A world unbeknownst

"What…. The…. Hec*…"

She was welcomed with a magnificent view of what one calls, a narrow wooden stair. The staircase had a few steps, but it was so dark one could barely see the steps if they made their eyes adjust to the darkness with quite a bit of time. The path was narrow, so it was indeed dangerous to use.

"I didn't have any stairs in my home, did I?"

"Am I at some relative's?"

"Why the heck did I come to those jerks' houses in the first place? I don't remember coming here."

She climbed down the stairs slowly, making sure she was stepping down right.

"Dang, I really don't wanna hear those lectures again. Why do I have to be here of all places? And when did I even…"

Her thoughts came to a halt when she was greeted by the sight of an unfamiliar-looking lady, working in a tiny kitchen. She was probably making breakfast, because in front of her was some freshly baked bread, juice ready to serve, and some soup was still cooking on the stove. She was sweating a lot, and coughing vigorously every now and then.

The smoke must be uncomfortable.

But who was she? She didn't look quite right to be a maid. She looked, refined maybe? And also, beautiful to a certain point.

Whatever it is, she can't possibly be a maid by the appearance she has gotten.

"Well, my miser relatives will never hire a maid in the first place… cough," the smoke from the stove made Airi cough too, and she coughed until tears came down rolling from her eyes.

By the sound of her coughing, the lady looked up, and soon her gaze was replaced by an apologetic, and a bit scared look.

"Oh my, Airi, you woke up! I... I'm sorry, I was so careful not to create a smoke yet…khggff."

Another round of coughs stopped her words in the middle. She seemed to try desperately to stop her coughs, but those attempts were betraying her.

Airi hurriedly rushed towards her, and fetched a glass of water from the table. She offered to drink up and told her to calm down.

"Hold your breath first. You should be careful while you are cookin'."

That lady seemed surprised for a few seconds before she took the glass of water and drank up the content in it. After she seemed to calm down a bit, Airi ushered her to a chair.

"Sit down for a while, will ya? Imma take care of that soup. So, just sit tight."

She rushed towards the soup and asked, "All I gotta do is just stir that right?"

"Yes, that's right."

"See, easy-peasy. Imma make that soup nice and tasty. Sate, hajimaru!"

She started to stir that soup when the clicking sound of the front door opening reached her ears.

…

"I'm home", a man entered the house, with a bag full of vegetables and some other stuff, for that the bag seemed quite heavy. The man was also quite stronger than he looks, because he had his hair grey, and an evident trace of age was clear on his skin. Probably he was in his mid-50s. Yet he seemed capable of doing any heavy work, as he already came home with the heavy bag, and sweat on his forehead.

Wait, did he say his home?

Wasn't this her relatives'?

This sudden thought made her already quite confused but when the lady answered back to the man with all the smiles on her face, and said, "Look, our daughter is helping me in cooking", beaming with joy, made the girl stop in her movements.

Daughter?!

"Since when I started havin' parents lookin' like them?" she wondered to herself. Her head started aching all of a sudden, and it was painful to the point she couldn't control herself and blurted out, "who the heck is your daughter, I don't know you!!!!"

And she stomped back to the room she woke up earlier.

Leaving behind the middle-aged couple sad and dumbstruck.

———

"Can anyone tell me what's goin' on?! My head's messed up already enough, now this!?"

She strolled around the room anxiously, the more she looked around her, the more she was getting annoyed.

"I might not have seen them for years, but that doesn't mean I won't even recognize my parents. There is no way I would mix up my own coolAF parents..!!"

"And what's with this gross looking paint this room got? Nothing here is mine...AT ALL!"

"And they are saying I am their daughter… hah, am I dreamin'? My head's messin' me or what!"

"What am I, Isekai'ed or what!!!"

Suddenly she halted her pacing back and forth as a realization came to her. "Wait, I am not kidnapped, am I?"

By now she got more tense as the thought crossed her mind. She kept wondering how and why someone like her would get kidnapped. She might be someone who gets easily pranked or something, but that's that. Who will go as far as kidnapping her?

Wait, Madeline... did she, do it? Come to think of it, I did take her 3 game CDs when we were kids... ugh, who kidnaps someone for some games!

Then, Shina? Nah, all I did to her just to be a threat to her relationship, which wasn't even an actual threat at all...

Recalling Shina brought back another wave of headache to her, that became so unbearable that she fell onto her knees and clutched her head tightly. And with that surging headache, some voices got played like a recorder within her head.

"You got some brains so you thought you were going to get everyone around your fingers? You pretentious b*tch. All you got to do some filthy sh*t all day, and behave as if you don't care about the world huh?"

What were those words? Were those meant towards her? Who said those? Why can't I…

Despite having a pain in her head, she somehow managed to look up for the water jug in the room, but to her surprise, when her eyes landed on the mirror in front of her, she stared at her own reflection for a long time.

Her skin in the reflection seems quite fairer and smoother than she remembered. She didn't have those stubborn dark circles anymore under her eyes. Rather, it seemed like she was well-rested.

Her cheeks were chubbier than she recalled. Her lips looked softer than before.

Overall, her complexion was so much better than ever.

But the strangest thing was her hair, which was her waist-length long. She had always preferred to keep her hair short, so it was indeed strange.

"Just how long did I pass out to grow my hair this big? Did I just sleep for months like Ms. Nam Hong Joo-ssi? Neh, that would take a big fat accident to occur…and she was in a coma for 10 months…"

"Well, you sure met quite a huge deal of an event yourself, didn't you?"

Her entire body got in alert mode, and she spun towards the source of the voice. And there the person was, standing in a calm and collected manner.

"And you also look quite excited first thing in the morning." That man walked closing up the distance between them. A weird grin appeared on his face, despite his composed look. "You got to relax after all those unpleasant experiences you went through, don't you?"

She was angrier than being terrified. Who is the man acting all haughty? "You must be one of them, right? Tell me, why did ya' kidnap me? Who hired you? Is that a girl? A boy? College student? Old guy? Any wealthy women? Who!"

"Oy oy, calm down, will you? You talk quite a lot despite the fact that you are unable to blurt out a single word from that pretty little mouth of yours," the sides of his mouth twitched as if he was mocking her.

"Let's just relax for a second, shall we?" he put a hand on top of her head and suddenly, a white shiny fog surrounded her, putting her in a deep slumber. Soon enough, she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore as sleep took over her eyes.