A black car rushed through the highway toward the airport at one sunny afternoon. But soon, it slowed down and entered a languid pace, even though there was no traffic in sight.
"Hah--so what if I'm a little late?" the driver grumbled. "Pete told she didn't even scold him when he was an hour late in the past."
The driver was late, extrely so. He was supposed to be at the arrival gate when he was busy grumbling behind the wheel. The man didn't even have a solid reason for it--he was simply overslept while taking a nap. A normal family driver would be worried about their future employnt if they were ever a minute late to pick up a daughter of the family head, but this man was very much at ease.
He did, however, have a precedent for his perceived ease in tardiness. While he was relatively new and only worked for the family after the second daughter left to study abroad, he had heard enough from the other workers. An upright and polite girl, even to the employees. Very ek, soft-spoken, never got angry.
Basically a pushover.
A driver was an hour late one ti, and she didn't even scold the person. She simply let out a sigh and still thanked the driver after arriving ho. The driver was initially worried, but there was no summon from the chairman or the house manager even after a week. A maid broke one of her favorite music box, and again, she only told the girl to be careful next ti.
A ek young lady incapable of expressing anger. It was quite apparent, especially for the house staff, that Lee Seul-ah always avoided conflict, did not like attention, and very rarely stood up for herself. The driver heard that the second daughter only raised her voice if soone insulted her mother, the deceased second wife.
So, really...no one felt the need to fear her. If anything, the staff was happily using her as a release of so sort. After feeling miserable for being treated harshly like dirt while facing the other children and the two wives, it felt good to be able to look down on the so-called aristocrat of modern society.
"She even still had prestige in the past--but what does she have now?" the driver snickered as the car entered the airport's gate. "She can't even have decent grades even though the chairman pours out a lot of money. No one is supporting her anymore."
The driver laughed; there was not much news about the second daughter while she was abroad, but what they heard was undesirable. Bad grades, party all night--there were even rumors about her sleeping around with random people. She only graduated after five years because the family poured money into the university for a diploma. Honestly though, it wasn't anything surprising from conglorate children--they acted like that all the ti. But coming from soone who used to be so upright, it was a huge disappointnt.
A downfall, if one must say.
Lee Seul-ah, once heralded as a talent to support the future of HS Group, beca nothing more than a trashy, incompetent third-generation conglorate--just like dozen others. The executives who supported her had given up, saying that she couldn't overco her grief and went down the wrong path.
Whatever--the point was, she no longer had any standing at the house. A pushover with no support...
"Even if she gets angry, I can just go to Aunt--ahem, Madam Mina and ask her to take care of it," the driver smirked.
He swerved to the pickup lane; the daughter's assistant--who ca back a week before her with all of her luggage--told him she would be waiting there. Pfft--even after knowing he was late, the assistant just told him to fetch her there, as if she were just a commoner waiting for a taxi service.
"Hmm...where is she?" the driver looked at the people waiting for their booked vehicle, matching the picture he had of the second daughter to the faces of the waiting people. "I thought she'd already be waiting here."
Was she still waiting at the arrival gate? The driver thought in annoyance. "Ugh--should I call her?"
He parked the car and got out while calling the number the assistant provided him. Surprisingly, he heard the sound of phone ringing not far from where he was.
"Huh?"
The driver turned his head in the direction of the ringing sounds, and he saw a girl staring at her blinking phone screen. The problem was...the girl looked nothing like the picture the driver saw of the second young lady.
On the picture he saw, the driver rembered that the young lady had long, silky black hair and a delicate face with almost no makeup--a humble but elegant look that the executives wanted her to have as the face of the group. In all of the pictures he saw, the second young lady always dressed modestly, in a calm and subdued color like beige, black, or white. She barely wore any jewelry, even in events or family portraits, and her expression was always perfectly demure, like her personality.
The girl whose phone was ringing, however, had short, wavy hair in deep, dark red. A pair of erald butterfly earrings adorned her ears...along with probably a dozen others. Tightly lined eyes, frad in thick lashes looked up from the phone, and the driver could see a sharp gaze behind a pair of bright contact lenses. A red leather jacket, almost as red as her lips, slipped off a shoulder, showing an inked skin.
While the driver was still parting his lips in bewildernt, the girl walked toward him. With an unchanging expression, she raised her palm and smacked it across the driver's cheek.
SLAP!
"Ack!" the driver gasped in surprised; the phone almost fall from his hand. "What the hell?!"
SLAP!
Another hard smack--harder than he thought could co from that petite figure--sent him to the floor. This ti, the phone clattered against the floor, escaping from his stunned hand.
"You dare curse in front of after coming late?" a cold voice ca after the hard slap.
"Y-young Miss--"
"What an imbecile," Seul-ah clicked her tongue. "I can't believe our family had stoop so low to even employ soone so stupid."
"W-what?!"
Ignoring the driver's offended expression, the girl proceeded to take so money from her purse and throw it onto the driver of the ground. "Go back by yourself."
"H-huh?"
While the driver was still staring at the girl dumbfoundedly, she snatched the key from his hand and strode to the parked car.
"Ah, right--" she turned his head while putting on a pair of sunglasses. "I go by Sarah now. Tell the house that."
And just like that, the car drove away, leaving the driver behind. He stayed there in stunned, frozen for a minute until his phone vibrated on the ground. Startled, he scrambled toward the phone and took the call while trembling.
"S-Sir..."
[Have you picked her up?]
"Uhh...this might sound weird, Sir..."
* * *
The first place Sarah visited wasn't her house, nor was it the columbarium where her mother remained. Instead, she drove the car to the place she visited the first ti when she only just returned five years ago.
"Look who we have here," Lee Sol spread his arms to greet the girl he hadn't seen for five years.
"Who?" Sarah arched her brow.
"Our little Miss Diamond!" the general manager held out his hand. "Or should I call you Miss Jade Butterfly?"
Sarah rolled her eyes, but still took the hand coming for her and held the man's elbow. Lee Sol smiled and led her further inside, which operated as a classy wine lounge instead of a glamorous bar during the day. Ironically, she ca to the wine bar while dressing up for a night party when the first ti she ca, she was dressed for a formal lounge.
Her objective, however, was neither. Of course, she also wasn't there for a fight night, since it was still the afternoon.
"I've heard about it, but you do change a lot," Lee Sol chuckled, before adding as the girl glanced at him dryly. "On the outside, I an."
"I changed on the inside too," Sarah said. "At least, I hope I am."
"Rather than changing..." Lee Sol looked at the girl, recalling the first ti he t her. "I think you're just shedding your skin."
Even after five years, he still rembered that ti; a gaze full of icy determination. Ice and fire coexist in balance. It was why he beca so intrigued at that ti, and still let her in even if he was filled with suspicion. He could see the sa gaze after five years, even if the appearance changed. From the look of it, the fierce butterfly had always been there, just waiting for a chance to spread its wings proudly.
And since she ended up being his owner's investnt, it seed like Lee Sol's assessnt was correct.
"Why are you here now, though?"
Sarah narrowed her eyes and exhaled slowly. "I need to see the Little Bird," she said with underlying tension. "And I might need to borrow your car."
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