Hakyeon had been moody ever since he woke up. The thoughts of what happened yesterday evening still wandered through his mind. He still couldn’t believe just how ridiculous his father was and how crazy the Kim family is to even agree with it even though both parties would have some benefits out of it. Annoyed he bit on the end of his fountain pen as his privet French teacher was explaining something about the grammar. All though he already finished school, he still got some privet lessons that would help him to become a great salesman once he had a family on his own he had to take care off.  Why French was one of those subjects, he had no idea. Normally he didn’t really mind it that much but due to all his thoughts that were floating through his mind. He didn’t really bother to listen.

-

“Hakyeon-ssi.” One of the family butlers called as he knocked on the door. Once he had permission to enter he opened the door. “Mr. Cha wants to speak to you. He said it was important so if you could go to his office that would be really appreciated.”
“Can you tell him I will be there in a few minutes; I want to complete this geography exercise first. I almost finished it.”
“I will let Mr. Cha know.”

With that the butler closed the door of his room and left. Hakyeon quickly finished the exercise before he stood up from his chair and put the books and his fountain pen on its place. He then turned the oil lamp that was standing on his desk off and left his room. It was already dark outside when his father wanted to speak to him so the corridors got lighten up by the candles in the candlesticks that where attached to the walls. Hakyeon walked through the corridors that were covered with a beautiful red carpet and had creamy white walls with a beautiful but subtle pattern. The windows were big and let most of the moonlight shone through it which lightens up the corridors even more.

When Hakyeon arrived at his father’s office he knocked on the door. Once his father gave him permission to enter, he opened the door and got inside. His father’s office was big, and full with expensive items. Next to the door on each side there were paintings hanging on the wall. On the right side there was a painting of his father and his mother, while on the left side there was a painting of Hakyeon, his older brother and his two older sisters. At the other side of the room was his father’s rosewood desk, which had some pile of papers neatly lying at the corner of the surface. The wall behind his desk had a big window that was enough to light up the whole room at day time.

“Father, you wanted to speak to me?” Hakyeon said after he closed the door.
“That’s right son.” His father said. “Please take a seat.”

Hakyeon nodded as he took a seat on the red velvet couch, which stood on the left side of the room against the wall and next to the rosewood bookcase. His father stood up from his desk and walked over to the red velvet couch and took a seat next to Hakyeon.

“I wanted to talk about something important.” His father began and paused for a moment as he was searching for the right words. “Things hasn’t gone well with the shop lately… it came to the point we would almost got bankrupted…”

Hakyeon’s eyes widened when he heard the news about the store his father owned. His father always said business was going great and that lots of people were interested in all the beautiful furniture that they sell. To hear it was the opposite of what he thought was rather shocking to him.

“How long has it been going not so well?” Hakyeon asked
“Ever since your mother has passed away...” His father responded

It still was painful to talk about his mother’s passing; it has been just two months since his mother passed away due to her corset being so tight. She couldn’t breathe properly, fainted and then left the world for good. His mother always loved to help around in the store even though she doesn’t had to, she still insisted to serve the costumers. She was always smiling and very kind as she helped the customers to pick out the perfect furniture. She was kind do all classes that came into the store. Due to that a lot of costumers had turned into regulars, but ever since his mother’s passing more and more didn’t show up anymore.

“I’ve talked about this matter with Mr. and Mrs. Kim. Together we came with a way to solve the situation. We wanted you to marry their daughter Jiwon. That way we won’t get bankrupted and in return they are able to use our grounds to expand their factories.” His father said and paused for a moment before he continued. “However, when their son Wonsik heard about the arranged marriage he was quite against it. He said that Jiwon was too young to marry and that he will do everything to keep Jiwon from marrying a complete stranger. Even if that means he had to dress up like a girl and marry you himself.”
“You’re not telling you went along with that…” Hakyeon said.

There was no way he would marry another male. The thoughts of marrying someone of the same caused shivers to run down his spine. He always pictured himself to marry a beautiful and kind woman, just like how his mother was.

“Not really…” His father stated. Again there was another pause. “We quickly came to the conclusion that Wonsik won’t be believable if he pretended to be a woman. So instead of him pretending to be a girl, we decided that you would to take that task.”

Hakyeon’s eyes widened. Not only was he forced to marry another man, but he has to pretend to be a girl as well. What if people found out he married another male and dressed as a woman? People would think he is a freak or something.

“Father… with all the respect I don’t want to marry another man I don’t even know and pretend to be a girl… What if someone finds out?” Hakyeon said as he tried to stay calm.
“I’m sorry that I have to put you through all this but I don’t have any other choice. If one of your sisters weren’t married yet, then I wouldn’t have put you through all this.”
“I understand… I’m sorry… I should have known you would never do this unless there was no other choice.”

When he saw the desperate look in his father’s eyes that showed that his father really didn’t had any other choice, Hakyeon decided to just go along with it. Even though he still thought it was ridiculous that his father put him on an arranged marriage with another male. If he didn’t do it they would lose everything they got.

“Thanks for your understanding…” his father said as he placed his hand on Hakyeon’s shoulder. “Tomorrow I will go to the stores and get you some dresses and a wig.”

Hakyeon just nodded.

“You can leave now, it’s getting late you should go to bed.”
“Good night father.”
“Good night son.”

With that Hakyeon had left the office and went back to his own room.

-

“Hakyeon-ssi” his privet teacher called out. “Are you listening?’’
“Ah… yes, of course I am.” He said as he got back from his thoughts.

The teacher just rolled his eyes and sighed, it was obviously that Hakyeon hasn’t heard a word of his explanation.

“Listen Hakyeon-ssi… I would really appreciate it if you would at least pay some attention to the French language.”
“I’m sorry… I just haven’t slept well and got a lot on my mind. Can we continue this class another time?”

The teacher let out another sigh.

“Okay… we will continue next week. You can go.”
“Thank you…”

Hakyeon then collected his books and fountain pen before he left the room. Only to bump in his father who had just arrived from the stores.  They greeted each other and then his father asked him to follow him to the living room. When they arrived there Hakyeon saw a really big amount of bags and boxes standing on and around the coffee table that stood in the middle of three black velvet couches.

“What is all this?” Hakyeon asked surprised by the amount of bags and boxes.
“Those are your new clothing.” His father answered. “I hope you like them.”

Hakyeon walked over to the coffee table, he took one of the boxes and took the lid from it. In it was a pitch black dress. It didn’t have any details nor color in it. No linen cuffs or collars, it had puffy sleeves by the shoulders. The rest of the sleeves were narrowed and would fit perfectly over his arms. His chest part was completely covered and the skirt part reached the ground. It was a simple dress compared to the colorful and full detailed dresses women normally wore. In the other boxes he would find dresses in the same color black and again no linen cuffs or collars. It didn’t took long for Hakyeon to realize that those dresses were mourning dresses for the full mourning period. It got confirmed that it really were mourning dresses when he took a black crepe hat out of a bag.

Men he had it quite easy as it came to mourning, wearing a black suit with black gloves, hatband and cravats. Woman on the other had had it a lot differently when it came to the mourning etiquettes. Their mourning period was longer than that of the mourning period of men and women had more rules such as not being allowed to wear jewels. Of course those etiquettes depended on the relationship you had with the one that had passed away. Since Hakyeon lost his mother his mourning period would last a year, which was 6 months in full mourning, 3 months in second mourning and 3 months in half mourning. He was still in full mourning since it was just 2 months ago since his mother had passed away.

The last box he opened was the one with the wig in it. It was a long straight black wig that would come to his hips when he would wear it. He his fingers through the thick soft locks, the hairs felt like it was made of the best quality that existed and so when styled it must look like it he wasn’t wearing a wig.

“They are beautiful.” Hakyeon said to his father who had waited for Hakyeon to say what he thought of the new clothing. “Even though I never really wanted to dress up like a girl, I’m kind of happy that I could mourn for mother in such pretty dresses.”
“I’m glad to hear that you liked the dresses.” His father said. “Oh before I forget to tell you, I hired a new butler today. His name is Taekwoon and seems to be around your age. He will mostly protect you from any harm. Since you’re pretending to be a lady, you should act like one as well. So no more self-protecting.”
“Is it really a good idea to let an outsider in? I mean everyone else already know about the whole situation… Will we tell him about it as well?”
“No we won’t tell him. I wanted to have someone who won’t know this secret. Just in case someone thinks that they had found out you’re a man, then we always have someone who won’t be caught lying because he simply doesn’t know.” His father explained.

Hakyeon could see his father’s point, but still he worried about the whole getting an outsider involved thing. He already thought it was embarrassing that ever worker knew about him pretending to be a girl. But if this new butler would find out, then that would be even worse.

“Also I asked Mrs. Han to help you with acting more lady-like. She will be waiting in the ballroom. Don’t worry about all the clothing; I will let the maids bring it to your room.”
“I will be going then father.” Hakyeon said as he placed the wig back in the box.
“Oh and make sure you learn a lot. I invited the new butler to come over after dinner. So make sure you’re ready to meet him as a beautiful well-mannered young lady.”
“Of course father. I won’t let you down.”

With that Hakyeon left the living room and went to the ballroom.

Authors Note: There it is chapter 2! It took me a bit longer then I actully hoped it would... but due to the fact that this fanfic is in the time era of the Victorian era I had to research alot to get the facts straight. Seriously I always hated history but this specific era is pretty intressted. I probably never had this era in history at school since most likely the history I had was only about the Netherlands. Anyways I also finally decided what year it would be in this fanfic, which is 1863! 

to be honest I don't know if I got anything more to say? It's already 4am here... I really wanted to uplaod it as soon as possible... and because of that I kind of forgot the time... So yeah, If you got any question, feel free to ask. Oh and that part of Hakyeon's mother dying because of a too tight corset, it really happened to some woman back than. While researching on the mourning period I came across that. Anyways I'm going off to bed now. 

I hoped you enjoyed this chapter!