***

“Irene-ssi.”

She doesn’t budge nor give a slightest glance to the person calling her, she just doesn’t care.

“Irene-ssi.”

But she can’t keep pretending to be so enamored with the painting in front of her because as much as this painting is worth billions of won, she just… doesn’t understand art.

“Yes, Youngmin-ssi?” with a slight curve on her lips, her poor attempt to smile, she regards the young man beside her.

“I think we click with each other.”

Oh, no… this is just their second meet up, or date, or whatever this is supposed to be, but this young man is too brazen to even declare that they ‘click’.

Very poor choice of words, she may say and he said he is a Harvard graduate?? *scoffs* No, Irene is not a grammar expert, but she believes she’s past that age where she goes crazy over a 6 feet muscular guy with a charming smile in his velvet suit, no, she’s 28, she needs more… intellectual and intriguing conversations that's on par with her interests before she agrees nor even at least consider that she clicks with someone

So how should she respond to this??

Before that, let’s go back on why she agreed to this… this horrendous arrangement.

Her grandmother, madam Bae Jihyun, the current head of the Bae’s family, has personally ‘summoned’ her humble self to grace her hanok mansion for the fourth time in her life.

The first one was when her father asked to sign his approval to give all his shares back to the family, the second one was when her father passed away, the third one was to make her agree to serve the family since her father failed to do so and the fourth one was to meet a few marriage prospects, including this young man.

So it’s a rare occasion since they had labeled her father as ‘outcast’ for years because he married her mom, a mere commoner. Yes, they came from a long generation of… what is that called again? Noble family, yes, that’s it.

The Baes are one of the few families who served the famous his highness King Sejong during his reign and honored as one of the noble families in South Korea. So to her grandmother, her father, who married someone outside the nobility loop, is a disgrace to the family.

Now one might say, we don’t live in such an era anymore but… South Korea still honors their tradition highly and especially her main family, is really a faithful follower of it.

Bae Joohyun or well, she preferred to be called as Bae Irene now, did not grow up learning about the so-called tradition, the do’s and don’ts, her outcast parents give her utmost freedom to expand her wings, even studying out of the country. She attended the University of Washington for four years before coming back to Korea and building her own laundry business.

She is very lucky because most of her cousins were not able to get the same privilege she has, since their parents are more on the traditional side. Why most? Because her relatives favor their sons; her male cousins get to study abroad and have more power in the Bae household. Why? Because in the past, daughters from noble families are bound to be married off to other nobles, adopting their partner's family name so they wouldn’t really bring any importance to the main family in the long run. Simply said, the Baes are still practicing the old tradition in their family household.

Ok, enough about that, so why did madam Bae summon her again?

Apparently this man, who is still waiting for her affirmation that they indeed 'click'… is the oldest son of the Yang's family, another noble that Irene doesn’t bother to get to know.

According to her grandmother, Irene is at her prime age to get married, so she generously arranged this sacred meeting with an intention of bringing the pure nobility blood back because, you know, her mom… is a nobody.

After her father passed away, they demanded her to contribute more to the main family prosperity like all the women in the Baes family do; and what better way to do that than getting married to another noble? If she refuses to follow the family tradition, they won’t give her father a proper cremation ceremony, they will take his family name out and what will be left for him? Nothing.

Irene and her mom don't really mind if their surname is taken away, because they can just take her mother’s family name, Lim. But what about her late father?… Family name is so highly regarded in Korea, he’s known as the third Son of the Bonsang Bae, all of his life. Irene just can’t take that from her father, even though he was so ready to leave everything behind during his last family gathering but a family name is the least she can give her father for being her superhero all these times, he is the only man she loves.

So Irene agreed to meet any man or woman, or anyone that her grandmother asks her to, as long as she keeps her father's right as a Bae and fulfills her promise to give him a proper ceremony. It saddened her when he was always treated as ‘invisible’ in every family gathering and, even until his last breath, he remained ‘invisible’ to them. Her father never told her anything. It was her mother who sometimes came to her with a heavy feeling, for selfishly marrying the man even after knowing that he was a noble.

Irene wants to bring back the honor of her father, so she agreed with the arrangement, although she said nothing about marrying any of them. She can just meet, play with them a bit (if they are up to her standard) and then leave them easily, no commitment, because Irene doesn’t do relationships, well, not anymore. She should just endure everything until her father's cremation ceremony is arranged.

So with a barely audible sigh, Irene says “Yes, we are quite… clicked I suppose?” Yeah, right.

The young man smiles widely before pulling the most romantic move you can only witness in dramas, kneeling down on his right knee in this crowded art gallery, asking her to marry him while holding a single red rose and a velvet box… Well, Irene doesn't like roses and she wants to puke by his overly exaggerated gestures.

Now what to do?

“Youngmin-ssi…” Irene inhales sharply, what the ?? she is so embarrassed right now “Please stand up”

“Not until you say yes.”

Say yes? He said ‘say yes’?!

One thing about Irene, she loses her temper easily over someone who pushes the wrong button. So he is a noble? Who cares?!

“Youngmin-ssi, please stand up because my answer is no,” she says with a firm tone.

The young man is quite taken aback and, of course, he is embarrassed, very embarrassed.

“What did you say?” he asks once again because maybe he misheard her??

“I said, I don’t want to marry you.”

“But… you agreed that we clicked.”

Now everyone around them started to murmur and took pictures of them. Irene hates it, she hates uncalled attention.

“We clicked, but that doesn’t mean we have to get married,” Irene says, a bit frustrated now.

But the young man misunderstood her words, thinking that Irene is just not ready. “Well, we can postpone the wedding until next year if you want”