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Over the next few days, Soo Ho appeared silently behind them as they walked to school.  Each time, the little girl waited while he caught up with her.  While the teacher marched on ahead.  With each passing day, Jung Sook became more afraid of Soo Ho’s quiet presence.  He wasn’t pressing his attentions upon her.  But he was endearing himself to the child a little more with each moment he spent in her company.  Jung Sook was afraid that when he finally gave up the game he was playing, Bo A would be crushed. 

After more than a week of this nonsense, Jung Sook prepared to speak to him alone.  To encourage him to stop his pursuit of her.

“Bo A,” she called to the child as they reached the school, “please go inside and set these parchments out, one per desk.”

The girl glanced up at her as she received the scrolls.  Then she bobbed her head and ducked inside the building.  Jung Sook closed the door behind her.  Then she drew a deep breath for courage before turning towards Soo Ho.

She met his sad smile.  “I have missed you so much,” he breathed.  In the tender voice of a lover.  His eyes caressed her at the same time.

“Soo Ho.”  Her voice was stern.

His smile faded.  He stood up straighter.  “Yes?”

“Please…stop.”

He frowned as he furrowed his brow at her.  “What?”

“Stop pursuing me.  I don’t want to see that child hurt.”

“That child?  What about me?  Do you want to see me hurt?” he retorted passionately.

She blinked.  Then in a very soft voice, she responded, “How could you possibly be hurt?”

“How could I be hurt?”  His eyes appeared to be very hurt.  “I told you.  I love you, Jung Sook!  You think that telling me to stop pursuing you didn’t wound me?!”

She stared up at him.  Trying to discern if he was lying to her.  She decided to place the ultimate test before him.

“There is no money, Soo Ho.  If you married me, you wouldn’t see one bar of silver.  Am I still wounding you now?”  Her voice was flat.

His face fell.  “That’s why you’re upset with me?  Because you thought I only wanted to marry you to part you from your silver?”  He took a step back.  “Am I such a villain?  That I would profess to love a woman just to steal her fortune?”

The agony in his eyes seemed real enough.

She felt her first qualm.  Yet she pressed on anyway.

 “Men have only ever wanted me for what they could get out of me.  Or take out on me.  Why should you be any different?” she whispered brokenly.

She was breaking her own heart as she watched the pain explode in his eyes.

“You think I’m like your husband?  Truly?” he gasped, horrified.  His eyes broke away from hers as he stared dazedly off into space.  “I will not trouble you with my presence any longer.  Good day.”  He spun around and began to stride back down the road.

“See?  I was right.  The only reason you befriended me was to gain my wealth,” she called out after him.

He stopped and spun towards her.  And simply stared at her.  And she knew that she had made a horrid mistake.  But it was too late.  She couldn’t take back those awful words and the distrust that rode on their backs.  She had wounded him far more than he had ever hurt her.

Truthfully, he had never injured her.  He had rescued her.  And befriended her.  And taught her to fence.  And wooed her tenderly.  And kissed her.  And offered to marry her.  He had wanted to make her happy.

And with a few pointed words, she had shattered everything between them.  The seeds of distrust and fear that her father had first planted within her heart – seeds which her husband had watered – were still wreaking their havoc on her life.  Would she never break free from their hold on her?

The evil grasp of those wicked vines was choking the life out of her right now.  She gasped at the pain ricocheting through her heart.  And spun away from him.  Right before she burst into tears.

Soo Ho would leave her now.  She had just forced a clean break between the two of them.  He would go.  And he would never come back.  She would be truly all alone.

No one would protect her now from the dangers lurking around every corner.  Soo Ho, the one man who had truly loved her, was gone.  He would never again hold her in his arms.  He would never kiss her tenderly or wipe the tears from her cheeks.  He wouldn’t make her bones melt with his tenderness.  Or comfort her as she absorbed the shock of yet more agony.

Why had she ever stopped to console him that day a few weeks back?  Why hadn’t she simply walked on by? 

The anguish now ripping her heart apart felt so much worse than any she had before endured.  She had never trusted her father.  Or her husband.  But, for a short time, she had begun to trust Soo Ho.  And to love him.  So now the separation from him was devastating her heart. 

But it couldn’t be.  Her students were to arrive in a few minutes.  She had to get herself together.  Before facing them. 

She reached into her pocket and withdrew a handkerchief as she stuffed her feelings down deep inside of her.  And prayed that she could once again achieve the numbness that had carried her through her early years.  Back when she’d endured daily beatings from her father.  Back before she’d believed any good men existed in the world.

How Soo Ho had proven that assertion wrong!

But she had been too broken to accept him.  Yet broken enough to scare him away.

––

Soo Ho stumbled down the road like a drunk man.  Ban Ryu found him in front of the hwarang house.

“Soo Ho, what’s wrong?” he asked as he noticed his friend’s devastated countenance.

The man had obviously been weeping.

“Jung Sook.  She just told me to leave her alone.”

“What?”  Ban Ryu frowned. 

“You were right.  She thinks I was only after her money.”  He bit back a sob.  “I don’t know what to do.  She wants nothing to do with me now.”

Ban Ryu sighed.  A pained expression crossed his countenance.  “Prove her wrong.”

“But…how?”

“Tell her that you’ll sign a covenant not to touch her silver when you marry her.”

“She has no silver.”

“Really?” Ban Ryu stared at him.  The woman was quite obviously wealthy. 

“That’s what she claimed.”

“How did you respond when she denied her wealth?”

“I told her that I would leave her alone since that’s what she clearly wanted.”

“So, you just reinforced her wrong beliefs about you.”

Dumbfounded, Soo Ho stared at him.  “What are you talking about?”

“The woman was clearly testing you.  Now she believes that you want nothing to do with her because she told you that she’s poor.  You just proved that you want nothing to do with a poor woman.  You were willing to fight for her when you believed her rich, but now you’re going to leave her alone?”

Soo Ho’s tears dried instantly as he stared in shock at his friend.  “You’re right!  I…I didn’t realize.”  He smacked himself in the head.  “Ugh!  How could I have been so stupid!”

Ban Ryu just shook his head.  “You’re clueless, Soo Ho.  You’ve always been clueless.  I must say, though…it’s part of your charm.”

Soo Ho grimaced.  “Not for Jung Sook, it isn’t.”  He glanced back towards the school.  “What am I to do?  She asked me to leave her and Bo A alone.”

“Since when do you ever pay attention when someone tells you to leave them alone?” Ban Ryu asked with an ironic grin.

When Soo Ho didn’t respond, his friend continued quietly, “Had you left me alone, we would never have become friends.”

Soo Ho lifted his eyes towards his friend’s speaking countenance.  Ban Ryu might hold it impassive most of the time.  But right now, it was communicating volumes.

“Love never gives up, Soo Ho.  Love fights.  Are you going to fight?  Are you going to prove that your love is greater than even her distrust?”