***

Irene scrambles on her feet as soon as she hears ‘that’ specific ringtone from her phone.

She fumbles on the fingerprint, cursing here and there before successfully taking a call from the Bae house.

[Good afternoon Joohyun-agassi, madam Bae would like to meet you in 40 minutes]

Afternoon? Irene instantly looks all over the room, which is not her room, to find any clock or anything that can tell her what time is now.

12:30 PM, oh sh1t

She overslept. Joy, her co-partner in business, must be seething in anger right now.

[Joohyun-agassi?]

“Yes, yes, sorry. Why does she want to meet me?” Well, Irene has a hunch, but she asked anyway.

[We aren’t allowed to disclose any information without madam’s approval] says the other voice sternly, this woman is difficult to talk with. She is her grandmother's most loyal server.

[... and it’s not ‘sorry’, but ‘I apologize’. Please use a correct way of speaking in a noble manner]

Irene’s head is throbbing because of a hangover and her nags now. She really went overboard at the club yesterday.

“Ye… I understand, Park-sangui” Irene is really not in the mood to argue with the older woman, not today.

[Please dress properly, no off-shoulder dress is allowed, the length must fall below your knee. Good afternoon]

Tututuuu

Irene pinches her nose before walking out of the room to find Jennie having her breakfast? Lunch? Or whatever, only wrapped in a thin blanket… she has no shame.

“Want some?”

Irene shakes her head as she takes a bottle of water from the refrigerator. “Where is the woman?”

“I asked her to leave before she gets too clingy.”

Irene gives her friend a side-eyed glance. “I bet you don’t even know her name”

“I do. Something like Dahyun or Dami? I remember screaming that name last night.”

“You’re the worst” Irene proceeds to the bathroom while making a call to her business partner, who immediately yells at her before she can even say any words.

**

15 minutes later she emerged from Jennie's room wearing her friend’s only decent clothes. A brown slack and Chanel vintage white shirt.

“Where are you going looking like an old hag?” Jennie comments from her sofa, getting comfy in her tank top and underwear. At least she is wearing something now.

“Shut up! I’m meeting my grandma” Irene takes a pair of glasses on the counter, jennie’s super expensive glasses “I’m borrowing this” she says then dumps her last night dress into a paper bag, but suddenly she stops in her tracks.

“, I left my noble hat somewhere.”

Jennie laughs out loud, “Noble hat? That's so cringe, yet so real.”

“Did you see it somewhere?”

“I didn’t even see you wearing any when I picked you up last night and I was still sober.”

Realization dawns upon irene.

“I left my hat on the table” her grandmother will scold her if she knows. She has to get the hat back.

“At the gallery? Well, good luck. You won’t be able to come inside without an invitation.”

Irene puts her distress aside as she takes Jennie's key. “I’ll get it back no matter what”

“Drive safely. Don’t scratch my baby.”

“You can just buy another one,” Irene says back before disappearing down the hall.

**

After 20 minutes of speed driving along the highway, Irene finally arrives at Bae's grand hanok house.

She walks along the garden leading to the main house where her grandmother resides.

The head woman insisted on keeping everything traditional outside and inside her house. Irene has to admit, it's really beautiful even though the creek on the wooden floor at night sometimes scares the of her life.

Park-sangui is already waiting for her arrival in front of her grandmother's room. Hands clasped in front of her lower abdomen, poised and practiced.

“Please follow me to the east garden, madam Bae is having a guest there, and she wants you to join her,” Park-sangui says

“A guest?” Irene raises her brows, uh… it better not be another marriage prospect partner because Irene is in no mood to entertain one today.

They walked in silence around the long wooden corridor, before making a right turn in front of the thousand year old cherry blossom tree, to the east garden where her grandmother usually has her highly ranked noble guest served. This person must be higher than the ‘Yang’ family that madam Bae gladly serves them there.

From afar she can see two silhouettes of women sitting around the table, having a quite noble conversation, yeah that’s what they called it.

“Joohyun-agassi is here, mam” Park-sangui informs her arrival, making the guest turn to look at them and Irene's eyes widen in surprise and recognition.

“You…”

“Joohyun, show your respect to seungwan-taenyeo” her grandmother says with so much authority because Irene doesn’t immediately bow when Park-sangui already did the moment she addresses her grandmother.

Irene in her breath before kneeling down and bows respectfully.

“You can stand up and sit, agassi,'' Seungwan says with her steady voice.

In terms of age, her grandmother is older, but in terms of nobility hierarchy, she is down far below this young woman, who apparently is a royal, the top of the food chain.

“I apologize for her lack of mannerism, taenyeo,” her grandmother regards her with so much regret. “Joohyun had been living abroad for so long that she forgot her basic manner.”

Irene forgot nothing, she just never properly learn it.

She quietly settles a little on the far left of her grandmother's seat.

“Taenyeo is here to bring your hat back. How can you leave it at the gallery like that? It’s an important family heirloom, Joohyun.”

“I apologize,” Irene says withou