2014, Present.

A 26-year-old lady awakes the instant her alarm clock rings. It is a Tuesday, 19 May, and she has a few deadlines to meet, she remembers, as always: the June issue of the fashion magazine, and of course the designs for the autumn collection, along with checking out the cotton developed from a new technology recently developed by the Research and Development department.

Tiffany carelessly brushes her teeth before grabbing a random set of clothes and changing out of yesterday’s outfit. She had once again fallen asleep while rushing out some designs, or writing an article, or whatnot- she does not remember what she was doing. Maybe she was even multitasking, for all her materials are still sprawled over her desk. She sits down lethargically at her desk, and absent-mindedly clears up without noticing the picture of six-year-old Stephanie framed up in baby pink balsa wood resting on her desk. Impatiently she packs her laptop and work into her working bag and begins to leave for work.

Her father is still sleeping; she can no longer remember when she last spoke to him. Was it last night, or last weekend, when he has just arrived home from a two-month long trip to the Philippines? Never mind, work always comes first. It is the same to her father too, or even truer to her father. She shakes her head. Maybe it is not work that comes first; maybe it is just that he is no longer an important figure in her life, or has he ever been? She wonders for a moment, if her father has even bothered to arrange a meeting with her brother who has been living there since he got married. She just had to hear it from her brother that their father didn't even contact him, and she hasn't even had the chance to speak to her father about it. As a reply to her brother she merely sighed in apology and in pity for themselves, for having such a father who cared about work more than family.

Her office is in the close vicinity, yet she requires her butler to drive her there, for she is too tired to even do the driving herself. She is pressed on time and cannot lose a single minute, for she knows there are important things ahead. She knows there is a whole stack of work awaiting her at her office, and a tight schedule to follow. She constantly looks to the Cartier on her wrist to check the time, every time the car stops at a traffic junction.

The autumn collection is something she has been working on the whole spring; it is her baby, the product of her efforts. She wants to see it grow- she wants to see it grow big. She wishes for all its success. She fantasizes all the time about the day when it is introduced to the world, how all the ladies will flock to the stores to get their hands on her latest piece. She wishes that it will gift to her the joy that she has been waiting for for such a long time.

As soon as she reaches her office building, she hurriedly alights the limousine and rushes to the elevator.

2008.

Tiffany was sitting silently in the car as she gazed out of the window, watching the rain fall before her eyes, much like her current mood. She wondered if she was supposed to do this. A day before she was going to fly off to Paris and study the course of her dreams, her father was then only just returning from a three-month long business trip. She was going to see her father for only a night, before she would not be able to meet her family for the next half a year or so, over three years ahead.

She cannot help but wonder if it had been right for her to do this. She was going to chase her dream, no? She was just following her passion, leaving home for a while was no hard matter. Had she even actually felt at home, for the past eighteen years she has lived?

Her father was often too busy at work, and whenever he wasn't he was seen to be doing something important- something that seemed to be of more importance than Tiffany herself. He had always placed high priority in his working life, and was often away from home.

Tiffany thought he had changed after her mother had passed away.

When she was born, their parents had a tiny argument over the name she was going to have. Her mother had wanted Tiffany, while her father chose Stephanie. She lived on as Stephanie until the age of twelve, when her father decided to change name to what her mother had wished for her to be called, in memory of the woman. From then on everyone called her Tiffany, and she had long left behind the little girl called Stephanie, as she changed to match up to her family's pragmatic demands.

She was often filled with confusion seeing her father overwhelmed with regret for neglecting the family for his job. The period of her mother's death was a huge blow for her; it was the first time she witnessed her father cry, when he was mourning so heavily for the loss of her mother, as well as her own grief in her heart.

However, her father grew increasingly busy from the demands of his work, or rather, he started to be more absorbed into his job once again after just half a year or so. It was also during then that her family had moved back to Korea, when her father had decided that the business was not doing as well as in Korea than in America. She was sent to a high level international institution that often had her kept in school to stay at the dorms, and was gradually also beginning to drift away from home.

Time passed and Tiffany had already graduated from high school with outstanding grades, like her siblings, for they were all subtly expected to do well and excel. As a result there she was, almost ready to start on one of the many scholarships she was selected for.

Right then, Tiffany's siblings weren't helping a lot either. No matter how close they were, Tiffany could never rely on her siblings for company. Tiffany had an elder sister who was already then emigrated to New York to live with her fiance ever since they were engaged the year before. Tiffany also had an elder brother, who had left a year earlier due to a scholarship he received, much like what Tiffany was just going to embark on. Tiffany was the only one living with her father then, along with the various other servants in her house.

It crossed her mind about how her father would be alone after she would leave. Nevertheless, she shook her head, he would be fine, after months of being overseas for work by himself, she thought.

Tiffany pondered longer, as she lingered on the thought of having to be alone in a foreign country for the next three years. There was a high possibility that she wouldn't come back home during the holidays, unless, very rarely, her father would be at during the same time period. She sighed, telling herself that she would face no huge problem, after being alone in her home or in the school hostel for many times already.

She blinked when she realised that there will be no servants around. She tore her vision away from the window and looked down. She would be fine, she could always buy food herself, do a little more for herself, and be independent. She wouldn't even need a driver, for she wouldn't be going very far except to and from the school and hostel.

Should she be worrying or hesitating? What was she concerned about then, at this moment? Leaving home?

She shook her head. If her family had never placed her before of her supposedly less important concerns and left home this easily, she should not let her heart be burdened by them while she would go ahead to chase her dreams. Her father wasn't even home anymore, for home was where the heart was and his heart was, at his office.

A single bead tear fell from her right eye. She was shocked to feel the cold fluid on her face, and wiped it off immediately.

"Miss? We're reaching," startled to hear her butler’s voice. She coughed to clear and nodded, trying to smile.

“Are you alright?” her butler asked out of concern.

Tiffany doubted if the concern was out of conscience or rather just his job. Nevertheless, she forced the corners of her lips to rise, “Yeah.”