When Mr. Park found Miya, she was lifting a chainsaw along with a five litre can of kerosene oil. She was still in a rather wobbly white t-shirt and baggy white pyjamas while she stomped around recklessly in the store room. She had tied her hair in a loose braid, and strands of it fell furiously on her face. She was glaring at everything around herself and she trampled the ground with extreme ferocity, the two dangerous looking objects dangling from her hands.

Her face was the expression of living rage.

While the butler had simply walked in to check on the duo, he had not expected to see the girl go missing again. Panicking, he had asked around and finally found her in the small, dark store room. It wasn’t exactly a small room, but it was the smallest one in the mansion.

Miya, however, had Mr. Park scared now.

The girl was looking around frantically for something else, while she carried the oversized can and chainsaw with herself. She looked like she could succumb from the sheer weight of it all, and her face was pale. Park noticed that she was sweating profusely as well, but something about the anger on her face stopped the old man from moving.

He simply watched the girl stomp around wildly, furiously muttering to herself

“I’ll burn it to little pieces, that ass, my baby!”

It was when she was about to lift one hand of hers to do away with a strand of hair falling into her eyes, that Mr. Park shot into action.

“Miya!” Park called out urgently, “Watch out!”

Miya looked around, surprised at the voice. To Park’s relief, she also lowered her hand.

The butler shrugged rapidly.

“You would have poured it all over you,” he motioned towards the can of kerosene, and took in a hesitant step towards her. Miya didn’t seem like she understood Park’s interference, in fact, she overlooked his warning completely. Instead, the girl took two furious steps towards him, making the old man flinch.

“Mr. Park,” her voice was grave, “Where will I find a match stick? I need a matchbox!”

Park took an involuntary step backwards, his heart suddenly not beating anymore. He quickly put up his hands, wary of the girl who seemed like a tiny, furious gangster. He swallowed.

He was not one to underestimate thugs.

“I- I don’t have one. Why do you need it Miya?”

Miya gave Park an annoyed look, then turned around, resuming her search. She nevertheless, did grumble under her breath, “I need it to burn that shitass assh*le, that greedy son of a b*tch, his d*ck face, that ugly green horrifying bug! I’m going to stomp on him till he crushes into dirt! That evil, lowly f*** ant –”

Mr. Park refused to hear the rest. From her description though – the ‘ugly green’ part specifically, he could fairly imagine who she was talking about. That guy from the footage.

Park had watched the record already. She was referring to that ‘K’ man.

The matter was already seeming hopeless to Park.

There must be millions of girls in the world. And out of them all, Simon had chosen Eshni. And his son Jimmy, had chosen Miya.

The girl was glaring at a chair now, and Park was half afraid she would smash it into the ground and rub it against the floor till it produced fire.

Park breathed.

“Why?” he then said very calmly, “Why do you want to burn someone, Miya?”

“Why not?” came her weak, yet instant reply, “You slept with Ben last night, Mr. Park! Do you not know? I just came after looking at my baby. He cried all night! His eyes were swollen, and his pone had a picture of me, and he was hugging it in his sleep! I have never seen my Ben that distressed! I am going to chop off that snake’s balls with my chainsaw right here. Just you watch!”

Park flinched at her words, not knowing how to respond. Last night he had simply put the child to sleep, ensured that he was safe and gone off to work again. He did not know the rest. Chenric must though, the guard had volunteered on looking after Ben.

Park watched Miya with a hawk eye, wondering if she was still under the influence of the hallucinogenic and out of her senses. She did wobble every now and then, but she was bang on with her insults. Park didn’t know what to presume.

“And I’m going to burn that algae hair of his! Mr. Park, that son of a b*tch, he threatened to swallow my baby cobra alive! I’ll throttle him with that green hair of his, I swear on my sis –“

Mr. Park coughed uncomfortably, not at all wanting to be addressed by Miya. Then, it hit him. Miya’s words – what!

That ‘K’ man threatened to eat her cobra?

What?!

Instinctively, the old man remembered the photograph he had found. And a snake that had been coiled around Miya’s arm. He didn’t know if it was a cobra or not – but…

Could it be that this attacker, the Chairman’s wife, and Miya were part of a single story?

It took Park all of his strength to not bang his head against a wall. Instead, he breathed in and out a few times, and concentrated on Miya’s blabber, which had stopped making sense altogether. The butler concluded she was indeed, not completely in control of her sense. That relieved him.

Clearing his throat, he quietly walked to the girl, and said, “I think I have a lighter somewhere in the next room. Come with me?”

Miya nodded determinedly, her eyes on fire, “Yes, a lighter. Do you know Mr. Park? That beast made me swear on blood! Real blood! And I was fifteen! Bound in blood, he said. I’ll pump his arteries out today.”

Park quietly turned on the voice record on his phone, just in case he missed something. Then very gently, he pulled away the chainsaw and then the can of oil from her hands. As soon as the weight was off her arms, the girl sagged. She clung on to Park’s hand, called him uncle, then ‘Granny Kai’. Then she went on to mumble about the green guy some more, rather bizarre details.

Park finally figured out his name – Kaali.

And while Jimmy’s lady blabbered some more, the old man was increasingly saddened. He brought her back to her room, called for the doctor, who gave her another dose of her medicine. It looked like she hadn’t slept all night, and the symptoms had worsened somewhat.

When Park had helped her lie beside the still asleep Jimmy, his heart was moved.

The two found each other almost by instinct, and while Jim was quick to embrace Miya and smile in sleep, Miya hugged him back and mumbled to herself, “Fairy angel!”

Park held his head in his hands.

These two kids… even though their lives were so intertwined, so brazenly messed up, so horrifically threatening – they still somehow managed to seem like they were meant to be.

How rare was that?

Park closed his eyes, reluctantly, but silently agreeing with the Chairman.

These two deserved a chance.