problem away from being connected to him in any way. At least, before that suspicious Min Deul-re got back to him. Strangely enough, he hadn't seen her around lately; he was going to take that as a good thing.

He just had to be ready if or when she did end up cornering him.

x-X-x

The next day, Nokdu's plan worked faster than he expected; soon enough there were updated sketches of the missing man with a scar across his right eye being distributed among multiple people.

One was handed from the Premier's guard to the Muwoldan so they could track him. The very same sketch was spotted in the distance by little Aengdu along with her father Master Hwang who had been persuaded to come along to Hanyang with her in search of Nokdu. She recognized her orabeoni right away and even overheard where he was last seen, now more determined to find him.

Another copy of the sketch ended up in Park Danho's hands and he glanced at it, frowning. He briefly wondered why it looked so familiar before tossing it aside and continuing to listen to Lord Yulmu.

"If we can't find this person we are looking for, we'll pursue the other islanders who were with him" he began, sitting at his desk across Danho. "There's a good chance that Premier Yoon knows where they are. After all, it was the day that the ministers mentioned spotting an old friend of the his at the market, that all this began."

"What do you suggest?" Danho responded shortly, his mind slightly distracted from that nagging jolt of recognition he had gotten from the sketch.

"If Yoon is using the Muwoldan as his personal search team, following them would be our best bet to finding the others," Yulmu pointed out. "My contact in the Yoon's inner circle tells me there's plan for a mutiny to overthrow my uncle, the current King." That got Danho's attention but his expression remained unchanged.

"Shouldn't we stop them, my Lord?"

"On the contrary, I think we should let them go ahead with it for now," Yulmu said, puzzling Danho. "I plan to approach them with a proposal afterwards but first we need to find out why Yoon seems to be so invested in looking for the missing man and his people... and if it has something to do with his revolt."

"So, we either find this person or those connected to him in order to find out the truth?" Danho hesitated, unsure what Yulmu was asking him to do. The Prince nodded.

"Yes, I need you to bring one of them to me, alive, of course. If my hunch is right, we can confirm certain things and possibly even… get them on our side."

Danho wasn't completely tuned in on what his friend had planned but at this point he had gotten used to being the person getting ordered around while parts of his missions were on a need-to-know basis. As long as he was able to do his job perfectly, he usually didn't care about much else. But this entire thing involved the King and for once, he was feeling apprehensive.

However, later that day when he tracked the Muwoldan till they led him to where the islanders were, he found himself easily fighting them off just so he could take one of the men hostage back to Yulmu. That's when he realized, he probably still didn't care about anything apart from his work.

Or as naïve as it sounded, he hoped that Lord Yulmu had a justified reason for doing all of this.

x-X-x

Kim Ssook and her team mates were at the Distillery in the Widow Village when they received the message about a man with a scar being spotted at their headquarters in Asawon. It wasn't too much but it was the best lead they had so far on the missing man based off the sketch they had distributed.

"I wonder where Deul-re is though," the other Muwoldan frowned. "There's no news of her being at Asawon either."

"She's probably still searching for the man herself," Kim Ssook assured her, even though those words were mostly for her own benefit. "We'll know for sure when we go ourselves to look for him."

"Excuse me," another Widow walked into the room, interrupting their conversation. "Administrator Yeon Geun has asked you all to head to the Kisaeng house," she said before rushing back out. The three women looked at each other, with no idea what that could be about.

Within a few minutes, Kim Ssook and the other two were at the open dining area of the courtesan house with plates of food, where Ssook could see a table full of delicacies for a feast was being set up. She looked about to see the Administrator excitedly ordering the other women around.

"Put that over there, I'm sure Lady Kim would love this. No, this should be here, stop eating. We have to wait for the guest to arrive!"

Ssook placed the plate in her hand on the table and her team mates followed. Before she could guess what was going on, Yeon Geun addressed her.

"Glad you're here! Make sure everything is perfect when Lady Kim gets here," he instructed her with a smile before turning away to continue what sounded like practice for a proposal.

"What exactly, is this?" She asked, looking confused than ever and he laughed as if the answer couldn't be any more obvious.

"It's a party to welcome Lady Kim back, of course!"

x-X-x

"Good job on bringing the islander back, Park Danho," Yulmu said with a smile as he sat in his office. "With him on our side, we'll be able to do what needs to be done for the good of this kingdom." Danho was expressionless as he stood before his boss and bowed.

"Is he…" he asked slowly. "Is he connected to the King in some way?" Danho cleared his throat; questioning Yulmu wasn't something he did often and it was strange, yet almost… thrilling. He wasn't sure what he was expecting Yulmu to say but the man didn't seem to take offense.

"Let's just say…" the Prince scratched his chin, seeming to weigh his words carefully. "This man has the proof that I need in order to show the King in a bad light among the people, paving the way clear for… say, Yoon and his uprising."

"But the King's your uncle. Why are we helping–" Danho started to ask but was cut off by Yulmu getting to his feet.

"But that's not what I called you here for, Danho, my friend," he said with another smile and an arm on Danho's shoulder. "Dongju is heading back to the Widow Village today with her adopted mother. I thought it would be nice if we offered them a ride since we are headed to the kisaeng house anyway."

… with her adopted mother?

"I'll get the horses ready right away," Danho said with a nod that he hoped didn't seem too enthusiastic, and in the process completely dismissing any questions he had meant to ask Yulmu.

x-X-x

Nokdu pulled up his women's hanbok with one hand while the other carried the spoils of his Muwoldan mission along with supplies as he walked behind Dongju on their way back to the Widow Village. He was going to suggest taking a break to rest when Dongju abruptly came to a stop ahead of him. Looking up, he saw two men in the distance waiting with a pair of horses. Nokdu raised an eyebrow.

"Huh. Is that Cha Yulmu… with Park Danho? Why are they here?" Dongju shook her head and continued to walk towards them, seeming to know very well why Yulmu was here as was evident from the big smile on his face when he saw her.

So annoying…

Moments later, Yulmu was riding ahead on his horse with Dongju sitting, a little too snugly according to Nokdu, behind him.

Look at her grabbing his waist tight…

He, on the other hand, ended up having to ride behind Park Danho on the other horse. Not taking his eyes off Yulmu, he placed his satchel between himself and Danho, not interested in recreating the same snugness between them.

They didn't even want to listen when I suggested having the men on one horse and the women on the other…

"You're quiet today."

Danho's voice broke into his irritated line of thought.

"I'm not quiet, I'm annoyed," Nokdu corrected him, still keeping his eyes on Yulmu and Dongju as their horse pulled up slightly and she held on tighter.

"Why? Is it such a burden to ride with me, Kim Gwabo?"

"What? That's not –" Nokdu cleared his throat; it was maddening how he always seemed to slip out of his Lady Kim character when around Danho because he was so naturally comfortable around him. He had only been lucky so far that Danho hadn't noticed the wavering changes in the pitch of his voice. "I just don't like how Dongju is getting so cozy with Yulmu," he admitted, the last words sounding higher than usual, courtesy of his genuine frustration.

"Ah, Lady Kim," Danho sighed. "I know you only recently adopted her but you are quite the possessive mother."

"Nothing wrong with that," Nokdu grumbled. "Maybe if I pretend to sprain my ankle…" he muttered under his breath.

"I hope you realize there's no way that I'm riding behind Lord Yulmu," Danho reminded him.

"Alright, alright… fine."

"Just… relax," Danho suggested. "Enjoy the ride."

x-X-x

Danho wasn't sure at what point Lady Kim's arms had come around his waist. Her fingers were interlocked tightly and a slight glance to the side told him that she had fallen asleep on his back.

Ba dum Ba dum.

At least, he hoped she was fast asleep and wouldn't hear the racing of his heart.

The side of her face was lightly resting on the back of his shoulder and he could feel the warmth of her body on his as he rode his horse through the chilly forest.

She must have been tired.

When they finally arrived at the Kisaeng House, Yulmu and Dongju were right ahead and he could hear a commotion. Turning around the corner he saw that there was some kind of party going on. It wasn't unusual to see considering it was a Kisaeng House but this one… looked like it was… for them?

Danho glanced at where the party seemed to be happening, only to see the Administrator Yeon Geun eyeing him like a hawk. The man had the strangest look on his face and Danho wondered why he was looking at him like that… unless, he was looking at…

"Lady Kim," he called softly, nudging her awake gently with his shoulder.

"Oh?" He felt her mumble into his coat and it sent vibrations into his back. Danho swallowed, feeling his cheeks warm up and was relieved that Lady Kim couldn't see his face right now.

"We're here, wake up," he told her and he felt her weight lift off him.

He was already missing her touch.

"Where's Dongju?" Lady Kim asked and Danho stole a glance as they watched Yulmu hop off his horse and lend Dongju a hand to help her off.

"No better time than now to sprain ankle," He heard Lady Kim mutter under her breath.

"What?"

"Ahhhh…" Lady Kim left out a pained cry, the fakeness of which was too apparent to Danho to take seriously; however it clearly got Yulmu and Dongju's attention.

"Lord, please help me get down," Lady Kim addressed Yulmu in her sweetest voice. "I think I sprained my ankle."

Danho scoffed at her pretentious act and he saw Yulmu frown, his hand still outstretched to Dongju who was now looking at Lady Kim with worry on her face. Yulmu then turned to him and nodded.

"Please help Lady Kim," he instructed and Danho clicked his tongue before he jumped off his horse. He stared straight at Lady Kim, trying to get it across to her that he could see through her act but she wasn't dropping it. He offered his hand but she squirmed, pouting and looking in Yulmu's direction.

"My Lord, are you really not going to help your future mother-in-law?" She cooed, turning on the charm and fluttering her eyelids at him. Danho had to hold back from rolling his eyes and Dongju finally spoke up, sounding more annoyed than worried about her mother; Danho wondered if she could see through her mother's act.

"Lord, if it's alright can you please go help my mother?"

Danho saw Yulmu smile awkwardly but nodded in agreement; he knew that he couldn't say no to her. He moved to now offer his hand politely to Lady Kim while Danho moved aside to help Dongju only to see she has already hopped off by herself.

There was suddenly a collective gasp from the kisaengs and the others sitting at the party table and Danho could see Administrator Yeon Geun in particular staring in wild disbelief, a bouquet of flowers hanging loosely in his hand. Danho followed everyone's line of sight to witness Lady Kim slide off her horse straight into Yulmu's arms. Yulmu then proceeded to cradle her against his chest as he carried her to where the party was happening. Danho's jaw hardened at the sight and he felt a jolt of something deep in his gut. He couldn't tell if he was angry or jealous; he had avoided revisiting the possibility of having feelings for Lady Kim ever since his crush on her had led to… that situation with the Muwoldan girl and its irreversible consequences.

Without another word, he stepped to the side and got into bodyguard mode as the others joined the party.

x-X-x

Nokdu was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the welcome back party that he never asked for was going. Seated next to him, Yeon Geun was uncharacteristically silent and he could see Dongju getting a little too many drinks on the other end of the table.

The Muwoldan women had taken him aside for a moment so he could confirm the success of his mission and Kim Ssook assured him that she would get the formalities started on getting him on the team, bringing Nokdu another step closer to his ultimate goal. He was about to let himself relax after the good news as well as the party coming to an end, when the beautiful kisaeng Hwasoo spoke up, looking at him angrily.

"Now that you're here, why don't you tell us yourself?"

"What?" Nokdu asked, clueless as to what she was referring to.

"How can you flirt with our Lord Yulmu?!" Another kisaeng shrieked at him and his eyes went wide.

Where did this come from?

"Eh? What! I never…"

"Isn't it obvious? It's because she's in love with him!" Another aggravated voice yelled out from next to Nokdu, where he could see Yeon Geun shaking. "But the truth is, I am in love with Lady Kim! Why not me…?" He began to sniffle and Nokdu couldn't believe what was happening.

Ah, seriously…

"Okay, let me make this very clear," he announced to everyone at the table. "None of this is true." But no one seemed to be paying attention to him at the time, being distracted by a very inebriated Dongju being taken care of by Yulmu.

"Oh dear, is Dongju drunk?" Someone asked.

"Yes," Hwasoo responded, "I had told her not to drink. Moreover, she has this annoying habit of speaking hidden truths when she is drunk."

Oh no.

Nokdu instantly got to his feet and stepped over to Dongju's side.

"Daughter dear, I think you've had enough. We should leave this lovely party…"

"You know what," Hwasoo interrupted him. "Now that she's in a position to be honest anyway, we should ask her… if her mother really is in love with our Lord Yulmu."

"What?!" Nokdu squeaked and before he could argue with that, Dongju looked up, pointing her finger at him.

"My mother definitely has someone she loves!" She slurred and Nokdu waved his palms in denial.

"She's talking about my late husband of course…"

"HUSBAND!" A shrill voice rang from the distance catching everyone's attention. To Nokdu's horror, he could see little Aengdu running towards them, followed closely by Master Hwang.

Where did they come from?!

No way, this can't be happening, I'm so close!

I can't let my cover be blown.

Nokdu tried not to panic and a crazy idea came to his head, one that he shook off almost instantly.

No, no that would be outrageous.

But as Aengdu got closer he looked between her and Yulmu and knew, his crazy idea might be the only way out.

x-X-x

Danho always remained a bystander at Yulmu's events since he was in charge of his security but the truth was, he actually preferred it. It was a win-win for him; he got to do his job well, all the while being privy to people's stories without having to exchange fake pleasantries with them.

This particular party however, he found himself being very invested in, since Lady Kim was involved.

So far, he had learned that Lady Kim had actually gotten back from visiting her parents and heard her being informed by the others of her adoptive daughter Dongju's tendency to get candid when drunk. But it was when some of the kisaengs began to accuse her of flirting with Lord Yulmu that the conversation really grabbed his attention; it didn't make any sense to Danho.

When did this happen?

In all the time that he had spent with Lady Kim, she had never once given the impression that she was interested in Lord Yulmu… or anyone else for that matter. The only person she was always checking on was Dongju.

He scoffed as he overheard the Administrator admit to being in love with Lady Kim as well. He was really starting to get irked by the direction the party's conversation was taking. Luckily, Lady Kim promptly put the rumors to rest and denied everything while going to comfort Dongju who was starting to get really drunk and add on to the accusations. Just when he thought that was the end of all the drama, he heard a small voice shout from somewhere across the courtyard.

"HONEY!"

Danho's body stiffened at the intruder's voice and his palm shifted to the helm of his sword. He relaxed slightly when he saw it was just a little girl with an older man; they had walked into the kisaeng house compound and were approaching the party.

Honey..?

"It's TRUE!" Lady Kim screamed suddenly and Danho's gaze now snapped to her, as did the rest of the group around the table.

"I know it's wrong but I can't help it," she continued, fumbling with her hanbok and avoiding Yulmu's eyes that had now gone wide in shock as Danho was sure his own were. "You see you're such a manly man and I'm just a helpless woman… how can one not develop feelings…"

"Kim Gwabo…" Yulmu gasped, looking confused.

Danho's throat went dry. He tried to distract himself by shifting his focus to Dongju who was drunkenly grinning at her adopted mother but it didn't help. He saw Lady Kim walk up to Yulmu.

She… actually likes him?

Something in his chest tightened at the idea, despite knowing that she wasn't Danho's… type. It was the strangest combination of feelings that he couldn't explain. His heart began to race in anxious anticipation as he saw Lady Kim now looking straight at his friend's face.

"I'm sorry about this, my Lord," she said and to Danho's horror along with everyone else present there, Lady Kim grabbed Lord Yulmu by the collar and locked lips with him.