7 With Grace, Elegance and Class

Lady is stumped.

After confronting her douche of a father, she now has to deal with her bratty cousins. They keep making of her and saying all sorts of insults that their tiny little brains can come up with. No doubt they are not willing to welcome her as part of the family.

What's more, Fallon isn't doing a single thing to stop the three of them. So, for a while, Lady has to endure getting mocked and scoffed at while puzzling over the unreadable look that he's giving her the whole time.

"Hey, ugly face! Prove to us that you're really Uncle's daughter!"

"Yeah! For all we know, you're just a street rat he picked up somewhere! Where'd you even pop out from, anyway?!"

"Why aren't you saying anything? Are you mute? Maybe deaf?"

"What?! You don't know to how to write, read, and talk?! Man, that's serious!"

"How dumb! You really are dumb, aren't you?!"

"An ugly dummy, then!"

In each passing moment, Lady is getting more and more stumped - and mad.

She glares at the three of them, furrowing her brows together and gritting her teeth. Her fists clenched tightly while her lips curved down into a scowl. Though she was still and silent, her expression spoke volumes.

If looks could kill, there would be three corpses at that hallway by now.

'Gosh! I expected better from these side characters! To think that they're rich kids, too! Can't this family afford some lessons on manners...?!' was what Lady wanted to exclaim at the moment, already so close to bursting out.

'Maybe I can give them a free trial? By disciplining them with my fists, that is! I'm strong and healthy now. So, beating the hell out of them would just probably be a piece of cake!'

The idea is incredibly tempting.

But then, if there is anything else that speaks volumes here, it will be Fallon's intense stare. He is still onto Lady, observing her every movement and maybe even the drop of her sweat.

It's almost as if he's waiting for her to make a response. She's not sure what kind of reaction he's expecting from her, but if the slight narrowing of his gaze is anything to go by, she's sure that he's greatly intrigued with her. Because of how distracting he's being, she's able to recall one crucial thing that makes his presence there useful for once.

'First impressions are everything! You can't use violence! That's unbecoming of a lady...!' or so went her thoughts, setting her back straight before her emotions could lead her astray.

'You're supposed to be a righteous evil flower - a villainess with grace, elegance and class!'

Now, Lady is obliged to splash water on her burning desire for an epic fist fight.

She has to think of something else. Technically, these bratty cousins of hers are younger than her. She may be six on the outside, but she's already thirteen on the inside. So, she has to show them how mature she is.

She eventually thought of a solution when she heard footsteps approaching them from behind. People are coming their way - most probably, adults. She briefly turned around to take a glance, and as she thought, she found a group of grownups.

'Perfect! Now's my chance!'

With that, Lady dropped on her knees and began crying loudly, spilling fake tears of distress.

The boys were thrown off guard when she started bawling her eyes out all of the sudden, especially Fallon who was not expecting her to burst into tears. For a moment there, he thought for sure that she was about to go on a rampage. He could see how infuriated she was, but it seemed that he misjudged her.

'No, wait...' Fallon thought, analyzing Lady more closely.

'I'm certain I didn't see wrong. Her hands are balled into fists back there. That shows how angry she is, and that is not just 'angry' as in 'annoyed' - rather, it was the kind of 'angry' in which one was more than ready to beat somebody into a pulp.'

Their cousins, on the other hand, have taken their turn to be stumped.

With their eyes as wide as saucers, they watch Lady turn into a weary, teary heap on the floor. For some time, they are too dumbfounded to utter a word - too transfixed at how puffy red her cheeks have become and at how adorable her crying face is. Fallon can see right through them. Even though they kept calling her ugly earlier, they became a blushing mess out of nowhere.

"Boohoo! You guys are so mean! What did I ever do to you?! Uwahhh!" Lady wailed on and on, unknowingly impressing Fallon with her acting skills.

"H-H-Huh?! W-We didn't do anything to you!"

"Y-Yeah! We're just p-playing around!"

"Why w-would we be m-mean to you, anyway?!"

As the commotion goes on, the adults soon appear in the picture.