“Cash or card?”

            “I’ll be paying in cash”

            Beep. The part-time then proceeded into scanning and packaging the toiletries on top of the counter and Hye joo had done her part by paying it.

“Young lady, do you live nearby? There’s a bunch of things you get there,” a familiar grandma from behind asked out of curiosity and offered a wide grin at it. Hye Joo was taken aback by the sudden question and nodded stiffly. The grandma continued still, “alone?” Hye Joo furrowed her eyebrows and still managed to mutter a small yet distinct yes towards the old lady.

In the course of her living alone in this area, no one had ever paid such attention to her neither had the chance to converse with her -and it had been two years ever since. Her father remarried quite early after the passing of her mother which brought disappointment and sorrow in her as she needed more time to grieve. To add her misery, her step-mother was not an amiable one, dared to kick her out of her own household by persuading her father that living alone was better off for concentrating in study and promising grades -that was why she had been struggling to maintain her top rank in a private-lavish school by burning the midnight oil almost everyday so that she could come home.

            “Twit twit twit twit,” Hye Joo regularly hummed when she walked on her way back after cram sessions, she sung to her content. With the music blaring through her airpods, the sound of reality seemed mute to her and she liked it that way.

            “BANG!” despite of the full volume coming from her playlist, that loud noise still stood out and brought shock to her. Then a sharp pain resonated through her spine and she had become numb. She took a glance on her abdomen and saw red-coloured liquid gradually spread on her pure white school uniform, so she reached out to grasp that side of her abdomen and could feel undefeatable pain surged through her entire body. She collapsed, on that cold road.

People was screaming and hovering her but none dared to touch her or embrace her. That’s why she felt lonely and cold even during her passing, “That must be happy that I died,” she blinked and panted with heavy and hasty breaths, “Mom, your one and only daughter will come to meet you,” and just by that she died.

“AGH!” she heaved out uneven breaths. Sweats ran from her top to the tip of her finger -the sweatiest part was her palm. With buried head in the between of her legs and in curled position, Hye Joo tried her best to keep calm, but then she was too terrified to do so.

Aids and maids barged into her room and rushed to her side, “Lady Haerin, are you alright?”

Right, she was Lady Haerin, the only daughter of a very influential duke in the country that was born with a silver spoon in -until a while ago that’s it. She had recalled her memories from her past life as a pitiful high school student that was abandoned by her own family. Now, she did not know her real identity no more.

And the worst part of being Lady Haerin was the fact that she knew that death was her finishing. Based on the game she played in her past life, Haerin was a fine and kind-hearted lady in her young age but growing up as the fiancé of the crown prince she was pressured a lot and become ignorant alias a brat. So, when the heroine of the game later appeared in her teen age, she was threatened by her outshining character that she turned to bully and isolate the heroine. The of the game, the crown prince had taken a liking towards the heroine so he rescued her by sacrificing Haerin, putting all the blame on Haerin in order to annul the engagement.

Haerin was beheaded by the crown prince himself and her family was banned from the country, leaving them penniless on their own.

She snapped from the memories and the pain recollection of her playing the otome game all night long during the holiday alone in her dark room since she got nowhere to go and turn into.

“No! I cannot let things go that way, absolutely no.” Hye Joo wanted to live longer and grow old in this world and be prosper with the rest of her family as the family had teated her with nothing but kindness and love. She won’t let her stupid choices and mistakes forsaking her parents’ wealth and lives. She wanted to appreciate her family and live in serene with them since she couldn’t in her previous lifetime.

She jumped off her bed and ruffled her bed hair, “I need to prevent the engagement between the crown prince in all cost or I’ll be dead,” she muttered and bit her nails as she paced back and forth aimlessly beside her bed. The maids gave her confused and worried looks as they tried to calm her down. Hye Joo halted and turned around to give away her biggest grin at the maids and dismissed them.