"Cinderella stepped up to him. The prince got down on one knee and tried the glass slipper on her foot. It fit perfectly! Then, from her pocket Cinderella took out something. It was the other glass slipper!

"I knew it!" he cried. "You are the one!"

"WHAT?" Shouted a step-sister.

"Not HER!" Screamed the other step-sister.

"This cannot BE!" Yelled the stepmother.

But it was too late. The prince knew that Cinderella was the one. He looked into her eyes. He did not see the cinders in her hair or the ashes on her face.

"I have found you!" He said.

"And I have found you," said Cinderella.

And so, Cinderella and the Prince were married, and they lived happily ever after."

Closing her daughter's favourite piece of fairy tale, Ahyun gazed at her baby lovingly. She had fallen asleep listening to Cinderella right on her lap, soothingly blended into the world of knights in shining armours.

The shoe was the only link for the prince charming to find his ladylove... But he couldn't remember her face; how contradicting. Although on the surface, fairy tales looked simple, easy and arguably dumb, but this ageless work of fiction about modern life by its very nature incredible.

According to it, the universe was wild and full of wonders, but the soul was sane. Whereas, in reality, the world was dull and ordinary, but the soul was ill and wailing.

Sliding the book over the mahogany table, she curled her arms around the sleeping kid caging her into her motherly warmth, a gesture of love. Walking up to her room: A pink, cotton candy coloured room lit in the tinkling fairy lights she pushed the door with her feet making some space for the duo to get in.

Tucking her beneath the soft covers, she left a sweet peck on her head, her lips lingering a few seconds longer, inhaling her scent. Ahyun loved Mi-cha, more than anyone, even Seojin.

As she walked back to the living room, her home felt unusually silent, the echo of her footsteps on the wooden floor a stark contrast to the usual laughter and play of her daughter. The fireplace crackled softly, much like the doubts in Ahyun's mind.

She stood by the window, gazing out at the old oak tree that held so many secrets, so much of her past. The tree had witnessed her first kiss with Seojin, her childhood confidant, the boy with kind eyes that sparkled with genuine warmth. How could that same boy be accused of such heinous crimes? It seemed impossible, a twisted dream that she couldn't wake up from.

The whole confrontation had somewhat left her baffled. No, Ahyun trusted Seojin and nothing could ever shatter it but feelings are feelings. She couldn't bury the anger, the wrath that had bubbled inside her when she saw the scene. She shall always hate Tobias for that.

Ahyun was blessed with a happy family that consisted of a loving husband who always supported her and an adorable daughter who brought immense joy to her life. The only thing she dreaded was the nightmare that often whispered to her that all of this was nothing but a lie, a staged performance soon to end and everything will perhaps disassemble and crumble down.

For that record, her mind often teased her, created a diaspora that she too was a lie, and so was Mi-cha, Seojin, Yoshi... All this was just a façade to the world that too was nothing but a funny atom with no intricate parts of its own.

What if her words were just made up by someone sitting and plotting, as if she was a part of one simulation game, her words, actions and advances all set up inside her brain and body devised in a certain way.

And she had a clue too. Often, she would try to say something and some other words would slip past her lips, unwillingly. And she had no control over them. Like a few words weren't her own, the feelings too pliant and heart corrupted, not too crude to hurt anyone but then again too bizarre.

Weird, wasn't it?

A bell interrupted her wave of thoughts as her eyes shot up at the clock, 11.00 pm; it must be her husband. He was never this late, but then it wasn't just any day.

As she walked down the hall, her gaze was drawn to the reflection in the mirror. It was her own reflection, a silent echo, an illusion. Someone held her close. The tightening embrace felt like a noose, growing tighter with each passing moment, her eyes lost in an endless spiral of reflections.

The bell went again, its faint chime echoing down the empty hallway. Pacing faster to the door she opened to a sight she would dread to imagine, and something squeezed her throat as she swallowed a sob, her eyes begging for an answer and her heart for some relief.

Hana stood there, half on her own, and half clinging to Seojin. Her eyes were red and her face pale. Sensing her fear, Ahyun took a step forward, causing Hana to flinch. She reached out a hand, as if to console Hana, but instead, her touch only served to intensify her own raw emotions. Her body trembled uncontrollably, her heart breaking further with each passing moment.

Just then, her husband approached, his face reflecting the same sadness that consumed her. He wrapped his arms around the two, offering solace and support.

"Everything will be fine," he whispered, more to himself than to Ahyun. But she clung onto those words, desperately hoping they would bring some relief to the pain she felt.

...

If she had never experienced such an ordeal, it was probably impossible to understand how she could react so strongly to her own body. It was her third panic attack, and Hana was a mess.

The sky was so blue that she couldn't look at it because it made her sad, surging tears in her eyes, and they oozed quietly on the floor as she went on with her day. So, she had kept the windows closed, blinds shut and tried to keep her focus, elsewhere. She ticked off the to-do list, did her errands, dropped orders, wrote emails, paid bills and rewrote notes. But the panic kept growing, detonating in her chest.

Days after the chaos and her broken heart, she took refuge at the Kim house. Ahyun didn't let the girl leave either, rather compelled her to stay with them, more like an order. She knew how hopeless the woman could have been, and more than it, she was terrified to see the strong woman break down.

She had tried to persuade Hana into saying the reason Chiwon had presented as an enormous fault that caused this break up, but the girl didn't budge, she kept quiet trying to nudge herself into the regularity.

"You should ask him, talk to him Hana..."

Ahyun sat beside Hana, the femme frantically typing arbitrary letters on her keyboard, her fingers dancing across the keys in a flurry of frustration. "Jin oppa? Did he scold you?" Hana knew the meaning to her question so well yet chose to act unaware, chose to be usual.

An acidity had etched deep within the lady of the Kim household, everything was wary, everything crumbling even her own sanity, yet she smiled, "You know very well that all this isn't about Seojin. Talk to Chiwon, Hana. I don't know what the actual reason is, but relations don't break so easily."

Hana's voice cracked, the hoarseness still raw and painful. "He could have done that too, noona. Why not him when he broke up with me?" She glared at the screen, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.

"But someone has to-"

"Why not Chiwon?"

Ahyun was at a loss for words, standing at the edge of nothingness. Why not Chiwon? "Hana-" she started, but the girl cut her off.

"No noona, I am tired of this. I don't want to go on thinking about it, again and again, it is too much for me, too much... I can't-"

Hana clutched the seam of her dress tightly, her knuckles turning white in utter frustration. It was too much, and she couldn't even say the things Chiwon had told her, not to Jin and Ahyun at least. No matter how hard she tried, it was already too late. The feeling of hopelessness consumed everything, leaving no room for escape or resolution. All she could do was come to terms with the unpleasant reality and find the strength to bear the unbearable. There was no wrongdoing on her part, just the cruel hand of fate at work.

The day when she met Chiwon, the day he had smiled at her, the day when everything changed, was still quite etched in her mind. When he had placed his hand to hold hers between the swishing busker noise in Hongdae, she had felt so close to warmth. Yes, everything had changed, every inch of her skin felt the tingle of winters with him. He had decorated her, engraved her soul, and reverted her into a delusion of her own existence.

Yet, he had left, just like the chapped winters leaving Seoul's alleys behind. He had left her into nothingness, into the abyss of loneliness.

Ahyun smiled at the girl, she knew Hana was too strong to let her walls down, but someone had to make those moves. Her hands strung through her locks, a small connotation of care breathing life into her.

"I understand that you're feeling worn out, too exhausted to even think clearly. But remember, the most draining exhaustion comes not from fighting the battle, but from giving up the fight. It is always harder to hesitate and retreat than to be bold and move forward. Hana, the final decision is yours to make, and I trust you to choose wisely."

Maybe she had said a few heavy word's, but life wasn't a fairytale. Nobody would come running, trying to find Cinderella's shoe and Hana had to understand it.

___________

Noona is big sister in Korean, Oppa is big brother, and I am Inky.

I hope this version of my story has been a good read.
WC: 1691