**

(Text message exchanges)

From: Joohyun

Can we meet today at K-restaurant?

To: Joohyun

Sure. What time?

From: Joohyun

6:00 PM

To: Joohyun

Alright.

Wendy put her phone inside her gym bag with a tight smile on her face before wrapping both of her hands with a strip of cloth. She wore her boxing gloves and headgear securely before jumping into the ring where her sparring partner was waiting eagerly.

“You only come here when you’re stressed,” her opponent says knowingly, “Or when you’re guilty of something.”

“Both,” the young royal says as she stands in her fighting stance. Left foot slightly forward, left arm partly extended, right arm held close to her body, glove near her chin.

Her opponent sighs loudly, “Let me guess, you managed to fool another innocent lamb, didn’t you? Was it that woman who was recently captured with you?”

Seulgi jumped into the ring before Wendy could answer.

“Hyo unnie, you’re asking too many questions,” Seulgi says as she puts her arms in the middle. She would act as a referee.

Hyoyeon shrugged, “Just a warning, one day you’ll fall with one of those lambs helplessly. Trust me, I’ve been there.”

Seulgi pulled back her hand and Wendy immediately threw her jab, aiming at Hyoyeon's jaw which the latter successfully dodged by moving her head slightly to the right.

“Whoaa, attacking so aggressively,” Hyoyeon ducks down as Wendy throws another punch straight to her face.

“Fight me!” Wendy shouts, feeling her adrenaline pumping.

“As you wish, your highness,” Hyoyeon charged back with her famous uppercut move.

**

As expected Hyoyeon won the match, she was a highly qualified boxing trainer for national athletes before opening her own boxing facility. She was Kim Taeyeon’s sister.

“The cut on your lips will sting a little, Your Highness.”

“I told you to avoid her face,” Seulgi says irritatedly while putting an ointment to Wendy’s lower lips.

“It’s just a small cut, barely noticeable,” Hyoyeon rolls her eyes, “You know you can’t expect to come out clean after a match.”

“I’m fine, Seul,” Wendy says as she pats her guard’s shoulder, “I’m going to take a bath now, we’ll meet Irene in an hour at K-restaurant.”

Hyoyeon and Seulgi watched Wendy walk out of the room with her shoulder squared tensely.

“Something is bothering her today.”

“Now you’re a body language expert, huh?”

“It’s so obvious, did she get dumped or what?”

“Today is her mother’s death anniversary, we went to the royal columbarium before coming here.”

“Ah… I was being insensitive, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah, but you didn’t know.”

“Tell her, I’m sorry, Seul.”

“Okay,” Seulgi takes her own towel before sighing, “Seriously, stop trying to ruin our face while combating with you”

“No promises, honey.”

**

K-restaurant

Irene tilted her head as Wendy took a seat beside her on the round table, so unusual, usually she would sit in front of her. She also noticed that the young royal smelled fresh from a shower, but it was a different smell, she must be using a different soap, not that the young Bae liked smelling the other woman but the hint of orange blossom usually was the first thing that tickled her nose every time they meet. Now it was missing, replaced by a strong smell of vanilla scent.

“You got a cut on your lips,” The cut was so small, if she sat in front of her, she wouldn’t notice it.

“Seulgi already put an ointment, no big deal,” Wendy says lazily, and doesn't want to disclose the cause, “So, what brings you here, jagi?” she puts her chin on her palm, staring closely at Irene.

The young Bae leaned on her seat, pursing her lips, trying to have some space because Wendy was too close for her liking.

“My grandma wants me to marry you.”

“Oh,” Wendy smiles “Is she now?”

“She promised me the cremation ceremony, six months after I marry you,” Irene tells her, without knowing that it was the young royal’s plan all along, “I don’t want to postpone it anymore”

“You mean you want to get married soon?”

Irene nods, “The King also wants it right? So let’s just get it done.”

“Jagi,” Wendy takes a thread of the young Bae’s silky hair in her hand, feeling its smoothness, “I never say that I agree with all these marriage things”

Irene frowns, “What do you mean? I thought you want to reach your goal so badly that you’ll do anything.”

That’s right…

“I do but marriage is not in my plan.”

Lies

Worry etched in Irene’s mind as soon as she heard her words. She needed to marry the young royal or she would never get the ceremony.

“So you don’t want to get married?”

“I don’t know,” Wendy shrugs non committedly, “Depends on what you can offer me in exchange for this marriage.”

“What do you want?” Irene asks back, she is frustrated, she didn’t expect that the young royal would be so difficult like this.

Wendy ran her eyes up and down Irene’s body, scaring the young Bae because behind those expressive eyes of hers, laid a lot of secrets that were probably too dangerous to think of.

“I’m not gonna sleep with you,” Irene says, her frown deepened.

Wendy laughs, “Oh My God, no, I mean I won’t refuse but that’s not what I want from you.”

“Then why are you staring at me like that?”

“Can’t I at least appreciate your beauty from up close?”

“No, I’m not here to flaunt my beauty.”

“Fine,” Wendy exhales exaggeratedly, “If you want a marriage, you must stay beside me for at least a year, not eight months that we agreed before”

“A year?? That’s too long!”

“I don’t know when will I get to fulfill my goal so I need to have you beside me until then, but I promise you, I’m working hard right now so we can get back to our own life within a year.”

“Okay,” Irene says grumbly, not that she really has any choices.

“Since you’ll be living in the palace after marrying me, you need to watch your words and how you act around me, there are a lot of eyes watching us there. You cannot get too jumpy when I stand close or display my affection to you, just like what I did before.”

Wendy smiles, “I was just staring at you but you started getting nervous like a scared bunny. Did I scare you?”

“You were too close for my liking.”

“Unacceptable, it wasn’t too close, there was like 20 cm gap between us,” Wendy argues, “After the ceremony, I want us to act like an overly smitten newlywed.”

“The hell is that?”

“We’ll be all over each other till they can’t stand to see us. I don’t want them to get into my business, it’ll be an act to divert their attention to me.”

“Why would people get into your business?”

“You can’t ask, remember?” Wendy says lightly, “All I can say to you is that some people are threatened by my existence.”

“Not surprised, you are annoying.”

The young royal chuckles, “You are free to do whatever you want in the palace, just be aware of your surroundings and tell me if they’re starting to bother you.”

“Last thing, whatever happens between me and you in the palace, nobody shall know,” Wendy tells her, “We’ll divorce quietly when everything is done.”

“When will I know if you’re done with everything?”

“Good questions,” Wendy purses her lips, “When that happens, Seulgi will let you know.”

“Seulgi?”

“Yep, I’ll probably be busy with stuff so Seulgi will let you know. All the divorce papers will be taken care of and oh before I forget, I’ll pay for your father’s ceremony, everything.”

“What??”

“You heard me,” Wendy avoids her eyes before sitting straightly, “I’ll pay for your father’s ceremony, tell your grandma.”

“Why?”

“Let’s just say it’s something I want to give you in exchange for helping me.”

“Then I want a grand ceremony.”

“Consider it done,” Wendy plays with her bracelet, “You want to change anything from your end?”

“I heard that living in the palace is hard, especially for a non-royal like me, it can even cost my life since you’re so secretive and you may be up to something dangerous, that’s why people feel threatened by you,” Irene sighs desperately, “Just protect me okay, I really don’t want to deal with annoying people and their dramas. I don’t want to be involved.”

“I promise, I’ll protect you,” Wendy says confidently, “Taeil will send the new agreement tomorrow to classic cleaner.”

“Okay… and um I have something else to ask”

“Sure.”

“I want you to meet my mother”

Wendy smiles amusedly, “Oh… meeting my mother-in-law.”

“She is very surprised that I indulged myself this far into the nobility system, and on top of that, I am about to marry a royal. She doesn’t know about my agreement with grandma so I need you to talk to her and convince her that we’re really into each other,” Irene bits her lips, “You are good at that, aren’t you?”

“No problem, I’ll charm your mother,” Wendy looks back at her eyes, “When do you want me to meet her?”

“Before you tell the media that we are getting married.”

“Tomorrow then,” Wendy nods to herself, “I’m going to inform Jeonha tonight about our decision because the fifth full moon is in two months so we have to move fast as we have a lot to prepare, not to mention the royal crash course part two.”

“Crash course part two??” Irene shrieks.

“Jagi, there’s a lot of things you need to learn,” Wendy reminds her, “Tea ceremony, horse riding, flower arrangement…”

“Flower arrangement.. right, I’m curious about that.”

“Huh?“ Wendy raises her brows, “Okay, the flower arrangement is important, of course, since your sisters-in-law are assigned to take care of the royal flower club, you probably will join them.”

“That boring flower club where all noblewomen waste their time gossiping around? I heard Yoobin and Sumin joined that club as well.”

“I’m not sure about gossiping around,” Wendy laughs, “But yes, I admit it is boring. Just a warning, you probably won’t like it.”

“Hmph,” Irene frowns, “I already hate it.”

“What does your mother enjoy the most? Does she like flowers?”

Irene is quite taken by how Wendy is treating the meeting with her mother so seriously, “Just bring red wine, she enjoys a good quality wine, she’s a pro at making western food so expect tomorrow will be wine and grill.”

“Hmm, she got a taste. Alright, I’ll come with one tomorrow so… give me your address? It baffles me that you never let me drive you home.”

“Because I don’t trust you,” Irene rolls her eyes “But now that we’re going to get married, I have no choice but to let you know, I’ll just text you later.”

“Okay.”

“I think I need you to brief me about your family and yourself, I don’t want to look stupid in front of your brothers and laws.”

“Sure, I’ll tell you basic things about me so…”

Ring ring ring

“Whoops, I need to take this,” Wendy grins before slipping out of their private booth, “Be back soon.”

Irene was left alone enjoying her spring rolls. She was about to eat her last roll when Wendy was back with an unreadable face but something must have ticked her off because the trace of playful smile was long gone, replaced with tight lips and hard eyes.

“Sorry, I can’t tell you about myself today. Let’s just arrange another meet-up,” Wendy didn’t even sit on her chair, “How did you get here? And where are you going after this?”

“By taxi. I’m going back to the office, I promised Joy to check some documents together.”

Wendy frowned a little before calling Seulgi to come upstairs. It was 8:45 PM and it was raining hard outside.

“Seulgi, drive her back to classic cleaner.”

“How about you, taenyeo? Will you wait here?”

“Meet me at Ground Zero.”

Silence.

“No, I won’t let you go alone,” Seulgi refuses.

“My decision is final,” Wendy says in a firm voice, “You drive her back to classic cleaners.”

“Um... I can go back by myself” “She can go by herself”

Both seulgi and irene said at the same time. They looked at each other in a silent unspoken agreement.

“No, Seulgi will bring you there.”

Seulgi looked at the young royal, trying to read her. Ground Zero was their secret place, where the gang worked together. Something must’ve happened for her to look this alarmed but the place was located in a slump area, away from the city, it was dangerous to wander alone around at night. They didn’t have much choice, that area was the last place where PM Kwon’s people would suspect to be a place where a royal would step in.

“I apologize, taenyeo, but my job is to keep you safe,” seulgi is so firm in her decision too.