In the beginning of my pregnancy; my husband was rather excited, but I knew that my husband would have trouble bonding with his son due to his own traumatic childhood. But now ever since last night, I saw my husband constantly eyeing Hyuk, even if he still could not hold him more than once a day. He kept eyeing him like he kept watching and practically stalking me under his father's roof. He had already become a little more strict with all of the children instead of being the fun uncle that they all knew; it was only in his favour that they all still looked upto him as much as they did. All of the young children wanted to spend some time with my husband, and I was grateful for the break that I got when his attention wasn't on myself or my children. My every step was accounted for, for the first time and he was seriously not happy when I had to step out of our home for any reason at all. I knew that he was really not happy with my reluctance for going back to the kingdom and this was his way of making me pay for it, but as long as it kept him away from our old home and issues, then I would have to make do with the situation as best as I could and to keep him entrained at the same time. At first; I tried to distract him by giving our luxury items that we packed here in order for them not to be destroyed by our walking children, but he was very angry when I did that, enough to bring out his paternal side and reduce the pressure he was putting onto the twins before they could even understand what he was doing to them. Then I did exactly what he requested and made myself so busy in our home that I hardly had time for him which just provoked him even further and made him pay even more attention to our children to the point where he could even be affectionate with his son on occasion. I even closed our chamber doors on him a few time just to get him riled up and take up his own trining routine once again. I put him on a diet that made him feel young and full of energy again instead of indulging him with too much meat all of the time. But as time went on in the village it claimed the life of my brother's friends that he brought back from The Liadong War with him, leaving behind their wives and children in his trust and my husband was gracious enough to help them with their education as well. We gave them a home altogether so that they would not have to suffer alone and I did my best to look after Hwa-Wol as much as I could alongside my sister-in-law. Hwa-Wol was a beautiful woman in her prime who was strongly devoted to her husband who gave her a better life than she could have ever dreamed of. We also kept Bo-Geom and her siblings distracted by staying with them whenever possible so that they did not fill the void that their father's absence had left them as it did for my own father.
Chul was already almost 10 years old by the time I got pregnant for the second time and even his own father could not be more proud of the process that he was making even outside of his outstanding academic skills. He had somehow managed to reign in his hyperactive behaviour when he needed to and he met all of his training goals within months. He was a fast learner and even my own husband couldn't hide his admiration for him, which came second to his own brother. Geom was the baby of the family, but he looked up to his brother his entire life and only wanted Chul to teach him in everything and anything which my husband had trained Chul seriously. He fostered the relationship between the brothers even more and didn't hide anything from Geom, which fed his innocent curiosity even more to the point where he had become a little daredevil growing up and was not afraid of anything as he knew he would always be backed up by his uncle no matter what he did, even if it got him into trouble. My poor brother; he was such a hard worker in the village that he essentially had no choice but to hand over his sons to his brother-in-law who also taught them the responsibilities of looking after the village and its people. He pretty much helped them to get ready in the morning as it was the only time he saw them all day until nightfall where he would pick up a sleeping Geom in his arms and collect his equally sleepy brother. It was still his wife who fed them and clothed them so that I would have enough time on my hands with my own growing children. My girl Hana; my sweet girl who threw tantrums when her father walked out of the door, who played and waited by the door for her father to return for his meals or his afternoon nap, she was the apple of his eye and nothing else could convince me otherwise. She was the one who could run to him at full speed and just shower him with so much affection before he could even take a second step into our home before melting into his arms and neck. She would not let him put her down for anything in the world and he got used to this overtime; she was the only one who could run into his office in our home and throw herself at him when it was time to take her naps and nobody else but him and my brother could rock her to sleep in under 5 minutes.
My son Hyuk on the other hand was the quiet type who preferred to observe his playmates before joining in with caution. At first he was a really happy baby with a smile practically plastered onto his face. But as time went by, there was an obvious shift with his personality that I just not place for the life of me; the way that my son constantly had his eyes on his father made me feel like he somehow already knew our story and know what we were going through as a family.
Time went by as the children grew up and the parents had well and truly settled into their routines, but that was when disaster struck our small village. The first chain of events that set everything off was when innocent little Geom got into an accident with another boy in the village he was playing with. They were supposed to be training with the bows, but the friend got injured in such a way that it looked as if Geom himself was responsible for it. The poor boy went white from fear as I happened to see it myself, but thankfully was Chul who rescued him as soon as he himself saw what had happened and took the boy away to the late Moon-Bok's pharmacy for immediate medical recovery. I was far too preoccupied in my nephew's emotional state to even investigate what had hopped myself, but luckily Chul was smart enough to recognise that the bow had been oddly tampered with before the situation got out of hand. He reported it to both his father and uncle who immediately set out an investigation, which required all of the villagers to be detained in their homes for a short while. From that moment on, Geom hardly left his father's side for a while, which was the best thing that could have happened for him since myself and Bo-Geom had noticed that the confusion of some of the villagers were quickly descending into panic and chaos. One simple move like this from my brother had undoubtedly caused chaos and we were getting fast results as to what actually happened. My poor sister-in-law was going out of her mind in fear for her family, who seemed to have been targeted in some sort of scheme to push them out of my father's village entirely. It was only when Geom returned with his brother at nightfall and fell into his mother's arms that she could finally calm down a little and finally start taking action herself as the wife of the Village Chief like her husband and mind always wanted to. Hyeon wasn't a particularly brave woman; she was a soft-spoken, tender and patient noble woman, but that didn't mean that she was stupid by any means. She had the same ability that I did in observing faces, body language and other things of that nature and she was surprisingly quick in recognising who exactly was flocking around her out of sympathy and who had other motives. She was having a rather hard time keeping it together though, and it was a long while until her husband returned with the news whereas my husband had locked himself in our home and had started drinking as soon as our children were put down for their naps.
"Well husband? What did you manage to find out?" "It looks like someone from the same family as the boy who got hurt managed to find their way into the weapons storage rooms and stayed there for an hour under the excuse of finding something." "Finding something? Only trainees are allowed to enter that room, how did this person manage to get inside and stay there for that long?" "We are still finding out, but Geom here only uses my weapons that were left to me by my father, and it somehow got damaged. So they had no choice but to train with a different bow and…" "Has everyone in that building suddenly dropped dead? How comes such a thing wasn't reported earlier to us?" "We still have no sufficient means here even after starting here for almost 2 decades now!" "Calm down brother, you just managed to get your youngest to sleep already." "I know." He whispered softly as his youngest climbed into his lap with his little arms well and truly attached to his father's as he fell asleep soundly for only the second time since the incident had occurred. "Do you think the villagers are dissatisfied with us? That is why they are acting out of desperation like this?" "Someone else in my father's village has been bribed sister, in the very village where I have given my all and even missed out on my children's youths due to this." "Brother…will you find a new place to go? Like my husband wishes?" "Where can we find an unmarked land big enough to accommodate all of us? Even if we did by some miracle, how can I trust anyone now? How can I trust anyone to not rat us out? Or betray me like this? I took pride in this place but now, I see it as a tombstone that myself and my sons will fall into, being The Seo's that we are. And if you think that I am upset now, then you should look at your own husband sister, he has been drinking his fill and more since this entire thing started." "Does he blame himself for what happened to Geom?" "I do not think my youngest knows who his father is most of the time; myself or his uncle who spoils him rotten to the core." "He loves them because they are your children brother; they make him good and down to earth, which I shall always appreciate." "I know."
"Village Chief? Village Chief! Please come out here! I was almost poisoned to death from the kittens just now! Please take a look!"