Park Shin Hye was only ten when her eomma died, and her father married a rich woman five years his senior. The woman, Kim Hye Ri, had been married to a rich businessman by the name of Park Jin Young, but he died more than two years ago. Hye Ri also had a young daughter who was Shin Hye's age, and went by the name of Park Bo Young. In Korea, married women do not acquire the surname of their husbands, and so Kim Hye Ri remained in the clan of Kim. But because of her brains, she acquired, instead, her late husband's wealth even though she herself came from a very rich family.

Kim Hye Ri hated the sight of Shin Hye so much, and she knew that her father only married the madame to get by. Hye Ri did not want Shin Hye to inherit her riches. Oh no, Sir. Only Bo Young could get all the wealth.

And Hye Ri had another reason to hate Shin Hye: Shin Hye's appa was Hye Ri's ex-boyfriend who married Shin Hye's mother instead of Hye Ri. Because of too much heartache, Hye Ri decided to go with the marriage to Park Jin Young though she still loved Park Gong Chan so much. When Gong Chan's wife died, Hye Ri heard about it and instigated a plan to kill her own husband without Bo Young's knowledge. Her daughter loved her appa so much, but Hye Ri never had an ounce of love for Jin Young, only his riches. When Hye Ri and Gong Chan met once again, it was she who proposed an engagement for the two of them so that Gong Chan and his child could live well financially, for Gong Chan and his wife were just from the middle class. 

Shin Hye thought that her stepmother loved her so much even if Bo Young hated her guts to death. Bo Young was still so against to the marriage of her eomma to Gong Chan because she still had her appa in her heart. Therefore, any intruder was unwelcome. The only person that Bo Young trusted aside from her eomma was a person she seldom saw, a cousin, her mother's nephew, Kim Jaejoong. Bo Young hated her stepdad and Shin Hye. Shin Hye, being a good daughter, still treated the other girl like a sister because they were agemates, after all.

And when Shin Hye turned fifteen, Gong Chan died, living her alone in the world. For five years, Hye Ri was keeping up pretenses and holding her own temper for the sake of Gong Chan. It hurt her that Gong Chan never got his love back for her, and so there was no love in that union. That marriage was simply bought for convenience's sake. And Hye Ri regretted a bit that she married Gong Chan, thinking that he would love her again. But no. Gong Chan was still in love with his dead wife.

And Shin Hye had her mother's face, which made Hye Ri hate her.

Now that Gong Chan was dead, it was in her favor to instill the greatest wickedness she could ever bestow on Shin Hye. And Bo Young was happy that her mother finally had a change of heart.

"Shin Hye, let's talk," Hye Ri said solemnly one day.

"Ne, Eomma?" Shin Hye asked as she sat.

"Did I tell you to sit?" Hye Ri roared, making Shin Hye stand up from her seat.

Shin Hye was shocked at her stepmother's change of attitude.

"You are alone in this world, and don't think that I am being unkind to you," Hye Ri said. "However, from now on, you will work as one of the maidservants here."

"Huh?"

Hye Ri's blood boiled. How dare the young wench asked such a question?

"I never liked you! Your eomma was the ruin to my life! Had your father married me instead of her, we could be a happy family. If you had been my own, I would have been happy, and Bo Young too. But you made my life miserable for two decades!"

"Eo..eomma!"

"Do you think that, after five years of being separated, I forgot Gong Chan? For all those times, I wallowed in despair, hoping he'd be mistaken and come back to me. And five years after, he and that... that...creature-- married! And I was left heartbroken that I had to get married too!"

"Jebal..." Shin Hye began to break down and kneel. "My eomma is not just a creature that you say... She is the most precious woman I ever knew... Please... don't speak ill of her..."

"Of course, I can!" Hye Ri errupted. "And you! You have no right to even speak to me like that! From now on, call me 'Madame' like the rest of the servants here! You are being banned from living a happy life because your mother took away my happiness!"

Bo Young came in the room, looking at the poor girl from head to foot.

"Did I just hear you right, Eomma?" Bo Young asked with a smirk. "She will be a servant?"

"Ah, Shin Hye, you will no longer be called by that name. I will call you 'Servant' from now on! Only you from among the servants will be nameless. And you will be Bo Young's personal servant from now on."

"Eom...ma..."

And Hye Ri slapped Shin Hye hard. And the poor girl cried.

"Go to the chief servant and ask for a uniform. And do not explain to her!" Hye Ri told Shin Hye.

Shin Hye stood there, bewildered at her cruel fate.

"What are you waiting for?" Bo Young asked. "Go start making me my afternoon tea."

Shin Hye rushed to the kitchen to do her chores, and reported to the chief servant for uniform. The chief servant, and in fact, all the other servants, were shocked that this pretty girl was suddenly treated as one like them. No matter how much they ask her why, she only replied with tears.

****

Bo Young was very satisfied at Shin Hye's humble service that she found it easy to abuse her stepsister. She would often employ the most difficult task save for making assignments. Of course, Bo Young was proud of her penmanship and was praised for it in school. She was also a star student. Bo Young would often hurl out curses at her servant for doing even a bit of mistake, like waking her up later than her six o'clock schedule.

****

One day, the femininely handsome Jaejoong went to the house for a visit. Shin Hye had always been fond of Jaejoong because he was really kind to her though he was mysterious too. Bo Young got jealous of the attention that Shin Hye was getting from her cousin because she only trusted Jaejoong.

Jaejoong was bringing along his merchandise of perfumed lotions and beauty products, and Bo Young started to delve into these. Shin Hye came in the living room, bringing a tray of tea and cookies. When Shin Hye saw Jaejoong, she looked at him sadly, and greeted him very formally, much to Jaejoong's surprise.

"Shin Hye-ya, why are you in servant's garb?" Jaejoong asked.

"The 'Shin Hye' that you knew no longer exists," Bo Young said to Jaejoong. "She is a nameless servant... my servant. And it is Eomma who offered that girl's services to me."

Jaejoong looked at his cousin mysteriously without asking. He had to figure things out. He was a businessman who thrived on reading people's faces and personalities too.

"Arasseo..."

And he only nodded at the poor girl.

"Get out!" Bo Young ordered at her servant.

As Bo Young helped herself to the tea and cookies, Jaejoong had a silent frown. His hunch was right the first time he saw Shin Hye. He knew Bo Young's hatred for Shin Hye, but he had long hunched that his Aunt Hye Ri was secretly hating the new girl, and he was right. So, he helped himself to the tea and cookies as well.

****

And Shin Hye made a fatal mistake.

She accidentally broke Bo Young's jewelry box when she was cleaning the room. And when Bo Young saw it, she uttered a loud cry and abused her servant again with slaps and kicks, and even pulled Shin Hye's hair.

"Eonni... eonni... jebal..hajimaseyo!" Shin Hye cried.

"That jewelry box was a gift from my Appa, and you broke it! That was my remembrance of him, but you broke it!" Bo Young screamed as she continued to slap and hit her servant.

Hye Ri only smiled as she watched her daughter physically, mentally, and emotionally abuse the servant. She came in and looked at the jewelry box. Of course, Hye Ri did not pull a hand at Shin Hye, but she taunted her like the way Bo Young did.

"Eomma! I can't take it anymore!" Bo Young said.

And so, she and her eomma dragged Shin Hye to the basement, where a small cellar with a window was situated. Shin Hye was to stay in the basement and clean the mess... and live there her whole life. Bo Young also saw to it that Shin Hye could not have any writing materials so that the latter could not have any distractions. They would lock her there and forget that she even existed.

"But as I said, I am not unkind," Hye Ri said. "The chief servant will provide you with your lowly meals, but I will no longer care if you have eaten or not."

And they shut her in the basement to be left to suffer for as long as she lived. 

****

Bo Young and Hye Ri tried to live like Shin Hye never existed at all, though they were totally aware that she was there. And they told the long-time servants not to tell the new servants about the secret in the basement. Should the new servants find eerie sounds, they could always be fooled into thinking that the basement was haunted, and that they should never enter even the room leading to the basement. That certain room had been transformed into a storage room after the death of Jin Young.

The chief servant still did her duties of serving humble food as instructed because she could not afford to give good food to Shin Hye. Soon, however, the chief servant was ailing and had to retire. The second in line was the one who served the meals, but was a bit hesitant to do her duties...

Sure, the basement had been cleansed, but solitude had been Shin Hye's companion. No human ever came to her except for the stepmother, who would often go down to taunt her and torture her physically, mentally, and emotionally. Because of that, Shin Hye forgot how to be polite, was ill-tempered, and had forgone speaking in formal speech. She went wild and violent everytime Hye Ri came in, which was why the stepmother brought along a whip with her.

For seven years until Shin Hye was twenty-two, the torture went on... until such time came that Shin Hye only remembered how to write her own name, her bumonim's name, and the word "revenge" (bogsu), but using wrong hangeul letters. She had no pens nor paper to accompany her, not even books to pacify her, she just used her fork in carving out names and words on the walls. Most of the walls had revenge on them, and despite the decreased mental stimulation, she was planning on how to exact revenge and get the hell out of this...hell.

*****

Meanwhile, that year, Hye Ri had acquired a land for herself. 

A poor couple had owed a great deal of money for the hospitalization of the great-grandfather in the house, but despite the amount of money, the old man succumbed. Because of the debt, the couple's house and lot, which they offered as collateral, was taken by Kim Hye Ri, the powerful. And so, the couple had to work to make ends meet... And not only that, they also had to pay large interest to get the property back.

And even their kind-hearted son, the soft-spoken Lee Jong Hyun, had to work in order to get by and help his parents pay off the debts and recover the property.

"Eomma, I will be working in Mdm. Kim Hye Ri's house as her daughter's tutor," Jong Hyun said to his parents.

"Nae adeul (son), Eomma and Appa will work our bones off just to get you to school. You still have a year more in high school, and we cannot afford to let you skip school again," Eomma told him.

Jong Hyun was already twenty-two, but because of their poverty, he had to stop schooling a lot of times and go to work. It was just now that he was able to make it straight.

"Geunde, Eomma, I will save a lot... so I can help you and Appa," Jong Hyun convinced his eomma. "I will also study very hard."

Eomma smiled as she caressed her son's black and shiny hair and looking at her beautiful son. Jong Hyun was wearing a pair of thick-framed glasses which made him the local geek in school. Though he was the most diligent student and the eldest among his classmates, he still was bullied, but he just go the other way without fighting. And because he was a social outcast, a loner too, the bullies soon got tired of making fun of him, especially when Jong Hyun reminded them again one time that he was older than them all.

While he was being pushed aside by the students, he was greatly loved by the teachers.

"Eomma, I need to go now," Jong Hyun said.

Eomma cried as she watched her eldest son travel to the grand house of Kim.

****

Bo Young raised her eyebrow as she watched the tall young man sitting awkwardly on the couch. Hye Ri put on her grand airs, and Jaejoong looked at the young man with great interest.

"Eomma, he???" Bo Young asked in disgust. "Of all the... the... best guys in school... that guy... from a local high school... will tutor me????"

"Isn't it amazing, Bo Young-ah?" Jaejoong asked as he smiled at Jong Hyun. "Why! He reminds me of my younger self."

Jong Hyun peeked timidly underneath his glasses and fringes. Bo Young stood up to sweep off the fringes from the young man's eyes and snorted.

"Ha! No wonder he's a genius. He's got a broad forehead!" Bo Young taunted.

Jong Hyun smiled sweetly. "But Agasshi, my forehead is not broad enough to let buses and trucks go by."

Jaejoong errupted into a laughter. He liked the young man easily.

"Be kind to your tutor from now on," he told his cousin.

"Hmph!" Bo Young grumbled. "Why should I be tutored? I am smart enough!"

"Bo Young-ah, just because you are smart, it does not mean that you will not learn new techniques from other people. Aigoo," Hye Ri told her daughter.

Jong Hyun spied the grand piano by the furnace, and timidly asked if he could play.

"It is your duty to tutor my daughter, but if you so, you can play tunes for us, but," Mdm. Kim said. "Your salary will be the same."

Jong Hyun was crestfallen. He thought that he'd receive double for all his troubles.

"Gwaenchanha," Jaejoong told the young man. "Jageun Eomma (Younger mother/Aunt) will pay your dues as tutor, but I will pay you for playing music."

"Jaejoong-ah!" Hye Ri errupted.

"No worries, Jageun Eomma," Jaejoong said before giving a wink at Jong Hyun.

"Gamsahamnida..." Jong Hyun said politely to them.

~~~~