"Who are you lying to this time Kiha?"

For someone who say nothing but blatant lies, her very own father had been a rather enthuastic man in jumping the blame wagon. 

No one, she wanted to say.

But who was she to tell the truth? 

"Son Sejo." She drawled, before deciding to spice things up a bit. "I apologise this time around as well, father."

She lied.

It was the same old lines, in the same old play. 

"He's older than you, so you should address-"

"Give it a break, Sehyeon." Came her rescue boat. Life's a rather quirky irony.

Whereas Cinderella poisons herself in the toxicity of her step-mother, Kiha finds pure pleasure in hers. Son Miok. She was a thirty-six year old mistress with no heir to bear. With a rather foxy appearance and the most nonchalant attitude, she had rose up to be the lady of the house in the passing of exactly three previous wives. 

Though at first, Miok had disregarded the existance of the Son siblings, she had become rather fond of the second youngest, Son Kiha.

The mature nineteen year old whom had supposedly tarnished the haughty Sons with the disgrace of a military career, suddenly became the runt of the family. 

She was befuddled with the rather blatant act at first. 

Following her dreams wasn't wrong. She knew that. Her mother had always encouraged her to. But her father found flaws in the idea. And once he does, it automatically becomes the wrong thing to do.

How dictating of him.

But apparently it had been his right.

"She's always like that." He half-spat. "I've done her mother wrong with how I have raised her." And then the finger-pointing game begins. "Look at her! She's studying to become a police! A lowly officer! What in-laws would take her in? She could have followed her elder siblings with respectful career paths and . . ."

Kiha lost interest. 

Who was he talking to anyway?

Miok had been engrossed in her maroon, tinted nails and rose decorations on top. It seemed glittery and full of professional seams. Kiha had always envied Miok's self-care and beauty regimes. The elder woman had urged her to follow with such care day trips-- to which Kiha disapproves of.

A police officer couldn't have beautiful, fake nails whilst taking on action and cuffing up criminals.

Academy rules dictates so.

"Kiha! Are you listening?"

"No...?"

"Lies! You can't fool anyone with such a dumb expression!"

Miok scoffed as she exited the room.

Kiha sighed in agony.

---

"Should we elope together, Kiha?" Miok sighed as she laid under the comfort of Kiha's duvet, eyes following the said girl as she twirled a rather basic black pen. 

"That's too bothersome," Kiha mentioned while scanning the entirety of her personal chamber. The walls were streaked clean of any debris, whilst maintaining its sparkly mint, white condition. It hadn't absorbed a sickly yellow colour from the expanse of the years, and was kept clean in courtesy of friendly maintenance from time to time. Whilst her siblings had busy interior designs and branded goods, Kiha preferred a simple window to keep ventilation, and a lonely desk ahead of her bed. 

Most of the time, she was out on training and lacked long hours of staying at home. If it had been anybody else, they would have been furious and perhaps irritated at the schedule provided. But Kiha was different. She adored every second she spent at the academy. May it be reciting lines of liberation, or physically training out her body to do straining tasks such as the practice of self-defence and various attacks. She had always been rather agile and a fine runner more than most. Her small frame could've been the reason why-- but Kiha have had no reason to find out the source of her agility and hence, it has been rather undermined within her somewhat subconscious thoughts. 

"Well, I tried." Miok reasons when Kiha questions her motive. She knew that the elder woman was rather laid-back and somewhat faint with her reasonings. It was a hard read. Most of the time, Kiha knows nothing of Miok's intentions and it would cause an orange light to aggresively blink at her in the backs of her mind. But with her rather mindful actions and trustful attention on the younger girl, it was hard for Kiha to find the bubbles of suspicions to boil over her rather tender heart. 

Miok was by no means an affectionate woman. Kiha had guessed it after a day of inhabiting with her the elder woman bears no means of romantic interests on her very own father. It was a subtle kind of indifference that she had shown to any kind of man admiring her beauty-- despite her unfitting age. At most, Miok would look mid-twenties to the average person. No wrinkles or any signs of ageing showed on her blemish-free complexion. 

Not that Kiha has much acne problems to begin with.

And not that she was jealous of how regal and refined the elder woman was.

Sure,

she has had a few pimples here and there,

especially at special times of the month.

But,

there was no major defect in herself-- or so Kiha thought so. 

She was a rather reserved person in her humble opinion. Never asked for much or done much for the household. She wasn't born dipped in liquid gold. Not a luxurious spoon stuck into . Her mother was not even one of her father's handful of wives. 

She was a mistress.

Much like Miok before wife number three passed away.

Her mother had apparently died due to an illness. She never knew what it was or why she couldn't be cured-- because everything occurred so devastatingly quick at the age of twelve. 

"Kiha, you there?"

And for most part, she was often lost in her own thoughts.

"Yeah."

"I swear you're going to get yourself killed if you keep drifting like that," Miok sniggered.

Oh yes. 

One thing Kiha forgot to mentioned about Miok was the fact that the elder woman have almost no censor to her words. She would shoot anyone and everyone down like a flock of illegal birds. No matter who you are, where you're from or who's backing you up in the corporate or political world, Miok knows no fear. Sometimes Kiha feels like Miok knows that no one could ever harm her. 

But that was just a fleeting thought.

And then, Kiha realises that her father could never have been the elder woman's sense of insurance. He was far from being the sturdy and reliable man everyone beyond their household thinks he is. He was rather flimsy and rather ignorant with internal household affairs such as the dynamic between his endless kids and current wife-- not to mention that he was an egocentric individual at its finest.

Everything in this world stood below him.

Sometimes Kiha attributes the fact with his previous occupation as an amateur but ambitious scientist.

But then she remembers that not all scientist were like him. 

And then he seemed to be more of a distasteful character than she would have liked to think of. 

"--this Sunday," Miok exclaimed, gaze honed in on the rather thick stack of books sitting on top of Kiha's desk. "You know about it, right?" She attempted a confirmation-- to which Kiha hummed to without properly processing the question in mind.

"I got you something to wear," the elder woman mentions, before grinning as she completed her rather teasing stance, "don't you even try to escape with wearing a lame lettering shirt and an old pair of jeans! Mix yourself in with some pretty boys and maybe you could--"

"AH AH!" Kiha exclaimed over the top, purposely letting her vocal cords go loose at the rather disturbing sentence. "Thanks Miok, but I'll figure my romantic life out by myself."

Then, came another snigger.

"You would never."

The elder woman was mostly right than wrong.

---

That Thursday night ended with no more false accusations on her father's part, and much less Miok's handful of teasings. It had been a quiet dinner at her room (it was instant noodles), with a few pages and a handful of scribbled notes. Writing up incidental reports and the rest were a pain to the eyes-- especially when the words never seem to end and the details seemed to branch out into more and more complexity than expected. 

It hadn't even been the real one.

But this practice-like essay had ended Kiha's mind and robbed her of the rather literate individual she was. When time seemed to have stretched out itself like gum, and her shoulders had been far too stiff to be good, her eyes lingered at the clock as she groaned at the time and whisked her books shut. 

Two A.M. and nothing was properly done.

It had been hours since Miok had paid her room a visit and a little less than dinner.

An instinct of hunger came into mind as Kiha threw herself onto her rather bouncy bed and shut her eyes without even properly bringing the blanket over her. 

Dreams come washing her down as she bid the night sky a goodbye with the last hints of her conscious mind. 

What seemed to have been a rather long day, was a small tester of the rest of the week.

But of course,

Kiha knew none of that. 

---

Friday was another routine to Son Kiha's books. An early start was a rather predictable morning. It had been a short morning run on her part; before a comforting shower; an awkward breakfast between her unnamed siblings and Miok; and a rush to police academy. 

There hadn't been much traffic on the way (she had thanked the lords for that, as most days, cars would line up with a tantrum in mind), and the weather had been crystal clear. The sun was out, the clouds hidden, and the winds with its comforting breeze. 

With a one year old license, and an amateur driving skills on hand, Kiha manoeuvred her way to the academy with little difficulty and a rather taxing effort on her mental machinery. Being on the road scared her at times. It was to the point where the stranger in the car behind her would honk at how slow she was driving.

Safety came first in her mind.

Nevermind the rather rude comments of her being an old lady with no proper sense of tactile sensations on her wheel or sense of direction (apparently she seemed to be indecisive of where to go due to how slow she was being on the road), she was never going to risk her own health for something as miniature as another person's rush to work or somewhere insignificant. 

"Finally," she breathed out, as she stepped out her budget car and terrible parking skills. 

A laugh came aboard from her side as a rather lean male came out of his own vehicle.

"Do you want me to fix it for you?" He quirked towards her rather fine parking skills (or so she thought) (it was much better than when she first started out (at least it was within the lines... despite of how wonky or slanted it was)).

"Jungwoo," Kiha warned as she walked ahead. 

J