"Ahma! I'm home!" Sun Mi cried, kicking off her shoes, and sliding into the kitchen. "Sun Mi, in the living room!" "Ah?" She tried to turn, but ended up slipping and falling, the rug scrunched under her feet. "Ahhh..." she said, rubbing her lower back as she walked into the living room. "Getting so old..." she said jokingly. Her mother sat on the floor, seperating sticky rice in a large bowl. "C'mon." her mother said cheerily, as Sun Mi tied her hair back with a bandana and sat next to her mother, preparing food. "Sun Mi," her mother began, which left a hint of dread in her daughter. The next thing could not be good. "You know I love you, and I'm so proud of you; you work so hard, hunny." her mother cooed, not looking up from her bowl. Uh oh. Last time her mother sat her down like this, it was a long lecture that ended in her being chased around, but that was when she was eleven, and if anyone in the entire world was psycho, it was ahma. She was nice-mean. "Yeh..." Sun Mi nervously said. Her mother grabbed a wooden spoon to emphasize her next point. "So! I'll will be so much prouder when you past those tests next week, eh? Your school called, I heard that you can get a scholarship! Wouldn't you want that, baby? Not so many jobs? We could put that money to good use, get you some new clothes; sometimes I swear, you look so dirty leaving here..." her mother clicked her tongue. "Ahma!" Sun Mi shouted. "Its true; compared to those kids I see when I drive by, so clean, and everything so new. We can compete with them if you jsut get a step ahead." Waving the spoon in her face once more, her mother added with a wink, "Besides, guys really like a smart girl." Sun Mi laughed, blushing slightly. "Ah, I think its the other way around." Her mother gasped, and raised her spoon of death once more. "Yah! Don't say that! When I was your age, when I captured your dad's heart, I was so smart! Just like you, and just as pretty as you!" Touching Sun MI's chin, she slightly turned her head left, then right. "Ehh... maybe more. You have your dad's cheekbones." Sun MI pushed the hand away, and laughed. "Ahma!" Her mother stood up, the short, plump woman with the smile lines, who looked just like Sun Mi, and in her older figure, you could see what used to be her waistline and collagen skin, and how age and labour made her a shorter version of herself. "I was so cute, you know, and sweet!" "And conceited." Sun Mi added, not taking her eyes off her tasks. "I had every right to be." "Yeh yeh, Miss. Beauty queen, do you think you can make me spicy shrimps tomorrow?" But her mom was lost in her own thoughts. "Aish... how smart could I have been to have married your father? Why couldn't I have been more smart, and married for money?" Sun Mi's face fell, and she quietly said, "Because you're a much better person." Standing up, she hugged her mother tightly, and strained to smile. "Besides he left you so much." Her mother scoffed. "So much debt, the big idiot." "Guys are like that sometimes; besides without that big idiot, you wouldn't have me." Her mother looked at her daughter with warm eyes."Your righ; the gambler gave me a prize." There was a silence through the apartment, before her mother clasped her hands together. "Now c'mon, we can't sit here all sad; we have work to do. I'll finish cooking, you clean up?" she asked.~