Samurai ↔ Nishimura Riki

twenty nine

EONGDEONGI PANG PANG (helloooo any carats)

sorry for the delay in chapters guys :(( what are u guys doing for break? (NGOC IF U ARE READING THIS TAKE ME TO CHINA WITH YOU PLS)

That voice-

She whirled her head around. "I'm afraid you've mistaken me for someone else. My name is Cho Hyewon, not Lee. Kindly unhand me, sir," she says coolly, yanking his hand off her arm, not caring that someone could be watching them.

But before she could chase after Riki again, two steady hands gripped on her shoulders and made her stop. "Not so fast," Advisor Lee says sternly. His glasses perched on his nose glinted in the light. "You're still my daughter, Hyewon. Nothing can change that."

His daughter. She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of his statement. So he still had the audacity to claim her as his child? How funny. Now he came back, looking for an opportunity to talk to her, now that she was some kind of 'big-shot' for being the prince's guard.

All her etiquette thrown out the window, she bared her teeth before throwing her head back, letting out a humorless laugh. "Really? I'm your daughter? You lost the privilege to call me that 14 years ago. The moment you stepped out of Mom and I's home, you gave up the right to call yourself 'my father'. You denounced us as your family a long time ago. Don't you have another wife to bed?" she spat, boiling with animosity.

All of her past fury came back to her, feeding into her hatred for him. She hated him, the very sight of him made her want to snap something into two. How many days had she spent cursing his name after bringing so much pain to her mother? She growled under her breath, harshly jerking away from her 'father'. She had no time for this, she had to find Riki and apologize to him-

Lee Kangseok didn't wince at the abrupt action. "Needless to say, you have my blood in you. You remind me of myself when I was younger," he spoke firmly, "No matter how you try to deny it, your position, where you are now, it's because of your inheritance. You cannot change your roots. And you seem to accept Heeseung well enough. You should know fairly well that he's your cousin from my side of the family, not your mother's."

"I am nothing like you." Hyewon hissed. Everything seemed to be tinted red in her vision. "Blood does not define skill nor personality. How dare you claim my own merits as part of your own? Heeseung may be your nephew, but at least he was there for me more often than you were, Father," The word tasted sour in her mouth. She paused, "Oh, that's right. You were never there for me."

She stood there, staring defiantly at him, holding her ground. "There may have been a time where young, stupid me wanted you to come back, to fill the gap you had felt. But you didn't," she continued, "When I was five, I was foolish enough to imagine how our life would be if you ever came back. But then you got married again. You fathered twins with your new wife, so that got crushed pretty quick."

"Mom was heartbroken for four years when you left like that, no note, no explanation, nothing. You knew that, but you still did nothing. And now you are still shameless enough to saunter up to me like this?"

Hyewon lifted her head to stare at her absent father straight in the eye. "Don't come crawling back and ask for forgiveness when you still have not changed. You have no claim on the both of us. In the end, you are no better than a coward."

Silence. She watched as Lee Kangseok's eyes darted around the room, which was practically empty now except for some who lingered around to watch the child-parent drama. He sighed and lifted his hand. "Hyewon, I'm not here to argue with you-" he began before cutting himself off. "Let's not argue. What has happened with your mother and I has been put aside for years now, what is happening now is only the two of us. I only ask you to hear me out and respect your promise to your mother."