Smoke billows over the marble floors, dense and suffocating, as flames consume the only home I ever knew.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxIOebXFuT5
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9mr6R9pKZh
There was a ripping, violent noise—like the earth tearing open at the seams.
Screams cut through the corridors.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkxSmfqGUJ9
The ground trembles with sprinting footsteps.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr6Om7JCuo3
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXyddp9TNaH
I have coppery taste in my mouth.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd0x0wkDxaf
I do not know whose blood it is.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNONGScZZGG
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEJaHOrg6Ph
I do not dwell.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL3CNwN9EIL
I can't.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwDAkxoFuS0
Reflecting back is slowing down, and slowing down is dying.
The villa, which was partly a palace of gilded splendor, is now a grave.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGMVcEvi3Zw
A tomb of shattered trust and shattered limbs.
I ought to have foreseen it.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDSL14zkuC1
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBXN9yTtcfV
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQbGLxRNeZT
A party thrown in our honor, they said.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDQizBg1e57
The sign of peace, they asserted.
I recall the wine that they pressed gently into my hands.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW6ia6rDDrG
The laughter that felt wrong in my mouth.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNo6VbH2Tos
The lights blurred together, the world tilting askew beneath my feet.
Then darkness.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2RCdf6srrZ
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHp2bVKDwAs
A warning.
Even today, my body still remembers what my mind is attempting to forget.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGZTYIohjJs
The sensation of helplessness.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZHsK9YXc8
The taste of betrayal.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMFP3rqZhJW
The manner in which the room whirled and my voice cracked when I attempted to scream.
They broke into everything that evening.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIh3ZvUBJOY
My innocence.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQCYPO1ydd
My trust.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡswx4t6a2DQ
My future.
And yet, inexplicably, they still weren’t completed
The following day, they returned to get the rest of us.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6YQE4YY9MT
My father.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZHRVTQkfe3
My mum.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzogixFQoBR
Our dedicated guards.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLQZvHX4dtR
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr7At8MJlXV
His dreams-filled, foolishly shining eyes were already empty when he fell to the ground.
There just wasn’t time to grieve.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeENngcuibU
I didn't even have time to breathe.
I sprinted until my lungs hemorrhaged.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0IOHomBpsv
I sprinted along back streets and muddy side streets, in my bare feet, shaking, with blood and smoke trailing after me.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡurFQAGmKwr
I ran because survival became my sole act of rebellion.
And somehow, I managed.
Survival, however, wasn't freedom302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwlPAFreIGr
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN5pbjav0nj
She served as reminder.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBPTGL0pda8
A reminder of all that I lost and all that would forever elude me.
I disliked her at first.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡesYpXzVuC3
I resented the transformation my body underwent, how the world treated me as pitiful, broken, damaged.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTyLbqZiKoj
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMM1bZVDrwm
An old, withered, and just barely alive
An unsafe item.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv5CciHnQmo
But all the same, mine.
I named her Yuna.
Because she was proof that even among the ruins, there was still something alive.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeoBZBYQmwT
Because she was mine.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkIWhRA3yrk
Because I would not let the Lees take anything else.
I created a new lifestyle in obscurity.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdOouaRGBTG
No longer marble villas.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQeJNvq3ZMm
No more silken gowns and crystal chandeliers.
Now, my realm was neon-lit backrooms, grimy apartments, forgotten Internet cafes.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwiBuYlboVy
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI32SB7hmge
They shaped me into something more deadly than their finest assassins.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvb0N3biRri
Colder than their best enforcers.
Every pilfered account, each leaked secret, each overthrown competitor—I did them all with one purpose in mind:302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPWhbat2pIx
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.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL6fBudd27N
But now, I am not the same girl he harmed.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgTmyZw6t19
I am somebody else now.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR55EDu31cg
Worse still.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgPvjvTllN1
I will soon enter his world.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1JG3jPKEmG
Sink into his pores.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrJPFBxwNC6
Smile when he does.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2oaSyTH6ZG
Lie when he does.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡylaSqc9Cab
Bleed him out from the inside.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA64c4MCZ6s
I would destroy all that he holds dear.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8zVFXPjx9K
I shall make him witness as the empire which he perceives as impregnable goes up in flames around him.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf8TjiNqh3i
And when there's nothing left—302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxFm1ZZwdRG
When the black smoke ascends into the heavens—302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2b4atvpx96
Finally, when he gazes into my eyes and notices the girl he believed he shattered—302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRcZmm0L8US
It will already be too late.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyvik9av5cD
For justice is coming.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmX6z5iXVox
It covers my face.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt0BBeKKZIQ
It courses through my veins.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH8ozFU759D
It pulses in my daughter's little heart each time that she smiles at me.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEpoSFwiuD9
The Lee family believes they have put the past behind them.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfHuWIccWKF
That the ghosts of their wrongdoings have long disappeared into dust.
They are mistaken.
I am the ghost who failed to stay.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjixv0Pdtnz
I am the tempest unfolding over their idyllic skyline.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEG8BHRnuaT
I am the reckoning they never thought would happen.
And when I attack, it shall be a merciless, lovely devastation.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRMrDO6xxU1
Symphony of revenge created from all the broken fragments they left behind.
They stole all my possessions once.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkdJokN5SIa
I will take everything they have this time.302Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIKWz5t9iP0
Piece by bloody piece.
