Dara shut her eyes open when that annoying noise starts to get louder. She gets up and tries to figure out what’s been ringing, is it her alarm, or her phone, or the fire alarm. She isn’t fully awake yet. She’s panicking.

But then she sees her cellphone screen and the word ‘MOM’ is written there.

A phone call from mom.

Dara sighs knowing it. She should have left her phone on silent so she wouldn’t be interrupted in this beautiful morning of Sunday.

“Mom, what time is it? Why are you calling me at this time?” Dara says as she’s lying down on the bed again, pulling up the bed sheet up to her chin. She can’t bear the chill and then she closes her eyes again.

“What? Mom… please, I need a break today. I have through a busy and boring weeks. You can’t just force me to get out of my bed this early, can you?”

Dara rolls her eyes and scoffs. “Alright… alright, I’m hanging up now.”

Dara put her phone away and now she pulls the bed sheet up to her head and hide under it. She hugs the cushion and closes her eyes slowly, starting to fall asleep again.

As she’s stepping into the dreamland, someone comes in to her mind, the blonde girl with that mesmerizing smile and spooky outfit. She’s smiling at Dara again, this time her hands are wrapped around Dara’s neck and her face is leaning forward like she’s gonna kiss her soon.

“!” Dara yammers when something ringing wakes her up for the second time. This time it’s her alarm clock. She turns it off immediately and gets up from bed for real this time.

She walks to the window and as soon as she opens the curtain, the morning sunlight comes in through the glass window and hits her side face. She narrows her eyes and smiles lightly.

“Good morning to myself.” She murmurs.

And then she enters the bathroom, brushes her teeth at first as she’s taking off her pants. And then she takes a piss, still with the toothbrush inside . She takes her other cell phone, which she always puts in the bathroom. Her busy works requires her to have several cellphones, yep, a busy career woman.

She presses a dial number and waits for someone across there to pick up.

“Can you come today? I’m going out in thirty minutes… oh! Have you picked up my laundry?... okay good!” Then she flushes her toilet and steps into the shower.

After she finishes her shower and get dressed, she sits down at her dresser and starts putting on makeup to her face. And when she’s finish with her makeup, she didn’t forget to put on her watch, and put in stuffs into her purse. Then she walks out of her bedroom, now heading to the kitchen and serves herself coffee.

She looks outside the window. Her driver is already outside waiting on the side of her black Mercedes.

“Good morning, Ms. Park.”

“I’m sorry, Bill, I had an emergency… I’ll add extra money for your wage this month.” Dara says as she gets into the car.

Bill, her driver, just smiles and then he closes the door for his employer.

***

Dara entered the front door of her mom’s house. It’s much bigger than Dara’s perfectly designed house. It has a big fountain at the front. We can see it once we enter the gate.

Dara saw a little boy running around the house with a toy gun, filled with water. She’s surprised when that little boy aim the gun at her as if he’s gonna shoot her and she’s gonna get soaked. But that little boy didn’t do anything. He put down the gun immediately and smiled.

“Mom!!! Big sister is here!”

Big sister. Dara smirked as she heard that. They haven’t even met before.

“Why don’t you get along with your little brother?”

A voice coming from upstairs and Dara looked up upstairs. Her mom is walking down the stairs slowly as the little boy went away from the living room.

“You didn’t even tell me he has a little boy.” Dara muttered. She scoffed when her mom is already standing in front of her, grinning.

“His name is Junseo… You’re ungrateful! How can you give me that face? We haven’t met for months. You never visited me ever since that wedding.”

“I can never see my mom marrying someone else besides my daddy, who you deceived and killed.”

Dara’s mom widened her eyes. “Don’t, Dara! Please, I don’t want to talk about that anymore. I’ve moved on. Why can’t you just be happy for me?”

Dara crossed her arms and looked at her mom fiercely, “How can you move on so quickly? Dad died just six months ago, and you’re already married… what are you now? Baby sitting his boy?”

Dara’s mom took a step forward to grab her daughter’s arms, to stop her from ambushing her with thousands of questions and complaints.

Then someone else appeared, a tall man with a gym body, his hair has all turned white but he seems so bright and still healthy. He also has a smile that can never leave Dara’s mind, the vicious but mesmerizing smile.

“Hey, you’re here.” He said to Dara, again, with that smile.

Dara’s mom faked a smile and wrapped her arm around her daughter’s. “Let’s eat now. I’m starving already…” she said. Dara can just rolled her eyes.

It’s not like Dara hates her mom for no reason. There’s plenty reasons for Sandara to hate her beloved mother. Her mom is also one of her reasons why she worked hard on college so she can be someone she is right now. She wants to get away from her mom. She was never close with her mom anyway, for Dara, her mom was just a woman who gave birth to her and the person who destroyed her family and took her father away from her.

She never likes her mom, or the way she acts and talks. Dara is a complete opposite of her mom. She swore she’d never be the person her mom is, and she succeeded. She’s become an introverted and cold person because she doesn’t want to end up like her mom.

“So, Dara. I know it’s already a common talk we had but I really need to talk about this with you again…” Dara’s mom said as she wiped and put her hands on the table, looking at her daughter who seems uncomfortable with the existence of seven years old boy sitting next to her, eating carelessly.

“Mom… please.” Dara gave that angry look at her mom.

“Find a boyfriend, Dara.” Her mom continued.

Dara rolled her eyes and lost her appetite in a sec. She put down the fork and the spoon and leaned backward.

“I told you I don’t want to talk about this.” Dara said firmly.

Her stepdad looked at her softly and then he looked at her mom. “She doesn’t want to talk about it. So don’t talk about it. She’s an adult she knows what to do…”

“No she doesn't!” Dara’s mom exclaimed. “She never dated a single man in her life. And she’s already old enough to have children…”

“I don’t need you to worry about my life.”

“You’re 32 and you’re successful. It’s time for you to have a life partner.”

That’s it. Dara is completely mad now. She intended not to eat anymore or talk. She’s just starring at her mom sternly, crossing her arms in front