"The first thing I remembered was the ringing of the church bells over the graveyard, whilst the singing of the choir accompanied the chest outside. The adults back then would have classified it as an unhappy series of events, but as a child you have no clue what's going on. As a child, you don't even have an idea who is in that chest and why your mother cries. 
I remember that I held her hand to comfort her, not knowing that the strange man in the suit laying in that wooden chest was my father, cold and lifeless. I should have been the one who cried, who held my mother's hand whilst she pinched mine reassuringly. 
My fate was sealed and everyone in the room knew except for me. People might think that my future was something positive. Great fortune, a successful career no matter what you did, fame. I, on the other hand, thought differently. 
They had told me that it had been a car accident. An unfortunate incident. A lucky shot, as so to say. Painless. He would have died in less than a second. That's what my mother told me and back then, as a six-year-old, I had believed her with a nativity that only children possess. My mother would never lie to me, would she? 
I grew up. Without a father, without a mother. My mother did not die, actually. She was simply not present in my life, at least, not in the way a mother should be in the life of their teenager. She was a wreck after my father's death. 
It was only a matter of days before the Vice-President took over from her. She excused herself, trying to get out from under the crushing weight of the stares and the judgements and the pity by telling everyone that she wanted to focus on taking care of me. I had many people coming up to me, wishing me the best, not knowing that my mother had told them that I had been doing badly since my father's death. We both knew it was the other way around but for the sake of my mother's dignity, I accepted my role as the weak child who so desperately missed her daddy. I did miss him though, but not as much as I ought to have, I realize now. I simply had never seen him much. It had almost felt like a stranger had died in my father's place. 
But I aged and I started to understand more and more what it meant to be the heiress of Rilex Internationals. Even though my mother did not actively take part in the company anymore, she was still the assigned CEO and was therefore expected at parties, business meetings and more. I was never allowed to come until I became eighteen years of age. By then, I had enrolled as an Economy major at Cambridge, only a few years away of directly being in charge of Rilex. 
My mother, then, found it a good time to start and educate me about the big, red, alarming hazard that is the business industry. But as she so cowardly explained that I should keep as far away from it as possible, I decided not to. To honour my father, to prove that I could do what he could not, I would continue his legacy. In that respect I am rather stubborn, I must admit. Hot-headed too. 
I believe I completely distanced myself from my mother after that. The one thing we had in common - my father - turned out to be not as important to her as he was to me. Despite never having known him, his life, actions and choices have shaped mine. I was planning on fulfilling his destiny, knowing he would be proud if I did so. 
I soon moved out and got my bachelor degree as well as my master's. It was only one day after my graduation from the university that I got a phone call from my father's old Vice President. In all those years, he had stayed in charge. He laid low, tried to run the company as good as possible but the years and the stress had eaten him away. His voice creaked through the phone as he congratulated me with graduating and invited me, for the first time alone, to visit the company to 'talk things through'. It took only a week before I walked into my father's office. And I suppose that was it… the beginning of my career."

Krystal ended the story in half a smile, whilst the reporter of GQ England stared at her like she had just managed to get water to burn. It took her -  she was a young woman, perhaps mid-twenties, with her blonde curls tucked behind her ear and an intelligent gaze behind a pair of glasses -  a few seconds to land back on earth and close . The last part of the story, which had been so thrilling that it had carried her away, was eagerly pinned down on the little notepad she held in her hand. After that, she ended the recording and tucked the little device back in her pocket. The reporter let a deep sigh escape out of . 
"Thank you so much for your time, Ms Jung," she said, her voice still a bit shaky of the excited nerves. Krystal's half of a smile grew, albeit only a few millimetres, into a polite smile as she nodded. 
"You're welcome," Krystal said politely. "If there is anything more you would like to know, please ask."
"I think we've got it all, thank you," she said quickly. "I have to say, ma'am, that this interview exceeded my greatest expectations! You truly are one of my examples, if I can be so bold. And not only mine, but for a lot of younger girls as well. To them, you are a hero! The mighty female heroine who runs a big international all on her own! You broke through the glass ceiling and showed those misogynistic bastards what it's like to be a woman and-"
"I have heard that many times,"Krystal interrupted, not minding the annoyed tone in her voice, as she folded her hands together onto her desk, only to break them apart again to take a sip of her coffee a few seconds later. "But if that's all, Mrs Henderson, I would like to continue my work. Like you said, I am head of a well-scaled international, and Rilex Internationals doesn't run itself."
The overly-excited interviewer suddenly realized her mistake-  having lost all sense of time and formalities -  and immediately stood up. In her eagerness, she bumped over the chair, which only resulted in more clumsiness when she tried to pick it up and dropped her recorder. Krystal watched her from my desk, unamused. Henderson stood up again, brushed the loose curls away from her face and smiled awkwardly. 
"I am sorry, I must have taken a lot of your time. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for having an interview with us. We will send you the article before it airs, hoping it will please you," she rattled. Krystal nodded. 
"Good day, Mrs Henderson," she said, as she touched the touchpad of her laptop to make the screen light up. The blonde quickly nodded and muttered a few good-bye's as she made her way to the exit of the office, trying to get out as fast as she could. 
Krystal had less than a minute of rest when her secretary came bouncing in. A deep sigh left as she looked up when he closed the door, a broad grin, cheesy grin plastered on his face. His long, chocolate brown hair bounced on his shoulders and his green eyes eagerly found mine, who answered with a look that was not as eager. He held two mugs which held coffee in each. One black, another caramel brown. Krystal took the black one and took a little sip of it, careful not to burn her tongue or smudge her lipstick. Her lips left a red stain on the pearly white mugs. 
He sat across from her and downed - unlike Krystal - almost half of his cup at once. He was a broad guy. One of those who preferred going to the gym above everything. To work, he wore blouses tucked into neat pants with shiny black Dr Martens - the ones that only reach up to your calves - underneath. His hair was long, longer than hers. His reached past his shoulder, whilst hers ended just past her ear, halfway down her neck. He wore it in a bun most of the time but decided to let it run looseAnd
"Yes, boss! Of course, boss! Will be done!"
David stood up and grinned. 
"Don't you have anything else to do? Like, manage the schedule of the busiest woman in this corporate, for example?" Krystal hissed at him. "You are dismissed."
"Suppose I'll just read the article," he said nonchalantly, with an apologetical smile. 
A sigh escaped her lips and she was forced to look up. Krystal's warning gaze said everything and David immediately realized his mistake. 
"Like what?"
"Private stuff."
"What did you tell them?" David asked. 
"It went well. I expect good reviews."
She did not look up from her laptop, her expression remaining neutral. 
 "Just wanted to check in on you. Did the interview go well?" 
"What is it, David?" she asked him rather harshly, as she took another sip of her coffee. David drank from his cup, which resulted in him emptying it entirely. 
today, which was something Krystal had often warned him about. His hair, together with his neatly trimmed beard, broad shoulders and white, sparkling smile gave him something charismatic. Even Krystal had to admit that he had something attractive about him. If only a good pair of brains had come with them at birth too. Instead, he had received a bubbly, incredibly energetic personality, which caused him to wobble on his chair, bouncing from the left to the right like a little child, constantly. Krystal could hardly concentrate. And, like the puppy he is, he darted off towards the door. In his excitement, he left his mug on the desk and before she could call out to him to take it with him, he slammed the door shut with a loud bang. 
Krystal rolled her eyes. She started rubbing her temples to suppress an upcoming headache.

A: Behold! The very first chapter of The Heiress! I just want to say once more that this fic is a slow-burn, meaning that Amber might not appear until the next chapter. There will be some shorter chapters like this one before this chapter, Châteaus and Skyscrapers ends. I promise you that, even though the story might be moving a little slow because of this, every chapter has a meaning and will eventually result in you understanding the story better, especially when it comes to Krystal's motives (I am also kind of portraying Soojung as a in this fic but y'all know I love her right? <3). 
On top of that, I would love to read your comments about the ideas of the Heiress! And please don't shy away from giving my advice: sometimes my English vocabulary is not big enough to express my ideas and thoughts well or write it down correctly. I would love to receive advice so I can improve my writing! 
But most of all, I am hoping that you guys will like this story as much as I like writing it. Look forward to the next chapter, this Thursday!