Tifa's POV:

Tifa shuffled her bare legs off the edge of her bed. Her panties were wet and uncomfortable. She slowly pushed herself up and, with an awkward gait, headed to the switch next to the door.

With a flick, the lights turned on. She immediately recoiled, eyes squeezing shut. She rubbed them, giving them enough time to adjust to the brightness of the room. 'That bitch is not wrong… I should start going out more…'

Tifa huffed an irritable sigh, though as she recalled her chat with Dae Ho, a silly grin spread across her face. 'He sounds like a good guy…' Of course, a 10-minute chat with someone she didn't know was not a reliable source to draw up a personality test from.

But Tifa had a very big heart, and she was willing to trust her gut feeling that Dae Ho was 'the one'.

Thinking about him, a stab of panic distorted her face.

She hurried over to the body-sized mirror hanging on the wall and inspected herself under the flickering light.

Dark eyes stared back at her through the reflection. They were crowned by sweepy, velvety eyelashes. She was short, barely an inch past 5 feet. 'Guys like short girls, right?'

Her skin was pale, almost ghostly so, and the color would have been off-putting if not for its unblemished, delicate beauty.

If ghosts held beauty pageants, she'd definitely claim the first place.

Tifa ran her fingers along the rounded, slim contour of her face. They skimmed across the mole right underneath her left eye, moving up, until they curled around a lock of hair. A rich brown color, like mahogany. It fell down her shoulders in silky threads, each strand an earthly shade blessed by nature.

Her nose was small, with a slightly upturned tip.

Her lips? Slim, rosy, and delicate, like rose petals.

More than a ghost, perhaps, she looked like the spirit of a sakura tree.

The clothes she was wearing were baggy and very unflattering. She always chose comfort over style. Who was she supposed to impress anyway?

Well, that was before she saw Dae Ho.

Now she wanted to dress up, style her hair, and behave like a girl that hadn't locked herself up in her own world, who hadn't lost touch with reality.

'First impressions are important… and my first impression has to be the best.'

Tifa bit her thumb nervously, her feet dragging her to her closet, where she fumbled around for clothes. Decent clothes. She had a few frilly things that she used to wear in middle school.

High school, on the other hand, was the dawn of moody, all-dark, cringe clothes. Thinking about that period still made her grimace.

"I need to revamp all of this." She lamented. "I have no clothes…"

At least, no clothes pretty enough to put a straight, heart-shaped arrow through Dae Ho's chest.

She balled her hands into fists, swung the door open, and yelled. "Heeeeey!" The echo of her voice was carried through the entire house. "Psst! Psst! Come here, piggy, piggy."

'That dumb hoe better not be sleeping…'

Just as Tifa was about to yell again, the urgent footfalls of someone clumsily running rang out across the hallway. However, unlike the normal stride of a human, her mother's had, oddly enough, two added 'thumps'.

And when she finally came into view, the mystery was solved.

Tifa's mother was not walking — she was trotting like an animal, hands and feet slamming on the floor as she struggled to gallop.

"Ohhh." Tifa made a very cute expression as she stared at her mother, Min-Jun, dog-trot up to her, head low and face hidden by her curtain of hair. A cat-like smile developed across Tifa's face. She blinked, tilting her head. "... you're late."

"I'm… I'm s—"

"I didn't know pigs could talk."

"..."

"I said… I didn't know pigs could talk." Tifa's face darkened.

"Oink… oink…" A sob tore through Min-Jun's throat as she grunted out the humiliating sounds. "... oink… oink…"

"I need money, ASAP." Tifa stared at her nails, wondering if a manicure would add more points to her charm. Her nails looked more like that of a girl than a woman. They were short, clean, and perfectly trimmed.

Min-Jun bit her bottom lip.

"Don't force me to put a leash on you, again." Tifa crossed her arms, foot tapping impatiently. "Last time it was embarrassing enough for the neighbors to call the police, we wouldn't that to happen again, right? You don't want them to know what you did, right?"

"... oink… oink…" Min-Jun hesitantly reached a hand between her cleavage and pulled out a wad of cash. 100,000 KRW. It was all she had left after Tifa took control of the household's finances.

Min-Jun ground her teeth, but didn't utter a word. Except that she did the mistake of letting her grudge and hatred seep out of her eyes. Tifa, naturally, caught that and frowned. "I don't like those eyes. I wonder if I should carve them out…"

Silence. Min-Jun hunched her shoulders and lowered her head.

"You deserve punishment, don't you? You agree with me, right moooom?"

"... oink oink…"

"Hahaha! So you do!" Tifa clapped her hands animatedly as she bounced her heels up and down. "Actually… you know what? I'm in a good mood today. I'm not going to punish you… I'm going to reward you."

Min-Jun cried out, grunting, trembling, and silently seething in her despair.

Because she knew. She knew that a 'reward' could be worse than any punishment.

"Lift your head, pig."

"..." Min-Jun begrudgingly complied and tilted her chin up. The strands of hair parted in an S-curl fringe, exposing her wet, bloodshot eyes. She used to be beautiful. Now all that was left was its ghost on that broken visage.

However, that wasn't the only peculiarity about her.

In fact, a thin, faded scar ran diagonally across Min-Jun's face. From her left eyebrow to her right cheek. It was a nasty reminder of what her diabolic daughter could do when Min-Jun attempted to seize control of the house.

Tifa slipped her thumbs inside the waistband of her shorts and tugged everything down. "I played with myself earlier. Just a little. But, ah, the bathroom is so far away, and I'm quite tired. So…" Her underwear slid down her ankles. "... why don't you clean me yourself? Surely, a filthy animal such as you will enjoy it. Am I wrong?"

"..."

Min-Jun stared in horror at the wet, glimmering trails that ran down her pale thighs. Revulsion contorted her face. Her throat burned as bile crept up, but she held it back down. She had to.

Tifa sighed, genuinely vexed at her mother. "Mom? Don't let me count to five."

"..."

Min-Jun crammed her eyes shut as she, in one rusted, unwilling motion of the neck, tucked her face between her daughter's thighs, and stuck her tongue out.

"You dirty bitch." Tifa grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face right into her cunt. "Make sure to lap everything up. That'll be your lunch."

──⇌ ⋆★⋆ ⇋──

"I need a day of rest after coming back from my business trip…" Yeong Gu sighed. "My body really isn't the same as it was during my youth."

At his words, I expected Eun Ha to show her support, but I was wrong. She would, occasionally, and not-so-secretly, glance at me. The earnestness in her gaze was held back by a touch of shyness. She reminded me of a high school girl who didn't know what to make of her budding feelings.

"Mom, can we eat anything other than meat, like vegetables for once?" Su Ah complained. "I don't want to get fat."

Mia, who was next to me, was offended. She scoffed, smirking. "You're sick. Meat is the best. Ain't that right, Dae Ho?" She winked at me, to which I smiled with an exasperated shake of my head. "Mom, let's cook some sirloin steak."

"Unnie, aren't you worried?" Su Ah asked in a condescending tone. "Won't it be a problem if your ass keeps getting bigger?"

Mia turned her nose up, arrogantly. "Do you really think my ass looks that big? South American women's asses are twice as big as mine."

Ah, I kinda wanted to deny that, but she was not wrong.

I sensed someone staring at me, so I turned towards the source. Eun Ha seemed deeply bothered by Mia and Su Ah's conversation. And it could be seen by the way she rubbed her hips while giving me this puppy stare.

'Don't tell me she's also worried about the size of her butt?'

"Dae Ho!"

I snapped my eyes back to Mia, who was looking at me with a challenging grin. "You're a man, right?"

"A man? How dare you." I held a hand to my chest, insulted. "I identify myself as an attack helicopter."

"..."

"..."

Both Mia and Su Ah stared at me with blank expressions.

Yeong Gu, on the other hand, nearly choked on his chopstickful of rice.

I sighed. "Alright. Alright. Yes, I'm a man."

'You more than anyone else should know this.'

"Then, what do you think about girls with big butts? Be honest!"

"..." I blinked. 'Seriously?'

Whereas Eun Ha would usually intervene and wave off this odd conversation, right now her eyes were trained on me. And in all of this, Yeong Gu continued eating without a care in the world.

"Why are you involving him in this anyway?" Su Ah pointed out, holding an accusing chopstick in Mia's direction.

"B-Because he's the only man here…" Mia glanced at her father before aptly correcting herself. "... around our age."

I coughed, immediately garnering both Eun Ha and Mia's attention. "I believe, as a man, and as a non-contributing member of society, that, under any circumstance, this question should be regarded under the light of someone more experienced, like Uncle Yeong Gu."

I passed the hot potato to him.

Yeong Gu blinked. "Huh?" An awkward smile flashed across his face. "Aha, I don't know…" Talking about women in a 'sexual' light in front of his daughters was not exactly part of his ideal lunch. "Honey, what do you think?"

Eun Ha stared at me, a faint blush on her cheeks.

And so the question was right back at me. The problem was that now Yeong Gu was also paying a lot of attention to what I was about to say.

Yeah. No way I was going to choose a side on the matter.

I expertly redirected Eun Ha's stare towards Mia, who blinked in surprise, and turned her head to stare at Su Ah, the source of this chaos.

'Well played, Mia.'

"Oh, whatever." Su Ah rolled her eyes. "Forget about it."