Hongjoong regretted his reluctant agreement to team up with Yeosang the moment the other man presented Hongjoong with the costume he expected Hongjoong to wear for the first evening of meeting the extravagant earl.

The dress looked unfathomable over the top, even with neither of them wearing it. Yeosang held it out in front of his body for presentation in a spectacular stream of yellow tulle and turquoise silk accents. The heavy skirts hovered a few centimetres over the cute brown heeled ankle boots Yeosang had picked to match. The dress exposed a patch of skin between the seam and the boots for a more youthful and playful approach than Hongjoong would have picked for himself. Yet, the garment was nothing like the heavy and elegant robes that the women at the court fancied. It was sweet like candy and Hongjoong loathed it from the first second he laid eyes upon it.

"I changed my opinion," was all he said when Yeosang gave him a winning smile. The stubbornness in Hongjoong's voice had the dealer wince. Once more, Hongjoong pondered how Yeosang's relationship with Park Seonghwa had come into existence.

With a tilt of his head, Yeosang adjusted the wig that threatened to fall from its askew position on top of his hair. The head of brown curls cascaded over Yeosang's shoulders with a bronze shine to them in the sickly light. They framed his fair, if decidedly male, features with added cheekiness.

"It comes with a corset that will look dashing on you and will shape you to the female ideal," Yeosang sold his dress further. In front of Hongjoong's sceptical eyes, he adjusted the dress to show the corset. Its matching turquoise tones were lined with yellow stripes over the metal bones. A brocade pattern on the silk added noble hints to the otherwise flamboyant garment.

"Isn't that what a young girl would wear?" Hongjoong was anything but knowledgeable in the matter of noble fashion, but he was sure this dress had been made for an aristocrat's spoiled daughter around the age of thirteen, not a grown man. Perhaps, also not the spouse of a high-ranking lord.

"If you regard it with contempt, yes. That comes in your favour, however. You may stick to your bold manners without getting reprimanded since people will excuse your behaviour with your youth. It matches your features."

Hongjoong swallowed his pride at the jab. When he stepped closer to feel the pretty fabric between his fingers, Yeosang's triumphant smile broadened.

"The earl won't mind the young age of his fiancée?"

Yeosang shrugged.

"He might only be judged about it concerning matters in his private chambers, but those don't concern your relationship with him."

Hongjoong grimaced at the imagination. While he had never had the misfortune of lying his eyes upon the earl himself, Hongjoong was well-versed in the stories told throughout London about the man. His narcissistic reputation preceded his personality that matched the generation of popular young heirs to rich families.

Hongjoong approached Yeosang with the deliberate steps of a wealthy customer, considering whether the horse he got offered was worth its price. Already, he could imagine the bothersome air brushing over his ankles, reminding him to keep his legs closed at all times. His fingers grasped onto the billowing material of the sleeves, finding that they would reach until his wrists to fan over his hands with lace ruffles. They were accompanied by matching yellow lace gloves.

The skill to wear this dress was not one the rat catcher presumed to have. Despite his proclaimed elfin features and figure, his shoulders would look grotesquely wide and his chest wouldn't fill out the elegant arch of the corset.

When Hongjoong knelt to bunch the pristine skirts in his hands to test their weight, Yeosang watched him from above with amusement glimmering in his hawk eyes.

"Where did you obtain this dress from?"

The skirts were heavy, but Hongjoong liked that. They had no possibility of flaring and would hide his muscular thighs.

The ground was cold under his behind when Hongjoong sat down to try on the shoes. The heel wasn't too high, but he feared to break off the thinning tip with his stomping. He could foresee stomping around a lot where mingling with aristocrats was involved.

"The earl had it sent here once I told him I would find a suitable match. It's a gift for her troubles, so now it's yours. I added the wig. Seonghwa promised a sufficient garderobe considering his fiancée's preferences during her stay."

"I don't want it," Hongjoong declared. "As much as this gesture shall be the bare minimum he provides, I am not the one he expected to woo with it. His slick gestures to buy the favour of the poor soul doomed to match his side are in vain." Hongjoong tightened the laces and stood. He wasn't as wobbly as expected, though his step threatened to crumble now and then. The uneven floorboards creaked under the heels as he paraded them around.

They were sufficient. They squished his little toes, but he didn't plan on wearing them a lot. At Seonghwa's home, he would disregard all rules of feminity and laze around as he pleased.

"Don't say that. Perhaps it is only his reputation towards the ladies that carries the stench of the gutters. As a male, you might win his favour. Though I would appreciate you kept the secret of your gender. If he finds out I tricked him with a male, I might lose his friendship."

Hongjoong dropped on the chair and opened the shoes with a disbelieving grunt.

"You want me to pretend I am truly a woman, even towards him?"

Yeosang's lips curled into an impish grin. It didn't match the angelic view of him holding the beautiful dress to his body.

"Indeed, my villainous friend. He might have trouble accepting you if you do and mess up his sole chance to blame it on me. Won't you keep your silence and amuse yourself with his ignorance?"

"There is no way he wouldn't notice." With a shake of his head, Hongjoong came over to relieve Yeosang of his load. The man smelled of sickeningly sweet tobacco as he dumped the dress in Hongjoong's arms. With it came a hat fastened to a pin that would perk at the side of Hongjoong's head.

"If he does, you may hold him in the palm of your hand. But until he agrees, you shall be named Helen and practise your disguise on him."

Hongjoong said nothing to that. Ignorance was his way through the masquerade, and he was not here to care. He only had to fulfil Yeosang's request to the man's satisfaction.

"Then you get ready and adjust your schedule, darling. In a few days, we shall meet the earl and you will accompany him to his mansion."

Hongjoong had turned, but he heard the devious grin in Yeosang's voice.

-

Hongjoong couldn't believe Yeosang had gone as far as booking a carriage to close the gap between the slums and the rendezvous point with Seonghwa. They would meet outside the city on the fields; away from prying eyes that might suspect the true nature of the confidentiality.

"We could have walked," Hongjoong said with a roll of his eyes. His fingers self-consciously smoothed down his dress when Yeosang dragged his eyes over Hongjoong's body as if drinking up the sight. The glint in his eyes unsettled the other male. Hongjoong was tense even when he had considered once more and took the job for the money.

"You forget you are posing as a fine lady from a rich family, even to him. We also wouldn't want to get your dress dirty," Yeosang purred. The light of the swaying lantern danced over his features as the carriage rattled down the path. The coacher had asked no questions when he had escorted a man in a fine dress and a grimy dealer with unkempt hair out of the smelly alleys. Hongjoong was thankful for it.

The night passed by in a blur of black outside of the window. Hongjoong's heart beat in his chest nervously, for he felt so exposed to the world. He would prefer two hours of chasing a single rat over the nerve-wracking meeting with the earl any day.

Yeosang's ease unnerved him further. The man's lips curled in the corners as he amused himself about having played two of his acquaintances against each other.

All too soon, the ride outside down ended. When the coacher called the horses to a halt, to which they responded with an indignant neigh, Hongjoong's eyes blew wide with dread. Once more, his trembling fingers slid over soft tulle. He was not usually fidgety since he knew his way around the city and his work. However, as Yeosang regarded him with a coy smirk as he readied to leave the carriage, Hongjoong believed that his terror stood written in his pale features.

He hadn't mulled this over long enough. Yeosang dropping off his package couldn't possibly be worth this much effort for a stranger. When would Hongjoong get to slip away and go home the next time? What if Seonghwa's promises had been empty words, and he used Hongjoong's presence once to save his face, only to dispose of him after so nobody knew Seonghwa's true character?

Hongjoong's suspicions were late, though he felt they had been included in his gnawing worries whether he should accept the money, food, and luxury in the past few days. Now that it was time to meet the earl, however, he wished himself back to the comforting seething depths of his backstreets.

Yeosang opened the carriage door to let in the cold air of the night before Hongjoong had regained his bearings. The suffocating tightness of the corset around his torso and the weight of his skirts and wig dragged on him like the ocean trying to rip him to its depths. The icy breeze sobered him up, and Hongjoong tried to keep his body straight even when he wanted to curl into himself and disappear from the attention about to bear on him.

When Yeosang descended the two steps of the creaking carriage and stepped into the night, his eyes caught something to his left. A friendly grin, much more artificial than the ones he had shared with Hongjoong, appeared on his profile.

"Ah, good evening, honourable earl. I will greet you in but a moment; please allow me to introduce my company to you first."

Yeosang reached into the carriage to offer Hongjoong his hand. His eyes, for once, looked soothing. For this first encounter, he kept watch on Seonghwa's interactions with Hongjoong. He had been right that most women might have been too faint-hearted for this journey.

Hongjoong gathered his skirts from the cushions and faced his challenge. Before he could reach out for Yeosang, however, an unfamiliar voice spoke up.

"Allow me?"

A second body came into view as Yeosang stepped aside respectfully. Hongjoong got no time to fret over his surrender when another man appeared at the doorstep to peer inside the dark carriage.

Park Seonghwa was a handsome man. His tall stature was lean and sporty, if not obnoxiously muscular like the workers in the slums were. Vigour and wealth showed in his privileges of how much to train his body.

His hair was black, and only shadows of it teased on his forehead under his top hat. It matched his black frock-coat that was adorned with unnecessary brocade and golden buttons in the front.

The eyes searching for Hongjoong's face were dark, and his lips lifted into a surprised smile when he spotted Hongjoong's embarrassed self.

When he extended his hand for Hongjoong to take, the leather of his gloves shone in the dim light.

"Mylady? Please, if you'll grant me your trust?"

Hongjoong was left no time to contemplate the honesty of the man. He slipped his lace-covered hand into Seonghwa's. Even through the layers of fabric, the earl radiated heat.

Seonghwa led Hongjoong out of the carriage. As Hongjoong ducked in the doorway, Seonghwa's hand lifted to the frame to protect Hongjoong's hat from getting knocked down.

After some struggle with his skirts that could be passed off as natural when exiting a carriage, Hongjoong's feet met the soft earth. Seonghwa hadn't let go of Hongjoong's hand yet, and as soon as he garnered Hongjoong's attention, he lifted it to his lips to brush a kiss over Hongjoong's knuckles. His eyes never left Hongjoong's blushing face as Hongjoong tried his best curtsy. Terrified at the unfamiliar territory, his heart bounced in his chest.

"This is my friend Hongjoong- ah." Yeosang paused. His eyebrows drew in at the mistake he had made so soon into their ploy. Hongjoong would have glared at him if he cared about the facade. Currently, he tried to battle his feeling of inferiority as the earl towered by his side. Even with Hongjoong's heels, the other man was taller. In the role of a woman, Hongjoong was uncomfortably vulnerable. He pitied the ladies that had to do this on the regular.

"She agreed to be your companion because of her curiosity about the London society." Yeosang covered up his mistake without missing a beat. Perhaps Hongjoong getting to keep his name would save him from major pauses when he forgot he was meant with 'Helen'.

Seonghwa nodded and turned to look at Hongjoong again. Shy, Hongjoong looked back through the hair framing his face.

"I am delighted a beauty such as yours has heeded my call. I promise to make it worth your time."

Seonghwa's white teeth flashed in the dark as he nodded at Hongjoong politely. Getting no word out, Hongjoong just copied him.

"Then, shall we? Our first gathering with my affiliates awaits us." Seonghwa extended his arm to beckon at the carriage he had arrived in. It was black and pulled by just as black horses. The threat wavering from it choked up Hongjoong.

When Hongjoong cast a discreet glance at Yeosang, the man grinned.

Thus, the pact was made.