Lie to Me Again | ONC 2024

11 - Perfect

Yuki watched the girl at the mirror brush highlighter over high cheekbones, those sharp eyes once again lined with gold.

Era, the girl who could be a murderer, with a string of pearls around her swan-like neck.

Gut clenching, Yuki smoothed her dress down.

Sophia prattled on about the boy she'd convinced to take her to the dance, her words mixing with the burble of the courtyard's giant fountain. A yellow dragon's coils created the fountain tiers, water gushing from its open mouth at the top. The glass dome of the ceiling allowed natural light to spill onto the golden ginkgo trees and a pond of platinum koi.

Era's house struck Yuki as a place out of history, not the palace she'd been imagining or a home like the Tudors'. It possessed a certain peaceful atmosphere, but it was the peace of a museum—somewhere you could visit and admire, but where you weren't welcome to stay for long.

To her left, a maid slid open one of the four doors to the courtyard, the door bearing a lacquered emblem of the White Tiger of the West, Bai Hu. Her slippered feet glided across the wooden floor. After Era took a cup of tea from the tray, the maid offered drinks to Sophia and Yuki.

"Yuki?"

Yuki glanced up at Sophia, who frowned at her expectantly. "I'm sorry. I didn't catch what you were saying," she said, cradling the cup in the pillow of her skirt.

"You've been moping all day, so I asked if Tudor stood you up." Sophia's eyes blazed with unexpected heat. "There isn't much time, but I can call in a favor and get you a date. Make him regret it."

Mustering up a smile, Yuki said, "Thanks for offering, Sophia. I'll be fine going with Era though." 

After two weeks of Rhett not coming to school, she'd begun to worry. Flipping her phone open, she viewed the message Minji had sent from her mother's device.

Unnie, my big brothers sick and hes a big baby. I want to visit you but mom says no. But she says I can go to a tea place with you when we are not contagios

Rhett wouldn't be the type to fake illness, but it still didn't explain the lack of reply to her text. She'd been tempted to fight Cyprus for the right to deliver homework to him—she and Rhett were neighbors after all—but didn't think it wise to cross the guy holding the power to nuke the world before she could.

Snapping her phone shut, Yuki tucked the device in the pocket of her dress. 

"Whatever you do, sweetheart, don't let some boy break your heart," Sophia advised. "No guy is worth crying over, no matter how great he may seem at the time." Her peony red gown pooled around her stool and trailed behind like a river of bloodied petals...or maybe bleeding hearts left in her wake. 

But Rhett wasn't just "some boy" to Yuki.

A phone buzzed and Rhett flashed even brighter in the forefront of her mind, until Sophia fished her phone off the vanity before her with a languid hand. "Hello?" Sophia slipped off her high perch and grabbed her heels. "Alright, I'll be right there." 

Era nodded to the maid who set down her tray to help Sophia with her shoes. "Text me if he gives you any trouble, Soph."

"As if he'd dare." Sophia scoffed and leaned close to a mirror to apply red lipstick. The maid secured the straps of the heels around Sophia's ankles. 

Yuki felt bad she didn't know the girl's name, though the best word to describe her was unremarkable. Era's family had obviously hired her with that in mind—house staff should be invisible and functional. That's all that mattered.

But Yuki wondered about the girl, if the Wangs paid her a handsome wage to afford college. If she had siblings. Where was her own family maid now? Her nanny? Did they remember her or was she simply another spoiled child in a long list of employers?