Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo8tiegBPFm
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHdue3NBARC
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHgHWi0GKo9
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsi9m2sYhYB
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV36z4YOPlS
I have coppery taste in my mouth.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTmbSo8lMbJ
I do not know whose blood it is.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv8l1YLruX4
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTi2XIgqtRv
I do not dwell.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYhxgksAopr
I can't.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZNsLxQ1TsQ
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRI9HUjSXGb
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtOwvhwRdMV
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuNw3cpEHbt
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJbtIxLVBGA
A party thrown in our honor, they said.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpd6X0EcCWl
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmTUXT5tpM9
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡelEemgLkS7
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzSMts3Mx7E
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQoaOqOWtaj
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY6t9jUTq2s
The sensation of helplessness.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ89cCFMKJ73
The taste of betrayal.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX1Cpre0dx1
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs2LeHViARj
My innocence.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaD6zYkP1kZ
My trust.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbGJozcUoUS
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOV3fqtMq0t
My father.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYfKJ6CYB2q
My mum.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkJumE386Sz
Our dedicated guards.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYdE8iy9uO7
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhmZ3MLgj4R
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRPvkHLAxXA
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaLGFYudmvL
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjv2MrYDknM
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4xA7MWWoOn
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSw97VwUp1p
She served as reminder.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL92XVtqSPI
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5pqXcLjhA0
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCyLSxrs8ql
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjFMdxG68Xx
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3wWtHW3GxL
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe0lZdzyh0k
Because she was mine.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDPbxW1XBk
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuXNYSwzje1
No longer marble villas.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnacJlJJaWf
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxddLD1WJc3
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnzvI2nxkCs
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBZgJ3nWDnB
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Dmf4tphCG
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.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4SsJGjaxU2
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1chZNHBv8
I am somebody else now.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8pJ9sd8xmS
Worse still.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRhO3lDRKEz
I will soon enter his world.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpmicmg4Mey
Sink into his pores.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡprKObTybbT
Smile when he does.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLjpZyop5Qq
Lie when he does.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSVb4Gsds45
Bleed him out from the inside.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKrdaw7hGlk
I would destroy all that he holds dear.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuNlaSN9MWR
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpdDOZ95l3J
And when there's nothing left—297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPQ6JnpXFJu
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTs7FXcztKU
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ28ZbKxnyDJ
It will already be too late.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcmtZHAodOk
For justice is coming.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeRS1cmKzD7
It covers my face.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUNQqUdxTUR
It courses through my veins.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXKCBdEMy4v
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWoXXxDXcY9
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ9UCWdGzqJ
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfsNGjCKNa
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3N9EDdTWZY
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKZP5LHlJeY
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2rOVAsiwdS
I will take everything they have this time.297Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe2of4zPWy1
Piece by bloody piece.
