Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn1WHGLi5uo
The walls strain with the heat. Flickering shadows assume grotesque shapes, engulfing the gold-leaf ceilings and the gleaming chandeliers.
I always hear the shots first before noticing the blood.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4jW4NqmGdF
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf9RHC3nCps
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡehS7l3z6RZ
In the distance, there is the shattering of a glass vase sounding like a gunshot.
My heart is pounding so quickly it feels like it's about to burst.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKtQrNc8BgS
I have coppery taste in my mouth.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcKGfSUgUeq
I do not know whose blood it is.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnEjbT2vdq8
I don’t even know if it’s mine.
That's all I know, that I need to run.
I sprint through the smoke-filled hallways, my bare feet skidding across the cold, slick marble wet with some dark liquid.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc8kJ8h8jan
I do not dwell.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJNjFsN7gAE
I can't.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡacV544nXkD
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiPKkfwodIS
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzEAes7LtDb
I would have known.
But at that time, I still held onto things such as loyalty.
Vows exchanged over flasks of aged whiskey and hushed offers in mahogany-lined back rooms.
I didn’t realize in my father's chosen world loyalty existed as just another blade—double-edged, ever so cutting.
It wasn't the shooting that broke me.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡphIKbPhdgs
It wasn't the massacre that made me into a ghost.
It was the evening before.
The evening when I was tricked into an ambush disguised as a party.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡENdLqtkAqv
A party thrown in our honor, they said.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYZiuBpwhg2
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8dwB5gbTFq
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFC4pvrkcXs
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsNswLIppI6
I slept like a drugged person, incredibly deep, unable to struggle free even though I struggled with all my might.
And when I woke—
The Lee heir's soft, low, and deadly voice, whispering it hadn't been personal.
I was simply a lesson.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTuPaykZ9LU
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE6APMGOzf2
The sensation of helplessness.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4NadClVG0x
The taste of betrayal.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ55ew39feNm
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxOSKxI7GcQ
My innocence.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxsdG1SCpHH
My trust.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqkH2Jm3Pmf
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtGmOuznt96
My father.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ906t2u2GKZ
My mum.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9WtApU5dW4
Our dedicated guards.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOWwLD6yVRV
Our friends.
All swept away in an explosion of bullets and flames.
I saw my father fall from across the marble hall, a neat hole punched through his chest.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjr2uv38cSh
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8vG8JDnmH5
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYKz4VODftA
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡketjcRN3Pm
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNLlJY6SaJO
Not for me.
For weeks afterward, when the nightmares still lingered, carrying an almost dull, persistent throb, I discovered that I wasn’t alone.
The baby developing in my belly wasn't miraculous.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGpsNxr0fuj
She served as reminder.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7q9GfRUCeF
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkEe611bzKz
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJeBt7cNtYn
I despised the fact that she bound me to the monsters who stole everything from me forever.
But when the baby arrived, small and perfect, with eyes too large for her delicate face, I broke.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZxuMw2PVmr
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMhiW2ngyjm
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKKhcesorot
Because she was mine.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZEklkTSR2e
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWKEPOkH6r3
No longer marble villas.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4lGI69vNfG
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4nCq6UWvBZ
My weaponry wasn't guns or knives, but my firewalls, my passwords, my lines of code more deadly than any blade.
I have trained myself to become invisible.
They schooled me in cruelty without even knowing it.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd1rjG6nXOU
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaASPmJaZpq
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZavkJGMqQP
To cut out a route back to them. To insert a knife under their ribs, just as they inserted one into my life.
The Lee family still dominates the underworld of South Korea—untouchable, untouchable, untouchable
They have grown even wealthier.
They spread like a virus.
Their transgressions are hidden under layers of excess and deception.
But I know that.
I know the corruption at their very center.
I know the right pressure at the right point makes their golden walls crumble.
And I'll keep pushing.
It starts with him—the heir.
Seong-jin Lee.
The lad that broke me.
The individual who stands poised to inherit all.
Eloquent. Aff
Covered in a suit and with a smile, concealing the poison beneath.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx2ME9EGQkQ
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFRSQpXMagO
I am somebody else now.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAkcOJc1Ihy
Worse still.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVt6MO19rcc
I will soon enter his world.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡahMmJGQbS4
Sink into his pores.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxfvhyUyUxx
Smile when he does.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgYhGaybcpI
Lie when he does.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHBWXZv0x2H
Bleed him out from the inside.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbJWQOiLBwW
I would destroy all that he holds dear.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU4yBbvhjRF
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKwoTmWRPjS
And when there's nothing left—360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyGv2daivlb
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDpIidO25Oz
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBqeL6WGaHH
It will already be too late.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH19mAB0VD5
For justice is coming.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ92CEYjfZ1
It covers my face.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWLwQ6TlQgH
It courses through my veins.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgF1DX33oJg
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwvfGuPyL3j
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbkl9jGVcO1
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡadfuY53Upq
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6aTXNv00uu
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡevdvF2wAIs
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAsWS4FIapy
I will take everything they have this time.360Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡefXw029CLP
Piece by bloody piece.
