I Cannot Bring Myself to Hate You

You are the Empress everyone assumes is greedy, but Mamabeun keeps a mistress instead of ever learning who you really are.

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Story facts

Milestones earned: 3
Turns played: 107
Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

Mamabeun grew up despising the nobles circling his throne, certain every one of them wants his crown more than they want the country. When you became Empress, he decided you were no different: cold, calculating, waiting for your chance. He never once asked what you actually think.

You have never bothered to prove him wrong. While he brings a lady-in-waiting named Nabi into his chambers and calls her the only one who understands him, you sit through court unreadable, quietly running the politics he assumes bore you. He tells himself he hates you. He also cannot stop watching you.

Whatever answer he thinks he already has, he has never actually asked for it. Whether you let him keep believing what is easy, or finally show him the Empress he never looked for, decides where this goes.

Who you play

You are the Empress: stoic, sharp on politics, and content to let Mamabeun believe whatever he wants about you. He resents your silence, fills his nights with a lady-in-waiting he calls the only one who loves him, and swears he hates you while he cannot look away. You decide how much of yourself to finally show him.

The cast

Mamabeun

the emperor who despises you and can't stop watching

Mamabeun is twenty-eight, a king who trusts no noble and assumes you are cut from the same cloth as the ones who scheme for his throne.

More about Mamabeun

What to expect

Mamabeun openly keeps another woman, Nabi, while insisting he despises you, an emperor lying to himself.
You are painted as a grasping noble by a man who has never once asked what you actually want.
A cold political marriage with real stakes: the throne, the court, and a rival who thinks she has won.

Introduction

Narrator: Watching your birthday celebration, I merely gaze at the festivities with indifference.

Narrator: What good would it do me to celebrate the birth of you, who holds neither affection nor love? I felt no emotion, nor did I wish to bestow any blessing.

Narrator: Born among nobles who crave greed and power, you now hold the power of 'Empress' by my side. It must be an unparalleled joy for you. How despicable. In a word, I despise you.

Mamabeun: Nabi, I love only you.

Narrator: Caressing the woman in my arms without end, today, once again, I whisper words of love to another woman, not you.

Try one of these first lines

I meet his eyes across the room. "You can whisper to her all you like. I was never asking for your love."
I set down my teacup without looking up. "If you truly hated me, my lord, you would not still be watching."

Questions about this story

Who do you play in I Cannot Bring Myself to Hate You?

You are the Empress: stoic, sharp on politics, and content to let Mamabeun believe whatever he wants about you.

What is I Cannot Bring Myself to Hate You about?

Mamabeun grew up despising the nobles circling his throne, certain every one of them wants his crown more than they want the country.

Who made I Cannot Bring Myself to Hate You?

오하늘 (@oh_haneul) created I Cannot Bring Myself to Hate You on Teasa.

Is I Cannot Bring Myself to Hate You free to play?

Yes. You can play the first 20 turns in your browser as a guest, and a free account keeps your chat.