Futile Love

Chapter 76: Chapter 76

The moment Ran caught his eyes, she decided she wanted to be his wife.

“What do you think? I already like you, Ran,” Ohyulje asked.

“Well, as the Emperor has already decided her for me, I will just follow your order, Your Majesty,” the prince said.

Bowing gently to the Emperor, he looked at her with a smile and left the conference hall. Though the chief internal minister said something, she didn’t hear it at all.

Since that day, she felt she was walking on air from the moment the chief official in charge of the royal marriage affairs visited her house several times until she got married to the prince in the autumn. She couldn’t sort out her thinking clearly until she saw Ruhae’s face directly after she took off the veil when the wedding ceremony was over. From that moment she was no longer ‘Ran’ of the Chung family.

She was Princess Yomin, the official wife of Prince Ruhae.

Ruhae always treated her kindly. It was obvious that they lived in conjugal harmony. But as time went on, Yomin felt that Ruhae’s smiles were only superficial. She felt he had never given her a genuine smile. When she realized that, she recalled what he said before the Emperor on that day, “I will just follow your order, Your Majesty.”

When she first saw him, she really wanted to make him her husband, but that was her wishful thinking. She took pains to ignore it, but whenever she met Ruhae, she couldn’t help but recall his reply to the Emperor, “I will just follow your order, Your Majesty.” In other words, he was forced to marry her because it was the Emperor’s order.

‘How come I didn’t ponder the meaning of his remarks from the beginning?’

But she couldn’t throw a tantrum about it. Ruhae was a perfect husband to the eye. There was not a single day when he didn’t come to see her in the Nambi Palace to chat with her. He always treated her softly and kindly, but he called her princess all the time. She had never spent a long night with him, and he never touched her.

He just married her at the Emperor’s order. He had no genuine interest in her.

Though every day since she got married was lonely, she could endure it because she was Ruhae’s official wife. Just like they were married at the Emperor’s order, their marriage was kept by the Emperor, too. In other words, they could never break their relationship as husband and wife unless Ruhae was serious about going against the Emperor’s order.

“I will just follow your order, Your Majesty.”

His words from then tormented Yomin again. Though he never failed to come and see her since he got married to her, he stopped visiting her for a long time. She felt as if it were a thing of the past that he came to visit her for a chat and see her face every day. She remembered that he stopped visiting her since Kyosul arrived in the Mok Kingdom.

At that time, Yomin looked at Ruhae nervously when he was worn to a shadow. She thought his poor health was coincidental. She knew that Crown Princess Kyosul’s wedding had nothing to do with Ruhae’s fever back then.

She spent many sleepless nights worrying about her. Ruhae got better in no time. When she heard from her mole in the South Palace, Ruhae’s official residence that he felt better now, she was convinced that he would come back to her.

So, she prettied herself up and waited for him earnestly every night, but he didn’t come to see her. Though he was fully recovered, he was distancing himself from her.

“This can’t happen…..”

In the end, Yomin tore the coat string of her clothes. Her finely trimmed nails turned into sharp weapons, drawing red welts across her chest.

“This is the Emperor’s order. This is immoral!”

When she was taken to the Emperor last night, she couldn’t sleep at all as she was so worried. She sat up all night, consumed by nervousness and worry, and the next days she headed for the South Palace as soon as the day broke. It was difficult for her to visit there after her relationship with Ruhae became testy.

Despite that, she went to the trouble of visiting the South Palace, and there she witnessed them.

As it was still dawn, the gate of the imperial palace was not yet open. It was the perfect time to avoid the court ladies’ eyes. Right behind the backyard of the South Palace, where few people visited, Yomin saw the shadows of two people facing each other. As there were no other people around them, she could easily identify them.

She saw Ruhae standing face to face with Kyosul and looking at her with a smile he had given to Yomin.

At that moment, she had no choice but to realize that there was something going on between Ruhae and Kyosul. Something that she had never received from Ruhae, something that she didn’t have, and something she couldn’t get from Ruhae.

She returned to her residence in the Nambi Palace without being caught. His smile at Kyosul filled her mind.

She continued to claw at her chest, bruising and tearing the skin there. Yomin fell on the blue mattress. The dots of blood on her skin stained the blue silk.

She could no longer ignore Kyosul. The situation was rapidly heading toward the worst because she remained a bystander.

Maybe it was too late for her.

Yomin was scratching her chest while she was lying face down on her mattress when the sliding door opened and Bojin came in. She brought the cold water that Yomin asked for.

“Your Highness!”

Screaming at her, Bojin approached Yomin. Putting the water bowl with ice on the desk, she hugged Yomin from behind. Swallowing cries deep inside, Yomin cried, unable to control herself. Bojin lifted Yomin’s upper body on her knees and held her. She stopped Yomin’s hands from beating her chest.

“Your Highness! Why are you harming yourself? Please pull yourself together!”

Bojin began to cry, too. The wounds that Yomin left on her chest broke Bojin’s heart as if she had cut her own skin. She was so sad it felt like she had a dagger stabbed into her heart.

“Why are you so heartbroken because of him? Why are you alone so tormented like this?”

“Bojin!”

Yomin stopped scratching her chest now and looked at her, with tears dangling from her eyes.

“How come I….”

“Yes, this is your trusted servant, Bojin, who attends to you all the time. How couldn’t I notice how heartbroken you are?”

“I wish I had not shown you my ugly behavior like this…..”

Yomin bit her lip, and began to hide her naked chest, but Bojin stopped her.

“Your Highness, your fair skin is bruised.”

Bojin sobbed. Yomin looked at her with a gloomy expression. Bojin cried like a child, narrowing her brows and biting her lips as if she were also annoyed.

“Everybody is so mean to you, Your Highness. I hate them. You are Prince Ruhae’s official wife. They are so evil.”

Bojin said what Yomin could have never blurted out. Yomin was not sure whether she had to stop Bojin or not. As she got her pent-up anger and frustration off her chest like that, Yomin felt a bit better now.

“They are evil, not you. Why are you alone so heartbroken? How come you alone have to put up with this? They also have to be heartbroken. Those who did wrongdoing should pay the price for their wrongdoings,” Bojin continued in anger. She again hugged Yomin and cried out.

Bojin blew off steam and cried for her. Yomin gently hugged.

Bojin suddenly flinched at her touch.

Surprised, Bojin blinked and said, “Your Highness, I think you have to cool down your fever first.”

Bojin hastily brought the bowl full of ice water. She took out one piece of ice and put it on Yomin’s chest.

“You will feel pretty cold.”

“I’m alright,” Yomin answered calmly. A cool piece of ice quickly melted on her hot and scratched chest. With an upset expression Bojin examined the messy nail marks that Yomin left on her chest.

“Please don’t be sick, Your Highness! Please!”

Choked with tears, Bojin massaged her chest with ice.

Leaning her upper body on Bojin’s chest, Yomin stayed calm and followed her directions. She then drank the ice water Bojin brought for her, which cooled down her troubled mind.

She felt sore when the ice water touched her scars, but she could put up with that. Rather it seemed to give her a rude awakening that she should stay alert.

“Bojin!”

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“Yes, Your Highness!”

“No, nothing.”

Yomin tried to say something but stopped, but she kept thinking about what Yomin just told her.

‘Those who did wrongdoing should pay for their wrongdoings!’

Though Bojin’s remarks were a simple truth, Yomin didn’t think of it before because she took it for granted.