The Diary of Modern Cinderella

Chapter 1

It's been three years since mom had passed away. I'm not going to lie here that I do miss her sometimes. The same feeling becomes even stronger when I'm about to enter the middle school. It feels weird when mom is no longer with me during the first day of my middle school year. But I no longer feel that way when I'm in the second year. I guess that I'm already used to the feeling of not having mom around.

Throughout the year, I'm the one who is looking after the house. I admit that it's a bit too much for me to handle it at first. Just like not having mom with me during the first day of school, I manage to do it just fine. Maybe it's because I'm old enough to do the housework with ease. So, some of the things become much easier to do such as cooking and doing laundry. I no longer need dad to help me with the housework anymore.

My daily routine isn't that different from the one I had when I was in the elementary school. Every day, I will wake up early and prepare breakfast for dad and me. I still have to wake up early even if dad is not around. Once I come back from school, I will begin to clean the house and cook dinner. I can only study and do my homework at night once I already finish the housework.

I don't feel that the household chore is a burden to me since I always helped mom with the household chores back then. I don't want dad to get himself bogged down by something petty like this. I want him to give his full attention on solving the case. I don't want him to worry about me and other mundane things. Household chores are one of them.

My relationship with dad has changed ever since then. I become much closer to him a lot more than before. It's not that I wasn't even close to him when mom was still alive. It's just that my closeness with dad and my closeness with mom were equal back then. But my closeness with dad overshoot after mom died. Well, it's not that I'm complaining. I'm happy to know that our relationship is changing in a good way. And I don't have anyone in the family other than him.

Like the last time, dad will always tell me about the criminal cases he had solved whenever he's at home. I'm not going to deny that those cases can be violent and gory. Dad has been telling me about them even when mom was still alive. She was worried that those cases would give me a nightmare. Instead of taking mom's warning, I ended up pestering dad to tell me more about them. It seemed like I didn't even care about having a nightmare at all.

So, what makes me so drawn to the criminal cases that dad has been telling me? For one is because of my love for reading detective novels. Dad has a huge collection of detective novels in his room. He even has many political and military thriller novels. But detective novels seem to be my favorite among the many books he has. And I've been reading them since I was in the elementary school. I admit that it's a difficult book to read, but I don't care.

Dad only knew about it years later, though. He only discovers my dirty little secret while we're talking in the kitchen. "So, that's the reason why you seem to be so hooked on my criminal case stories? I find it weird at first that you love to hear such things. Your mom hated those kinds of stories. She even told me to stop. She didn't want to have a sleepless night because of that," dad says to me.

I chuckle when I hear dad's response. "As much as I love reading such books, nothing beats the real thing. On top of that, I already have someone who is experiencing something similar in real life," I say to dad. Dad smiles when he hears my answer. "You know," he says, "It wasn't as fun as you thought. You have no idea how gruesome it is to see a murder right in front of you. And it doesn't help that the crime scene itself smells horrible too."

Dad then stands up. "It's getting late already. You should be heading to bed. We're going to fetch Grandma in Kannai Station tomorrow. She'll be with you throughout the summer break." He then lets out a loud sigh. "I wish that I can be with you during summer. It's too bad that I have to get involved in a covert mission. I don't know when it'll be over. But I do hope that I can still spend the time with you before the summer break ends."