The arid and humid air swept through the early morning of May, as the previous night's rain slowly dispersed with the slowly rising sun. It was a calm morning, as the birds settled down on the nearby trees of the Baek residence. One was perched upon a tree branch that reeked an earthy and musty smell due to the rain from the previous night, and the other hatched itself on a nearby balcony.
That was until a loud bang emerged from the kitchen grounds as the shelf of cooking pans tumbled over onto the ground. Beside it stood one of the newly appointed cooking assistants. The poor boy turned pale and quickly turned around to skim the room to see if anyone witnessed his accident.
"You need to be more careful!" an urgent and stern tone spoke by one of the primary maids. "It's only your fourth day here, you can't be making such a huge ruckus in the kitchen especially at this early in the morning! You're lucky that all the young masters' bedrooms are all located far from the kitchen."
The maid sighed heavily then continued. "Otherwise, you'd be caught and scolded and who knows what would have happened after that." After giving him the warning, the maid quickly left to attend to her own morning duties.
Upon hearing this, the now frightened boy quickly sped into action and started tidying up the space, and rearranging the shelf again. After a few moments, he had only managed to raise the shelf halfway to its original position and was already gasping for his breath.
"Do you need any help?" a soft and friendly tone asked from the doorway entrance of the kitchen grounds. It echoed through the timid quietness of the room. It was dark, but it was clear there stood a figure of a young girl.
"Yes, please - if it won't be a bother to what you were doing."
"Of course not, I was just passing by after getting a drink."
"Thank you so much then!" the assistant responded.
The two of them slowly raised the shelf together and fitted the footing to hold it in its place. In the dim lights, it was hard to tell who the kind stranger was as her face was barely visible but her delicacy and movements were very composed and elegant as the young boy took note of her as she was helping him rearrange the pots onto the shelf.
After around a couple of minutes, they finished and the shelf looked as if it was untouched in the first place, and even more neat than before.
The young cooking assistant repeated once again, "Thank you so much for helping me out, I don't know what I would have done without your help - If the masters were to find out about it later when they woke up..."
"It's no problem, I'm glad I could help."
"Are you also a part of the new cooking crew? Or are you a maid? If so, would you like to have lunch with me today - my treat as to repay you for your help?"
"I would love to but I'm afraid I can't, I'm sorry." She answered back.
"Ah okay, well thank you again! I'm gonna go start prepping for breakfast then." He said scurried, and quickly left to sort out the newly arrived condiments from the food delivery.
After watching him leave, the girl tidied up her nightgown and dusted the debris off it, and headed towards the grand parlor in the central room.
She thought to herself. How nice it must be to have that much freedom.
As she passed by the main corridors of the west side of the manor, trickles of sunlight showed slowly through the vast windows and palladian. The light allowed for her facial features to show, and for her appearance to submerge.
It was a young girl, she had a delicate and lean build. Her height reached around 170 cm, and her medium champagne hair dropped just right by her torso. Her eyelashes were long and watery as they cowered over her eyelids as if she had just been crying the night before. Underneath her dark brown eyes, redness filled under her eyes indicating they were a little swollen.
She walked barefoot with her laced and silky nightgown just barely sweeping the marble floors beneath her as she reached the parlor area.
After taking the time to make sure nobody was there, she then went to the fifth bookshelf that was unused and took out a dusty-looking book from the shelves.
Except it wasn't an ordinary book.
It was a photo book she had hidden within the house in the most uncommon place nobody would check and be suspicious of. Inside were old photos of her memories with her parents who had passed away in a car accident while traveling abroad for work when she was just around the age of seven. Deeper within the shelves behind the place where the book once was, was a box stored with her most treasured possessions. Inside the box were a few items that her parents had left behind for her.
The other item was a jeweled earring. It wasn't an expensive jewel, but it had a handmade carving engraved on it. It was a gift given to her by a boy from her childhood she had grown up with until he abruptly moved abroad one day without a trace of goodbye.
The earrings had a tiny Maehwa flower carving on one piece of it with an initial imprinted on the other piece.
The girl really treasured those items that reminded her of happiness and security before she stepped foot into this household. Her parents had lived separately outside of this manor, and upon their deaths - the girl was brought back into custody by her grandfather, Baek Jeong-Hoon.
Baek Jeong-Hoon - head of one of Korea's second-rate conglomerate families. The owner of the entire Baek residency and was a major shareholder for many power companies in the country. The Baek family holds influential power and high social status in Korea, known as one of the most prestigious noble families of the century. He has 5 children and 9 grandchildren, all of whom have been competing for the family inheritance since birth.
The Baek family is known around the country, and every member of the family is well connected with riches and popularity.
That is...every member except one.
This one grandchild of the Baek family was never recognized by society as she was kept out of the media and was treated harshly by her cousins in the dark.
She was the only child of the third-born son of the Baek household. After her parent's death, she was not accepted by anyone in the family except her grandfather. Her other family members ostracized her as they considered her to be filthy just like her mother. Her father had married a commoner, and in their eyes - it was considered a sin and filth.
Her grandfather never noticed her suffering as all the torments and bullying she went through were done beneath his vision, and the girl was too scared to report anything. Because she knew, that if she were to report anything - her cousins could easily lie and manipulate their way out of it and she would succumb to more suffering and torments as punishment.
The young girl that once had a bubbly personality and an innocent child's view of life faced the harshness of reality at such a young age and suppressed her fears over the years until she felt no emotion for family and blood ties.
Because of her exposure to the cruelness at a young age, she matured quickly. Her beauty blossomed over the years along with her kindness and acceptance of others as well. She was still a naive little girl inside for concepts of love and trust, but she was mature to withstand the pain and tolerance of trauma and the taunts of those around her.
The girl's name is Baek Eun-bi.