The ballroom is filled with people everywhere, yet Chorong always feels lonely when she attends these company events.

The black-haired girl is settled in the corner, wearing a knee-length floral dress that fits a little too tightly around her waist, standing quietly behind the ridiculously long curtain that drapes elegantly across the wall and she can’t help but think she’s completely out of place. 

The scene is all splayed out right in front of her; an unexplainable suffocating atmosphere that makes her anxious every time she steps inside a tall ceilinged venue, and it’s exactly the same for every time too. A yet-to-be established competition about who is more successful and who is married to which millionaire and who has the smarter kid and which prestigious university they go to and who has more money money money—

It’s something she should be used to by now.

Something she should learn from, as her father would say, but Chorong can never really imagine it for herself. 

Even now, when she’s watching her parents – looking like the perfect pieces of a complicated jigsaw puzzle, like they’re exactly where they belong, surrounded by the wealthy and important – the black-haired girl still feels as though she’s a factory defect among manufactured goods.

There’s a sudden firm pat on the small of her back. “Straighten your spine a little, sweetie,” her mother whispers. “Your posture—“

“—shows who you are.” Chorong finishes, a thin line forming on her lips. “Yes, mother. I know, sorry.”

There’s an apologetic look that flashes across her mother’s face for a moment, before a couple approaches the family and her expression is instantly changing to fake surprise as she’s reaching over for a hug. Her father is giving her a small nod of reassurance before following suit. The black-haired girl just stares between the two of them, and the thought of strangers standing right before her, right now, brushes past her mind.

It’s something she should be used to by now.

But if she’s completely honest, Chorong doesn’t think it’ll ever stick with her.

•••

With two pairs of eyes no longer watching her every move, the black-haired girl takes her chance to finally slip away.

Her heart feels like it’s in when she navigates around the dizzying halls of the manor, feet not knowing where they’re leading to, but somehow she ends up on the balcony.

Chorong lets out a relieved sigh when she finds it empty.

Without thinking, she’s already bending down to take off her uncomfortably tall heels, her toes a little swollen and red when she yanks it off her feet. She then undoes her tight bun, her long dark hair flowing down her shoulders in slight waves, slightly cool against her bare collarbone. She sighs once more, tak