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A knock sounded on her door.  About an hour after her husband had left her.  Mi Sook tensed.  Had Dan Se returned for her?

Should she pretend to be asleep?

She sighed in frustration.  Was this how she was to spend the rest of her married life?  Hiding from her husband?

She cleared her throat and reached for her courage.  “Yes?” she called.

“Seok Mi Sook, can I come in?  It’s Kim Jung Sook.”  The woman’s sweet voice floated through her door.

“Please,” Mi Sook responded eagerly, “come in.”  She was thrilled that someone had come to take her mind off of her pain.  And Dan Se.

The door opened, and the pretty young teacher entered her bedchamber.  Jung Sook smiled at her and glanced around looking for a chair.  But she found only one.  And it was covered by Mi Sook’s robes.  So she simply stepped up to the bed and gazed down at her friend.  The woman was lying on her stomach.

“I came to offer you some help.”  She held up a small jar.  “This is a medicinal cream.  It will help the bruises to heal.  And it will relieve some of the pain.  Would you allow me to put it on you?”

Mi Sook stared up at her in astonishment.  No one had ever offered to salve her wounds.  But that sounded heavenly.  She found herself biting back tears as she nodded her head. 

Jung Sook must be an angel sent straight from Heaven.

The woman approached her bed and sat down gingerly on the edge of it as she turned to face her.  “Can I lift your shirt up?” Soo Ho’s wife queried.

“I’ll take it off.”  Mi Sook’s cheeks blossomed as she struggled to lean back enough to pull up her shirt. 

Jung Sook turned away from her to preserve her modesty.  “I think that you are not much in the company of other women, are you?” she asked as she stared back at the door.

Mi Sook glanced her way and noticed how Jung Sook had shielded herself from her nakedness.  Her heart softened towards the woman even more.  “Thank you for preserving my privacy,” she mumbled.  “I have seldom been among other girls.”

Jung Sook made a small sound of affirmation. 

Mi Sook lay on her tummy once more.  “My back is bare now, Kim Jung Sook,” she murmured.  She turned her head towards the other girl.

“Please call me Jung Sook,” the younger girl murmured. 

Mi Sook smiled at her.  “I will.  And you may call me Mi Sook.”

They both giggled, and Jung Sook scooted closer to her new friend. 

“Thank you for coming,” Mi Sook whispered.

“Of course!  Friends have to stick together, you know.”

“Are we friends?” Mi Sook asked in a tiny voice.

“We aren’t just friends.  We are kindred spirits, my dear,” Jung Sook responded as she scooped some of the cream from her jar. 

She gazed down in horror at her friend’s back.  Already, the skin was beginning to purple.  The yellow giving way to the darker shade.  She winced as she studied those brutal marks.  Then, ever so softly, she began to smear the lotion on her back.

“Kindred spirits?” Dan Se’s wife seemed to echo his earlier question.

“Mmm,” Jung Sook nodded as she continued to minister the healing balm to her friend’s bruised skin.

“How so?”

“I knew within a few minutes of meeting you,” the teacher murmured.

“Knew what?”

“All the signs were there.  How many times had I avoided sitting?  For hours on end until I was too exhausted to stand up anymore.  Until I finally collapsed onto my belly and prayed he would leave me alone long enough to heal fully before he laid the rod to my bottom again.”

Mi Sook gasped.

“And all the times I wore extra clothing and tugged my sleeves down so no one would see the bruises mottling my arms,” she continued.

The pained girl glanced back over her shoulder and met Jung Sook’s gaze.  “Your father beat you too?”

“And my first husband.  He was the worst.”

Mi Sook made a sound close to a whimper.

“Is that what you’re afraid of?  That Dan Se will bruise you too?”

Mi Sook’s eyes grew wide.  “What?  No.”  She frowned.  “I do not think so.  Why would he bruise me when he became so angry at my father for doing so?”

“Then why do you fear him?” Jung Sook wondered aloud.

Mi Sook blinked and set her cheek back down against her mattress.  “He killed his brother,” she muttered.

“It was an accident,” Jung Sook countered.

“No.  It wasn’t.”

“What?” the teacher asked, perplexed now.  “Why do you say that?”

“Because that’s what Dan Se said.”

“When?”

“Today.  I told him that I knew it was an accident, and he said that it wasn’t an accident.”

Jung Sook closed her eyes.  This must be the part of the conversation that Dan Se had forgotten.  How could he forget such a vital piece of information?

“So, you think that Dan Se killed his brother on purpose?”

Mi Sook heard the disbelief in the other woman’s voice.  She turned to glance back at her.  “Well, what else could he mean?”

“He could mean that he was attempting to kill someone else, and Han Sung stepped in front of his sword.”

Mi Sook inhaled sharply.  “What?”  She studied the girl’s dark eyes.  “Is that what he meant?”

“I imagine so.  For that is what happened.”

“How do you know this?”

“Because my husband told me.  It is a well-known fact among the hwarang.  Dan Se was attempting to kill Seon Woo.  Han Sung stumbled upon them and jumped in front of Seon Woo.  He reached out to grasp the blade with his hands.  Not knowing that it was poisoned.  He cut his skin open and was gone a few moments later.  It was a fast-acting poison.”

“What?”  This was even worse than what Mi Sook had imagined.  “Dan Se was trying to kill an innocent man?  But…why?” 

She was horrified.  Her husband was a monster.  Preying on a good man.  The king’s own cousin.

“That, my dear, is the truly horrible part of the story,” Jung Sook caught her gaze.  “His grandfather terrified him into it.  He threatened to make Han Sung drink poison if Dan Se didn’t kill the king.”

“But,” Mi Sook frowned, completely confused now, “Seon Woo isn’t the king.”

“No, but Dan Se’s grandfather believed that Seon Woo was the king then.  And Minister Park had refused to speak with Lord Seok unless he brought him the king’s head.  Of course, Dan Se’s grandfather was too old and frail to defeat a young hwarang, so he asked his grandson to do it.”

Mi Sook was again horrified.  But this time for a completely different reason.  Her noble husband.  That sweet man who had so loved his brother – who had, in fact, taken all his punishing strokes for him – had once again borne the brunt of his grandfather’s machinations.  Only this time, the plan had gone horribly awry, Han Sung inadvertently bringing upon himself the death from which Dan Se had been attempting to save him.

Mi Sook burst into tears.  How she must have hurt him this afternoon when she had turned away from him!  He’d just been trying to tell her the truth, and she had misconstrued his words and fled from him.  After all he had done for her.

“Where is Dan Se?” she whispered.

“I do not know.  He walked out the door right after I arrived.”

Mi Sook closed her eyes.  “I have made a dreadful mistake,” she admitted in a bare breath.

“I thought so,” asserted Jung Sook.

Mi Sook opened her eyes and glanced back at her friend.  “What do you mean?”

“Your husband came to see me about an hour ago.”

“He did?”  Mi Sook furrowed her lovely brow.  “Why?”

“Because the boy wishes to make you happy,” Jung Sook beamed at her new friend.  “Have you any idea how very much he loves you?”