"For the first time I saw Do Yeong was getting this angry. He never used fist all these years. This is the first time he used something like this. Not only that he embarrassed me in front of that Sangmin. Just because he used that 'status' I calmed down else I would not have spared him," Chan Sul as he applied the medicine on his wound.
"Why did you even bring his sister in all this?" Sung Tae questioned him who was sitting beside him on the mattress.
"You started it. I just wanted to provoke Yoon Shik so that he could get a more severe punishment than this. I cannot stand him in this academy," Chan Sul muttered with annoyance.
"Do Yeong and Park Sunwo, they both favor him and I do not know why? Do Yeong's father is strictest among all nobles and I don't think he will ever support Do Yeong supporting a Sangmin like this. He treats him as his brother which is more sickening," Ro Sang Pil proclaimed.
"Well, let's not do things like this ever. I do not have any kind of hatred towards low class people but I cannot stand Yoon Shik. He makes me crazy as he broke the rules which our forefathers had set. This thing really annoys me. Above all, I have to share a room with him which is more than annoying," Sung Tae muttered gulped down the remaining tea from the porcelain cup.
"I am leaving," Sung Tae said and stood up from the mattress on the floor.
"Yoon Shik would not have reached this level if his mother had not left her house that day. Everyone knows in the village that how his mother and father used to fight. They even had debts on them. Yoon Shik would have been slave if his mother had not left his father," asserted Wang Wook who was sitting beside Ro Sang Pil.
"Don't lie again. It does not matter now what his past was. You did wrong by pointing the finger at his mother's character. He has already climbed the ladder towards Bureaucracy." Sung Tae told them and stepped ahead to leave the room when Chan Sul stopped him.
"Sung Tae, there is a way we can throw him out of this academy. Indeed, his past will play role. If his father is in a debt then he can sell off Yoon Shik too a landlord as a slave. Slaves are the lower most class and he won't ever be able to rise again. We just have to tell his father to do this." Chan Sul put forwarded an idea.
"Whoa! This is a good idea. Slavery will cut off his wings forever. He will never be able to point the fingers on us Yangbans as soon as he will be a slave. Freedom he will never be given. The foremost thing for now is to suppress Yoon Shik forever so that no one will ever try to rise like him or dream like him," Ro Sang Pil declared.
"You all have lost your minds. Don't even try to do that. He indeed seems irritating and annoying to me but now he has entered here, I don't have anything more to say to him. He worked hard more than us. It's just I don't like him as in a person. I don't have any kind of personal grudge against him," Sung Tae opined.
Ro Sang Pil stood up and went near him. "Do Yeong helped him in his studies and see at what level he came! He even beat you in the exam ranking. He got a second and you for third. Are you seeing the difference?
Indeed you get a better department than him but who knows what he will do in future. He is a threat to entire Yangban section and this is the best chance we can make him bow and beg before us." Ro Sang Pil started filling the ears of Sung Tae.
"It does not matter to me. I am going. See you tomorrow," saying this Sung Tae left their room.
"Even Sung Tae's heart is getting softer towards Yoon Shik. Earlier, he used to agree with us," Chan Sul stated.
"But he still does not like Yoon Shik. We can work harder to make Sung Tae on our side," Wang Wook told them with an evil smirk on his lips.
~~~~~~~
Sung Tae came was going towards his dormitory when Park Sunwo stopped him. Sung Tae turned to look at him and gave him a tiny smile. "What happened?" Sung Tae asked.
"Nothing. Just want to have a small conversation with you," Park Sunwo replied.
"What kind of conversation?" Sung Tae asked.
Sunwo closed the fan in his hand and then put around his one arm around Sung Tae's shoulder. "Let's talk near some isolated place," Park Sunwo asserted. Sung Tae gave a nod and they both came to the northern region of the academy which was near the mountains. The two seated on the wooden benches made around the pond.
"Today's weather was pleasant," Sunwo said as he looked up at the sky. Sung Tae nodded. "Don't do anything which will taint your relationship with Yoon Shik," Sunwo told him.
"What do you mean? When was my relationship with him good?" Sung Tae asked him.
"But it is not bitter like fanatical enemies," Sunwo pronounced. "I happened to hear that conversation with your fellows. There are two kinds of friends in this world: one who wants your good and the other who wants to take advantage of you. Don't choose second ones," Sunwo asserted.
"I know what is good or bad. I know they were filling up my ears. Even I know Yoon Shik has worked hard to reach at this level. I like the will power he carries. It's just that I can't stand him. But do not worry, I will not do anything which will be reason of my regret," Sung Tae assured Park Sunwo.
"You are wiser than I thought," Sunwo stated.
"I want to say sorry to him for morning's incident but at the same time I do not want to. Well, the day he came second in the exam, I was shocked. Not because a lower class beat me but because Yoon Shik beat me. For the first time someone grabbed my robes in my life when we were kids and that was Yoon Shik. It just annoys me... nothing more," Sung Tae asserted.
Park Sunwo smiled. "If he will hear you out then he will be happy that Sung Tae thinks like this about him. Well, he was telling us how you dragged him to the infirmary. He was getting happy that you advised him," Sunwo stated.
Sung Tae looked at him in confusion. "I never gave him any advise," Sung Tae said, averting his gaze from Sunwo.
"You keep making a fuss when I say something to you but when you were wrongly accused you did not raise your voice- you said this to him, right?" Park Sunwo stated and opened his fan again, moving it near his face.
Sung Tae smiled upon hearing those words. Sunwo too smiled and the two looked at the pond.