The car halts with a jerk. It almost makes Sooyoung bump into the front. She turns to look at the person who is driving.

Namjoon kicks open the door and walks directly into the old mansion without even paying a single glance to the young lady he has brought with him.

Sooyoung, whom people know more as Joy, stands near the vehicle shocked and awkward. She cannot understand why he was behaving like that since morning whereas today he should be happy.

She keeps standing outside feeling completely out of place and embarrassed. She has been to this house many times before but today, it is different. She will not be a guest here anymore. She will be a part of this household.

"Are you planning to spend the whole night there?! Go for it then!!" Her newly-wedded husband snaps.

She winces and walks slowly inside the house. Namjoon has not even look at her once since they met at the marriage registry office. It feels more like a business contract signing. She has thought this is how people behave when they elope and get married. But where is the love that she felt even yesterday?

 She wonders how her oppa is. Is he really angry? Will he ever forgive her? He is known to hold on to grudges for life.

The old, grumpy butler Joseph walks in and bows reluctantly.

"Hey, old man! I got her here! She will stay in the empty guestroom down the hall and make sure the other servants know about her arrival. Even that drunkard Jace and his kid. Also made sure she knows her responsibilities." He turns to leave and notices her for the first time.

"What?! What are you expecting?! That I'll scoop ya in my arms to our bedroom?! Huh?!" He snorts loudly.

He walks briskly towards the stairs. Joy looks like she just received a bolt from the blue.

"Agashi. Please follow." Joseph takes her small bags to her designated room and she is still standing in the hallway, the events of the day storming in her mind. She looks at the old man moving down the hall and quietly follows. 

She is left alone in a very simple looking room. It is one third of her previous bedroom with blank white walls, a small attached bathroom and a window with a view of the the huge state. 

Joy sits slowly on the queen size bed. She still cannot understand what is happening. Everything feels like a bad dream. Everyone calls her dim-witted. Maybe they are right.

She is brought out of her trance when there is a knock on the door.

"Excuse me. You are asked to join Master Kim in...his bedroom..." The maid refuses to meet her eyes.

Joy blinks. It is 8 in the evening now. She has been sitting like that for 7 hours! She nods and stands up accepting the aches in her joints.

She slowly follows the maid who timidly points at his bedroom. She remembers this bedroom was the master bedroom of the Bae mansion and once belonged to Uncle Bae.

She slowly opens the door and Namjoon's head snaps at her,"Don't ya have any manners?! Don't ya know to knock before entering someone else's bedroom ?! Aren't ya rich and sophisticated people taught these things?!" 

Joy opens but fails to make any sound.

What is happening?! Why is he behaving like that?!

Namjoon smirks at her helplessness.

'Goodness! How amazing it is to see her so confused and hurt! Wish her lovely brother was here to see his baby sister!' He thinks mercilessly.

"Anyway, You are smart enough to understand by now what is happening. No? Okayyy..." He mockingly shakes his head at her ignorance and sighs dramatically. 

"God! You are as stupid as you were 10 years back! But yes, that actually worked very well for me or else how I could have seduced, no! Sorry, not seduced! I did not do that." He laughs, "Manipulate...Yes! Manipulate you into falling  in love and then marrying me. You made my plan much easier." He shrugs and pours himself a glass of wine.

Each and every word from his mouth corresponds to the pieces, her heart is torn into.

"P-plan?" She can only produce this word.

"Yup. A plan. A plan to avenge the humiliation I had to endure throughout my childhood. A plan to avenge the torture I went through till my adolescence. A plan to avenge the love that has been snatched away from me for life!"

"What about-about..." She gulps, "us?"

"Us?" He rises his eyebrow at her, "There. Is. No. Us.! Never was; is; or will be. Are-are you that stupid? How-how old are ya?! Did ya not understand a single word I just said?!" He shakes his head.

" But you..." She is lost.

"BUT WHAT I SAID WAS PART OF MY REVENGE! I DO NOT ACCEPT YOU AS MY LIFE-PARTNER. YOU ARE HERE CUZ I WANT TO HURT YOUR BROTHER! MAY BE NOT THE WAY HE DID WHEN HE MARRIED MY IRENE BUT CLOSE ENOUGH! AS HE LOVED YOU SO MUCH!" He takes a deep breathe. His throat hurts from yelling. He has been talking a lot to explain such a simple thing to her. 

"Though one of the reasons to marry you will not be successful as your brother has disinherited you today after you left his home. He has claimed that he has no sister named Kim...Oh sorry, Park SoonYoung. You were never a Kim, right?" He ridicules, "But the evidence of him being hurt and you being completely broke have provided peace for my mind. I mean really! Do you have anywhere else to go now?"

 She is used to people's harsh words and insults all her life. She has a thick skin now but his words really hurt her. He has never taunted her for being her father's illegitimate child before. She should have listened to him and her sister-in-law. Her oppa genuinely loved her.

"You are quite ungrateful,woman! Anyway, let's come to the point. I've wasted much time and I am tired.

You have two options now. One. You can leave and live on your own which I doubt you can as you have no work experience or required qualifications. You have lived in the safety bubble provided by daddy and then your brother." He sneers, "And not to forget the elite class has learned about our little escapade and also your lack of inheritance. So, forget help from them. Besides, none of them were your friend. Just tolerated you for your father and brother's position!

"The other option is to stay here just the way I want to keep you.You'll stay here and earn your living through service to the household and...to me."

Joy looks at him baffled.

"What?! Oh! Don't think I'll provide for you for free! Learn how to work! I'm sure you've never heard of the term but even if you'll leave this place, which you are free to, you'll have to do the same, but for others."

Namjoon sighs and refills his glass,"Come on now! I am being so easy on you! Compared to what I've been inflicted to for years by the Baes and the Kims, this is nothing. I am not beating you up. I won't do that! I don't find pleasure in hurting the weak unlike some people and also, I don't want jail time. So, think carefully. Oh, and if you want to go away do it at once. Though you'll not get a divorce. You can render on the street being 'legally-bonded' to me."

Joy is still silent.

"Want to sue me? Gather the fees first then the proofs; none of them, I believe, you have now. You are a grown up adult who married me with consent and I've not visibly hit you," Namjoon rests his case and laughs triumphantly. He sits on the rocking chair by the fireplace and closes his eyes.

Joy looks at her hands. Everything seems to have got out of them. His words, though sharp enough to make her heart bleed, are right.

Her brother has broke off their relation. She deserves that. She actually has been a very ungrateful girl who just wanted something or, someone in her case, of her own choice. Not decided by her father or her older half-brother. She has no work experience as she has been kept in her brother's home as a doll. She was supposed to be passed to the best suitor or more like the highest bidder. A complete prim and posh life. Her academic record is bad. Guess her so-called socialite 'friends' are right about her. She's too naive to decide for herself. 

No work for her outside this cold mansion. If she goes out where will she go?!

She dries her eyes and utters, "I'll stay."

"Good. Now take that cute dress off and get into the bed." Namjoon finishes his drink.

Later that night, she walks back wobbly to her room. On the way she sees that maid who is trying her best to avoid eye contact with her.

She locks the door behind her and looks at herself in the mirror. Her kohl is smudged all over her face. Her beautiful black hair tangled up on her head. She is a mess. She breaks into tears after controlling them for hours, "Why, God?! Why me?!" 

 She looks at her "wedding attire". Such a pretty white dress it is.

The dress was what Namjoon proposed her with. She thought it was very special. No ring. Yet how romantic and thrilling. How different he was from all the rich businessmen she had been introduced to. Yes, he is indeed different.

She is no less weird. He told her to wear her clothes and leave the room. She is supposed to be there whenever he asks her to. It's part of her job. He called her 'Irene' multiple times during... 

When she was about to leave the room, he popped his head on his hand, "Do you still love me?"

She, might have been truthful or completely deluded, answered, "Yes."

She left an amused and bare Namjoon on the bed. She has lost a lot of things today. It is quite shocking for her. She did not know she had so many things of her own to lose.

Namjoon is looking at himself in the mirror. He has never thought in his wildest nightmare he will have his "first time" with a woman who is not his Irene. But he had to do that. He scrubs his body off vigorously to remove any trace of that woman's scent on him. He has even deliberately called her 'Irene'. 

As if he will ever confuse his Irene with her. He enjoyed the pain in her eyes when he did that. It was quite amusing. 

But she surprised him when he asked her whether she still loved him. She was always so weird.

The newly-wedded couple spends their night in their respective bedrooms. Both are waiting for the following days, one with dread and the other with anticipation.