Prologue: The Fall from Grace
The Gentlewoman's ClubHyejin Ahn. 27. Heiress to a fortune who married for love. Widow. Mother to a darling boy: Daron. Blonde, bleached, and beautiful. Expert dog trainer with a bite as strong as her bark. An online blog dedicated entirely to her hourglass figure and drumstick thighs surfaced two years ago. Her male following ranges from the young to the old. This devoted flock flies into Church to hear her sing Hallelujah every Sunday. Kneel before “Hwasa, our great mother and savior.”
Wheein Jung. 27. Single. In constant search for Mr. Right. Spends hours on her ringlets. Flawless, flirty, and far from the type to be forgotten. Dimples deep like a second and third smile gracing her face with each cackling laugh. Plays the saxophone so sensually entire crowds of men run for the bathroom. A penniless musician with a penchant for serving alcohol. "First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” F. Scott Fitzgerald. Cultured and cultivated to boot. Still single.
Yongsun Kim. 29. Kim became Byun over three years prior. Mrs. Byun bakes cakes for a living. Wedding cakes. Even her own. “The first temptation appeared in the form of her brown tail whisking back and forth.” Mr. Byun loved high-swinging ponytails. Shimmery, saccharine, and slightly sinful. Rattling her hindquarters gained her more than a twenty-carat diamond ring. Promoting solar power at the town’s open forum granted her a nickname and a place as one of the community’s most trusted individuals.
Moonbyul Yi. 28. Self-made woman with a habit of picking the low hanging apples. Auto-mechanic. Tight jumpsuit. Tighter set of lips. Able to talk herself out of a parking ticket in two seconds flat. Voice so gravelly car cabin noise hits an all time high. Resourceful, realistic, and recently rancorous. Everyone owed her a favor or two. Repair a flat tire and give a free oil change and suddenly she’s drowning in gratitude.
So who would expect it?
After two years of dating, Moonbyul Yi pushed her boyfriend Sehun Oh off a cliff. Seeing his limp body rag dolling from one rock to another, she inwardly laughed. Noticing he failed to recover from his fatal fall, she outwardly called the only people she could trust: the Gentlewoman’s Club.
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