Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡantFVRHI89
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbqdoMI18YE
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK6460DdkxO
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo92UPh5CTw
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7PlWZ9q66i
I have coppery taste in my mouth.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHi2QaTkq7
I do not know whose blood it is.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOVmOcAKQRV
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4z3XYl7YYl
I do not dwell.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡItG1nrGzZe
I can't.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡskz2abdVzK
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkQsVAg530h
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4IOrnFncMH
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnstZIP2qKW
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFNcEje5lZ
A party thrown in our honor, they said.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK6f9IJRZsZ
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoLFYaJsW65
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKja0WvrhsD
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDZxBP5PYRu
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjke1D9SvzZ
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHt0RBDTITP
The sensation of helplessness.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9D49yrMJwL
The taste of betrayal.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡosqn7JzRjA
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdy3jfshF2E
My innocence.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOxNcmCfpil
My trust.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoCYabkN8t8
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb2NAt3lL5D
My father.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6zYFdRuPww
My mum.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAkVli73DWK
Our dedicated guards.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy3dbBia3RV
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFpAfScrubs
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2YhT1QvxY9
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ749oDBkilW
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9njn9DXODf
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1xk3mVpmEu
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaRw3sWqNwg
She served as reminder.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWUGJHXKZBZ
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7PJLANyl4R
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0pXw357CEO
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc0UWvqwAPg
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI9m2u7AJqj
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2casxC59ZG
Because she was mine.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5efpgWt5gp
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ73sCcOOyYZ
No longer marble villas.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8XvMFrYj8n
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn3ByJUXDm1
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡInkeZ7cDNb
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5oImOb86JP
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ33ZRoADpoC
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.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMHfYiwim5
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgUQl25nDen
I am somebody else now.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2gbes4iQie
Worse still.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk4aVuxN2mU
I will soon enter his world.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwjSbwn56F7
Sink into his pores.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLajeT6ZwfD
Smile when he does.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlNUmrzAcuc
Lie when he does.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡseGLkxwazu
Bleed him out from the inside.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMrrlk0cNPb
I would destroy all that he holds dear.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4mFEiBmZmp
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkQZ48Fisz2
And when there's nothing left—362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTBrt8pwMMV
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJ8Gljw9e0
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC16LCWGUC4
It will already be too late.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9vs8IEhol7
For justice is coming.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡefngk6bbDI
It covers my face.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjw6ageVjRA
It courses through my veins.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO4YCHRLyY6
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeAEjDdFRod
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ91lv0OzVIO
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK9zAtGuGEZ
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Zh3prsN8k
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmtHXk9ME3b
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn1aSYmq7Kg
I will take everything they have this time.362Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE7nGkYHAE8
Piece by bloody piece.
