My father was a Minister of the Second Senior Rank.

Thus, I grew up seeing only precious things and learning only beauty. Without knowing hunger, cold, or the exhaustion of building a life with one's own hands.

That spring.

A scholar who had come up to Hanyang from Bonghwa to take the civil service examination stayed in our guest house. My father had provided him with a residence to repay a debt of gratitude owed to his family long ago.

He was a man of few words and polite manners, yet he was uniquely indifferent to me. Even when we met, his gaze never lingered, and every passing look was steeped in coldness.

It was as if he had disapproved of me from the very beginning.

Before long, he passed the civil service examination with top honors. Hanyang was in an uproar, and every renowned family vied to take him as a son-in-law. However, the first to seize his future was my father. He intended to add solid support to the talented young scholar and establish him as a pillar of the court in the future.

Overnight, we became betrothed.

But Seo Jin-hyeok did not hide his contempt whenever he looked at me.

The Minister's daughter. A woman who has never even drawn a bowl of water for herself. A woman who grew up precious, knowing nothing of hunger, poverty, or the harsh storms of the world.

He believed from the start that I was not the person to stand by his side.

At the end of that hatred. Can we truly become husband and wife?