It was another day where Tao would wake up early in the morning and get ready for his daily work. After the death of both Tao's parents, he was left as an orphan, living in the cruel and lonely world. However, his parents has left quite a fortune for him, but he wasn't of age yet to actually manage the money. And because of this, his greedy aunt and uncle had decided to take him in, just so that social services could see that they were related and there was actually someone caring for the poor boy and he needn't be put away in foster care or an orphanage. Their intention, however, was quite the opposite. 

They only wanted the money and have the boy disposed quickly so they could go on with their happy life. However, fate had different plans for them. They couldn't get rid of the boy, because social services had found they had been treating the boy not child-friendly and threatened to have them arrested if they didn't change.

"Boy, get your lazy here and clean this up!," an angry, screeching voice echoed through the house.

Hurried footsteps could be heard and poor Tao appeared before his aunt and quickly apologized for the mess he hadn't made. Leftovers from yesterday's food could be found on the dining-table, caused by his aunt's ugly habit of having midnight snacks when she was in a foul mood.

"Yes, ma'am,"

Even though his uncle and aunt had been threatened by social services, Tao's situation hadn't changed one bit. He would get treated as bad as he had since day one.

Orders were given and punishments were delivered when they saw fit. And never once did Tao talk back, because he knew the next time when he would get punished, it would be far more worse than the previous one. 

But, that didn't mean he never learned not to stand up for himself. Whenever neighbour kids would pester him, calling him names and ugly duckling and so on, he would always be the one standing straight and proud whilst the pestering kids would run away and call for their mom and never dare try provoke him again.

It was noon when he finally managed to clean up the whole house. His aunt and uncle had been out since ten in the morning and he was left all alone in peace in the house. And knowing them, they wouldn't be back any time sooner, Tao had decided to treat himself and relax a little bit in the garden while reading a book.

Because his aunt had decided it was too expensive to send him to school, Tao was prohibited from going to school, so he had taught himself how to read by watching tv (when his uncle would watch the news or other documentaries) and comics (old ones he had found in the attic).

However, just because he was forbidden to go to school, that didn't mean he wasn't allowed to go outside. Because he was responsible for the whole household, he had to do grocery shopping and small errands for his uncle from time to time, so whenever he had some time left, he would go to the public library and borrow books so he could secretly read at night.

"Tao! Where the hell are you?,"

Tao's peaceful moment was suddenly broken by his aunt's angry voice and he hastily scurried over to the living-room. There he found his aunt and uncle standing, glaring at him with a load of bags. And Tao could easily guess what it was they brought home. Clothes. What the hell did they need all those clothes for?

"Listen, you imbecile... next week friday, your aunt and I are going to a party, hosted by a good friend of mine. Wash all these clothes and there are some well defined fabric in there somewhere which need to be made too. We expect an unique and marvelous design so we can impress my friend and his wife. Do not disappoint us," his uncle ordered.

"Yes, sir...," Tao replied meekly making sure not to make eye contact.

"And oh, put a warm bath for me. After all the shopping, I am all tired out and need to relax. And have dinner early tonight, because I am so hungry I could eat a cow," the woman ordered.

"Yes, ma'am,"

Even though they were his aunt and uncle, they had never liked the idea of him calling them by their title and ordered him to use the words "ma'am" and "sir". Not that he minded though. Calling them ma'am and sir at least made him feel that they are nothing to him.

He quickly prepared the warm bath before proceeding on making dinner. Hopefully he could start on working on the clothes by the time they went to bed.

Dinner went by quietly and before he knew it, both his uncle and aunt had excused themselves to bed. He heaved a sigh as he cleaned up everything and actually wished he could flee somewhere where they wouldn't find him and that he could start anew there without being ordered around.

Somewhere around midnight, Tao found himself unable to focus on continuing with his work and opted to just go to sleep, because like every day he was expected to be up before sunrise.

There was still one day left before the party and Tao was having a headache with his aunt's orders. And if it couldn't get any worse he could feel himself stressing along by doing everything as fast as he could for his aunt. The woman was almost impossible, one moment she wanted to wear the red dress Tao made, the other moment she wanted the blue one, but in the end she decided to wear a green instead. Her makeup was a nightmare. Tao couldn't understand why a woman would actually put so many effort and time in caking their face with a lot of powder and black paint just to look attractive, because they simply didn't look attractive to Tao at all. He knew women put on makeup just to look more pretty, but in Tao's eyes, even with makeup his aunt would never look pretty.

By the end of the day, Tao was completely exhausted he could barely stand on his two feet and fell as a heap on his selfmade bed with an old thick blanket, his sleepy eyes falling shut immediately.

He wasn't sure how long he had been out, but the next time he was awake, he could hear his uncle calling for him in an angry voice and he dragged himself out of bed tiredly. His headache was almost unbearable, but he had no choice but to do as told. Sick or not.

When he finally stood in front of his uncle, he had a strange sense that there was something wrong or at least something out of the ordinary. And he was right.

"We are going to the party and you are coming with us. We have a special mission for you and I hope you won't be of disappointment," his uncle said.

"I don't understand, sir, what you are implying," Tao said carefully.

"Che. You really are not that bright. Boy, I am telling you to go there with us, so you can get something important for me... a scroll...,"

"What do you need the scroll for?," Tao dared to ask even though he knew his uncle would never tell him why the latter needed it for.

"It is none of your business. You just get that for me and I can guarantee you can have a wish for once. Can you do that or not?," his uncle ungly beady eyes squinted at him dangerously as if daring him to disobey, which he most certainly couldn't.

Tao's brains reeled quickly. He needed to answer fast before his uncle would get even more angry. But at the same time his mind was blank. His uncle was telling to go steal! How could he do that? He didn't know how to steal! And stealing was bad! He had seen it multiple times on tv where bad guys would be chased by cops and they would end up in prison. He didn't want to live in prison!

Before he could answer though, his uncle had already answered for him. Thus in the end, Tao had no choice but go to the party and steal this scroll his uncle so wanted to have.

And so, Tao found himself standing in a extremely well-decorated hall, filled with talking and laughing guests, enjoying themselves while soft music played in the background. He felt out of place and tried to make himself as invisible as he could, so he could actually set his plan out in action.

Beforehand his uncle had already given him directions on how the house of the friend looked like, so Tao had no problem finding his way around. He was provided a glass of wine when he finally decided to make his move, but he declined politely. He had never drank before and wasn't keen on starting anyway. After the young man disappeared, Tao pretended to go to the restrooms, but actually took a different route instead.

His eyes scanned his surroundings, nobody, the coast was clear and he made his move. He entered the last room in the hall and quietly shut the door.

An office.

Just like his uncle had predicted. All he needed to do was look for the scroll. He needed to be fast, because there wasn't enough time left. His uncle had made him promise to be back within an hour before the party ended and he needed to be careful on not to get caught. He really didn't want to think about how his life would end up like if was caught.

Books, books, books, papers, pens, more books, a screwdriver, cookies.

Tao could feel sweat rolling down his face. He had been at it for fifteen minutes already and still hadn't found the scroll he needed for his uncle. He was starting to get desperate with every ticking minute passing by.

Ten more minutes passed by and still no scroll yet. Tao was starting to lose hope in looking for the scroll. Why the hell did his uncle need that scroll for anyway?

He was on the verge of crying when his hand accidentally slipped and knocked over a pen case. Cursing under his breath for his clumsiness, he hurriedly picked up the fallen things and as if lady luck finally pitied him, his eyes landed on a black suitcase sitting on the floor, next to the desk.

His hands worked on autopilot, ping the bag and leafing through the contents and when he finally found the cursed scroll, he smiled triumphantly before taking it out and stuffing it inside his jacket pocket, never noticing another presence joining him in the room.

"Yah!,"

Tao gasped in shock as his eyes widened in horror. ! He was caught! His brains worked quickly as he forced himself to calm down and turned around to face his captor.

And the sight he met was outright the most amazing and unbelievable thing he had ever encounter in his whole life. He could almost feel his jaw drop open immediately.

There, in front of him, in the middle of the room (when did he even appear anyways? He didn't hear any footsteps whatsoever...), stood the most perfect creature on two long legs, wearing a perfect tuxedo and looking quite angry at him.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?," the tall, handsome man demanded angrily. Tao swore he saw the other's nostrils flare up dangerously like a bull.

"Uhm... I am the early sandman and going to make you go to sleep early, because you have been having trouble trying to fall asleep," Tao answered the tall and gorgeous slash handsome man standing in the middle of the room with a lifted left index finger. 

The man frowned a bit at the odd answer before he collected himself and retort.

"What? I don't need no sandman and I sleep perfectly fine," the other growled

"Of course you do. And you WILL sleep PERFECTLY fine too tonight," a pause, "Goodnight handsome,"

Before the other could react, everything went black infront of his eyes and he was left on the couch with a blanket draped over his body, just because Tao was generous enough.

Tao ran and and ran as quickly as his legs could carry him. After he knocked out Mr. Handsome, he had quickly jumped out the window and crept away. But unfortunately, guards on the outside had noticed something wrong and immediately attacked him and it resulted in him using his amazing ninja and kungfu skills he himself had acquired all those years before he finally escaped their clutches.

And so he found himself running all the way home, never once stopping, even though his tired legs begged and cried for him to. Once locked inside the house safe and sound, he breathed out a huge sigh of relief. He had finally shaken the guards off his shoulders and was inwardly crying for his future. If they were going to tell the owner of the house, then they would report to the police, his face would be all over the place and once someone noticed him, then he would be living in prison for the rest of his life! And no one would care about it.

He could feel himself panicking inside, he himself was afraid he'd have a heart attack right then and there. Forcing himself to calm down, he decided to take out the scroll and read the contents of it. His hands were shaking badly due to his panicking heart and the pressure of being caught reading something he shouldn't be.

However his plan was broken in thousands of pieces when the door suddenly burst open and in he saw his aunt and uncle entering with hopeful eyes.

"Do you have it? Do you have it? Where is it?," came the anxious voice of his uncle and aunt at the same time.

Before Tao could answer, the scroll was already snatched out of his hands and he was left dumbfounded when he found the two dancing and screaming altogether at the same time, he himself was afraid even the dead might wake up in the middle of the night.

"What is the scroll about? Why is it so important?," Tao dared to ask.

"This!... boy is our ticket to get what we deserved all these years taking care of someone like you. Very important," his uncle said triumphantly.

"So, be prepared boy...," his aunt added with an afterthought.

The threat was left unfinished, but Tao already knew what it meant. So the scroll he just stole held something of very importance for his uncle and aunt to have the right to chase him out of the house. This was bad. Where would he go? Why were they doing this to him? He had done so much, did everything they ordered him to and yet he was treated like trash.

That night he cried and cried so hard, asking thin air why he had such a y life, why his parents had left him so early and hadn't taken him along, why he was related to such family, why he wasn't put away in an orphanage instead back when he was still a baby, but all these questions were left unanswered like any other time he had asked these questions.

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A/N:

Annyeong my lovely readers! How have all of you been? It's been a while since I have started on a new story. And when I finally found my muse again, I had this crazy idea of writing a "Cinderella" story. This is totally different than the original Disney version of Cinderella, but the main point is in there where the star is treated badly and somehow meet the perfect one and finally end up together. :)

It is somewhat a bit crack and humor (and probably sarcasm) and a bit sad though. But, anyways... if you are curious about the story, I hope you will read and like it, upvote and of course comment on the commentbox so I can know what your thoughts are about this story of mine.

Anyone who has questions or just want to talk or whatsoever can follow me on twitter or you can just post on my wall or send me a PM if is something you don't want others to know. Thank you very much for taking your time to read in advance and I hope you guys enjoyed this story.