Part 2

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

The scream was really loud like it was going to rip out my ear. Things in my sister’s room were flying across the room and got destroyed. In the middle of the chaos, there was my mother who beautifully did her make-up and fancily did her hair didn’t care how her hair was getting messed up. She is turning 40, yet she doesn’t even have single wrinkle on her face. My sister’s mother died from an illness, and right away she took over her place. She was a concubine who was a courtesan before. She gave birth to a son who has lung disease and yet acting all proud. And being mean to my sweet sister because she was her step daughter.

“Hye! You wh.o.r.e…!!”

She was cursing and being fretful, and I smiled.

“Running away is avoiding being a wh.o.r.e, Mother. Selling her body because of money and leaving her lover isn’t it like a wh.o.r.e?”

“Yeho!”

“I’ll send a message to His Majesty that my sister is ugly and didn’t take care of her body well, so I apologize, but I can’t send my sister to North Empire.”

I fixed my blue blanket on my shoulders and tried to leave, but my mother’s sharp but shaking voice grabbed my attention.

“You can’t!”

That voice had some fear in it, and that made me feel nervous. What did my childish mother do this time…? I slowly turned and looked at my mother’s beautifully colored lips.

“I…I gave away half of thousand bags.”

“…Half? To where?”

I said it with accusing voice, and she stepped back. I smirked.

“You gave it away instead of your debt.”

“Ye, Yeho.”

“Right. Somehow it was quiet recently. You can think of paying off your debt for selling away my sister?”

“Wha, what should we do Yeho? Huh? Bring that b.i.t.c.h. Right now the carriage that will take her is coming. Before that bring Hye. You know where she is right? You…”

I smirked listening to my mother’s begging. Bad woman. You vulgar woman who can’t even think straight. I have this illness because this kind of woman is my mother. Her son has illness every day, and he is dull-witted. That kind of son is right front of her face, but she still doesn’t know her sin.

“So, you don’t want to die?”

“Yeho.”

“Just leave the rest of the rice and leave, Mother.”

“…Ye..ho?”

“I could kill you and kill myself. Leave before I change my mind, Mother.”

“What…are..”

“Even though I’m a weakling who can’t even hold a sword, I can hear people calling me reprobate son. The reason why I’m not doing that is because I still want to treat you as my mother. Even if I hate you or love you, you are my mother. So just leave only with your body, Mother.”

“…Yeho..”

“I don’t have power to bring her back. And I don’t want to bring her back. I can’t ruin my sister’s life because of your selfishness. If that nice person goes to North Empire, I know she will die from spending her time crying. I don’t want to bring her to save my and your life. You should know that this all happened because of you. I sent her away because I knew His Majesty won’t be that mad if I return the rice. But you turned that into a sin. You are the one who made it into sin that can be punished by ripping our body into pieces for deceiving the king.”

“………”

“I’m telling you to run away because I feel pity that you are so afraid of dying. If you don’t go now, you will die by my hand.”

Her face turned pale after I said that. She probably knew that what I said did not have single of lie in it. She right away went out the room.

I coldly smile at her. I told her to run away only with her body, but she will take all the treasure that she hid in her room. My sister was always busy working to earn money for my medicine, but my mother was always busy decorating herself and secretly took some money for my medicine and used it on gambling. Even so she never let go of her jewelry. Looking at only that part, she was pretty good at those.

I looked around the room that she messed up. In the corner there was a pure white bride dress hanging on the wall. It even had veil that was made out of really thin silk. I calmly took off the blue blanket that was on my shoulders. I untied my long hair and took off my jeogori. The air that was touching my skin was cold. I coughed. I hardly calmed the coughs and took off my pants. Wore underpants on my skinny legs look like bamboo sticks. On top of that, I wore layers of underskirts and wore the dress skirt. I tied it around my chest and wore jeogori. The jeogori was long that it covered one third of the skirt. On top of the jeogori, I wore a white silk belt and wore a long silk dress. I wore the veil on my head that I made me look like a woman. Luckily because I was sick often, I couldn’t grow tall and big as any regular men, so the dress fit me as well. I saw the mirror and because the veil was in two layers, they couldn’t see the face well. I think I could pull it off until I get to the North Empire. They said she was going to be a concubine for the old Emperor, so if I’m lucky I can buy time for my sister and her lover can run away far as they can and make a family, and my mother can lie and remarry an unlucky old man with her jewelry that she took. If that time comes, no one will cry even if I die alone.

I quietly went out the gate hearing people calling for me.