“Yeo Wool, I have missed you, you rascal! Why haven’t you come to visit your nieces sooner?” Lady Jung exclaimed, beaming up at her little brother.
He rolled his eyes playfully. “I’ve been too busy playing with the hwarang to entertain my adorable nieces.”
“Well, come in. Ae Ri and Ae Ji have missed you terribly. I’ve heard nothing but their chatter about you for weeks on end,” Yeo Ri smiled.
“And you? Have you missed me?” he razzed her teasingly.
She turned her adoring gaze upon him once more. “Always,” she responded affectionately.
He glanced around. Referring to her younger and his elder sister, he asked, “Is Yeo Jin here?”
She bobbed her head. “She came to have tea with me today. Would you like to join us?”
“Are Ae Ri and Ae Ji with her?”
“Yes,” she grinned at him. “My little bitties think they’re all grown up when they sit at the tea table with us.” Then she grimaced. “I’m just trying to prevent Ae Ji from dropping her teacup. We’ve already lost a few of Grandmother’s priceless heirlooms.”
“She’s broken that many?”
“Well, combined with the ones Ae Ri dropped when she was that little.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t put them all under lock and key.”
“Oh, I have. Now. I guess I finally learned my lesson. Truthfully, the girls looked so crushed when I seemed to believe they couldn’t handle the responsibility that I gave in a bit too soon. Not with Ae Ri. But she’d broken two of them before I thought to put them up and buy some new ones. Then one day, Ae Ji came into the room after we’d all finished our tea. But before the servants had cleaned up. And she tipped the whole tray over.”
“Oh, no.”
Her lips twitched. “She broke three cups that day. So we’re down five now. I’m not even using Grandmother’s tea service anymore. What’s left of it. I bought three of the same set.” Suddenly, she trilled with laughter. “That way if they break any more, they can be easily replaced.”
“The girls or the cups?” he replied jokingly.
To which question, she swatted him punishingly on his arm. “Yeo Wool!” She shook her head at him. “You are too much!”
“You are well aware that I am exactly enough,” he murmured, a smile lighting up his eyes as he gazed fondly at her.
He had missed his sisters. He felt most at home among girls. Despite the fact that his life was lived among men right now. Of late, he had forgotten how comfortable he felt in his sisters’ company. It had been so many years since they had lived at home with him.
“Mmm. Apparently, I pampered you too much as a child,” she reflected cheerfully.
“Ha! Bullied me, more like.”
“Bullied you? I have never bullied anyone in my life!” She turned then to see her younger daughter wandering into the room with kimchi all over her face and hands. “Ae Ji, what are you doing, darling! Get back to the table right now!”
As he watched her cheerfully commanding her daughter, he laughed suddenly. “You’re right. You’ve never been a bully. But you are definitely a mother! And I’m pretty sure you were my second one!”
“Oh, assuredly!” she giggled as she reached out to push her two-year-old in the right direction.
Yeo Wool followed closely at her heels and greeted his other sister joyfully. “Yeo Jin!”
“Yeo Wool? Is it really you,” she blinked rapidly as she gazed up at him, “or do my eyes deceive me? I haven’t seen you in months!”
“Indeed. The life of a hwarang is a busy one.”
“So is the life of a new mother,” their sister mumbled as she beamed down at her niece in awe. “She’s such a little beauty, Yeo Jin.”
“Indeed, she is,” Yeo Wool smiled as he too studied the infant’s face. “I am sorry that I missed her birth. It couldn’t be helped.”
“I know you were off defending the princess from attack.”
“Don’t forget protecting her from peril too,” he grinned broadly at the younger of his sisters.
“Uncle Yeo Wool!” cried Ae Ri as she jumped out of her chair and catapulted across the room. Straight into his arms.
He spun her around in the air. “Hello, my little princess! How are you?” After hugging her tight, he set her back down on the ground and exclaimed, “My! You’ve grown at least four inches since I saw you last!”
Her face puckered in a frown. “Only four?” she mourned her short height.
He chuckled at her expression before his gaze found the tiny face of her two-year-old sister. “Ae Ji? Do you have a hug for your old uncle?”
The tiny girl eyed him suspiciously. And his heart sank. “Does she not remember me?” he asked her mother disappointedly.
“I doubt it. It’s only been two months since she saw you. She’s at that age. She’s testing you.”
“Ahhh. In that case, I will wait until later to give her the surprise I brought for her.”
But his eyes remained mischievously on her face. Waiting for her inevitable reaction. He wasn’t disappointed.
She jumped down and waddled over to him. But before she could say anything, her big sister was all over him.
“Uncle Yeo Wool! Did you bring me a surprise too?”
“Undoubtedly,” he added firmly as he nodded his head. “Now which of you shall I bless first?”
“Me! Me!” they cried in unison.
He chuckled. And reached into his pockets to retrieve his gifts. He handed them to the girls simultaneously. Having grown up with two older sisters, he knew how to avert a war.
The girls both gasped in delight as they stared down at the pocket-sized dolls he’d bought for each of them.
“Thank you, Uncle Yeo Wool!” Ae Ri was quick to show her gratitude.
“You are welcome, my princess,” he bowed gallantly to her. And she giggled.
“Tank oo!” her baby sister cried out as she hugged the tiny doll to her chest.
“You are also welcome, button.” He bopped her on the tip of her nose. And she too tittered. He watched as she climbed back up on her chair and proceeded to feed her dolly a rice cake.
Then he turned towards his younger sister to once again beam down at his brand-new baby niece.
“May I hold her?”
“Oh, would you?! Yes, absolutely!”
He reached out to take the baby in his arms. “I can’t believe she’s six weeks already!” he exclaimed as he smiled sweetly down at the tiny infant. “She’s so beautiful, Yeo Jin. Just like her eomma.” He flashed his captivating grin at his sister.
She was not immune to it. She giggled. “You are such a flirt, Yeo Wool. And I’m a married woman!” she gasped.
“And your sister,” his older sister muttered dryly.
“Hey! A guy can innocently notice how absolutely gorgeous his two sisters are, can’t he?”
They both grinned at him.
“Indeed,” Yeo Ri responded, chuckling. “My friends are all jealous of me. Because I have both a doting husband and a doting brother.”
“Yes,” sighed Yeo Jin, “We have been greatly blessed in our dear Yeo Wool.”
“Oh, stop it! Both of you.” Then he ignored them to turn his attention on his baby niece. “Well, hello there, Baby Bit Na. Aren’t you a little beauty?”
The tiny girl gazed up at him out of wide, dark eyes. Then her little cheeks puffed up suddenly as her lips curved in a smile.
“Is she smiling at you, you little rascal? I’ve been trying to get her to smile at me for the last hour!” Yeo Ri declared indignantly.
“She knows when she’s adored,” he murmured as the sweetest smile continued to rest upon his lips.
“Ha. I adore her too.”
“But you’re not nearly as handsome as I am,” he teased her.
Yeo Ri smacked him on the shoulder.
“Hey, hey. I’m holding a baby here. Keep all your punishments locked up until I hand her back to her mother.”
Yeo Jin chortled. “I’ve missed watching you two go round and round.”
Her sister rolled her eyes. Then she reluctantly admitted, “I’ve missed it too. How are the hwarang treating you, brother?”
He shrugged. “All right.”
“I hear you’ve had a rough time,” Yeo Jin asserted.
He glanced her way. “Han Sung died over a year ago now.”
“I know. But then Ban Ryu and Soo Ho were injured. And you’ve had your minor scrapes too.”
He sighed. “I’m doing okay. I can’t act like Han Sung’s death hasn’t affected me. He was my best friend. Though, I’m not sure he thought so.”
“What’s this?” the older of his sisters asked bracingly. “Surely, the boy knew what a darling you are.”
“He much preferred Seon Woo.” A fact to which his death had attested.
“Still. I feel certain that he must have appreciated you too.”
He shrugged.
“What about Soo Ho? You’re close to him, aren’t you?”
Again, a subtle upward shift of his shoulders occurred. “Honestly, if I’ve grown close to anyone…it’s been Dan Se.”
“Ahhh,” Yeo Ri responded softly. “I rather think that is as it should be.”
Everyone sobered instantly as they thought of Han Sung’s older brother. The one who had inadvertently killed him.
Yeo Jin saw the sorrow invading her brother’s gaze now. “How is Dan Se?”
“Finding his happiness, I hope.”
“Oh?” she asked curiously.
He nodded. “He recently married. Han Sung’s intended.”
“Really?” the girls breathed in unison.
“And he’s happy with her?” Yeo Jin queried inquisitively.
He bobbed his head as a half-smile teased his lips. “The man is mad over that girl.”
“Is he really?” Yeo Ri quizzed him. Then she bobbed her head. “Good for him. I hope they are blissfully happy together.”
“I think they have a chance at it. If anyone does,” he mumbled.
“Has anyone caught your eye, little brother?” Yeo Jin questioned him teasingly.
His gaze slid her way. And he shook his head. Only one girl had ever interested him. And she had been lost to him. Long ago…
“It’ll happen,” Yeo Ri assured him sweetly.
“It’s all right. I’m a hwarang. It’s better for a man in my position not to marry. Don’t you think?”
“No!” Yeo Ri thundered as her eyebrows evidenced her scowl. “I do not think!”
“I can’t believe you just admitted that you don’t think,” her sister teased her laughingly.
Yeo Ri pierced her with a sharp glare before turning towards her brother. “You are the only boy to bear our family surname! You must pass it on to your son!”
With a doubly ironic twist of his eyebrow, he glanced down at the abundance of tiny girls in the room. “As both of your husbands have done?” he challenged quietly.
“We are not done having children,” Yeo Ri defended herself primly.
“And we have just begun,” Yeo Jin seconded.
“Indeed,” he smiled at the now sleeping girl in his arms. “And I have yet to begin.”
––
“Mother, is Ji Ho still in your employ?” Sam Sook asked as soon as she, her daughters, and their servants arrived at her mother’s home.
Before they’d even crossed the threshold into that house, the words left her lips. As her mother greeted her in the street.
“No, darling. He died last year,” came her mother’s calm reply.
And Sam Sook breathed a sigh of relief. “So, who is head of your guards now?”
“His son.” Lady Yang beamed. “He is a wonderful young man who was trained by a couple of the hwarang. I feel quite safe in his company.”
“Mmm.” Sam Sook frowned. “Are you speaking of Moon Won?”
“Yes, dear, he’s the one. He’s of an age with you. Do you remember him?”
She did. Though she didn’t recall having too many interactions with him. “Vaguely.”
“He’s a fine young man. He took over for his father immediately last year. And has spent many sessions growing in his skills. Lord Kim’s son, Soo Ho, and his friend, Yeo Wool, have been mentoring him.”
“Ah.” Sam Sook smiled at her mother. “I am famished. Is dinner nearly ready?”
“Oh, yes, my dear! Come in, come in. And where are my grandbabies?”
Sam Sook turned back towards their litter. She lifted the curtain to reveal her two daughters.
“Oh, my dears! How you have grown!” exclaimed their doting grandmother.
She reached out to pick up the younger one, but the tiny girl squeaked in outrage.
“Se Yeon!” her mother rebuked her. “This is your grandmother. Give her a kiss.”
The child’s cherubic countenance suddenly burst into magnificent flame as she began to throw a raging temper tantrum in the middle of the street. Calmly, Sam Sook reached into the litter and plucked the little girl up, setting her on her hip. She bent to whisper into her ear.
“Se Yeon, calm down. There’s nothing to fear here. This is Eomma’s eomma. She loves you. Nearly as much as I do.”
The tiny girl blinked, and two miniscule tears raced each other down her cheeks, but her sudden outburst vanished.
“It’s all right, dear. She likely doesn’t remember me,” Lady Yang murmured mournfully.
“Soon enough, she’ll be sitting in your lap, Eomma. Never despair.”
“I remember you, Grandma,” asserted the older child as she bowed respectfully to her grandmother.
“Do you, darling?!” the woman’s face lit up and she flew forward to embrace her older granddaughter. “How I have missed you, my dear! I have all sorts of fun games set up in the parlor for you! And a splendid, little girl for you to meet!”
Se Ri’s face flooded with hopeful joy. “Truly? A new friend? Oh, I love to make new friends!”
The two females beamed delightedly at one another before Lady Yang ushered her family inside her house. Today was a good day. She had suffered several bad ones of late. But today was going to be an excellent one. Her baby had finally come home. And brought her two babies with her.
