By the time Hyora got back to her own home from Hwasung, she was dead tired from two weeks of travel, so she went into her room and fell asleep within moments of undressing.

The next morning Hoya came barging into her room without knocking, calling her name.

“Yah, could you not intrude on me while I’m not dressed?” she demanded, rubbing her eyes.

“What?” He shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s not as if I’m going to ogle you. That would be wrong.”

“Just because you’re my twin doesn’t mean you can just invade my room whenever you would like either,” she shot back, annoyed.

“Whatever. Mother wants to see you. So does Father, in fact. But he can wait.” Of course. There would be no denying their mother.

“I’ll go as soon as you shoo out of my room, thank you very much.”

“Bye.” He stopped at the door. “We need to talk, too.”

“Later!” she yelled at him. He stepped out and shut the door.

Despite her annoyance with Hoya, Hyora smiled. More than anything else, she had missed her twin. True, they had grown apart a bit as they had gotten older, but even so, they were still best friends and mutual confidantes.

“Lee Hyora!” That was her mother’s voice.

“Better get dressed then…” She hopped out of bed and went to her wardrobe to find something presentable to wear. The clothes in there had been left untouched for months. That was when Hyora realized how long she had been away from home. She hadn’t even come back to visit when the queen had died.

It was nice to be surrounded by familiar things once again. Her fiancé would be a wild card to deal with, but at least she wasn’t in foreign territory any longer.

***

She entered the study in a hurry while trying to appear composed. Her mother would harp on her for bad posture and inelegance if she simply burst in, but if she didn’t move with deliberate speed, her mother would in turn accuse her of laziness.

“Ah, you’re finally here.” The lady of the household was sipping delicately at a cup of tea.

“What is it that you need of me, Mother?” She was sure to keep her tone polite, lest she be snapped at for insolence.

“We need to discuss the matter of your engagement,” her mother replied. She set the cup of tea on the desk and motioned for Hyora to sit down. The girl obeyed. “I failed to provide all the essential details in my letter, but I figured it would be best for us to have this conversation in person, anyway.”

How considerate of her.

“First of all, the wedding is set for a few months from now.”

“That soon?” She couldn’t help but gape, even though her mother was sure to scold her.

“Close your mouth, dear, you look like a fish out of water. Yes. You are twenty. It is past time that you were married off.”

“But Hoya’s still single!” she protested.

“He’s a man. He can afford to wait. You cannot. Wait any longer and you will become a shameful old spinster.”

Hyora had half a mind to inform the woman that she would rather become an old spinster than get married off to some stranger she didn’t love, but she kept shut and endured it.

“There are lots of preparations to be made. I went ahead and began planning everything with the future in-laws as soon as the engagement was set. You have quite a few appointments lined up for measurements and such.” You need to eat more, dear. You’ve grown thinner in the past months.”

The food in Hwasung hadn’t suited her tastes quite so well. Although the cuisine wasn’t so different from home, the specific methods of preparation and spices and such varied, and Hyora simply couldn’t get used to that.

“Nowadays it is better to be more buxom. Men like their women with curves.”

Reflexively, Hyora glanced down. Her chest was caught somewhere between flat and curvaceous, and she liked body just the way it was. Remembering the women at the Hwasung court, with their corsets—god, she hated corsets—she shuddered. Breathing apparently wasn’t a priority there, and she was glad to have escaped that particular fashionable torture.

“It doesn’t matter anymore, does it? It’s not like I’m trying to win a husband. I have one set up for me,” she retorted.

“The engagement could easily be called off if he isn’t satisfied with you, mind you. Don’t get too smug.”

Never mind that she had nothing to be smug about.

“Okay, appointments with dressmakers. What else?”

“Well, I daresay your manners might have changed since you’ve been away, so I’m sending you…”

“Oh, not to finishing school?” she moaned. Hyora had heard all sorts of dreadful stories about the place, and it was the last place she wanted to end up for the last few months before she was deprived of freedom altogether.

“No, to the Royal Academy with Howon.”

“Oh.” Hearing this, she could breathe a sigh of relief. She had attended for about two months before her father had formulated his plan for her to go live abroad in Hwasung. It had been a good experience, and she didn’t mind going back at all. At least they taught things that were more interesting and useful.

“Also, I have scheduled for you to meet your fiancé in two days.”

“Mother, you have failed to mention the most important detail. Who is he?”

Her mother smirked. “I know. I have been saving that tidbit for last.”

She didn’t like the look of things. If her mother was smiling smugly, that likely meant trouble. “Well?”

“The older of the sons of the House of Kim. Be sure to make a good impression, my dear.”

That was Hyora’s cue to leave. As she stepped outside, Hoya caught hold of her. “Father wants to see you, now.”

“Okay, okay! I’ll go once you get out of my way,” Hyora snapped.

“What’s gotten into you?” her twin asked, surprised. “I thought you would be happy to be home.”

She had to stop herself from slamming the door to the study before leaving to find her father in the library. “Oh, I was, until our dearest mother decided to engage me to Kim Myungsoo.”