The good wife 🇬🇧 [OS Changki]

The good wife

This is my translation of my OS "La bonne épouse", I hope you'll like it!

Beware, some expressions may offend (homophobic insults).

English is not my native language, sorry for the mistakes!

Yoo Kihyun was the sole heir of a wealthy family, who had managed to make a fortune in the United States of the 19th century. Korean immigration was rare at the time, but the Yoo family had followed the movement of Chinese who left for the New World at the turn of the century. Unlike their neighbours, Kihyun's parents had been able to integrate easily, thanks to their ability to speak English, and their Protestant religion that was in accordance with American beliefs - a religion violently oppressed in their native country at the time.

The Yoo family had moved to Boston, Massachusetts, known for its open-mindedness and fight against slavery, and for its greater social equality than elsewhere. The couple had supported the Union during the Civil War, but were not really involved: their only son, Kihyun, was born during this period, and their greatest concern was to stay safe for him.

Kihyun, having learned English at school, had been encouraged by his parents to work hard to be admitted to Boston University, founded a few years earlier, and which already enjoyed a reputation of excellence. While the couple wanted their son to take over the prosperous family business, he had instead considered becoming a pastor, but had been kindly rejected by his progenitors.

The young man had then obeyed his parents, graduating brilliantly, and perpetuating the family business; soon the fortune of the Yoo attracted even more glances and proposals for interested alliances. At the age of twenty-eight, it was time for him to marry a woman, if possible also rich, American, White and Protestant, in order to strengthen the position and integration of the family in the American society.

Instead, Kihyun preferred to take his time, waiting for meeting the woman who would make his heart beat, which his parents understood, but they made no secret of their preference for a young woman who met the criteria they demanded.

Soon, the lucky woman was found: Meredith Van Deer was a young woman of little nobility, of Dutch origin. Heir to a long line of architects, her considerable fortune was matched only by her great beauty: a sublime body, a ravishing porcelain face framed by golden hair, blue eyes that made more than one succumb to her - Meredith had everything to please, and she had pleased Kihyun's parents.

Changkyun hated her.

Changkyun was one of the servants of the Yoo family. Orphaned, he had been taken in as a child by the family who had felt sorry for him, for his parents, Koreans like them, had suffered a tragic death in a shipwreck. He had been raised with love, but not with the same privileges as Kihyun, because the couple did not want a rivalry between the two boys: Changkyun was therefore not educated at university, and was not allowed to meddle in the family business. Kihyun, however, had always regarded him as his little brother, and always responded to him, not considering him a mere servant.