Review

She expected herself to be sick the next day yet she woke up so fresh she felt like she could run a marathon and that wasn’t a bad thing.

However, she had no time for herself since the entire house was in an uproar.

“Your father returns this afternoon!” Her mother had walked into her room in the most ravishing dress she’s seen making her raise an eyebrow. The dress looked too young for her even though she looked younger than her age.

“We dress and behave our best. He’s returning only after 3 months after all,” She fanned herself with an elaborate-looking hand fan browsing the rack of dresses for her.

The dress her mother had on was a ruby red one with literal rubies stitched into them. It was gorgeous and screamed 'expensive'. Kija did not even want to do the math as to how much that cost.

“Try on these dresses and show mama how you look. Your father will be so proud that you are healthy now.”

It took the entire team three hours to choose the perfect dress and the perfect hair to go with it. For Kija, as opposed to her mother, was an aquamarine-colored dress. The dress was the simplest one out of all but not lacking in elegance. As opposed to her sisters who were quite pretty, Kija had more of an elegant look so the other dress simply drowned her in so this was the only one that did justice to her.

Finally, they had all come together as a family to have brunch, and looking at everyone, Kija knew they were all donned in their best dresses.

To think just last night they abandoned her and now they’re acting as though she never existed or nothing ever happened. Ugh. The nerves!

“A carriage of goods have arrived  and arranged, my Lords and my Ladies.”  Their head butler announces some good minutes into eating followed by a shrill shriek from Yuki and Jinae as they clasped their hands together and jumped out of their seats, lifting their heavily embellished skirts and rushes out in the most dignified manner she’s ever seen someone rush.

The others ran out as well in approximately 30 seconds making her blink at the suddenly empty room. Not that she was complaining much about it. She can finally swallow her food with relish.

They never returned so she thinks she’s finally free to return to her room but her curiosity got the better of her.

She’s been noticing her brother Taehyun since the incident last night. He had also been awfully quiet but with the mention of the carriage, he had jumped into action and practically flew out of the room.

What could be so amazing that even the coldest one of the brothers went out in such a flurry?

Curious, she heaved up her dress and made her way to the room from where all the maids and servants were running to and fro carrying out some exotic-looking items into what Kija assumed, their rooms.

It was in the huge living room. The living room of theirs was breathtaking with it being grander than the dining room but she had been there only once in her passing giveshe really did not need that room. It was for the guests and tea which she doesn’t attend.

Nevertheless, her jaws dropped the moment she walked into the room. What was once a living room now looked like a boutique so fancy that she couldn’t even conjure this in her imagination even if she tried.

Her family members were fluttering about from one section to another as she watched in awe. Instead of the usual large room with couches and tables and chandeliers and fancier displays, it was now all gone and instead was replaced with rows and rows of glass shelves so high and sparkling, it hurts to look at them for long.

But then those shelves were nothing compared to the items that lined them.

Honestly, she was expecting to see wood boxes with packed items all strewn about. Not in her wildest dream did she expect this.

Man… Money was surely nice.

She steps into the living room hoping to have a closer look. One side of the room was dedicated to dresses and shoes and pieces of jewelry as the women squeal about there and gave instructions to take certain dresses to their rooms while the maids awaited them with empty cloth racks.

At the same time, her maids Mina and Sana joins her with excited looks on their faces, their eyes glossing over as they scan over the glittering clothes and shoes, and jewelry.

Her attention though could not be contained only to those glittering Jewelry. She will surely take some of those but she wanted to see everything. On one side had sparkling weapons like swords and daggers with embellishments and exquisite craftsmanship.

There was also another side full of battle uniforms as well as men’s clothing that look so handsome and smart as well as women's battle wears.

Another side had exotic-looking fruits and food to which she found herself going.

“Chocolate!” She gasps as she looked at a big bar heavy enough to be a stone. She hasn’t had a piece of chocolate upon coming here making her wonder about their existence. It looks like they do exists… just not popular.

Maybe she can make it popular or more like take it with her because it’s just a single piece anyway. She cake her own bar.

Giving it to Sana and instructing them to take some dresses and jewelry, she moves towards one shelf which had some glowing orbs. As compared to other items, this shelf had only three orbs, two of which were barely glowing while the third – the blue one started glowing even brighter as she went closer.

She curiously inspected it observing that it seemed like a glass orb with light emitting from inside and it had some strange inscription which she couldn’t read. Aside from curiosity, she also felt a strange longing to touch it.

She turns to look around her in case anyone was looking but having been satisfied in seeing that everyone was super busy looking their own stuff, she stretched her hands towards it. It glowed even brighter the moment her hand came in contact with it making her jump back. The blue stone weirdly felt wet in her hand but when she look at it, it was dry.

What was that?

She reached out again and took it in her hand, the light bursting out brightly until something even stranger happened. The lights which were emitting out suddenly stops and instead, the light traveled back into thl and into her palm.

Throwing it down in panic, she watched in horror as the blue light traveled from her arms into her chest. She shook her hands in panic and even tried to take away the light that was now glowing where her heart should be but nothing happened.

She looked around again, this time in panic and in hopes that someone saw and saves her from that. She turned to look at her glowing chest and groaned when the light was no longer there. What if it was dangerous? What on earth was that?

A moment passes by and nothing happens so she sighs in relief but the moment she decides to get away from here, she is attacked by a sudden feeling of heaviness… as though her body was entirely made of water.

She drops to her knees and shook her head violently as she struggled to breathe. What was this? Why does her lung not work nor does her nose? Was she drowning?

But as soon as it came, it went away and she stood on her feet feeling extremely weirded out but as normal as before with no aftermath of the effects whatsoever. What was that? Was it all just some illusions that the ball made her see?

Dashing away as far as she can away from the glowing orbs and the weird feeling, she breathed in and out deeply, the feeling of not being able to breathe easily haunting her.

But truly… what on earth was that? It felt as though she was dunked into a pool of water and suppressed inside of it.

That orb was dangerous.

Taking a handful of jewelry, she rushed to her room after randomly pointing out some dresses and battle wear to her girls.

She can deal with them later. She simply wanted to get away from all of those weird experiences.

Coming back to her room, she noticed that her maids had taken extra things like pairs of battle wear, and two racks of elaborate-looking dresses. Yet despite their beauty, her eyes lingered mostly on the jewelry. They were simply exquisite.

She will be taking all those for herself in case she needs to sell them for money when she goes on her adventure.

Her father was the most successful businessman in the kingdom. The Doh family has always been rich given that they were blessed with business wherever they trod. Besides, they also had great military power thanks to their robust nature and great control over their element.

If she played her cards righdefinitely go around wmoney worriesabout money.

* * *

Silence.

Unlike how she initially thought the house of Doh might react upon the arrival of their father, an unusual silence filled the house and even Kija’s mother looked uncharacteristically quiet.

The first thing she noted when she saw the father figure was that he waHeIn fact, he might even be shorter than her brother Kyungsoo.

Not wanting to be around her so-called family, she had chosen to stand on the balcony from where she could see them enter the massive living room. It was like watching a soap opera performing right in front of her… also given their outlandish clothes and décor.

If only she had popcorn and soda.

The  literally strutted in, his chest and head held high. From miles away, one can assume that he was a man of high status. He was elaborately but also elegantly dressed. He did not look overly dressed but still looked defined.

He was handsome too and looked younger than she was expecting. He only had mild wrinkles from way up here but judging from his body, she knew he was fit.

He looked quite like Kyungsoo, especially their eyebrows and the shape of their lips. A baby could sense their relationship from the first glance nevertheless, Kyungsoo was a much more handsome man.

Her mother had stepped out first to give him a deep bow and an awkward hug followed by his other two wives and then the two daughters. The sons maintained their distance but bowed to him quite deeply.

After all that has been done, they began talking but she could only hear their voices but was unable to make out anything. Boy… they talk low and serious as if like they were discussing nuclear bombs.

This was boring. The things that came by earlier were way more fun. Yawning, she turns to go back bu