“So let me get this straight, you enjoy watching two men get and kiss each other?” Baekhyun asked, still quite puzzled of Mari’s explanation which only confused him more. After catching her watching Boys Love anime early in the morning in the kitchen, he deserved an explanation.

“Yes – I mean, no!! It’s none of your business, really.” She looked down feeling ashamed as ever. If there was a hole in the floor, she’d have already jumped in. He probably thought she’s a woman with a weird for gay men.

He leaned in and put up a serious expression, “Please make breakfast. I’m starving.”

“You really are strange. You don’t put on makeup and you prefer relationships between two men. Hmmm…,” he commented, sipping his coffee and looking at her intently as if judging her morals. Mari felt embarrassed and blood rose to her face as she blushed.

She quietly finished her meal, wishing for him to forget what just had happened. “What a strange woman. Who raised you? Jaguars?” he jokingly said but Mari took it to heart. She burst her anger at him for flicking a switch and nagging too much.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t raised properly. My dad had no time for my family as he always crashed around some other woman’s house. And my mother was always at the hospital so she couldn’t take care of me. And no, jaguars didn’t raise me. Our family dogs did,” she threw her hands in the air in frustration and total sarcasm. She was fed up with this judgmental man.

She walked away furiously to her bathtub to cool her mind from a heated conversation with an idiot. Baekhyun felt terrible and had stepped on a land mine. The first time he attacked her with family talks, she wasn’t pleased with his actions. This time, he felt truly awful for throwing her inappropriate jokes.

The bath was hot and ready. Mari stripped herself and hang the bathrobe before hopping onto the bath. Touchy subjects like this were her weakness. Her family’s history was dramatic and had caused her a lot of trouble. And speaking of her family so lightly was no easy task for her.

Her body submerged into the water as she curled up into a ball in the tub. She hugged her knees onto her chest as the water touched her skin. All the memories of her dysfunctional family came back to her. She didn’t wish to reminisce such bad memories but that idiot just made her remember them all.

Tears streamed down her face as the painful story of the past haunted her. She closed her eyes, diverting her thoughts to more positive ones. But the pain got through her.

“Papa, who is she?” I asked dad about the beautiful woman. She looked young and radiant.

“Your new mom,” Papa smiled at me.

“My mom? But I like Mama better,” I resisted. But my words… They were powerless. I was taken into a house against my will and didn’t saw mom for months.

It’s almost three months now. I haven’t saw mama or papa. I’m not allowed to go outside and all I’m eating is what the maids hand to me. And the worst has yet to come…

“You bastard! He even left you here! He’s probably got a new girl now, damn him. And no money for months, not even a cent!” Her name’s Duckface. I called her that because she looked like a duck with protruding red lips. I hated her.

“I hate you, Duckface,” I whispered, looking away. She smoked