Once upon a time in ancient South Korea ruled by a king and a queen, there lived a young woman whose beauty was beyond compare. She had eyes the color Circassia Sea and yellow hair that reached to her waist, fine as spun gold. Her skin was fair and smooth like a pearls and her dazzling smiled that swooned all that looked upon her. A kind heart, a beautiful voice, intelligent and angelic, she had it all and her name was Sandara Park.

Wanted by men and envied by women, that fate was one she could not avoid and it stirred chaos. A witch who had her heart broken by a man who took interest on Sandara wanted revenge, but she could not hurt her directly as that would be breaking the ordinance of which holds her powers and so she cursed her.

One day as she was walking through the woods to fetch water from the river, she crossed paths with an old lady that needed help with her baggage. The poor old woman with her back hunched over she struggled to put back all her belongings to the satchel that seemed to have a hole on the bottom.

Being the kind hearted woman that she is, she set aside the pails of water she carried and aided the lady without hesitation. Not a moment too soon they had taken everything from the ground and back to her bags, fixed and ready to be used again for travel. As a token of gratitude, the old lady gave her an apple that was very tempting to eat. She made sure Sandara took a bite, wanting everything unravel as she had planned.

One bite was all it took, the apple was curse and not poisoned. Sandara lost consciousness as soon she had swallowed the bite she took, waking the morning after with a hurting head but aside from that all seemed to have been normal until she had a look on a mirror.

 From her right temple to her jaw trailed a scar that covered mostly the right side of her face. She screamed and cried, asking the heavens what she had done to deserve such thing but no one answered and she knew there were not going to be anyone. She wanted to blame the old lady but what good would that have done, the chances of finding her were one in a million and she wasn’t going to waste her time.

No one had treated her the same way anymore. No man wanted her and no woman envied her, she was the same as everybody else but it was not the fame or the attention that saddened her, it was the good act she had done but in return she was cursed so from then on she never trusted anyone anymore.

A couple of years later, the young woman had blossomed into a beautiful lady. She still had the same blue eyes and the soft silky blonde hair, all at the same time her scar never faded. She lived alone in a house by the woods where not many of the village people walked by or passed through, it was very lonely but she preferred the peace and silence of the forest instead of the hurtful and demeaning words of the villagers.

On a fine afternoon, news had broken out that the prince of the land was in search of his queen to be. A masquerade ball held tomorrow night was decided to be the setting where the fated couple shall meet, all young maiden were invited with no exceptions.

She did not know whether to go or not, it had been a long time since she left her home and to have many see her when she does was horrifying. Having hurtful words thrown at her turned Sandara numb, she had not gotten used to it all but she also had gotten used to being faraway from others and having that custom had her worried.

The next day, she was on her way back from the river with a pail of water on each hand. She was singing to herself, passing her time as she strolled down the woody path. A man rode through the forest and then he heard a voice singing, it was so charming that he stood still and listened.

The man was Kim Hyunjoong, the son of the king and queen and so the prince of the land. He was on his way back to the palace after riding on his horse that morning. He had just found out about the ball his parents had planned for him. His parents have been asking him when he will marry as they were getting older and their son needs to take their place soon. Out of anger, he stormed out of the palace and had not returned since.

“Now, now no fighting” the singing had stopped but hearing her soft chuckle enchanted him to find whose voice it was.

He followed where the voice was coming from, wishing it will never stop until he finds her but she was so close yet so far and before he could reach her his father’s man had found him. He wanted to search for the woman but it was all too late. The noises must have alarmed the woman and fled.

“Your highness, we have been searching for you. Your mother is dearly worried and wants you to come home immediately” the knight said but the prince was not paying attention, his eyes searching the woods for any sign of the woman.

“Fool, now I have lost her” he cursed under his breath but followed home, nonetheless.

From then on, his thoughts of the ball had drastically changed and have looked forward for the night. He was glad that all maidens were invited and only hoped that the woman he has heard of in the trees is a maiden.

Twilight had set and the palace had become busy with the decorations for the ball, the royal family getting ready for a night their people will never forget. The palace was bright with lights and grand with all the decorations that had put up, it certainly grabbed the attention of the whole land.

“My son, what bothers you?” the queen had caught the prince staring outside the window, his brown eyes dazed as his mind wandered off into space. He seemed to have been thinking of something and it was a surprise as the queen had never seen her son serious with anything, the look on his face though was different and she could tell the reason. “Is there a girl?”

Hyunjoong blinked back into reality, he wanted to deny that the reason for his unawareness was a girl but as he was reminded of it more a smile crept to his face. “There is mother” he admitted and the queen could not help but be happy for her son. “I hope that she comes to the ball” he sweetly confessed.

“No worries dear, we will find her tonight” the queen promised.

Sandara stared at her mirror. She was still in her house clothes and lack of glow in her eyes might have meant she was not going to attend the ball. ‘No one would miss my presence’ that was her excused when she decided to not go. The decision was made when she heard people talking in the forest while she was on her way home from the river. The way she had reacted – fled immediately from the voice of someone else- made her unsure if she was able to go and stay.

From the open window of her bedroom, a dove flew in and held by her beak was a stem of red rose. It was common for her to receive flowers and such from the animals, they were the only ones that did not flee from her sight and her only friends.

“Do you think I should go?” she asked the dove who cooed sweetly, she took that as a yes but still could not make up her mind whether to go or not. Then by her feet, two squirrels were tugging on the hem of her dress and nodded their head vigorously. “And you two think I should go as well?” she chuckled and the squirrels ran around in a circle.

She heaved a sigh and looked back at the mirror again. Using her fingers, she combed her golden hair and setting it on one side. Her blue eyes stared back at her, its sadness bringing her guilt to her decision to stay but even with its sorrow it could not hide her fear.

All of a sudden the room glowed, glimmering dust showered down from nowhere as if snow but they were golden. Some of it piled on the nose of the squirrel and it sneezed adorably, making the girl giggled helplessly.

“What’s happening?” she wondered  and behind her three ball of lights appeared, getting brighter and brighter until three beautiful women who held what seemed like a glass stick formed. “Who are you?” she gasped in fear, taking steps back from them.

“Do not fret dear we are your fairy godmothers. Although I think we are the same age, and my two cousins here are younger than you” the one with red hair and green dress said happily. At the wave of her wand the same twinkling dusts followed the tip.

“My… my fairy godmothers?” Sandara asked, baffled by the sudden entrance of three strangers in her room through a very attention grabbing way.

“More like fairy godsisters. One fairytale story and they think we’re all godmothers, I mean we are not in any way old” the one with blonde hair – darker than Sandara’s though – and in a silver dress complained.

“Excuse my cousin, she becomes rather sensitive on that matter” the last one said. She had a short black hair that reached her shoulder and she wore a pink dress.

The three of them scanned the room, smiles on their faces as they looked around a fairly simple decorated abode. The animals did not seem to mind their presence, if anything that got more excited when they have arrived as if they were waiting for them to come the whole time.

“Your little friends here had called for us dear. They really want you to go to the ball and so we are here to help you” the one in the green dress delightfully smiled. “My name is Bom, our lady in silver is Chaerin and our youngest in pink is Minji” she added then, Sandara was glad she introduced them or it would have been horrible not having to know their names.

“But what am I to do there? I do not fancy dancing, to be honest and I am not good with talking to people” she said sadly, looking down on the floor and feeling the well of tears forming in her eyes. “I am ugly and I do not even know what happened to me” she cried.

The three fairy godmothers sighed and walked to her. “Dear, you are not ugly. Not at all, you are beautiful inside and out. What happened to you was a doing of a vengeful witch who envied you, she put a curse on you so that no one can love you. I know it is hard to believe that someone can harm you when you have done nothing to hurt them, there are just some that have an evil nature and when there is evil, there is good” Bom smiled at the girl, wiping her tears away.

“We will help you” the youngest of them smiled.

“Our Minji will take care of your dress and Chearin with hair and everything, as for me, you will find out in the end” Bom winked at Sandara and then the magic began.

With the waves of their wands sparkling dust covered Sandara from head to toe, blinding her even and so she closed her eyes. She did not feel anything different, she still felt the same and she wondered if it had worked or perhaps she was only imagining the three fairy godmothers.

“Open your eyes dear” she heard Bom’s voice, she smiled from ear to ear as it proved she was not dreaming of everything that had happened though it took her a while to open her eyes and when she did she could not believe what she saw.

From the mirror she saw a woman who wore a blue dress, lighter than the color of her eyes but dazzling. Without a doubt she looked like a princess and her hair simple yet elegant. Her golden locks soft against her skin as curls were formed on the ends with streaks of blue that glistened under the light. Her dress was extraordinarily breathtaking, the contradictions of the light blues and the dark blues along with the silver ribbon that was wrapped around her waist. It looked very much like the night sky.

She looked stunning b