Seungwan doesn’t know how her sister talked her into this. She fiddles with the straps of her dress tries not to bolt. Not that she could run far in these heels.

“Remember to relax. You may have hit the genetic jackpot, but desperation is not a good look on anybody.” Yerim, flicks non-existent dandruff from the lapels of her suit jacket.

“That’s easy for you to say, you’re not the one that’s ‘substandard wife material’.

“Mother didn’t mean it like that. You’re just insecure.” Yerim slaps her hand away from the straps. Wendy had gotten them all tangled.

“She used me as an example in her book. I’m the protagonist of Chapter Ten.”

Their mother’s book, The Hunt for A Good Spouse, has risen through the ranks to become a bestseller. It’s been featured everywhere: on the television, in the paper, on the radio, and every bulletin board within a twenty-minute walk of her house. The last time Seungwan had seen her mother, she was talking to their butler about hiring a skywriter.
 

There’s a beat of awkward silence and she knows that Yerim is trying what she calls ‘flash meditation’ to calm herself down. Their mother has always been prone to antics and Yerim, her youngest child, does not have the practised patience the rest of her children have learnt over the years.

“Mother can be difficult. But, this isn’t about her.  This is about you. My friends — Sooyoung, Seulgi and Joohyun — are here for you.”
 

“Do you set all your sisters up with your friends?”
 

“Only the ones Mother writes bestselling novels about.”
 

“That’s only slightly reassuring. Tell me about them, will you?” Seungwan would like to make a decent first impression on her sister’s friends. She’d rather not prove her mother, a self-proclaimed expert on love, correct.

“Sooyoung, who also happens to be my tallest friend, is an Olympic sharpshooter.”

“Excuse me? She’s a what?”

‘An Olympic sharpshooter.’ Yerim mimes a shotguns and shoots it at her. “That’s how she shows off she has perfect vision. She’s the only one of us that doesn’t need to wear glasses.”

“Because that’s what women usually look for in a relationship — perfect vision and a great shot.” Seungwan is more apprehensive than before.

“Moving on. Joohyun, a classical pianist, has a small cult following and hands that are apparently insured for half a million dollars.”

“Do you have any friends that are less intimidating?” Seungwan wonders why her sister’s friends are so high-profile and what it says about her.
 

Yerim raises an amused eyebrow. “Mother did mention you weren’t going to be interested in powerful women.”

“Did she now?” She really shouldn’t be this offended, knowing their mother, but she is.

“My last friend Seulgi is a nice girl. She’s a school teacher.”

Seungwan narrows her eyes. “A school teacher? That’s it?”

“She’s just a school teacher. She teaches maths to children and likes to knit on weekends.”

Seungwan considers her options. Her previous girlfriend, Taeyeon, a ballistics expert for some shadowy government agency, had dumped her for Tiffany. And Tiffany’s multinational crime empire. She had  said that Taeyeon was having some sort of mid-life crisis. Taeyeon had said that she was too boring and that she wanted something new before packing her bags and zipping off into the sunset with her new crime lord lover.

Seungwan  thinks that there’s nothing wrong with wanting financial stability and domesticity.

“I’d like to meet Seulgi.”

“Mother said that you would. And no, you’re meeting all three.”