cinderella ticket

“While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.”

—— Groucho Marx

This isn’t some sappy story about a hard-working girl who despite not being able to afford beauty products is still the fairest of them all. And if being naturally beautiful wasn’t enough she just had to find a chaebol prince who fell head over heels for her. No,this story isn’t about her.

I wont be telling you about an ice princess whose heart was melted by a sweet and caring prince. Nor about how I fell in love with my childhood friend and lived happily ever after,because that didn't happen.The falling for my best friend part didn't happen, but I did live happily ever after.

This story is about me,moi,watashi. Well 22 year old me. My name is Kang Sohee and back then i was just your typical 22 year old. I lived off my lawyer best friend since all the money my parents had saved up for college had been wisely spent. On me ofcourse! Being beautiful and stylish is something that takes years to learn and it's way more effective than a degree in whatever my father wanted me to study. That is why i chose carefully before deciding what to improve. It was like a final exam, and my face a walking grade.

Now,I know you're dying to know just how much plastic surgery i got, but lets just say i look much better than before. Not that you'd know since all evidence from my dark ages have been successfully destroyed.

Anyway,lets move on shall we...now where was I?

Oh,right! Living off my clean freak of a best friend. Living with Jiyoung had its perks, like free food and no rent.However it did have its downsides, like her nagging, which she loved to do at 2 in the morning while i was still intoxicated and she sounded like a fire alarm that had been placed inside my head.

So in all, life was good. Lay around all day and find a random club to drink all night. But that wasn’t living and after a while Jiyoung, being the stick in the mud that she is, refused to give me money for new clothes.I mean she should repay me for all the times i found out that her boyfriends were cheating on her. So what if it was with me, at least I told her the truth, that still counts. Right?

I only had two options: Get a job (eek) or marry rich, and if I wanted to be in a Vera Wang in time for summer I had work to do and I needed a professional.

---

Don’t you love South Korea? Our matchmakers are definitely the best, but what I needed wasn't a matchmaker, it was a stalker. Someone who knew everything there is to know about the most sought-out bachelors. Not information that you could find with a simple naver search but classified,person, what kind of underwear do they wear on wednesdays kind of information.

“You’ve come to the right place friend.” A fake red-head babbled in a high pitched voice.

“Uh,hu.” Was my only reply as I sat opposite of her, separated by a spotless gray desk that only contained a transparent name plate and a shiny white mac.

“So…” I looked at the name plate again, this time noting her name. “Yoo In Na?”

“Ye, that’s my name.” She flashed a smile. I stared at her in disbelief. Honestly I had a dislike for happy people and she looked too sweet to be ”The Spider.”

“I wanna talk business lady.” I got up and placed my two arms on the desk and made the most serious face I could muster. In Na looked up from the mac and returned my serious expression.

“Haven’t you heard of me? They call me The Spider, the spider.” She sounded confident so I sat back down.

“So they do.”

“Of course,” In Na’s smile returned.”Because I’m hard to see, impossible to get rid of and I’m everywhere. I’m the one you need.” She stopped talking to catch her breath. I nodded and motioned for her to go on. “You don’t look like it but I know exactly what you need.”

“And that is..?”

“Cinderella Ticket.” In Na stated matter-of-factly.

“Cinderella...ticket? What do you mean?”

“Umm,” She tapped a rhythm with her long (and probably fake) nails. “You’re poor and you want to live like a princess. Right? So what you need is a ticket straight to the top. But you don't seem smart and your face is too common for an Idol, you probably can't sing anyways.”

“I'm not what?” I tilted my head,truly confused. I was smart,for the amount of time i actually showed up to school i’d gotten decent grades.

“A cinderella ticket is...A rich man who will give you the life you always wanted.”

“But you know, we’re in the 21st century. People are smart now.”

“Honey,” In Na stood up from her chair. “Do you have any idea how many marriages i've set up?” I watched as she circled the small office. “I’m practically a fairy godmother with less glitter and better hair. I don’t just set you up with a bank account,” She looked at me straight in the yes. “I find you a someone who will choose you over his disapproving mother, true love babe. I make miracles happen.”

“So,” In Na pulled out a binder from one of the many drawers that lined up the wall. “Let’s pick your prince cinderella.”

I tapped my perfectly shaped chin in distrust but accepted the binder anyways. Inside were what looked to be resumes, but they weren’t ordinary resumes. They included family trees,stocks information,favorite foods and even the type of perfume they wore. Strangely enough the most important thing was missing.

“There aren’t any pictures?” I asked.

“If your going to be that superficial you can go.” She motioned for me to hand her back the binder.

“Ani...that’s not what I mean.” I grasped the binder which painted a smile on In Na’s face. I bowed my head and went back to looking through the resumes.

“How about this guy?” I spoke after minutes of silence.

“Who?” In Na asked from behind her desk, her eyes glued to the computer.

“23, only child, heir to the KL corporation, blah blah blah.” I rambled on information. “I’ve never heard of KL. What are they even about?”

“KL? They make weapons, it used to be run by two families but then...anyways long story short its now run by the Kim family. It has close ties to the government, nice choice.”

“KL…” I slowly spun the chair around.

“His name is…” I searched for the name in the long resume.

“Kim Jongin.”