“Is that the Park daughter on the run again?” One older lady asked her friend pointing to a young girl with two large baskets in her hands and a huge straw hat on top of her head. The friend grinned and replied,

“Afraid she’s taking away all your regular customers?”

The older woman huffed and answered,

“Why should I? My food stand sells more variety of dishes and I’m more experienced.”
Her friend laughed and said,

“But she’s younger, prettier and so friendly…look she’s setting her stand and there’s already a line!”

The older lady huffed again and said,

“That Park girl always is running around trying to be in two places at the same time! Didn’t her mother used to say when she was still inside the womb, she moves around a lot too?”

The friend smiled and answered,

“You’re right! I remember too, Ji Hyun used to boast that Dara has the energy of two people! Ji Hyun said she felt there were two babies inside her because of the rapid heart beats. But it turns out it was just Dara and her hyperactive energy!” The older lady nodded in agreement with her friend.

They smiled fondly at Dara. She was a breath of fresh air with her addictive personality and commitment to her work. They like to tease the girl, but in their heart they love her like she was one of their own. Dara waved at her mother’s friends. They waved back at her. Ji Hyun and her husband Tam, was two very lucky people to have such a filial daughter like Dara.

Young people nowadays tend to move away from their parents and live their own life. But Dara was different; she puts her parents’ needs above her. This trait of hers brought her many friends and just as many foes.

Dara’s father Tam was diagnosed with an incurable stomach cancer and could no longer work. Dara worked two to three jobs each day; from early morning to late evenings yet even with three jobs they were always short on money. Ji Hyun sewed clothes to pay for her husband’s medical bills and Dara’s income goes toward the rent, and food.

Dara smile faded when she saw the next person in line. It was the village’s chief son, Ngoc, who thinks he is god’s gift to women. He his lips and smirked at