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“Young Mistress, you need to wake up now!”

Jerking awake with a start, Jandi automatically reached for the broom she kept next to her bed in case a wild animal snuck into their house. Not finding it, she shook her head, disoriented.

A cluster of maids stared from the door. Rubbing her eyes, Jandi could just make out a dress held up by one of them and a pair of shoes by another. The realization of where and who she was now slammed into her, hard.

“What’s happening?” She directed a confused stare out the window, seeing nothing but darkness. The sun hadn’t even risen yet. “Has something happened?”

“You need to attend the press conference, Young Mistress,” one maid said, keeping her gaze low. “It starts in twenty minutes.”

“Press conference?” Jandi felt more confused, if anything. “What press conference?”

Another maid, seemingly the youngest, curtsied. “With all due respect, Young Mistress, it would be best for us to answer your questions while we prepare you for the press conference rather than now. There is very little time, and we cannot afford for you to continue laying in bed.”

“Hyemin!” Flinching, the maid lowered her head at the collective disapproving hiss of her name.

“Apologies, Young Mistress. I did not mean to overstep my boundaries.” Hyemin curtsied again, cheeks flaming, and Jandi frowned.

The girl couldn’t be much older than thirteen, judging by the lankiness of her limbs and the flushed roundness of her face. Jandi could tell she hadn’t meant anything disrespectful; if anything, she had been the only one to give Jandi any helpful direction in her moment of sleep-induced confusion.

“It’s fine. I’m getting out of bed right now,” Jandi assured the gaggle of maids, feeling exceptionally self-conscious as she struggled to disentangle herself from the sheets without making a complete fool of herself. “May I ask what this press conference is for?”

“It’s your formal introduction to the empire,” the first maid said, grabbing the hem of Jandi’s pajama shirt and pulling it over her head. “You gave them a taste last night when you arrived, and now everyone’s curious about the new Do wife.”

“But - ugh,” Jandi spluttered, getting a mouthful of cloth when she opened to speak, “wasn’t I already introduced? Wasn’t that why I had to walk here through that mad rush of reporters and cameras?”

“Those were just the gossip magazines. The reporters at the press conference will be from the largest news outlets in the empire. Naturally, they want to catch a glimpse of the wife of such an important politician.”

Hands tugged at Jandi’s clothes and body from all directions, and she gave up on trying to figure out what was being pulled over her head. “The largest news outlets in the empire? What am I supposed to say to them? Was I supposed to prepare some sort of statement? I -”

“Of course not, Young Mistress.” Jandi was plopped abruptly in a chair and spun around. “It’s not as if women speak at these sorts of events.”

Jandi frowned. “Well, why not? If I’m being introduced, shouldn’t I say something about myself?”

Hyemin, who was struggling to force a brush through Jandi’s hair, shook her head rapidly. “You mustn’t speak out of turn unless you want to be punished, Young Mistress. Young Master Do may not be as severe with his punishments, but his father has a strong arm and a stronger beating stick.”

“Beaten?” This was the second time Jandi had been warned about getting beaten by her father-in-law since she had arrived less than twelve hours ago, and she wondered just how much of a monster he must be. Perhaps she was mistaken, but Hyemin sounded like she was speaking from experience. “If I can’t speak, then why am I going to the press conference anyway?”

The first maid frowned at her like she was an unruly child. “Like we said earlier, Young Mistress, to be introduced. You have to be seen in public with your husband, after all.”

“But I haven’t even met him yet!” Jandi wanted to cry, but she physically couldn’t; someone was holding her eyelids open to swab them with makeup.

“Why, of course you haven’t.” Someone patted her arm. “You’re going to see him in ten minutes now, though, so don’t you worry, Young Mistress.”

“Will I get to speak with him at the press conference, then?”

The simultaneous horrified intake of breath from all the maids served as an answer, and Jandi winced. “Never mind.”

***

Wearing a dress so gaudy and tasteless she felt like a peacock at a funeral, Jandi shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Rows and rows of reporters with their flashing black cameras filled her field of vision, and she didn’t know quite where to look. She was seated below a granite dais, where a podium and two chairs were located, presumably for her husband and his father, but the chairs remained conspicuously empty. When would her husband ever appear?

As if answering her thoughts, the low buzz of the reporters crescendoed as two figures ascended to the dais. The man in front, stony-faced and bearing a neatly groomed beard shot through with streaks of grey, strode forward with the poise and confidence of an experienced politician. Behind him followed a younger man, of slighter stature, but pale and handsome nonetheless in his crisp black suit.

Jandi let out a shaky breath at this first glimpse of her husband. He was smaller than he looked on television, she realized, but no less attractive, with his full lips and deep brown eyes. His charm was different from that of his father, who had a sort of aggressive charm about him that its way into the room. Do Kyungsoo looked soft, kind; it was both his selling point to his supporters and his weak point to his critics. Politicians weren’t usually so pretty, after all; they were charismatic, charming, ruggedly handsome, but certainly not gentle, not in this hyper-masculinized culture.

Up on the dais, Do Mansoo raised his hand, and the buzz died immediately. “Thank you all for being here today to welcome my son’s new bride,” he said, and Jandi thought his voice sounded exactly like what she had imagined the voice of a mountain to sound like when she was a child, rough and powerful. “The Do family is very pleased with this union. We have always encouraged free love and open-mindedness, and our Kyungsoo is a living testament to this, having chosen to take a woman from the rural village of Geumdo as his bride.”

Aware that there were dozens of cameras currently pointed at her face, Jandi swallowed the snort that was threatening to tumble out of her m